Agriculture is still a major livelihood option for majority of population especially in developing counties. While addressing the global food demand, it should also be sustainable in nature in the sense that it should not directly or indirectly cause to depletion of natural resources and the ecosystem in general. Conventional farming is often based on excessive and unscientific use of chemical fertilizer, pesticide and insecticides. It is argued that conventional farming contributes to climate change, depleting fresh water resources, degrading soil fertility and polluting the environment. From this angle, organic farming is suggested as an alternative to conventional farming since its principles and philosophy are entirely different and it has an edge over conventional farming on various grounds. Considering the fact that organic agriculture covers only a small percentage of the net sworn area especially in the case of developing countries like India, whether organic agriculture is a better option to follow, is a pertinent question. In this context, this paper attempts to examine some of the major relevant literature (from year 2000 to 2021) on various aspects of organic farming like definition, principles, and proposed benefits (environmental, economic and social), present status in India, and its prospects.
Agriculture is the major source of livelihood and is under the big threat of liberalization and modernization. Organic farming is eco-friendly, promotes sustainable development, protects the fertility of the soil and ensures long term crop income to the farmer. In 2018, total area under organic certification process is 3.56 million hectare and produced around 1.70 million MT of certified organic products. In Kerala, the total area under organic farming stands at 15790.49 hectare. Organic farmers fail to capture the market for selling their products and have less capacity in the competing world, leads to worse financial situation of farmers. The total volume of export during 2017-18 was 4.58 lakh MT. Fair trade has flourished as an initiative for lifting poor organic farmers by providing higher price, credit and improved community life. It is also a market for high value products in the global trade policies. Fair Trade Alliance Kerala (FTAK) is a small farmers’ organisation to access global market on fair trade in an equitable trading terms and improved income. The system provides better price to products compared to open market and benefited fair trade exporting. This paper by studying FTAK focused the impacts of it on income and highlights the increased production of organic crops, better prices, premium and schemes to farmers. The study revealed that fair trade farmers earned higher price (20 to 50 percent) for commodities and marketing of products to foreign countries without intermediaries and organic farming is a better option for increasing farmer’s income in India. Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 44(3): 401-408, September 2019
The statistical profile of Kerala agriculture since 1960, clearly established the decrease in the area under paddy cultivation in the state. Time series analysis of acreage, production and productivity data of rice in Kerala during the five decades from 1960-61 to 2009-10 revealed the performance of this crop in terms of growth of area, production and productivity. The production of major food crop, rice, reached negative growth rates due to the declining trend of their area. The diversification of crops in terms of variation in acreage allocation has taken place due to price and non-price factors like agro-climatic conditions, labour availability, irrigation facilities, soil fertility, cost of cultivation, price levels, profitability, mechanisation etc. The change has taken place largely in favour of non-food crops and recently it is towards rubber. The real growth of agricultural crop output has declined continuously since 1960-61 compared to monetary growth, i. e, the growth in the value of agricultural crop output. Food security, particularly rice security is the vital issue for Kerala today. The data reveals that during 1960-61 Kerala had a shortage of rice of about 40.12 percent, which increased to 83.45 percent in 2009-10. The study clearly revealed the increasing demand for rice in Kerala in the coming years compared to the existing supply. This will enlarge the supply demand gap of rice in Kerala in the future years indicating a threat to food security bringing out a need for further increase in rice production in a sustainable way.Keywords: Kerala, Paddy cultivation, Growth trend, Overall growth, Determinants.
Financial inclusion is delivery of banking services at a cheaper cost to the vast sections of under privileged and low income groups. An inclusive financial system can help in reducing the growth of informal sources of credit such as money lenders, which are often found to be exploitative. The performance of the Indian economy is one of the strongest drivers for the banking industry's growth and vice versa. This represents a massive opening that financial institutions in the country can leverage upon for future growth.
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