‘Odisha's organic farming can be worth Rs 23,000 cr in 5 years’

Optimistic that promotion of organic farming could lead to wealth accumulation of about Rs 23,000 crore in Odisha, industry body Assocham today said it had the potential to create about 80 lakh jobs in five years.

Promotion of organic farming could generate about 60 lakh jobs in the State apart from creating additional 20 lakh job if on-farm storing, processing, value addition, packaging and marketing facilities were included, National Secretary-General of Assoham, D.S. Rawat told reporters here.

Organic farms provided over 30 per cent more jobs per hectare as against non-organic farms, Rawat said, adding these facts came to light in a study titled ‘Organic Odisha: Inching towards Organic Farming,’ released by Assocham.

“Besides, promotion of organic farming in Odisha can lead to wealth accumulation of about Rs 23,000 crore and generate exports of Rs 600 crore during the next five years,” he said quoting the study.

Adoption of organic farming could increase the net per capita income of a farmer in the State by 250 per cent to over Rs 10,500 in five years from a meagre Rs 3,000 currently, Rawat said.

Stating that it would also arrest migration of people from Odisha for jobs, he said of the total organically certified area of 1.7 lakh hectares across the country, the State had the maximum area of over 26,300 hectare followed by Jammu and Kashmir with 22,316 hectare.

He said Odisha has a huge share in global organic exports from about 0.2 per cent to about 2.5 per cent by 2017.

The State also had the potential of being the country’s export hub for certified organic food to different world markets.

In its study, Assocham suggested that organic agriculture be recognised and integrated in main policies of the Central government such as those on agriculture, food, health and environment