1. Organic Farming – The way forward and Present Scenario India has a glorious history of farming. Indus Valley Civilization is the reflection of the agricultural practices followed by our farmers and its root of which can be well seen in many of our cultural practices followed today. It was organic farming that sustained Indian farmers from the ages. It can be well said that the concept of organic farming is very much native to our land and our farmers by default are organic. Organic farming was just not a method of farming in India – but it used to be a way of life and a tradition which has shaped the thought, the outlook, the culture and economic life of its people for centuries. However, many of our old and traditional agricultural practices started disappearing in the post-independent era. The Green Revolution aimed to ‘grow more food’ to meet the food requirements of our growing population was the biggest national challenge. The nation could achieve through the tireless efforts of our committed agricultural scientists. It was possible by introducing new high yielding and hybrid varieties of crops and use of high analysis NPK fertilizers and plant protection chemicals, adoption of advanced agricultural practices, increased cropping intensity, effective agricultural extension and enhancement in area under cultivation and irrigation. Neglecting ecological and ecosystem principles, resulted in significant and seemingly irrevocable environment damage in the country. Many traditional crop varieties were replaced with high yielding varieties during the period. The crops and varieties which were not adapted to the soil and other environmental conditions attracted new pests and diseases and resulted in outbreaks of existing pests. To combat them, huge quantities of pesticides were used. Inclusion of these inputs of exotic elements in the traditional farming 1 led to multiple environmental issues. The microorganisms declined, living soils became less productive and lost its health and fertility. Water demand increased and the time tested traditional varieties disappeared. The eternal relationship between a farmer and farm land was lost. Bio-diversity in the agricultural fields slowly started vanishing. As a result of all these modern techniques, the air, water and the soil were polluted and most food grains, farm products were contaminated by pesticides. To overcome all these ill effects of conventional agriculture, it was felt in the country that nature friendly organic agriculture as an only alternative. In Karnataka state, organic farming movement was initiated by the innovative farmers of the state and the movement gained momentum during 1980s. The advent of chemical intensive farming and its prevalence in Karnataka during the later part of green revolution resulted in the near stagnant levels of productivity of many crops. The farmers were into debt trap because of incurring high cost on farming as these crops demanded more external inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides and water. Cost of cultivation increased drastically and thereby the net income declined. These factors led to increasing instances of suicides by farmers. Many farmers of Karnataka felt that they are fighting a losing battle with the ‘high yield variety-fertilizer-pesticide package’ of Green Revolution and realized that Organic Farming as the only alternative system at this juncture. They were convinced that the only way is to return to the traditional sustainable ways of cultivation without harming the ecosystem. Thus the organic farming system with the broad principle of ‘live and let live’ is recognized as the best sustainable system of farming under the prevailing conditions. ‘We have not inherited this earth from our forefathers, but have borrowed it from our future generations, it is our duty to protect it by living in complete harmony with nature and environment' -American Red Indian community leader- Seattle. 2 Organic farming – present scenario Global Scenario According to the latest FiBL- IFOAM survey on certified organic agriculture worldwide, (as at the end of 2015) data on organic agriculture was available from 179 countries and the organic agricultural land including conversion areas was 50.9 million hectares. Currently, one per cent of the agricultural land of the total 179 surveyed countries are organic. Of the global organic farmland, Oceania has 22.8 million hectares (45 per cent), Europe 12.7 million hectares (25 per cent) and Latin America 6.8 million hectares (15 per cent). The countries with the most organic agricultural land are: Australia (22.7 million hectares), Argentina (3.1 million hectares) and the United States (2.0 million hectares). Apart from agricultural land, the area also includes the area under wild collection. Other areas also include aquaculture, forests and grazing areas on non agricultural land and it constitute more than 35 million hectares. The total area under agriculture and non agriculture area was 78 million hectares. In all there were almost 2.4 million producers in 2015 as per the survey. The countries with most producers were in India (5.8 lakh) followed by Ethiopia (2.03 lakh) and Mexico (2.0 lakh). The market research company on Organic Monitor estimates 81.6 billion US dollars in 2015 (approximately 75 billion Euro) of global market for organic food. The United States is the leading market (with 35.9 billion Euros), followed by Germany (8.6 billion Euros), France (5.5 billion Euros) and China (4.7 billion Euros). Most of the major markets during the survey showed double- digit growth rates and the highest per capita spending was in Switzerland (262 Euros). Denmark had the highest organic market share of 8.4 percent of the total food market. Indian Scenario India has the highest number of organic producers in the world (5.8 lakh). In India, the area under organic certification as on 3 March 2016 is 57.09 lakh hectares. The country exported 2.64 lakh tons of various commodities worth about Rs. 1900 crore, which account for 0.3 per cent of global organic trade. Present scenario in Karnataka Karnataka state has a rich potential for organic farming. Farmers of Karnataka are progressive, innovative with great inclination towards adoption of environment friendly and sustainable organic agriculture. Considering this, Karnataka Government brought out Organic Farming Policy during 2004 for promotion of organic farming in the state. With successful implementation of organic farming policy initiatives and great concern of the farming community, the state could achieve substantial progress in organic agriculture. With implementation of the policy initiatives, the state witnessed a steady growth in the Organic Sector with the increase in certified area under Organic cultivation. These initiatives were also able to create awareness in the farming community regarding the benefits of organic farming so also about the consumption of healthy chemical residue free organic foods in consumers. At present, Karnataka Stands 5th in the country in terms of total cultivated area (ha) under organic certification (including in conversion) at 93, 963 ha as on March 2016 which was hardly 2500 ha during 2004-05. The state stood 3rd in total certified production (2. 83 lakh tons). This is indicative of immense opportunities available to the state in view of its inherent advantage of climate and diversified production. Important crops grown under organic are: cereals and millets (non basmati paddy, maize, bajra and ragi), Fruits (mango, pineapple, banana), spices & condiments (arecanut, black pepper, chilli, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, turmeric, nutmeg, parsley, bay leans), sugar crops (sugar cane), plantation (coffee, coconut), pulses (blackgram, greengram, bengalgram, horsegram, pigeonpea ), Oilseeds (sesame, ground nut and soybean), medicinal and aromatic 4 plants (amla, aswagandha, brahmi, tulsi, citronella, chia, gymnema lemon grass, maringa, palmarosa). The challenges in organic agriculture sector today in Karnataka are many. At one end, organic farmers are not getting remunerative prices for their organic products, and at the other end the consumers are not getting required quality and quantity of organic products in spite of dramatic growth in market size and continuous increase in demand for organic food products. There has been a constant demand from organic farmers associations throughout the State and also from other organic farmers to provide systematic market linkages for their organic produce. At present, farmers of the state are also looking towards developing an organized organic market as they are finding it difficult to market their organic produce. In this direction, attempts were made in the state to organize several organic producers- marketers meet. The state also brought out a organic farming directory during 2017 of all the stake holders of organic farming, where in details of certified organic farmers, resource persons, organic input dealers, organic produce marketers/ processors, NGOs engaged in organic farming, availability of organic produce/ products with farmers/ groups/ association etc., are provided. The directory has also been uploaded in the website of the Department of Agriculture. Organic Agriculture at a glance Organic area (ha) (2015-16) 26438.32 In- conversion (ha) (2015-16) 67525.02 Wild products area (ha) (2015-16) 39683.93 Total area (ha) (2015-16) 133647.27 Total production (MT) (2015-16) 282685.02 Number of NGOs’ engaged in organic farming in the 101 5 state Number of organic farming research