Drive to rope in small tea growers to practise organic farming launched in Nilgiris

Udhagamandalam: To rope in small tea growers to practise organic farming, the district administration launched a drive, ‘Scope Certification’, at the Kinnakorai industrial cooperative (Indco) tea factory on Thursday.
As the district counts for more acreage and more number of farmers cultivating tea, the district administration has launched the programme in association with the Indcoserve, the apex body of the 16 Indco tea factories in the district, and the horticulture department.
Indcoserve CEO Supriya Sahu inaugurated the programme in the presence of collector J Innocent Divya and senior officials from the horticulture department.
“The district leads in the number of farmers practising organic farming in the state. As many as 4,800 farmers in the district were issued Scope certificate for the first year conversion by the Tamil Nadu organic certification department under the collective farming scheme,” said Shiva Subramaniam Samraj, a joint director in the horticulture department.
The farmers belong to 48 ‘farmer producers’ groups’ (FPG) with 100 in each group cultivating vegetables such as potato, carrot, cabbage, beetroot, among others.
At least 800 small tea growers are attached to the Kinnakoari Indco tea factory with a total acreage of around 600 acres. Other small tea farmers attached to other Indco factories will also be brought under the programme, Samraj said.
Meanwhile, the horticulture department has been developing a mobile app, Organic Nilgiris, to help farmers understand organic farming practices. Farmers can access information about organic production of hilly vegetables, preparation of various bio-inputs at farm level, organic certification procedures, among others.
Presently, organic vegetable cultivation has been carried out in 2,370 hectares in the district. Further, complete organic tea cultivation is being taken up in 2,865 hectares by several large tea growers. Besides, 560 hectares of coffee and other hill crops plantations have been practising organic farming from this financial year.
After continuously practising organic farming for three years, farmers will receive ‘Organic Certificate’ for their produce. In a bid to make farming in the hill district completely organic, the district administration has formed a core committee with the collector as the chairperson.