Heralding a new era for Indian organic stuff, Union Cooperative Minister Amit Shah inaugurated GCMMF’s newly set up State-of-the-Art Advanced Organic Testing Laboratory at Amul Fed Dairy, Gandhinagar on 21st May. This is in line with the recent move made by the Union Co-op Ministry when a Multistate Organic Co-op Society was formed consisting of five promoters including Amul, which already has some experience in the field as it launched Amul Atta earlier, an organic stuff, among others.
In numerous speeches Shah has said that given Amul’s brand value the certification of organic stuff by Amul would carry weight worldwide, potentially a big advantage for Indian organic stuff.
Other promoters of the said multistate are NCCF, the apex body of consumer co-ops, Nafed, NDDB and NCDC. It is said that with a rapid rise in demand for organic food products in the country, advanced laboratories dedicated to organic food testing are desperately needed.
This is the first dedicated lab by Amul for organic testing and supporting organic producers. The Ministry plans to have such labs in every district of the country. Earlier, in an informal media interaction, explaining the benefits of setting up a national level Organic multistate co-op society, Cooperation Secretary Gyanesh Kumar said that the move is aimed at getting good prices to farmers by offering them a market for their organic produce.
The twin aims of this multistate cooperative are to tap the fast-growing global organic market of Rs 10 lakh crore for Indian farmers and help them in its production and certification at every stage.
Compared to the global scenario, the Indian market for Organic stuff is much less at Rs 27,000 crores, but its projected annual growth (20-25%) is more than that of the global benchmark (10-15%). The Government aims at roping in farmers attached to PACS and training them for producing world class organic stuff.
So far private players are buying organic stuff from farmers and certifying them at a high cost, leaving little for the farmers to earn. Now this multistate organic co-op will certify them at much lower cost and find a market for farmers without them putting in much effort for this. The absence of middlemen aka private players means the benefits will accrue to farmers as is the case with Amul farmers, said NCDC MD Pankaj Bansal.
There are five promoters and each of the promoters are putting Rs 20crore to begin with but they have to shell out Rs 100 crore in the course of time. The Authorized share capital of this ambitious co-op would be Rs 500 core with its headquarters at NDDB, Anand.
Talking of classes of co-ops such as PACS, district and state level co-ops, which are going to be a part of this co-op, the Cooperation Secretary said that the process entails training PACS members on soil conservation, tackling contamination, procurement of genetically modified seeds etc. Experts will first coach them on theory, then take them to the field and finally motivate them with success stories. A long drawn process no doubt but it’s going to be rewarding, he added with confidence.
Already farmers of Sikkim and the north east where farmers are doing Organic farming on a large scale, are a happy lot, informed the Secretary saying it was a herculean task for them to sell their products across India and now they can get a global market.
