The Road to Scalable Organic Farming

Indian farmers' income has remained a cause for concern with stagnant yields and rising costs. Crop yields’ responsiveness to fertilisers has declined over a period leading to more and more application of fertilisers. Similarly, continuous and excess use of chemical pesticides is leading to pest resistance and loss of yields. Further, such excessive application of fertilisers and pesticides is not only leading to higher costs of production but also causing accumulation of chemicals affecting soil fertility, water pollution and loss of bio-diversity.

In such a scenario, adopting organic farming practices can potentially improve farmers’ incomes by reducing cost of production and fetching premium prices for organic produce, while also ensuring sustainable use of natural resources and conservation of biodiversity of agricultural ecosystem. Towards this, there is a need to devise suitable measures addressing various challenges in scaling-up of organic farming in the country.

India’s unique advantages for shifting to organic farming

Indian agriculture has unique advantages for shifting to organic farming. Organic farming is not new, as Indian agriculture was traditionally naturally cultivated with negligible use of chemicals till 1950s. The average use of chemical fertiliser was very limited at about only one kg of per hectare on average in the early 1950s, while the use of chemical pesticides was started in 1948 with the import of benzene hexachloride (BHC) to control locusts. Further, the use of herbicides is a more recent practice with limited adoption.

Moreover, Indian agriculture has inherent advantages of traditional knowledge & practices, abundance of rural labour, vast biodiversity, etc. Moreover, small farm size can be a potentially enabling factor for taking up organic farming especially with labour intensive operations. Hence, shifting to organic farming can be relatively easier for Indian farmers.

As a result, India has the largest number of organic farmers and second largest area under organic farming according to the report World of Organic Agriculture Statistics and Emerging Trends 2025 by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL. However, the progress has been rather slow covering only for about 2% agricultural land at 4.5 million hectares confined to selected crops and states.

Potential opportunities

Globally, the demand for organic products is rising steadily over the past two decades or so. The area under organic farming has increased manifold from about 14 million hectares in 2000 to about 99 million hectares in 2023. Size of global organic market is estimated at around USD 230 billion in 2023 and is expected to double in the coming years to reach about USD 564 billion by 2030.

Such expanding market provides potential opportunity for Indian farmers to expand their market share. While the US has the largest share, European organic markets are growing rapidly providing opportunity to diversify export destinations for Indian organic products.

Nevertheless, rising domestic demand for organic farm products is another potential opportunity for organic farmers. Domestic organic product market registered a sharper growth rate of 17% CAGR from Rs. 1,800 crore in 2019 to about Rs. 3,340 crore in 2023 compared to global rate of 8% CAGR according to Crisil.

Challenges and way forward

Despite the unique advantages, growth of organic farming in India remained stagnant fluctuating in the range of 2.7 to 3.6 million tonnes during 2019-20 to 2023-24 according to APEDA. Further, Indian organic product exports declined from about 8.8 lakh tonnes valued at USD 1040 million in 2020-21 to about 2.61 lakh tonnes valued at USD 495 million in 2023-24 according to APEDA. There is an urgent need to reverse this trend with necessary policy support and measures.

Major challenges of organic farming on postharvest management include lack of market linkages, packaging and certification facilities, infrastructure and logistics for storage and timely transportation for ensuring quality and quantity etc. There is lack of standardisation of procedures for storage, processing and transport specific for organic products. As a result, nearly 40% of organic farm produce is sold in the general markets as per the estimates of Crisil in 2024.

Other major challenges include lack of adequate availability of bio-fertilisers and bio-pesticides resulting to low yields. Further, there is very limited progress in research and development of crop varieties better suited for organic cultivation and other inputs required for achieving better yields in organic farming.

Another major challenge is lack of adequate awareness among both farmers and consumers. Although organic farming as a concept may be familiar for farmers, the widespread non-organic cultivation over past six decades has disrupted farmers’ linkages with organic input sources and output markets. Similarly, domestic consumers who may want to buy chemical free organic products but not aware about authentic certifications and labels that can ensure their quality.

Hence, there is a need to establish input and output linkages with farmers along the required infrastructure and logistics facilitating quality standardisation, testing, certification, labelling etc. To promote exports, it is essential to devise strategic plans identifying export potential organic products based on global demand and to establish farmers’ linkages with export channels with the requisite infrastructure and logistics in place for ensuring the quality and certifications compliant with the global standards.

Towards this, there is a need to scale-up operations of the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) and Participatory Guarantee System of India (PGS-India).

Further, it is vital to scale-up research and development of crop cultivars, innovative cultivation practices and inputs. In addition, it is equally imperative to create widespread awareness among producers and consumers through agricultural extension system and campaigns for facilitating successful adoption of organic farm products on both supply and demand sides.

Thus, considering the extensive benefits of organic farming including health safety by avoiding chemicals, sustainable use of soil and water resources, conservation of ecology and biodiversity etc., it is vital to scale-up promotional measures to boost organic farming in the country.

Dr. A. Amarender Reddy is Joint Director, School of Crop Health Policy Support Research (SCHPSR), ICAR-National Institute of Biotic Stress Management (ICAR-NIBSM), Raipur. 

Dr. Tulsi Lingareddy, is Senior Economist, Sustainable Finance and Agriculture, Mumbai.

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