Organic Farming In India

India has 30 percent of the total organic producers in the world but accounts for just 2.59 percent (1.5 million hectares) of the total organic cultivation area of 57.8 million hectares. India needs to bring more area under Organic farming in the future, with better incentives to the cultivators. Food quality and safety are the two important factors that have gained ever-increasing attention in general consumers. Conventionally grown foods have immense adverse health effects due to the presence of higher pesticide residue, more nitrate, heavy metals, hormones, antibiotic residue, and also genetically modified organisms. Moreover, conventionally grown foods are less nutritious and contain lesser amounts of protective antioxidants.

Food quality and safety are two vital factors that have attained constant attention in common people. Growing environmental awareness and several food hazards (e.g. dioxins, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, and bacterial contamination) have substantially decreased the consumer’s trust towards food quality in the last decades. Whereas, conventional farming is the cultivation process where synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers are applied to gain higher crop yield and profit. Organic farming and food processing practices are wide-ranging and necessitate the development of socially, ecologically, and economically sustainable food production systems. Fruits and vegetables contain a wide variety of phytochemicals such as polyphenols, resveratrol, and pro-vitamin C, and carotenoids which are generally secondary metabolites of plants. Organic vegetables normally have far less nitrate content than conventional vegetables. Nitrates are used in farming as soil fertilizer but they can be easily transformed into nitrites, a matter of public health concern.