Anticipating a Long Journey to Witness Chemical-Free Farming in Rajasthan

Jaipur, December 20, 2021

Still a long long way to achieve the desired outcome of achieving a chemical free farming in the state of Rajasthan as said by Shri George Cheriyan, Director, CUTS International. Cheriyan was speaking in a Stakeholder’s Consultation organised by CUTS International under its ongoing project ‘ProOrganic’, which aims to promote organic farming consumption and production in the state. George said that during an intervention, which has completed now 8 years has been able to produce results in the form of converting around 280 farmers from chemical to organic and the overall increase of around 4% from the last baseline survey done in 2017.

Though a small change but still very motivating and we all need to continue to be ambitious in order to increase the number of organic farmers. Cheriyan also said that people are now becoming more worried about their health and 97 percent of them said they would eat organic food if it is easily available in market. He discussed the project’s next phase, which envisages to convert selected gram panchayats to 100% organic farming. George also said that there have been several challenges in not only making consumers aware but also in converting chemical farmers to organic. He highlighted on Brazil, which has a participatory guarantee system in which three other farmers offer you a guarantee, and the farmer is certified based on these guarantees. George also quoted and highlighted The World of Organic Agriculture, 2021 report prepared by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Research Institute of Organic Agriculture and IFOAM), which speaks on organic agriculture practised in 187 countries, and 72.3 million hectares of agricultural land were managed organically by at least 3.1 million farmers and India ranks fifth (Australia 1st) in the area under organic certification and 1st in terms of total number of producers (1.36 million) of organic producers in the world followed by Uganda and Ethiopia. Cheriyan also added about the India Organic Report, which says that Rajasthan has 12 % of Certified Cultivated Organic Area of India after M.P.

Shri S. K. Jain, Director, Rajasthan State Seed & Organic Certification Agency, Jaipur, stated that the government will keep all farmers’ difficulties in mind and will make every effort to support them. Furthermore, he emphasized the need of farmers performing honestly in organic farming.

Dr. A S Baloda, Director of the Rajasthan Agriculture Research Institute, congratulated all farmers for their organic farming efforts. Baloda emphasised the need of continuing to promote organic farming, noting that not only farmers, but also consumers, should recognise its importance in the long term. This organic movement will only succeed if everyone works together.

Dr. Om Prakash, ex-Director of Jaipur Doordarshan, spoke about the need for farmers and the government to collaborate and strive to find a new path where organic farmers may obtain a fair price for their organic products. People should be more aware of the advantages of eating organic food for their health.

In the beginning, welcoming all the guests and participants, Deepak Saxena, Assistant Director of CUTS International, presented all the key finding and explained the project’s major goal and objective of the consultation. Rajdeep Pareek, CUTS Program Officer, gave a presentation covering the entire project activities, major outcomes, outputs and key achievements during the project period.

Lastly, Dharmendra Chaturvedi proposed vote of thanks. On the occasion, on the occasion, CUTS honoured all district consultant, who promoted farmers for switching from chemical to organic through their efforts. In the meeting more than 50 participants comprising farmers, consumers and media from ten targeted districts of Rajasthan took part.

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For further information, please contact:
Rajdeep Pareek (94616 70755)/Dharmendra Chaturvedi (94142 02868)
CUTS Centre for Consumer Action, Research and Training
D- 2018, Bhaskar Marg, Banipark, Jaipur- 302016
PH.: 5133259/ 2282821/2282482 ; Fax: 4015395
Email: rdp@cuts.org ; dc@cuts.org