India has launched the eighth edition of National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) with new regulations aimed at enhancing clarity and transparency in organic product standards as well as aligning with global standards. The standards have been released at a time when India’s organic products are further being tested at many importing destinations, while the US is yet to resume its recognition for NPOP.

Launching the revised guidelines at an event, organised by agri-trade promotion body Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda) in partnership with industry chamber FICCI, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said that India has the potential to increase exports of organic products up to ₹20,000 crore in the next three years as more and more farmers enter organic farming.

“The Indian farmers must slowly migrate to organic farming and increase both domestic production and capture the international market. Currently, the export of organic produce is around ₹5,000-6,000 crore which can reach ₹20,000 crore in the next 3 years,” Goyal said.

He also said that Ministries of Cooperation, Agriculture and Commerce are jointly working to advance organic farming by supporting the farmers and farmer producers’ organisations (FPOs) via skill development and training, export facilitation, marketing and packaging.

Global demand

“The global demand for organic products is around ₹1 lakh crore and with increased promotion and production, this demand may reach ₹10 lakh crore. India has the largest number of organic farmers globally and ranks second in terms of area under organic cultivation. With some additional efforts, I am confident that we can become the global leader in organic farming significantly enhancing farmers’ income and promoting Indian organic produce to the international market,” he said.

The Minister also launched the revamped portal of NPOP which is expected to provide more visibility and facilitate ease of operations for organic stakeholders. Apeda has revamped the website TraceNet 2.0, which was also unveiled by Goyal. The TraceNet 2.0 portal has been upgraded with NPOP for seamless operations and enhanced tools for regulatory oversight.

During the event, the first five registration certificates generated on TraceNet 2.0 were distributed by the Minister to organic stakeholders.

Portals upgraded

The redesigned portals were also showcased with enhanced user experience and information for the benefit of agri and processed food stakeholders. The government hopes that these new portals will enable more user-friendly data analysis and generation of reports and data of agricultural products exports, accessible to general public.

Rajesh Agrawal, Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce and Chairman of National Accreditation Body (NAB) under NPOP, said: “The launch of the upgraded NPOP portal is an important milestone in India’s organic farming. It will give a boost to production and exports by providing stability and transparency. This edition is mindful of the global requirements as well as strengthening Indian farmers.”

He further said the conversion timeframe from non-organic to organic can be reduced under special circumstances as per revised guidelines. The edition has the provision of migrating farmers from one production group to another, as well and changing service provider, which was a major bone of contention as organic cotton farmers of Madhya Pradesh were earlier not allowed to move from the cluster group they were initially registered.

NPOP has enabled provision for buying entire organic produce so that farmers get the right compensation for their produce, said Agrawal. These measures will play a key role in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s resolution of India becoming the organic food basket of the world, he added.

Jitin Prasada (Minister of State for Commerce), Krishan Pal Gurjar and Murlidhar Mohol (both Ministers of State for Cooperation), Ashish Kumar Bhutani, Secretary, Ministry of Cooperation and Abhishek Dev, Chairman, Apeda, were also present during the event.