New Delhi: India is home to 16 lakh of the entire world's organic producers. Processed food, oil seeds, cereals and millets, sugar, spices and condiments, pulses, tea, fodder, and coffee are among India's top 10 organic exports over the past three years.
With 27 lakh hectares of organic land, India is ranked fourth and Sikkim has been a fully organic state since 2016.
The government has established a national level cooperative society for organic products in an effort to take advantage of the limitless opportunities on the table to increase farmer income. It also aims to improve the livelihood of farmers and assist India in becoming a 5 trillion dollar economy as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The estimated size of the global organic food market is around Rs 10 lakh crore, with India accounting for a meagre 2.7% of that market.
The ground-breaking initiative will help cooperatives, and ultimately their member farmers, benefit from the high price of organic products through aggregation, branding, and marketing at scale by facilitating testing and certification at a reasonable cost.
By adopting several business models and employing the brand and marketing network of AMUL, it would manage a variety of cooperative organic sector activities from aggregation to marketing while simultaneously developing the same on its own. Additionally, it will make it easier to provide technical advice, training, and capacity building for organic growers, among other things.
In the nation, there are 8.54 lakh officially recognised cooperatives with more than 29 crore members, many of them are rural residents working in the ag and related industries. According to a senior official from the Union Cooperation Ministry, the growth of organic clusters and its complete supply chain would take advantage of the cooperative sector's strengths.
Through the "Whole of Government Approach," the society will utilise many connected programmes and policies from various government departments in a targeted manner.
In fact, two national level organizations—the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC)—along with three major cooperatives—Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Limited (GCMMF), National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited (NAFED), National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India Limited (NCCF), and others—have teamed up to establish this national level entity in the sector.
The necessity for such an umbrella organisation has long been recognised because, while having the biggest number of organic producers worldwide, India's overall contribution to the market for organic goods is subpar because of the smaller amount of land that each producer owns and the poor output. The key players also lack information and understanding of the processes, market dynamics, and advantages that can be gained through the trade of such goods.
To reduce the cost of testing and certification, the society will appoint recognised organic testing labs and certification bodies that adhere to its requirements. The retail market for certified organic products in India is currently valued at over Rs 27,000 crore, including exports of Rs 7,000 crore.
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