The district administration expects 2,000 more farmers across the district to adopt organic farming practices over the course of the next year.
According to Joint Director of Horticulture Sivasubramaniam Samraj, a total of 4,800 farmers in the district have adopted organic farming practices over the last two years. “This amounts to 1,600 hectares of farmland that is being cultivated without the use of pesticides. The Nilgiris is leading the way in terms of getting farmers to adopt safe-farming practices,” said Mr. Samraj, adding that they expected more than 2,000 hectares to be cultivated organically in the next year.
The district administration and the Horticulture Department had assisted the farmers in getting scope certification from the Tamil Nadu Organic Certification Department. “The certification is for farmers who have just taken up organic farming, known as first-year-conversion. To be certified completely organic takes anywhere between 3-4 years of continuous farming using only established organic farming methods,” said Mr. Samraj.
The farmers had also been given financial incentives, while awareness rallies, seminars and training programmes were being organised to get more farmers involved, officials said. Social media pages had also been set up to reach out to more farmers.
In the Nilgiris, around 6,000 hectares were under vegetable cultivation, alongside 55,000 hectares of tea. The officials expressed the hope to include tea estate owners in organic farming.
“We are building the momentum among the farming community, many of whom are giving up using chemical fertilizers and are turning to eco-friendly alternatives. An integrated farming demonstration centre is coming up in Thummanatty, while vermicompost and organic growth promoters are being produced and distributed to farmers at a lesser cost,” said Mr. Samraj.
