In January it was announced that the state of Sikkim in India had
transitioned completely to organic agriculture — the first state in the South Asian nation to do so.
The process of shifting to organic agriculture was initiated by the state government 13 years ago when it launched the Sikkim Organic Mission. Sikkim had a leg up in this regard, given that farmers in this difficult terrain were already pursuing traditional farming with minimal use of chemical fertilizers and the fact that the state has far less cultivable land — about 76,000 acres — compared to other agricultural states in India. Taking the required measures to get certified as organic farmers was a logical step for Sikkim’s farmers, state officials say.
However, many agricultural experts say that a lot more needs to be done before agricultural practices in this mountain state can be held up as a role model for the rest of India where rampant use of pesticides and fertilizers has become a serious issue. While Sikkim deserves to be commended for deciding to go organic, the effort hasn’t paid much attention to the production side of things, says G. V. Ramanjaneyulu, agricultural scientist with the Hyderabad-based Centre for Sustainable Agriculture.
Vegetables and fruits, which generally have very short shelf lives, make up a large part of the produce in Sikkim. But the mountainous state is poorly connected to the rest of India. It doesn’t have an airport or railway line and the roads linking the state to the nearest trade hub — Siliguri in neighboring West Bengal — are poorly maintained and prone to landslides. Roads and highways within the state too, often get washed out during the rainy season rendering many remote areas inaccessible for days.
“It is very difficult to deal in fresh produce, especially when we are landlocked and have no rail or airport connectivity,” says Renzino Lepcha, chief operating officer of Mevedir, an agriculture company that provides services to Sikkim farmers through Sikkim Organic Mission. “The risk factor [for farmers] is quite high as there are no proper [storage] facilities. There is no cold [store] chain, no refrigerated vans, no processing unit, no food park, no packaging material (everything comes from outside the state),” he says.
All these factors make transportation of produce very expensive and many small scale farms have a hard time covering their costs and finding a fair price for their produce.
