KOCHI: As people are becoming more health conscious during the pandemic, organic farming is getting more takers these days. Be it on a rooftop or rented paddy fields, many have widely accepted the self-sustainable farming methods since 2020.Tapping into this growth potential, Ernakulam will soon have a dedicated cooperative society for promoting organic farming practices in the district.
Ensuring the survival of organic farmers, the venture has larger plans with the backing of the state government’s ‘Subhiksha Keralam’ initiative.“We started off as a collective in 2016. The cooperative society, Ernakulam District Organic Farming Co-Operative Society, will act as a statutory body to popularise organic farming and provide better marketing space for the farmers to keep them in the field in the long run,” said M M Abbas, a director board member of the society.
The society will also help farmers come up with value-added products. “A farmer can join the society by paying a nominal fee of `100. Along with fundraising initiatives, we will get government-level financial support to create value-added products. They will be marketed across the world. We will also source organic crops from other parts of the state and open up marketing avenues for everyone,” he said. As part of the promotion of organic farming, the society is planning to partner with supermarket chains.
“We are planning to brand our produces as ‘ethnic/indigenous’ and use the geographical indication (GI) and promote them in West Asian countries,” said Abbas. The society plans to help organic farmers with advanced support prices. “Calculating the average revenue of a year from a single product, society is planning to aid farmers with advance payment,” he added.
PERMANENT OUTLET
Ernakulam District Organic Farming Co-operative Society will be launched at
the Abhimanyu Memorial building in Kaloor on August 15. It will organise an ‘Onachantha’ from August 15 to 20. Industries Minister P Rajeeve will inaugurate the event.