Organic farming for sustainable agriculture: Global and Indian perspective

Abstract

Organic farming is developing rapidly and is now practised in more than 120 countries of the world. Globally 30.4 million ha of the agricultural land, are currently managed organically. India ranks 33rd in total area under organic cultivation. India has now become a leading supplier of organic herbs, organic spices, organic basmati rice, etc to the developed nations. The export realization during 2007-08 was around 78 million US $ registering a 200 % growth over the previous year. Though organic farming is an inevitable phenomenon, it alone cannot feed the billion population of India. To ensure the food and nutritional security, rather than promoting organic farming enmasse and universally, it would be desirable to carefully delineate areas for organic farming. In India, there is ample scope for pure organic farming in the rainfed areas, where there is little or no use of fertilisers and other agro-chemicals. The Government of India has taken considerable efforts to promote the organic farming without compromising the food grain production to feed the ever growing population in India. Launching of "National Programme for Organic Production" (NPOP) and the dedication of "National Institute of Organic Farming" (NIOF) were the landmark achievements in the arena of organic farming in India.