|
|
|
You can get e-magazine links on WhatsApp. Click here
|
|
|
|
|
|
Karnataka mfrs laud NAFED’s move to market organic products online
|
|
Friday, 11 January, 2019, 12 : 00 PM [IST]
|
|
Nandita Vijay, Bengaluru
|
Karnataka organic food product manufacturers see that if marketing via online platforms is introduced, it would give a big fillip to the sector. But certification and the dynamic regulation framework can further bring in the much-needed transparency to the e-commerce platform for trade.
The views have come in after the recent announcement by the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India’s (NAFED) step to spur the marketing of organic products online.
Currently, most organic food product manufacturers, including 24 Mantra Organic, Pro Nature Organics, Phalada Organics, Mrittika Agro from Dakshina Kannada, Satwik Organics from Gadag and the Bengaluru-based Pristine Organics, sell their products via their own websites.
While Sanjeev Chadha, executive director, NAFED, confirmed to F&B News that it had got in-principle approval in this regard and that e-talks with the e-commerce sites have commenced, he added that the key objective was to market the organic products at inexpensive rates.
The manufacturers of organic food products levy exorbitant process, stating that their cultivation of the produce is an expensive proposition. Here, NAFED, in order to bring in the affordability factor, has devised a strategy to sell reasonable organic food products through e-commerce sites.
Chipping in his expertise on organic food products was K C Raghu, founder and chief executive officer, Pristine Organics. He said, “The certification process needs to be smoothened as a real facilitator towards ecological farming without the very process strangulating the system. As of now, the regulatory system is antithetical to ease of doing organic farming.”
“It goes without saying that India, being a country with a land holding of 1.1 hectare per family and getting further fragmented, is an ideal situation for conservation agriculture, keeping biodiversity alive in a sustainable manner. The Government of India has considered, under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), about 50 million hectare out of the cropped area of 200 million hectare, to have the potential for converting into organic and intends to give a subsidy of Rs 48,700 per hectare for three years. As it is known, the local seed biodiversity today rests with one per cent of the small farmers in the world,” said Raghu.
While Sikkim has been declared a fully-organic state and considerable importance is also being extended by the governments of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh to encourage organic farm practices, Karnataka too has a slew of achievements in this space. It was the first to unveil an Organic Policy in 2004. It was revised in 2017, besides being ranked fifth in the country in terms of area and production under fully organic certification.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|