Government Role in Promotion of Green Agriculture in India:

Increasing Investments: There has been limited allocation under 9^th Plan for bio-fertilizer, bio-pesticide popularization in the Agriculture sector and the provision for this programme was enhanced by expanding the scope of activities whereby promotion organic agriculture has been included as part of the activities targeted in the 10^th Plan. As part of 10^th Five year Plan, Government of India has earmarked about Rs. 100 crores for the promotion of organic agriculture in the country. The main components of this initiative include farming of standards, negotiating with different countries and putting in place a system of certification for organic products.

Promoting Input Market: Central Government is also promoting the production and use of bio-fertilizer to make it popular. Government has initiated a project “National Project on Development and Use of Bio fertilizers” for this purpose. Main objectives of this project are as following:

1. Production and distribution of Bio fertilizers (BFs)
2. Developing Standards for different BFs and Quality control
3. Releasing of grants for setting up BF units
4. Training and Publicity

Promoting green agriculture market: To promote the organic agriculture in India government has also taken some initiative in recent past. APEDA (Planning Commission, 2001) is the nodal agency to promote the Indian organic agriculture and its exports opportunities. National Steering Committee under the Chairmanship of Secretary Commerce has already outlined and approved the National Program for Organic Production (NPOP) by May 2001 (www.apeda.com). Under this program, National Organic Standards have been evolved. This apart, it has also developed Criteria for Accreditation of certification agencies, Accreditation Procedure and Inspection and Certification Procedures. In developing these standards and procedures due attention is paid to the guidelines as enumerated by international organizations such as International Federation for Organic Agricultural Movement (IFOAM), EU Regulations and FAO Codex Standards. As part of this program, a National Logo for organic products on behalf of Govt. of India has also been developed (http://www.apeda.com/organic.htm).

Some of the other efforts towards promotion of organic exports include attempts to collaborate with all the major organic importing countries. Towards this APEDA is deliberating with European Union for inclusion of India in the list of third countries under Article 11 of the EU regulations No 2092/91 so that India’s National Programme for Organic Production gets the required recognition under the EU regulations.

Facilitating Factors for Greening of Indian Agriculture: Organic agriculture provides economic opportunities for different stakeholders. Some of the drivers that facilitate growth of organic agriculture in India are

• Growing export market for organically produced crops (Kortbech-Olesen, 2003).
• Price premium for organically produced agriculture products from10% to 100% (V. Garibay, K. Jyoti, 2003).
• Diverse agro-climate regions across the country that provides environment for wide range of crops that can cater to different market demands.
• Increasing awareness & health consciousness especially among certain sectors of domestic consumers.
• Availability of comparatively cheap labor for labor-intensive organic agriculture
• Huge numbers of small farmers those who do the traditional farming with very limited capacity to pay for most of the chemical inputs into agriculture ((Planning Commission, 2001)
• Presence of Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) as active promoters of Organic farming in different agro-climatic regions (Donthi N. Reddy, 2001)
• Increasing involvement of private companies in field of agricultural extension, trade, consultation and other services
• Enhanced Government attention and support for organic agriculture through various policy initiations and action programs.

Factors Constraining Greening of Indian Agriculture:

Though there are positive signs for green agriculture in India it is not growing at a pace to enhance its market attractiveness so as to motivate larger section of farming community to opt for organic agriculture. Fig 11 is an exercise to find why the penetration of greening the agriculture in India is limited. Major problems that hinders the growth organic agriculture in India can be listed as follows:

Factors limiting Bio-inputs Market:

In exploring the factors limiting bio-input market we attempted to analyse them from multiple stakeholders perspectives presented briefly in the following:

Producers’/Distributors’/Traders’ point of view:

• Lack of proper infrastructure for distribution and conservation of bio-inputs is a major constraint hinders the access of these inputs to farmers.
• Existence of poor quality bio-inputs in market reduces the credibility of input providers. Lack of quality control mechanisms for bio-inputs furthers the mistrust among farmers.
• Given the low penetration of bio-inputs market and the limited shelf-life it is disincentivizing the traders to store and sell bio-inputs

From Users’ (farmers’) point of view:

• Bio-fertilizers and bio-pesticides are perceived as less yielding.
• Some climatic regions and soil conditions are not suitable for specific strains of organic production.
• For some strains limited shelf life is also constrain as most of the bio-input last only for about 4-6 months.
• Given the mandated gestation period of around three years for a conventional farm to become an organic farm the benefits perceived by farmers in general and small and marginal farmers in particular tend to be limited as they have short term orientation. As a result even if they are aware they are hesitant to switch over to organic (green) agricultural practices.

From Promoters’ (Government’s) point of view:

• Agricultural departments, research institutions and extension services have for long been oriented towards chemical input agriculture as a result there is a requirement for reorienting these officials towards organic (green) agriculture
• Changing the cropping and cultivation patterns is slow and time-consuming process given the high levels of illiteracy and large number of small and marginal farmers it makes the change process difficult.
• Subsidies on chemical fertilizers and pesticide impede the growth of organic agriculture.

Limiting factors organic produce market:

• Lack of market information in general and organic market information in particular is biggest drawback for Indian agriculture. The current information base is low and even the limited information available does not get disseminated due to lack of adequate channels for dissemination. As a result farmers are in a predicament as they are unable to attune their production practices as per the market changes. Marketing network specifically for organic products has not yet developed both in the domestic as well as export market.
• Quality of Indian food industry is always a constraint for growth, low consistency of quality and contamination in food products is a hindrance in capturing the available market especially the international market.
• Given the high levels of transaction costs for getting farms certified as organic it is a major deterrent for enhancing organic production in the country. As the certification process for organic farming is very lengthy and complex, the cost of certification is also unaffordable for small farmers {Rs.22000 to Rs.29200 per certification} (Garibay S V and Jyoti K, 2003).
• Government has shown limited interest for organic agriculture, though the activities from government side are increasing but till date there is no direct support from government side in terms of subsidy or market support towards organic agriculture.
• Lack of proper infrastructure in terms of roads from remote villages, cold storage facilities and slow transportation infrastructure affects the cost, quality and reach of producers and
• Indian organic agriculture is very fragmented and there are no organizations for managing the entire value chain of organic products.

Large number of these problems listed above are due to the relatively newness of this sector from the point of view of different players.