"With more than 600,000 certified organic farms India has more organic farmers than any other country. Since 2001, the Indian Government has pressed ahead with its organic agenda through regulations and by managing and building capacity within the sector. According to Dr P V S M Gouri, from the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), interviewed by The Organic Standard at BioFach, the most recent step to improving the Indian system is the use of the Tracenet software.

The Government of India implemented its National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) in 2001. The National Programme includes an accreditation programme for certification bodies, as well as norms for organic production and group certification. It is also concerned with the promotion of organic farming. The Competent Authority is the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), which is under the Ministry of Commerce & Industry (www.apeda.gov.in) and has Dr Gouri as the organic senior advisor. There are currently 20 accredited certification bodies – of which most are Indian and some local offices of international bodies – certifying 2,099 operators. The operators include both individual operators and nearly a thousand grower groups, which themselves organise more than 600,000 farmers. With such numbers India has almost a third of all certified organic farms in the world. However, the farms are small so the total area is still not more than 1.18 million hectares, although there is a further 3.36 million hectares of forests certified for wild production.

Approved by the EU and the USA

The NPOP standards for production and accreditation system have been recognised by the European Commission and Switzerland as equivalent to their regulations. In addition, the USA has recognised NPOP’s conformity assessment procedures of accreditation as being equivalent to that of the USDA, allowing Indian certification bodies to certify producers to the US National Organic Program (NOP). The Indian regulation applies to exports and imports (see more below). Since its implementation exports have grown rapidly, and in 2009/10 amounted to some 60,000 tons of produce worth US$ 125 million. The total certified production is 1,700,000 tons, so most of the production is consumed locally.

The main export crops are cotton, tea and Basmati rice (see table below). Cotton is the most important and accounts for almost one fourth of the total export value. The EU (32%) and the USA (26%) are the main markets for organic exports, with 42% being sold to other markets.

Crop Export value (US$ million)
Cotton 27.28
Tea 15.64
Basmati rice 13.32
Dried fruit 8.79
Honey 8.15
Spices 7.19
Medicinal and herbal plants 6.09
Processed food 4.50
Sesame 3.39

Source: APEDA

The marketing of organic products in the Indian market is subject to a programme based on the same NPOP standard. Currently, the programme is voluntary, but according to Dr Gouri, it is likely to be made mandatory shortly. There is also a Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) that has been approved by the Ministry of Agriculture for local sales, which Dr Gouri believes, also serves as a precursor to organic certification of grower groups. Farmers organised in a Participatory Guarantee System can sell their produce as ‘PGS Green’ under a special mark, but cannot use the Indian organic mark ‘India Organic’ (see below) unless they are also certified by an accredited certification body.

While labelling of organic foods in the domestic market is voluntary in India, organic imports have to fulfill the requirements of the NPOP (see box below). As there is no provision for foreign-based certification bodies to be approved by APEDA, to comply with NPOP all foreign production must be certified by an Indian certification body.

Limiting group size

APEDA has recently ruled that the number of farmers in a grower group must be limited to a maximum of 500. Dr Gouri explained that this results in better sampling, reduces risk and ensures the uniform implementation of group certification requirements. In the past, some groups had more than 3,000 members.

In June 2010, APEDA launched the web based traceability system, Tracenet. This integrates all stakeholders in the supply chain, such as individual farmers, grower groups, processors, traders, certification bodies and APEDA. The software can be used anywhere, anytime, by all authorised stakeholders, and has an around the clock help desk. Its implementation has, according to Dr Gouri, reduced duplication in data recording and decreased the risk of errors and false manipulations. The inbuilt checks and balances in the software ensure that each succeeding step can be carried out only if the preceding steps were successfully complied with. No certificate can be issued without going through the software. Finally, APEDA and other authorised interested parties can trace details of the consignment right through to the farm level. In this system, all operators as well as all farmers belonging to a group are registered. To ensure full traceability and transparency, the farms/operations are registered with GPS coordinates. In addition, every product of each individual farmer /operator is assigned an 8 digit bar code.

The operators enter the relevant data (farmers’ details, location, cultivated area, crops produced, status of each farm/farmer, internal inspections details, etc.) into their account generated by Tracenet after their registration by the certification body. Upon completion of the external inspection the certification body, in turn, feeds in the relevant data (compliance / noncompliance and reasons for their decisions etc.).  It is obligatory on the part of the registered operator (owned by the company/trader) and the certification body to enter the details into Tracenet. If these details are not filled in their certificates will not be generated. The software ensures that issues such as the number of non-conformities for all operators or failings in the Internal Control Systems (ICS) of groups are monitored in a systematic way. For the time being Tracenet covers agriculture crop production, processing and trade. Livestock, aquaculture and textiles will be added soon. The system will be expanded with a laboratory test module and modules for accreditation as well as for input approvals in the very near future says Dr Gouri.

Standards for organic textiles, aquaculture and livestock products (meat, poultry and dairy products) have been formulated by specific technical sub-committees established by the Technical Committee for Organic Products. A consultation with stakeholders took place in 2010 and the standards are likely to be notified in 2011, concludes Dr Gouri.

What the NPOP says about imports?

The Indian National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP), implemented in 2001, states:

‘For imported organic products, the authority for approval will be the National Accreditation Body. It will decide on the recommendations of the Inspection and Certification Agencies or in the event of an equivalency agreement to grant a licence based on such equivalency agreement. It will notify a list of such Inspection and Certification Agencies. Organic products certified under the exporting countries’ organic standards require to be re-certified for import as per NPOP. Any Inspection and Certification Agency which wishes to re-certify any imported product or products with imported certified ingredients are required to apply to the National Accreditation Body for inclusion of such products and the procedure for their certification in the certification programme.’

Source: NPOP, Section 4A, clause 18.2

Gunnar Rundgren

Sources:

Interview with Dr P V S M Gouri.

Dr Gouri’s  presentation at BioFach.

Apeda website (www.apeda.gov.in) which contains a wealth of information, including details about NPOP."