ven as the state Agriculture Department maintains that it has a draft organic farming policy ready that might be implemented soon, farmers don’t seem to have high hopes from a policy that is being formulated for five years now.
Director, horticulture department, DG Bakwad, said, “We cannot give a definite date for the implementation of the policy as certain procedural matters may take time. We are ready with the draft policy and have uploaded it on the department website. We have invited suggestions and recommendations on it and changes might be incorporated depending on the feedback we receive.” The Horticulture Department is in charge of organic farming.
While Maharashtra does not have an organic farming policy, Karnataka introduced a policy in 2004. Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University, Palampur, has set up a separate organic farming department after being trained by farmers from Dhule, Nashik, Pune and Jalgaon. Farmers have also conducted training programmes for farmers in Uttarakhand but the state is yet to recognise these efforts.
The main aim of forming an organic farming policy was to help farmers attain self-sustainability, enhance soil fertility and control the damage done to the soil due to use of inorganic chemicals and fertlisers. Regions like Vasai in Thane district that were once known to be green belts are now practically wastelands as excessive use of fertilisers has made the water saline.
“Our state Agriculture Minister Balasaheb Thorat had promised that by 2009 the policy will be ready. We are yet to have it. There have been delays right from the very beginning. At first the government was very reluctant to start the work. After widespread protests from activists the work started. Then two separate committees were formed and since then there have been delays,” said Diliprao Deshmukh, vice-president, Maharashtra Organic Farming Federation.
Deshmukh and most other organic farming activists are of the view that the draft policy needs some major changes. The major objections raised by them include the formation of a 33-member committee with just two farmers and a few NGO members that will reduce them to being nominal members with no say in the decision making process.
Their demands for the creation of a Sendriya Sheti Mahamandal, with a sanctioned grant of about Rs 200 crore, and the authority to make budgetary allocations are also not part of the draft policy.
, farmers don’t seem to have high hopes from a policy that is being formulated for five years now.
Director, horticulture department, DG Bakwad, said, “We cannot give a definite date for the implementation of the policy as certain procedural matters may take time. We are ready with the draft policy and have uploaded it on the department website. We have invited suggestions and recommendations on it and changes might be incorporated depending on the feedback we receive.” The Horticulture Department is in charge of organic farming.
The main aim of forming an organic farming policy was to help farmers attain self-sustainability, enhance soil fertility and control the damage done to the soil due to use of inorganic chemicals and fertlisers. Regions like Vasai in Thane district that were once known to be green belts are now practically wastelands as excessive use of fertilisers has made the water saline.
“Our state Agriculture Minister Balasaheb Thorat had promised that by 2009 the policy will be ready. We are yet to have it. There have been delays right from the very beginning. At first the government was very reluctant to start the work. After widespread protests from activists the work started. Then two separate committees were formed and since then there have been delays,” said Diliprao Deshmukh, vice-president, Maharashtra Organic Farming Federation.
Deshmukh and most other organic farming activists are of the view that the draft policy needs some major changes. The major objections raised by them include the formation of a 33-member committee with just two farmers and a few NGO members that will reduce them to being nominal members with no say in the decision making process.
Their demands for the creation of a Sendriya Sheti Mahamandal, with a sanctioned grant of about Rs 200 crore, and the authority to make budgetary allocations are also not part of the draft policy