Set up the ‘Organic Farming and Fertilizer Corporation of India’, to promote organic farming and fertilizers, and provide incentives and support for marketing organic produce

by: Vidur Bhatnagar

No such corporation has been set up by the BJP government. National Centre of Organic Farming, a body to promote organic farming, has been running since 2004.

So the promise stands broken in letter. But as we have repeatedly stated that the spirit of the promise is important too. So we set to examine the performance of BJP government in relation to promotion of organic farming.

The BJP government launched Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojna(PKVY)  in 2015 to promote the use of organic farming. However, the budget expenditure for the scheme dropped from Rs. 300 crores in the year 2015-16 to Rs. 250 crores in the year 2017-18. Of this only 203 crore was actually spent. Similarly, in 2016-17, only Rs. 157 crore was actually spent. Similarly, Rs. 360 crores were set aside for the year 2018-19. However, the revised estimate slashed the budget by 17% and reduced it to Rs. 300 crore.

The BJP government also launched ‘Unnat Bharat Abhiyan’ in IITs, NITs and other government engineering colleges to promote sustainable growth including organic farming. But not a single project related to Organic Farming has been funded as per the list available on program’s official website.

No data with regard to outcomes has been put forth by the Government.

In the light of poor utilisation of the funds meant for promotion of organic farming, no uptake of project under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, the performance against this promise is considered “Inadequate”