Organic Farming: A Win Win Situation For Health, Economy

Vijay Sharma

(The writer is based at Himmar, Hamirpur)

Organic farming has attracted attention of educated youth from all over the country. About 70% of population of India is dependent on agriculture and it provides employment to about 50% of population of the country. Attitude of the society especially youths has witnessed a considerable change towards horticulture and agriculture. IIT and IIM educated youths have left their jobs in multinational companies and shifted towards agriculture and agribusiness. After Sikkim and Kerala, farmers of Himachal Pradesh are also shifting towards organic farming. Organic farming includes use of organic manure made from cow dung, vermi compost, bio-fertilizers etc and crop rotation technique instead of synthetic manure and pesticides in inorganic farming. This way it helps in achieving more production at low cost in less land. Organic farming helps in preserving necessary nutrients in the crop while keeping away with the harmful chemicals. It also ensures productivity of land for a longer period of time.

Organic farming is being implemented in Kangra, Una, Bilaspur, Hamirpur and Mandi districts in first phase with cooperation from Japan International Cooperation Agency. The agriculture department and CSK HP Agriculture University, Palampur are also putting in efforts to promote organic farming. In fact a separate organic farming department has been established at agriculture university, Palampur in order to give impetus and direction to this drive. Farmers of Shimla, Solan and Sirmaur districts have already taken a step in this direction and are registered organic farming practitioners. Farmers here are making good fortunes by growing vegetables and medicinal plants through organic farming. Compost manure plays an important role in organic farming. This is why the state government is providing 50% subsidy on installing a vermi compost unit. Popularity of this scheme could be well gauged from the fact that 1.5 lakh vermi compost units have been established here till now. More than 22,000 hectares of land has already come under organic farming in Himachal and more than 40,000 farmers are associated with organic farming right now in Himachal. These figures indicate that Himachal is slowly and steadily heading towards becoming organic farming economy. The state government in order to encourage organic farming has announced to provide cash prizes of three lakh, two lakh and one lakh to best three farmers that have an exceptional contribution in field of organic farming. Organic farming has the potential to end unemployment problem. All it needs is state government help to youth in terms of easy and cheap loans to adopt this practice.

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