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Organic Foods: Benefits and Market Demand

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Volume -1, Issue-4 (October-December), 2013 Organic
Available online at www.popularkheti.info Farming
2013 popularkheti.info
ISSN:2321-0001 1(4) 2013
Organic Foods
Foods: Benefits and Market Demand
Vishal Singh*
1
Singh*, 2Gurupreet Singh and 3Deepak Kumar Verma
1*
Production Department, Sukhbir Agro Energy Limited, Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India
2Department of Process and Food Engineering, College of Technology, G.B.P. University of

Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar (Uttarakhand)-263145, India.

3Food Process Engineering, Agricultural and Food Engineering Department, Indian Institute of

Technology, Kharagpur, (West-Bengal)-721302, India.

Email of corresponding
* corresponding author:
author: vishalsinghiitkgp87@gmail.com

Organic method of agriculture is used to produce high quality products (Fruits,

vegetables and other food materials) without any bad effect on soil nutrient and
ecosystem. This method has been popularized very rapidly and covered 20 to 30% of
total agricultural land of India due to high demand of organic agricultural product
(fruits, vegetables, cereals, pulses and other food materials). Organic products have a
total global market was up to 59.1 billion US dollar in 2010. Total area of organic
agriculture increases and occupied 4.43 million hectare of land in India. Export market
of organic food has been reported up to Rs 700 crores. In future, organic agriculture
has vast scope because research and statistical data has been indicated that 250 million
tons of vegetables will be required to fulfill the per capita demand. It is better method
of agriculture than chemical based agriculture because it retains the health of soil as
well as environment and also producing qualitative agricultural produces.

Introduction
Organic farming for different crops expanded rapidly and practices in the case of fruits and
vegetables also has been started in 1990s. In some areas like Washington, (USA), organic fruits
have a largest sector of organic farming because of good and other chemical free fruits have a
good market value (Granatstein et al., 2002).
Day by day increase in population and reduction in per capita cultivable land creating a
new challenges regarding availability of per capita agricultural produces. For fulfilling the
consumption demand of agricultural produces, productivity of the agriculture land should be
improved by using organic farming because of organic manures and fertilizers are responsible for
enrichment of soil productivity without any harmful impact on atmosphere. After the green
revolution agricultural production has been increased by using high amount of chemical

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fertilizers, pesticide etc. which cause the loss in soil productivity, product quality and
environment pollution. With increasing the awareness regarding health the demand of
qualitative and healthy agricultural products increased rapidly that is why different new method
of agricultural farming has been emerged like organic farming, natural farming, biodynamic
agriculture, do-nothing agriculture, eco-farming, etc. organic farming can retain the soil health
after cultivation because this method of farming working on the principle of back to nature
whatever the taken (Funtilana, 1990). For enhancing the qualitative productivity, maintaining
the soil health needs organic farming practices which have no bad effect on environment also
(Maity et al., 2004). Organic mean of agriculture is a method used to carry out a healthy relation
among soil characteristics, products quality and environmental aspects. In last two decades
peoples are seriously considering the environmental and health aspect that is why the demand of
organic agricultural produces increasing day by day which promotes the organic farming rapidly
in rural areas (Yadav et al., 2010).Organic farming is defined by different scientist like stated that
it is the method of farming in which crop residual, cow dung, tree leaves, food wastages and
other organic materials has been used as fertilizer for maintaining the soil health, crops health
without affecting the natural ecosystem and avoid the application of chemical and synthetic
fertilizers (Lampkin, 1990). Organic farming is preferred method because in this method soil
regain the nutrient whatever the crops have extracted from the soil and always maintain the
relationship among soil nutrients, water, agricultural product quality and environment
(Funtilana,1990).

Organic Farming in India

Organic Agriculture has been become popular and expanded gradually in India because of
following reasons.
1. In Indian scenario organic manures (like cow dung, tree leaves and plants, human and
animal wastes) are easily available in rural areas that is why agriculture based on organic
manures has been more habitats other than agriculture based on high investment
fertilizers (like Chemical fertilizers).
2. Continuous application of chemical fertilizers depleted the soil as well as product quality
due to which Indian farmers has been emphasized on organic agriculture.
3. Indian agriculture market was improved and commercialization based farming has been
started by which agricultural market became more competitive and qualitative that is why
the organic based product have more customer due to its freshness, nutrition value and

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microorganism free characteristics. So the organic agriculture expanded gradually (Yadav

et al., 2010).

