Sikkim Organic State – a best practice example for other states

Sikkim Organic State at the BioFach India 2015. © Karin Heinze

According to The Hindu online the Union Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Parshottam Rupala, informed that the government is increasingly focusing on organic farming to boost production of nutritionally rich agri produce.
Especially the Himalayan states will be pushed by the governmental initiative and encouraged to go all organic.

Encourage the organic way of farming

At the recent Assocham summit on Food Processing, Agriculture and Dairy industry held in Ahmedabad Rupala explained to the participants: “This government is open to innovative ideas in food processing. Also, we want to encourage the organic way of farming to make our agri produce free from chemicals. All those States adjoining the Himalayan region will be encouraged to adopt and focus on organic farming on the lines of Sikkim. Sikkim has been a great success and we want to replicate it,” said Rupala according to The Hindu. In January 2016, Sikkim was declared a fully organic State by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The State contributes about 800,000 tonnes of organic farm produce out of the 1.24-million tonnes of India’s total organic production.Sikkim was awarded with the One World Award by Rapunzel and IFOAM.

Demand for organic food is increasing worldwide

Also Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Union Minister of State for Food processing Industries, stated In her speech, that demand for organic food was increasing. “I have visited several countries and found that there is a growing demand for organic food. We have an opportunity there and we should work to tap it,” Jyoti was quoted by The Hindu. The Gujarat government has decided to declare the tribal district of Dangs and nearby talukas of Dharampur and Kaprada in Valsad district and Vansda in Navsari district as 100 per cent organic, reported The Hindu.