Awareness on organic farming held at Duga

AAMIR KHAN’S “SATYAMEV JAYATE” TV CREW SHOOTS SESSION
GANGTOK, 13 April: An awareness-cum-training programme on Organic Farming its benefits and certification process was organized on 12 April by International Panaacaa Limited (Service provider Agency for ICS) in association with Sikkim Organic Mission Food Security & Agriculture Development Department at Duga, East Sikkim. A press release informs that farmers from 8 wards were present in this awareness-cum-training programme.
State Project Coordinator, International Panaacea Limited, Hoshiar Singh Vashishtha highlighting the key issues of Organic farming and its Certification process explained the process, documentation and demonstration aspects.
Land and Soil, Water, Human health, Forest & Environment, Wild life and livestock details are vital issues for Internal Control System. Before accepting the Organic farming there are many documentation process which have to be maintained by all of us, he informed.
He emphasized that before getting the Scope Certificate for Organic products, there are various documentation process and practices which have to be maintained by the farmer community. Land documentation (checking of Parcha) to verify the land and its area, Farmers diary, Internal checklists, field map, detail of live stock, soil fertility, water test, detail of manure etc.
The process for organic farming and its certification process is very tough. After completion of the documentation process all important information data will be entered in a website called “TRACENET” to trace out the information of each farmer. Once this is done Agricultural & Processed Food Products Expert Development Authority (APEDA) will check and verify then they will issue  Registration or Identification Number (ID No.) to each farmer. After wards Certification Agencies will carry out their activities, inspection of documentation as well as field verification then only the  process will begin for Scope Certificate, he informed.
State Project In-charge, Vimal Prakash in his address emphasized on farm input management. He described about the soil health and its recommendations which was collected from the field of the farmers.
Additional Executive Director, Sikkim Organic Mission, K.K. Pradhan spoke on soil fertility management and the importance of DOLOMITE which enhance the fertility of soil in organic farming.
Convener, Farmer Cell, DN Sapkota spoke on the policy and programme made by the Government for the benefit for our famer community. CEO, Onecert Asia Agri. Certification Agency, Sandeep Bhargav highlighted the issues regarding certification and inspection methods. He urged the farmers to understand and follow the process of documentation which are provided by the Service provider Agency as after 2015 it has to be continued and there will be no such Service Provider Agency, in this case farmers themselves have to do all documentation work.
At the end of the programme, a television crew visited the site and recorded all the activities of the programme, the release informs. The crew was from Aamir Khan’s film production unit which is coming up with a new show ‘Satyamev Jayate’ on Star Plus highlighting various social issues. Khan who was in the state last month was briefed about the organic farming mission in the state during his visit and so he was interested in the highlighting the subject on his show, the release further mentions.