Sikkim's State Policy on Organic Farming and Sikkim Organic Mission have been shortlisted for an award conferred by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations for the world's best policies promoting agroecological approaches.

The 2018 Future Policy Award (FPA) will commend proven policies that effectively scale up agroecological approaches at local, national and international levels. It will celebrate outstanding examples for accelerating the transformative change in the way food is produced and consumed.

In total, 51 policies from 25 countries were nominated and among those shortlisted as the world's best policies in the support to scale up agroecological approaches include Brazil’s National Policy for Agroecology and Organic Production, Organic Action Plan for Denmark: Working together for more organics, Sikkim’s State Policy on Organic Farming (2004) and Sikkim Organic Mission (2010), the From Arms to Farms Programme in Philippines and Los Angeles’ Good Food Purchasing Policy (2012).

According to information about the Sikkim Organic Mission online, Sikkim became the first state in India to officially announce adoption of Organic Farming in the year 2003 to ensure long term sustenance of soil fertility, protection of environment and ecology, healthy living and decreasing the risk of health ailments.

The FAO said that the award “will celebrate policies that create enabling environments that advance” a transition to sustainable food and agriculture systems that are crucial to achieving sustainable development and climate resilience.

The 2018 award is co-organised by the FAO, the World Future Council (WFC) and IFOAM-Organics International. The winner will be announced on Friday.

Prem Das Rai, the Sikkim Democratic Front MP who is here as a member of the Indian delegation to the General Assembly, met Carla Mucavi, the director of FAO's New York office on Tuesday. 

After the meeting, he said that she had expressed her congratulations to Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling for his success in making his state a pioneer in organic farming through his farsighted policies.