Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
households with a total of twelve hundred acres of certified land. About
80 percent of farmers involved in this ICS have connections to INFA M, and
the majority of them are from Syrian Christian communities. Chacko-
chan, Indocert's first certified organic farmer, is also a member of Or-
ganic Wayanad.47 Organic Wayanad is split into several smaller groups
that are anchored in geographic areas, such as panchayats. These groups
meet regularly, from once a month to once every two months, to share
information about government subsidies for agricultural production,
communicate difficulties, pass on advice, and debate how profits from
organic production should be alloted and used. At one Organic Wayanad
meeting, Chackochan informed atending members about a new organic
banana subsidy from the local agriculture office. At several additional
meetings I atended, I witnessed farmers making arrangements to share
traditional seed varieties by picking them up from the houses of their col-
leagues and inviting others over to observe new methods of cultivation.
These ICS meetings, therefore, serve as crucial seed-sharing, networking,
and knowledge-transfer opportunities for like-minded farmers that did
not previously exist in an organized form.
After forming Organic Wayanad, INFA M was also fundamental in set-
ting up one more organization: the Indian Organic Farmers Producer
Company Limited (IOFPCL), bringing the number of seminal third-party
organic certification institutions in Kerala to four:
• INFA M: Indian Farmers Movement
• Indocert: Indian Organic Certification Agency
• IOFPCL: Indian Organic Farmers Producer Company Limited
(marketing company)
• Organic Wayanad (ICS in Wayanad, Kerala)
Registered in 2004 under the Indian Companies Act of 1956, IOFPCL is a
marketing and procurement entity for organic products that acts as a liai-
son between its organic shareholders and buyers. It facilitates the pooling
of agricultural commodities for export by small farmers and shareholders
so that they can avoid middlemen. Rather, the farmers are now their own
middlemen: IOFPCL does the work, but on their behalf, not its own profits.
IOFPCL has over six hundred organic farming shareholders from South
