Three-year course to an organic certificate

Using only vermicompost and herbal sprays, the farmers’ rich haul of capsicum, okra, tomato, cabbage and cauliflower have a ready market in Delhi.

With the organic label near their reach, villagers are already thinking ahead. ‘‘Once we get the certification, the market demand of the village produced vegetables and fruits in the outside market will grow. But we need a linkage to market and the buyers,’’ says Sulochan Singh, a retired Dy SP and local farmer.

Upbeat over being part of the organic movement that’s taken root in Shimla district, farmers at village Khakhrola are among 5,657 others who have been registered in this model project being implemented in nine blocks of Shimla. About 272 farmers in the district are eligible for the OneCert Asia certification given by a Jaipur-based agency which has done pre-audits of these farmers.

Giving farmers technical inputs is the M R Morarka Foundation, a Rajasthan-based NGO that is working with the state’s Agriculture Department to implement the Rs 1.5-crore model project. Three years ago they put in place a procedure to identify farmers willing to switch over to organic farming.

‘‘A cluster approach was adopted keeping in view factors like soil conditions and uniform geographical locations with similar cropping patterns,’’ says Divender Chaudhry, director, Morarka Foundation.

Among the nine blocks, Rampur leads the show with 1,533 farmers registered in the project. Theog, the gateway to Himachal’s apple belt, comes next. Chirgaon, a backward block and Chopal, are also treading the organic path.

In Jubbal and Kotkhai area, more than 200 apple growers have shown a willingess to switch over to organic mainly because the cost of pesticides and sprays is becoming too steep and hasn’t always been effective in controlling diseases. Second, productivity is already down.

The proof of the change, say the state’s Agriculture Department officials, lies is the falling sale of pesticides in Shimla district—from Rs 24 crore to Rs 14 crore in four years. ‘‘We are keeping a watch on the sale figures of these chemicals in the areas where the farmers are switching to organic farming. The sale trend will be enough to guage the impact,’’ says H R Sharma, Deputy Director, Agriculture Department.

The coming months should be exciting. The Morarka Foundation plans to arrange market tie-ups for farmers for their organic produce.