Why demand for organic food is rising in India?
"It is vitally important that we can continue to say, with absolute conviction, that organic farming delivers the highest quality, best-tasting food, produced without artificial chemicals or genetic modification, and with respect for animal welfare and the environment, while helping to maintain the landscape and rural communities." - Prince Charles
Agricultural farming is the foremost way of producing food in an economy. With the growing number of population in any country, demand for food grains also increases. This again lead to the excessive use of chemicals and fertilizers to increase production in agricultural sector in multi-fold. Genetically modified vegetables and meat products that can be produced in abundance within a very short period of time may appear favourable for profit making farmers, but it has a harmful effect on health as well as the environment.
Health conscious citizens of modern era are now opting for better alternative to farm products that are chemical free and also nutritious. Keeping this need in mind, the organic food industry got its root into people's life.
In the past one decade trends in the demand for chemical free food products have been increasing significantly all over the world. In India too, the craze for organic farming is growing. India exported over 500 million dollars of organic food during the year 2017-18. The annual growth rate associated with the sector is around 17% every year. There are various reasons behind this sudden rise in the demand for organic food industry in the country. Here are a few of them:-
Governmental support for Organic Farming:-
The first and the foremost may be Governmental support through extending support and financial assistance to the farmers of the country in order to promote organic farming. The Government introduced various schemes like Parampargat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) under which organic farming is promoted through adoption of organic village by cluster approach and PGS certification. Other schemes include National Food Security Mission (NFSM), Mission for Sustainable Agriculture, etc. also added to the growth of such farming practice in India. Also the Government of India as implemented National programme for organic production (NPOP) which is held responsible for checking quality standards of organic products, promotion of organic farming etc.
Digital literacy and e-commerce development:-
With the rise in the use of digital medium to learn and the spread awareness of organic farming in the country. People can now come to know about the harmful effects of using synthetic chemical fertilizers in food grains production. Development of ecommerce sites made availability of organic food products online very easy. They can now be delivered at the doorsteps with just a few button pressing and calls. Earlier the demand for organic food was only limited to the bigger metros. But, nowadays, they are also penetrating the markets of the smaller cities and towns of the country.
Increase in health consciousness:-
Members of urban population, who grew fast food eating habit in their past, are now becoming more fitness conscious. People are now aware of the harmful effects of non-organic, processed food on their health. So they are ready to spend an additional sum of money over organic products and food.
Increase in disposable income:-
Rising awareness of healthy food apart from along with increase in disposable income before the demonetization had ensured that nearly 62% of households in the upper end segment prefer to have organic lifestyle products. It is expected that this trend may somehow continue even in the post COVID19 era.
There is a steady rise in the demand for Indian organic food in both local and global market.Due to India's favourable agro climatic conditions coupled with the inherited tradition of organic farming, the quality of organic food is also very high.
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