Only thirty percent of area in India is cultivated with fertilizers where irrigation facilities are available. Farmers use organic manure as a nutrient for their own farms. North- Eastern region of India provides huge resource for organic farming due to low use of chemicals. About 18 million hectares of land is available in the North Eastern region of India where people do organic farming.
India has great potential to grow crops organically and can be a major supplier of organic products in the world. The task force on organic farming appointed by government of India observed that vast area in the country is exploited with chemicals which give low yield. These areas can be targeted to give high production through organic farming. India has great scope to become world’s no.1 organic exporter in the world.
Organic farming can maintain soil quality. The chemical use is hitting the sustainability in soil and decreasing its potency. Applying organic manure is the only solution to improve the soil organic carbon productivity in the future. Our country has 700 metric tons of agriculture waste but most of it is not being used. There should be a method of large-scale conversion of organic agriculture which would decrease food shortage, as the yield of organic systems relate to conventional agriculture on an average 10– 15%, especially in intensive farming systems the yield is high. In traditional agriculture such as rain-fed, organic farming has potential to increase the yield. Since about 70% of the total cultivable land comes in this category 5 – 10% increase in farm production would help in achieving the targeted growth rate by 4 – 5% in agricultural production.
Organic manure can be used as an alternative renewable resource for nutrients supply. A huge gap exists between the available quantity and utilized quantity. However, it cannot be possible to meet the nutrients requirement in crops from organic sources, if the 100% of cultivable land is converted into organic farming. Organic farming system will be able to deliver agronomic and environment benefit both through structural change and tactical management of farming system. The benefits of organic farming include: to developed countries (environment protection, increase of biodiversity, reduce energy use and CO2 emissions) and for developing countries like India (efficient use of resources, increase in crop yields, environment and biodiversity safeguarding, etc.).
Organic foods are proved to have superiority in terms of health and safety, but there is no evidence to prove this superiority in terms of taste and nutrition, as most of the studies done are often doesn’t have conclusion. Combining lower input costs and favourable price can offset reduce yields and make organic farms more profitable than conventional farms. However, studies which didn’t include organic price gave mixed results on profit the premium price on the organic food that decides the economic achievability of organic farming, at least at the present rate of development in organic agriculture. Organic farming systems have pest and disease management approach which are largely preventive than reactive. Pest and disease incidence is less in organic farms when compared to conventional farms.
