Bhubaneswar: Online sale of organic farming products has proved a boon for many like Balabhadra Naik, a farmer from a small village of Kalahandi district. Buoyed by the government support, he has joined the e-commerce sites and is now able to sell his organic paddy at `80 per kg.
Similar is the experience of other farmers who have adopted the method and started reaching out to the customers through online.
Many of them have registered themselves with the Union government’s online platform, www.market-jaivikkheti.in, where they get orders. As per government sources, a total of 16,868 organic farmers from Odisha are now selling their produce online. Many farmers belonging to Kalahandi, Rayagada, Koraput and other districts have joined the market of organic food which is growing in the state with time.
Organic farming in the state is gradually expanding with the Union as well as state governments emphasising on natural way of raising crops and vegetables.
According to data given by the Agriculture Ministry in Lok Saha in March 2020, altogether 95,312 hectares of land in the state are under organic farming under different state and central schemes. The government also claims that more than 65,000 farmers from Odisha are registered with the government as organic farmers.
People associated with organic farming claim that the farmers are not only selling their produce online but also exporting them.
“A number of organic produce like mangoes and cashew nuts are being sold to other states like from Koraput to Delhi and others. Recently, many farmers exported mangoes to the dairy giant Mother Dairy in New Delhi while some went to Hyderabad firms. Links are now being established between the producers in remote villages to food processing units and other market players,” said Atul Nayak, Project Manager, Agragamee, Koraput which works with the farmers to boost organic farming.
The Union government has been encouraging organic farming through clusters in selected districts under ‘Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana’ (PKVY). In Dashwantpur block of Koraput district, 1,000 farmers in six panchayats are working hard to shun chemical fertilisers and adopt organic farming as a natural way to boost farming in the region.
The government has been giving financial assistance to each cluster for input costs, training, branding and other areas to give an impetus to organic farming in Odisha. The state government has also been working through state policies and schemes to give an impetus to organic farming and helping in market linkage.
“There is a good scope for organic farming in Odisha. There are some forest areas in Kalahandi and Kandhamal districts where organic farming is practiced for growing turmeric and ginger for the last 8-10 years with government support. Also, they have a good marketing network there,” an official from the National Centre of Organic Farming, Ghaziabad told Orissa POST.
The Centre, through its regional centre in the state, has also been working to boost organic farming and train the farmers to avoid use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and adopt sustainable farming methods through organic farming.
Manish Kumar, OP