Bhubaneswar, Nov. 8: Members of the Organic Farming Association of India have urged both the Centre and Odisha government to consider subsidy for organic farmers and formulating a policy, exclusively for them, within three months.

“While the government is awarding subsidy for the use of chemicals and fertilisers, which, in a way, is polluting environment, the organic farmers, on the other hand, should get support for following the nature’s own principles,” said a member.

Senior member of the association and Goa-based environmentalist Claude Alvareas said: “Odisha is the largest producer of organic products as, by default, the majority of marginal farmers here are not using chemicals and fertilisers to boost production. The Odisha government should plan to convert the entire farming area to organic type in three years.”

Stating that the agriculture universities should play a pivotal role in promoting the organic farming concept across the country, Umendra Dutt of the Kheti Virasat Mission of Punjab said: “Odisha should go the organic way. Because of indiscriminate use of chemicals and fertilisers, Punjab is producing a large number of cancer-affected patients.”

Earlier, Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, while inaugurating the two-day conference of the association yesterday, said: “Odisha is the right place to promote organic farming and with the traditional low-use of toxic chemicals, the state government has laid emphasis on the matter in its Agriculture Policy of 2008.”

President of the association Sardaman Patel said: “The small and marginal farmers, especially the tribal people, will be provided with special training packages by the farmers’ body, so that they get interested to include more crops into the fold of organic farming.”

Environmentalist and Odisha-based expert on plant diversity and conservation Debal Deb said: “The green revolution has caused immense harm to our environment and disappearance of several crop varieties because of mono-cropping practice. Now, the people should be sensitised on the benefits of organic farming.”

An Odisha agriculture department official said: “While the Odisha government has already formed the Seeds and Organic Product Certification Agency to control quality of the organic products, organic farming education will also shortly be included in the school curriculum. The graduate and postgraduate students of Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology will have some mandatory papers on organic farming.”

A study published by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industries of India in September found that with right kinds of steps in Odisha, organic farming could generate jobs to the tune of 80 lakh by 2017. It also added that while the per capita monthly income for average farmer was Rs 3,000, it could go up to Rs 10,500 with growth in organic farming.

At present, organic products such as turmeric, ginger, pulses and cotton are produced and exported from various places in Odisha. Aromatic rice varieties from Koraput district are already a huge hit among the consumers of the foreign countries.