Measuring the Progress of Organic Farming in Indian States: Are there any Agro-climatic Implications?

Abstract

In the quest for a sustainable farming system around the world, organic farming has emerged as the most promising alternative system that can offer solutions to the growing sustainability issues associated with the current input-intensive agriculture system. Organic farming is also becoming increasingly important due to a significant rise in the demand for organic food across the world. Realizing the importance of organic agriculture in the current Indian agricultural scenario, the Government of India has taken several initiatives to promote organic farming across the country. As a result, there has been a considerable increase in different dimensions of organic farming especially in India over the last decade. However, studies have found that organic farming practices in India are more suited to a few specific regions (such as rain-fed zones, low-productivity areas, hills, and arid zones) as compared to the other parts of the country. In this backdrop, this paper attempts to evaluate the state-wise progress of organic farming in India. To measure the inter-state variation in the performance of organic farming, a composite index has been constructed by taking into account four different performance dimensions viz. area covered under organic cultivation, volume of organic production, volume of organic export, and number of producers practicing organic farming. The result suggests a wide disparity in performances in respect of organic farming among the states in India. Interestingly, the states that have performed well in organic farming are found to have a higher level of organic carbon stock in their soil. This shows the influence of agro-climatic conditions on the organic cultivation practices as popularly postulated in the literature.