Characteristics
Characteristics of Organic Farming
Organic farming has been emerged as a beneficial and efficient technique of obtaining qualitative
and healthy food produces that is why it also acts as eco-friendly farming system. This method
has some beneficial features discussed below (Maity et al., 2004).
1. Retains the soil fertility by supplying the sufficient organic manures.
2. Organic farming prevents the weed, disease and pest effect of crop production.
3. Necessary organic nutrients supplied to the crops.
4. Farming system has no bad impact on environment and conserves the natural habitants
(Padel and Lampkin, 1994).

Classification of Organic Farming

Organic farming has been classified in three categories for reducing the inorganic system
1. Pure Organic Farming: In this method application of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides has
been completely replaced by organic fertilizers and bio-pesticides.
2. Integrated Green Revolution Farming: Defined as a method in which production yield has
been increasing by application of hybrid varieties of seeds, sufficient irrigation, mechanized
field operation and skilled labor involvement and consider the minimum damage to the
environment and human health. Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) and Integrated Pest
Management (IPM) both are coming under this farming.
3. Integrated Farming System: Farming is totally depend upon the local and natural resources
like recycling of agricultural wastes, tree leaves, crop residues, food wastes etc. for improving
the quality of produces without depleting the ecosystem (Maity et al., 2004).

Issues and Strategies of Organic Fruits and Vegetable Farming in India

Organic farming considered as a good practice and used for producing the high quantity of food
with reliable nutritional value. Production of high quality of organic vegetables depends upon
the minimal use of chemical fertilizers. Main aim of organic farming practices to increase the
availability of healthy organic vegetables. Some strategies have been followed for obtaining the
required production for fulfilling the global demand.
1. Organic farming of vegetables should follow a pattern based on scientific research which
should be based on long term evaluation of all organic input substance.

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2. Research oriented production technology which can be easily adopted by the local
agricultural producer (marginal or semi marginal) should be essential for enhancing the food
production.
3. Advance technique should be practiced for recommending the fertilizers amount and time
period after which fertilizers should be applied in the agriculture field. Research also should
be emphasized on the advance packaging of organic vegetables which can maintain the
freshness of the vegetable up to long time.
4. Researchers stated that Organic foods are better in terms of health and safety than the
inorganic foods but in the lack of intensive study and research about nutritional and taste
characteristics has not been described properly. So the intensive focus on the study of
nutritional properties and sensory characteristics of organic food is required (Yadav et al.,
2010).

Organic Knowledge Attitudes towards organic foods

Healthy life and balance Intention to purchase the organic foods

diet

Environmental attitudes

Feasibility of Organic Farming of Fruits and Vegetable

Vegetable Crops in India
On the basis of eco-friendly farming, retains the soil nutrient, product quality and nutrient
content, organic farming is a one of the most favorable farming method but complete adoption of
organic farming for vegetables have some difficulties in Indian scenario which has been discussed
as follows:
1. Organic farming is a farming which required very intensive application of knowledge so it is
not a so easily applicable anywhere.
2. Sufficient information related to procedure of organic farming, applied quantity of organic
manures, composition of different organic manures has not been available.
3. Initially production in organic farming is less than chemical farming up to few years due to
replacement of chemical fertilizers to organic fertilizers. Production of organic manures are

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time consuming as well as handling and processing of organic manures also has been
complicated.
4. Organic manures have less nutrient content that is why for fulfillment of crop nutrient
requirements high amount of organic manures have to supply. Because of organic manures
has been formed by decomposition of cow dung, farm wastes, food wastes, plant and tree
leaves which have different nutrient contents that is why it is become a difficult task to
examine the actual amount of organic content present into the manure (Yadav et al., 2010).

Organic Food: World Scenario and Market Trends

Annual market growth of global organic food has been expanded day by day and in 2010 the
annual growth was noticed 23%. Total market of organic food was observed up to 59.1 billion US
dollar.. Production and global market of organic fruits increases continuously in entire world.
Highest land acquired by organic apples is in the United States (17272 acres) in 2001. Among all
European countries, Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria are the leading countries in
the sector of organic fruits production. Different countries of the world like Canada, Britain,
New-Zealand, Turkey, Chile and Argentina have focused on the organic farming by aiming the
required demand of export market (Yadav et al, 2010).
Total land covered by organic agriculture has been noticed 33 million hectare worldwide
in which Africa and Asia continent occupy 45% and 20% of agricultural land under organic
farming. In all countries, Australia has highest organic agriculture land (12.2 million hectare)
followed by Argentina (2.8 million hectare). In all continents, Oceania has highest organic
agricultural land (37%) followed by Europe (24%) and Latin America (21%). World market of
organic agricultural produces has been expanding continuously and estimated 25 billion US dollar
in Europe and 20 billion US dollar in North America. The total market of organic food was
noticed 46.2 billion US dollar of the entire world in 2007 (Anonymous, 2013). Market of organic
food has been growing by 10% annually and estimated the global market price nearly 2.7 billion
euro which was 1.7% (in value) of the entire food market in 2008. Different organic foods
product have share like Fruits and vegetables 17%, dairy products 16%, bread and flour 13% and
processed food products 3% among all organic food products. In 2009, the organic agriculture had
shown a sharp rise by converting 36000 new producers which were 23% more in the comparison
of 2008 (Anonymous, 2013).

