Increasing Awareness for Organic A Positive Sign

Jaipur, February 28, 2018

As the base line survey by CUTS reveals, 86 percent consumers in the state are well aware about organic consumption and 91 percent farmers are aware of the ill effects of the chemical farming. The mentioned survey was conducted amongst 1795 consumers, 644 farmers of 192 Gram Panchayats of selected 10 districts.

A ‘state level stake holders’ consultation’ was organised by CUTS International at Hotel Radisson Blu under project ‘ProOrganic’ (Second Phase). Where the chief Guest Mrs Neel Kamal Darbari Addl. Chief Secretary, Agriculture, appealed for ‘Getting Back to the Indian traditional organic farming in the interest of the coming generations. She specifically said that the need of the hour is, to observe the traditional Indian agriculture value system in co-ordination with modern technologies with a balanced approach. Beside that she identified a need to set up a synergy with the farmers to frame out more effective policies. She further shared information about Government’s initiative to reserve one shop for Organic products only at all the 400 Agriculture Marts across the state, which has to be started yet.

Beside that George Cheriyan, Director, CUTS International, while welcoming the guests said, ‘ProOrganic-II’ has been expanded to 192 Gram Panchayats of 10 districts of Rajasthan, last year. He further pointed out the three phased work done in each of the districts with keeping a consumer oriented perspective- to consume organic, A farmer oriented perspective- to produce Organic and a government oriented perspective- for a clear and effective policy making. While highlighting the activities under ProOrganic-II, he stressed upon the rights of the consumer by: Minimal use of toxicants, sustainable consumption and switching from a liner economy to a circular economy. In the consultation Dr SJ Singh, Director , Rajasthan Agriculture Research Institute, Also appealed farmers to make a shift from Conventional Farming to Organic Farming.

During the technical session Dr AK Gupta, Dean college of Agri-business Management Jobner, Dr BD Yadav, Retd. Professor, Horticulture, Satbeer Beniwal, Deputy General Manager, Morarka Foundation, Neeta Upadhyay from Orion Greens presented their views upon the base line survey done by CUTS.

In the consultation, officials from the department of Agriculture and Agricultural research Institute, Durgapura, CSOs working for organic farming along with more than 75 volunteers participated.

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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