NCOL: Shah bats for Organic farming; vows to set up Lab in every district

Union Minister Amit Shah formally launched the National Cooperative Organics Limited (NCOL) in New Delhi on Wednesday, wherein he said that it’s a defining moment for the country as through NOCL India will move from the stage of food sufficiency to a regime of nutritious food system.

Shah also launched the logo, website and brochure of NCOL and also distributed membership certificates to NCOL members.

The Union Minister of Cooperation said that NCOL has been formed to provide a platform to all the farmers doing natural farming across the country and to make arrangements for marketing of their products.

He said that today 6 products of Bharat Organics have also been launched in the market and in the coming days, Bharat Organics will become the most trusted and biggest brand not only in India but also in the global organic market. A total of 20 products will be launched by December this year and the farmers producing them will start getting its benefits, Shah underlined.

He said that the sale of 6 products is starting from today through 150 outlets of Mother Dairy and these products will also be available online. Along with this, with the concept of Organic Under One Roof, a retail outlet network of all organic products is also being started today, he added.

Shah said the goal of taking natural farming above 50 percent in India cannot be achieved without a multidimensional approach. He said that in the last 5-6 years, lakhs of farmers of the country have adopted natural farming and the number of such farmers is gradually increasing.

He added that the problem for both farmers and consumers arises without proper certification. To solve this problem, the Union Cabinet under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi approved the formation of National Cooperative Organics Limited (NCOL) on January 11, 2023.

He said that if all farmers connect with natural farming through cooperatives, then we will be able to achieve the 4 goals i.e. every citizen should be healthy, land should be safe, water should be safe and our farmers should be prosperous as set by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.

National Cooperative Organics Limited is jointly promoted by Amul, National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India Ltd (NCCF), National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED), National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC). It is launched with an authorized capital of Rs 500 crore. Till now, it has more than 950 members in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Nagaland and membership applications from more than 2000 cooperative institutions have been received.

Shah said that this organization will also work as a platform for marketing, branding and export of the products of farmers engaged in natural farming. After integration, certification, testing, standardization, procurement, storage processing, branding, labeling, packaging and marketing of organic products, the entire export work will be done by National Cooperative Organics Limited, which will give recognition to our organic products in the global market in the coming days.

The Union Minister requested Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), Farmers Producer Organizations (FPOs) and progressive farmers across the country to associate with NCOL, strengthen the ‘Bharat Brand’ and make themselves prosperous through this brand.

By the year 2024, more than 25,000 members will join NCOL and this organization has also started the work of creating a database of organic farmers. He expressed confidence that after the launch of ‘Bharat Brand’, India will stand very strongly in the world organic market in the next 10 years, said Shah.

Shah said that to make a long-term market plan, it is very important to have a laboratory recognized by the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) in every District and Tehsil of the country. He said that at present there are a total of 246 laboratories in the country, out of which 147 are private and 99 are of the government, but out of these only 34 labs are recognized by NPOP.

Shah said that with the Whole of Government Approach, the government has decided to set up about 100 mobile laboratories and 205 laboratories by next year in collaboration with Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and other government institutions.

It will increase 300 laboratories and almost every district of the country will be covered, due to which testing and certification of land and products can also be done. Thus, there will be 439 laboratories across the country by the next year, which will provide great convenience to the farmers in getting their products certified and also to the National Cooperative Organics Limited in purchasing the certified products.