Sustainable development has caught the imagination and action all over the world for more than a decade. Sustainable agriculture is necessary to attain the goal of sustainable development. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), sustainable agriculture “is the successful management of resources for agriculture to satisfy changing human needs while maintaining or enhancing the quality of environment and conserving natural resources”. All definitions of sustainable agriculture lay great emphasis on maintaining an agriculture growth rate, which can meet the demand for food of all living things without draining the basic resources. Organic farming is one of the several approaches found to meet the objectives of sustainable agriculture. Many techniques used in organic farming like inter-cropping, mulching and integration of crops and livestock are not alien to various agriculture systems including the traditional agriculture practiced in old countries like India. However, organic farming is based on various laws and certification programmes, which prohibit the use of almost all synthetic inputs, and health of the soil is recognised as the central theme of the method.
PLAN Foundation is working with Agriculture Department (HP) for promotion of organic farming. We are implementing 5 projects in Distt. Shimla, Solan and Sirmour Distt. The Details of project is as under:
Total land & No. Of Farmers
Organic Cluster Rampur, Distt. Shimla H.P. 130 Hac. (500 Farmers) 2nd year in organic farming and 2 external audit has been conducted
Organic Cluster Kandaghat Distt. Solan H.P. 130 Hac. (500 Farmers) 1 year completed and 1 external audit has been conducted.
Organic Cluster Dharampur, Distt. Solan HP 130 Hac. (500 Farmers)
Organic Vegetable Cluster in Sangrah, Pachhad and Shillai block, Distt. Sirmour H.P. 335 Hac. (645 Farmers) All farmers are in conversion period and certification is being done by OneCert Asia pvt. Ltd.
Organic Vegetable Cluster in Solan Distt. H.P. Detail is not furnished till date Project is in first stage and identification of farmers are in progress