The Union Agriculture Ministry accorded organic certification to around 14,491 hectare area in Andaman and Nicobar under the Large Area Certification (LAC) scheme of the PGS-India (Participatory Guarantee System) certification program.

As per the LAC scheme, every village is identified as a particular cluster or group. Every farmer with their farmland and livestock are necessitated to stick to the standard requirements. Upon being verified, they get certified in numbers and hence don’t have to go under the period of conversion.

Thereafter, through peer appraisals, their certification is renewed annually according to the PGS-India’s process.

The ministry stated that it is in process of recognizing traditional organic areas to convert them into hubs of production.

Moreover, places like Lakshadweep and Ladakh are also actively working to officially certify their traditional organic areas. The ministry is in ongoing consultations with states to identify more such areas, enable their transformation, get them certified and then pave the way for marketing of area-specific niche products via branding and labelling, The Economic Times reports.

Apparently, there are areas in the north-eastern states, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand along with the tribal belts in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and the desert districts of Rajasthan that can be brought on-board of this process.

India currently has more than 30 lakh hectare area registered under organic certification and the central government has also initiated a support scheme for the same named the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY).

Organic certification will enable farmers to utilize the direct access to the developing organic food market of the country and this movement looks set to amplify furthermore in the coming times.