Need to develop simple certification to differentiate organic and natural crops: Tomar

There is a need to develop a simple, affordable, and easy-to-adopt certification system to differentiate the crops grown from organic and natural farming, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said on Friday.

Tomar, in his written reply to the Rajya Sabha, said although both organic and natural farming is non-chemical systems of farming, there is a need to adopt a certification system specific to them.

Both largely rely on diversity, on-farm biomass management, rejuvenation of natural nutrient recycling, crop rotation, multiple cropping, and efficient resource recycling.

However, organic farming is open to the use of off-farm purchased organic and biological inputs and need-based soil correction through naturally mined minerals.

Natural farming, on the other hand, is based on biomass mulching, round-the-year green cover, indigenous cow dung, and urine formulations in exclusion of purchase inputs whether organic, biological or otherwise, he said.

Tomar informed the House that the government is implementing Bharatiya Prakritik Krishi Padhati (BPKP), i.e. natural farming under Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) from 2020-21 to promote traditional indigenous practices.

The scheme mainly emphasizes the exclusion of all synthetic chemical inputs and promotes on-farm biomass recycling with major stress on biomass mulching, the use of cow dung and urine formulations, and other plant-based preparations.

Under BPKP, financial assistance of Rs 12,200 per hectare for 3 years is provided for cluster formation, capacity building, and continuous handholding by trained personnel, certification, and residue analysis, he added.