Ministry of
Commerce has implemented the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP)
since 2001. The objectives of NPOP are as under:
1)
To provide the means of evaluation of certification programme for
organic agriculture and products (including wild harvest, aquaculture,
livestock products) as per the approved criteria.
2)
To accredit certification programmes of Certification Bodies seeking
accreditation.
3)
To facilitate certification of organic products in conformity with the
prescribed standards.
4)
To facilitate certification of organic products in conformity with the
importing countries organic standards as per equivalence agreement between the
two countries or as per importing country requirements.
5)
To encourage the development of organic farming and organic processing.
The standards of Organic Crop
Production have been described in Appendix 1 of Chapter 3 of NPOP document The
production standards include crop production plan, conversion requirement,
nutrient management, disease management etc for agricultural crops. There are
no separate prescribed production standards for pulses.
The organic pulses certified under NPOP are being cultivated
in the States of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Andhra
Pradesh/Telengana, Gujarat, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana,
H.P, Odisha and Punjab.
The certified production of
organic pulses under NPOP, including in conversion, for the last three years is
as under:
|
Year
|
Production in
MT
|
|
2013-14
|
39444.96
|
|
2014-15
|
34717.45
|
|
2015-16
|
39248.63
|
Source: APEDA
Any agricultural product
certified as organic under NPOP has to be certified by an accredited
certification body under NPOP for exports. As per the
inspection and certification procedures as prescribed under chapter 4 clause
4.3 of the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) Document, the
Certification Bodies accredited under NPOP conduct inspection before certifying
the operators as organic. After inspection and compliance to the
requirement by the certified operators, certification decision is taken by the
Certification Body and Scope Certificate is issued having a validity of
one year.
Organic products are traded only through issuance of
Transaction Certificates (TCs) wherein the product identity and traceability is
maintained. The TCs are also issued only by the accredited Certification
Bodies. All the handlers of the product in the supply chain are required to be
in the certification system under NPOP and need to obtain TC whenever the
product is traded.
As prescribed under NPOP Chapter 4, clause 4.3.1.4 under
Analysis and Residue Testing, the testing is to be carried out in ISO 17025
accredited and preferably APEDA approved laboratories. The list of APEDA
approved laboratories is at Annexure-I
This information was
given by the Commerce and Industry Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman in a
written reply in Rajya Sabha today
********
MJPS