India is the place for large-scale organic production, says Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal
Agrawal also said that India’s exports of organic products have increased threefold in the last 10 years and the government now aims to triple these exports again in the next five years.
“India is the place” to serve the world as a good organic food basket, he said, adding that India has 150.3 million hectares of agricultural land under cultivation.
He said that the organic ecosystem is growing very rapidly in the country and today 3 percent of agriculture in India is organic.
He said that organic agriculture is practiced on 4.7 million hectares of land in India, 2.4 million farmers practice it and this is increasing day by day.
The Secretary was speaking at the launch of Biofach 2026. Nearly 100 exhibitors from 20 Indian states, including Assam, Meghalaya and Kerala, are here to showcase organic food products at the world’s leading trade fair Biofach (February 10-13).
He stated that India has emerged as a reliable supplier of organic food both within and outside India. “I see this happening at a much faster pace. So if the world needs government for organic production, I think this is the place to be, and we love working with all of you to see how we can develop India’s organic food ecosystem to serve both the growing demand for food in India and the growing demand in two of our largest markets,” he said.
He called for creating credibility around organic foods. There is a need to ensure trust and reliability in the certification of these products.
India started with the national program for organic production in 2001, which was designed to adopt international standards of organic products.
“And now we are introducing cooperatives in a big way,” he said, adding that cooperatives can create a good, viable organic ecosystem in various villages of the country by bringing farmers together and bringing them together.
