Union Agriculture Ministry To Draft Standards For Natural Farming

A 12-member committee has been formed by the national center for organic and natural farming of the department of agriculture and farmer welfare(DA&FW) of the Union agriculture ministry to develop rules for a natural farming certification system.

The group will discuss developing a pesticide residue-free product certification system and process guidelines. It will outline the contours of the natural farming system, including standards, as well as define and develop simplified compliance assessment procedures, develop a minimum set of documents required at various levels, suggest an institutional framework for the operation of the certification system, investigate the feasibility of providing a comprehensive certification system that includes crop, livestock, and processing, suggest a specific logo for pesticide residue-free and natural farming, and establish detailed guidelines.

The committee has been given until April 20 to provide its first interim report, and until the first week of May to deliver its final report.

Umendra Dutt, executive director of Kheti Virasat Mission (KVM), a Punjab-based organization that promotes organic farming, has been appointed to the committee.

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) highlighted in a report titled "Organic and Natural Farming in India: Challenges and Opportunities" that just 2% of India's net sown land is organically farmed and that only 1.3 percent of farmers are registered to undertake organic farming.

Natural farming is a method in which agricultural practices are guided by natural laws.

This strategy works in tandem with the natural biodiversity of each farmed area, allowing the complexity of living species, both flora, and fauna, that create each ecosystem to thrive alongside food plants. "To stop the overuse of insecticides and pesticides, natural farming is the way to go," Dutt added.