Organic Adoption, Certification and Market Linkages
ICCOA develops and implements turnkey projects on establishing farmer clusters, capacity building & trainings, setting up ICS, certification and market-linkages. Currently (2010) ICCOA is implementing such projects in four districts in Karnataka, four districts in Haryana, six districts in Nagaland; and is signing two new MoUs with the States of Kerala and Himachal Pradesh. For the certification of these projects ICCOA is engaging different certification agencies all accredited by APEDA, e.g. SGS, Indocert, Control Union, Onecert, Ecocert, and others.
Highlights of such projects are, viz.
- Organic Cluster Project in Nagaland
- MoU with the Dept. of Horticulture, Nagaland (2008-10) to develop a cluster of 250 ha in Nagaland with organic farming, certification and market linkages.
State Department
of Horticulture, Nagaland engaged International Competence Centre for
Organic Agriculture (ICCOA), Bangalore as a nodal agency & signed
a MoU for 250 ha organic project in the area of Dimapur and Peren Districts.
The activities involved in this cluster development project are farmers
training, setting up of internal control system and create organic grower
group society managed by farmers themselves.
- MoU with the Dept. of Agriculture, Nagaland (2009-11) to develop a cluster of 250 ha in Nagaland with organic farming, certification and market linkages in the districts of Kohima, Wokha, Mokokchung, Phek covering Maize, Potato, Tea, Ginger and large cardamom.
- Project on ‘Organic Adoption & Certification’(MoU with Dept.of Horticulture, Haryana, 2009-11)
- Promotion of Organic farming under NHM in Haryana (Adoption & Certification) for 2050 ha in four districts (Jind, Jhajjar, Gurgaon and Mewat) for vegetables and other crops.
Haryana State
Horticulture Development Agency has awarded ICCOA the project to develop
organic farming and certification project in four districts in Haryana.
This is a major project covering 2050 ha with organic production of
vegetables (with cereals and oilseeds as rotational crops) and the project
value is Rs. 40 million over three years. The project is under
first year of conversion and planned crops are vegetables, wheat, mustard
and a few area also under Medicinal & Aromatic plants. ICCOA is
also working on linking farmers produces to markets so the farmers are
benefited by getting better prices.
- Organic Horticulture Project in Karnataka (2009-11)
- Organic adoption and certification of 850 ha of land under organic in four districts at Karnataka (Ramnagara, Kolar, Chikkaballapur & Bangalore Rural) under KSHMA.
Karnataka occupies
a prominent place in the Horticulture map of the country where horticultural
crops occupy an area of 17.25 lakh ha, with a production of 130.26 lakh
tones. Karnataka state is implementing the project on ‘Organic Adoption
& Certification’ under Karnataka State Horticulture Mission Agency
(KSHMA). ICCOA is selected as a Service Provider under KSHMA and an
MoU is signed. KSHMA awarded a project under National Horticultural
Mission (NHM) to convert 850ha of land into organic, through farmer
cluster development, trainings, ICS, certification and market-linkages.
- Organic Agriculture Project in Himachal Pradesh (2010-13)
ICCOA has
been accorded another major project for Organic development in 1200
ha in the mountain state of Himachal Pradesh. A MoU being signed with
the Dept of Agriculture is a tripartite agreement between ICCOA, Dept
and the Agriculture University in the state.
- New Projects sanctioned in 2010:
ICCOA has acquired another two new projects for ‘Organic adoption, certification and market linkages’. They are as follows:
1. Kerala
State: In partnership with NAFED (National Agriculture Marketing Federation
Ltd) and funded/supported by the Dept of Horticulture, Govt of Kerala,
ICCOA has started a new project for Organic adoption & certification
in 650 ha spread in three districts in Kerala.
