Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
model,” she insisted, suggesting that the state could be a “torchbearer”
again, this time in the organic farming sector. Shiva continued: “The
world needs more models.”
The policy that so delighted the people at the conference on bio-
diversity was an official plan put forth by Kerala's government leaders to
convert the entire state to organic farming within ten years.3 State offi-
cials claimed that organic agriculture
—farming with limited use of syn-
thetic inputs such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides—could be the
solution to the innumerable agrarian problems the state was facing, from
farmer suicides to poisoning by pesticides such as endosulfan. The pol-
icy's announcement signaled a momentous political step and indicated
that an ever-
increasing amount of land in India was being set aside solely
for organic production. W hile Kerala is geographically one of the smallest
states in India, its 2010 policy initiative is the equivalent of designating an
area greater than the size of Maryland as an organic zone.4 Over thirty
million people living in the area would be covered.
Estimates as of 2013 suggest that over fifteen thousand farmers in
Kerala are already or in the process of being certified organic for export to
the United States and Europe; that is, they meet the legal standards that
define organic farming on a national level, as determined by a third-party
certifier.5 According to the International Federation of Organic Agricul-
ture Movements (IFOAM), a nonprofit umbrella organization promoting
sustainable agriculture globally, certified organic products are “those
which have been produced, stored, processed, handled and marketed in
accordance with precise technical specifications (standards) and certified
as 'organic' by a certification body.”6 In India, these technical specifica-
tions are called the National Standards for Organic Production (NSOP),
which are set by the Agriculture and Food Products Export Development
Authority (APEDA) of the Ministry of Commerce.7 APEDA has accred-
ited twenty-four institutions in India to carry out organic certification,
many of which are located outside of the country.8 The first indigenous
organic certification body in India, Indocert (Indian Organic Certifica-
tion Agency), is based in Kerala, indicative of the leadership role Kerala is
playing in South India's organic farming movement.
