Need for tax holiday to organic food companies: Vinay Kumar

Jotirmay Thapliyal 

Tribune News Service        

Dehradun, May 1

Vinay Kumar, Managing Director of the Uttarakhand Organic Commodity Board (UOCB), is a man with a mission. Young and dynamic, Vinay Kumar is making all efforts to ensure that Uttarakhand fast achieves its goal of becoming an organic state. In an interview with The Tribune, he talks about his plans for the state with regard to organic farming.

Sikkim has the number one status in the country among organic states. Do you think Uttarakhand too can reach that level?

Yes, certainly, it can. Uttarakhand will become the number one state in organic farming, overtaking Sikkim that leads the table among the organic states in the country. By the end of the current financial year, we expect to overtake Sikkim on the organic farming front. Even Sikkim has time and again sought our advice on organic farming and our experts have been frequently visiting that state.

What efforts have been made to ensure that organic produce of farmers gets a market? It is generally seen that farmers leave organic farming in absence of markets, as they fail to get the right price for their produce. 

We have specially set up weekly and biweekly organic haats for vegetables and other produce. This helps farmers get a good price for their organic produce. These haats are also beneficial for consumers as they easily get organic fruits and vegetables.

What other initiatives are required to promote organic farming in the state?

I believe various initiatives are required to promote organic farming. Farmers need to be provided subsidy on organic manure and pesticides. Besides, we need to provide incentives to organic farmers as being given to other farmers involved in conventional agriculture. There is also need to provide 100 per cent tax holiday for 10 years to organic products companies to indirectly promote organic farming.

Don’t you think that a lot more is still to be done to make people aware about the importance of consuming health-friendly organic produce?

Yes, consumer awareness programmes on the lines of the polio awareness movement or election campaigns must be launched. A lot needs to be done on the consumer awareness front. Though a section of society now knows about organic farming, awareness still needs to be spread at a mass scale.

Like in conventional agriculture, don’t you think that a minimum support price should also be declared for organic crops?

Of course, the state government should declare a minimum support price for major commercial organic crops. This is important to give farmers the much required support.

People in hills are abandoning agriculture as they get a meagre price for their produce. Can organic farming be a solution to it?

Organic farming can certainly be a means to rejuvenate hill agriculture. There has been a tradition in the hills to use cow dung as manure. The people in the hills have been traditionally using indigenous methods of agriculture, which has kept them away from using chemical fertilisers. This advantage can be used to promote organic farming in hills.