Organic Food Production and its Potential in North East

Background

North East can be a global hub for organic food Production .Sikkim and Mizoram are leading the country in organic farming while other states like Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland are weaning out chemical fertilizers and pesticides and providing free bio-pesticides and bio-agents to farmers. Assam is embracing organic farming in a big way with the help of the central government. The export process of this aromatic rice to Germany, Switzerland and the UK has started. In Meghalaya to mitigate the negative effects of chemicals and pesticides, the agriculture department has taken up alternative methods through the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) .The state of Nagaland has made a policy framework to convert the ‘organic by default’ areas into ‘organic by design’ for specific crops and is one of the lowest consumers of chemical fertilizers in the country @1.5 kg/ha which one of the lowest. Mizoram’s agriculture department had introduced organic farming in 1996 and ran a trial at Lungmuat village. To promote organic farming vigorously, the Mizoram Assembly unanimously passed the Mizoram Organic Farming Bill in July 2004. North East India is in fact gateway to the South East Asia and Organic food production with the up gradation of processing and marketing linkages can tap this huge potential in South East Asian market

objectives

• To prepare the roadmap to make North East an Organic Hub in South East Asia
• Help large & medium organic food enterprises identify potential suppliers .
• To popularize organic products from North East among consumers by educating them about it’s benefits.
• To discuss about the marketing linkages needed for organic farming and its huge export potentialities for the North East Region.
• To provide an opportunity to organic sellers to interact with large retailers to sell their products
• To identify the challenges faced in Organic Certification and the need for it.
• To encourage Food Processing industries to realize this huge potential & invest in North east