PANAJI, Feb 18: Organic industry is expecting incentives for the sector in the union budget to be presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitely on February 29 in Parliament.
In a statement, Raj Seelam, Founder and Managing Director, 24 Mantra Organic, said,” With the announcement of Sikkim as the first organic state and the Prime Minister?s presence during the event, organic farming & industry in India has recently received the much required initial boost which was lacking until now. The industry so far has completely been neglected. However, the challenges faced by the organic industry in India are tremendous. The government therefore, should provide incentives to organic farmers and the industry.” He said, ”Conventional farmers receive more than Rs 70,000 crore in the form of fertilisers subsidy apart from subsidized pesticides. The National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) currently encourages adoption of organic farming with a financial assistance at Rs 20,000 has subject to maximum of Rs 40,000 per beneficiary for three years. Only Rs 200 crore was allotted for this in the previous budget. The allocation for this scheme should be increased to at least Rs 2,500 crore. This will encourage farmers to balance their income during the gestation period and convert to organic. Organic farming will benefit farmers in rained areas and other stressed areas the most.” The government should further plan and create a National Organic Board an inter-ministerial body compressing officials of Agriculture, commerce, Food processing ministries, FSSAI, Farmers and industry,?? he said, adding that a dedicated research institute for organic farming should be set up by the central government along with regional centers; to do research and develop appropriate technologies for organic farming. “For creating awareness about organic food in the domestic market and also promotion of Indian Organic food products abroad, at least Rs 200 crore should be allowed. This fund utilisation could be overseen by a committee consisting of government officials and industry representatives till the National Organic Board is formed. Overall international trade has suffered due to recessionary conditions in many countries. Indian exports are likely to decline by 25 pc during the current fiscal. The international organic industry is USD 80 billion and is one of the bright spots. Worldwide organic food continues to grow at 8 to 10 per cent. It is important that we tap this opportunity. Hence, we recommend that all organic products bulk or packaged products should be given export incentive of at least 5 per cent. There should not be any restrictions on export of certified organic products so that we can build markets abroad and thereby bring in valuable foreign exchange,” he said. He said the industry would also expect improvement in port and internal transportation infrastructure and export procedures and rolling out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). (UNI)
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