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35000 Organic food price, Milion US Dollar

30000
25000
Price in USD

20000
15000
10000
5000
0

Country Name
Organic food: Indian scenario and market
market trends
Total Organic Area 4.43 Million Hectare
Total certified production 1.71 Million tones
Total Export 69837 MT
Value of export INR 700 Crores.
*INR=Indian Rupees. MT= Metric tones. (Aivalli, 2013).
Crop wise organic production
production in India
Crop Production (MT), 2009-
2009-2010
Rice 17762
Wheat 113570
Pulses 53227
Tea/ Coffee 40614
Spices 168507
Fruits and Vegetables 889844
*MT=Metric tones, (Aivalli, 2013).
Sales and export of organic food in India
Product Domestic sales, MT Export, MT
Rice 5000 6877
Wheat& Flour 3000 -
Pulses 2500 -
Tea 1500 2928
Coffee 750 320
Spices 500 -
Fruits and Vegetables 5000 1639
*MT=Metric tones, (Aivalli, 2013).

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Importance of Organic Fruits and Vegetables

Demand of vegetables in the domestic and global market is very high because of rich nutrition
value (high amount of minerals, fiber, vitamins, carbohydrate and calcium). India has been
producing 11.4% vegetables of the total world production and placed at second larger producer of
vegetables (Rai and Pandey, 2005). According to research data, 250 million tones vegetables will
be required to fulfill the per capita need by 2020. Increasing the productivity is very necessary
because of agricultural land has been reducing with continuous growth of population. For
removing the feeding problem and getting healthy vegetables without exploiting the water
resources, environment and soil health, organic farming is the most sustainable and eco friendly
vegetable production method. The market of organic farming is spreading at the rate of 20%
instead of 5% in the case of conventional farming. For India, growing of organic vegetables has a
large scope in the sense of export market demand (Maity et al., 2004).

Promotion of Organic Farming in India

1. For improving the condition of organic agriculture, excellent technical approach with skilled
network between throughout the country is necessary for fully implementation of organic
farming in the entire country (Anonymous, 1998).
2. Entire necessary theoretical and practical aspects of organic farming should be proper
documented and at once modified if any new concept has been developed. For applying the
intensive concept of organic farming and its application, the syllabus of organic agriculture
should be introduced in course curriculum of college and institute level which helps in better
understanding and enriching the knowledge of organic methods of agriculture. Frequent
demonstration of organic methods and its application procedure should be organized by
Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Non-Government Organizations and other autonomous body (Maity et
al., 2004).

Future Scope of Organic Farming

Organic agriculture has highly expanded and strengthens future prospects because of quality
of organic produces are far better than chemical agriculture without any environmental, soil
losses. Research has been shown the organic farming continuously expanded throughout the
world and increasing 25-30% per year from last 10 years. Indian market of organic produces
has been grown with awareness of safety and quality of food. Organic agriculture is an
economical and reliable option of profitable livelihood that is why this method has a bright
scope in future (Yadav et al., 2010).

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Conclusion
Organic farming is based on the principle of maximum production with high quality without
affecting the soil fertility and environment. Due to the continuously increment in world
population, demand of organic vegetables has been increased. Implementation of scientific
approach, skilled labor input, use of high nutritive manures and sufficient irrigation has been
increased the efficiency of soil and product quality.. In present scenario market of organic food
has been expanding gradually with 25-30% which shown the huge prospective demand of
organic product in future and different countries have focused on export and earn maximum
profits. Application of organic agriculture has a very important role in the case of fruits and
vegetables production because of organic product has good quality and nutrition content.

References
References
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(http://www.jaivikindia.com/presentations/session-1/Girish-Aivalli.pdf). Access date: 30 Sept,
2013.
Anonymous 2013. Organic Agriculture: the return to nature. Access date: 01 Oct, 2013
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Anonymous. 1998. Organic Farming in India. Proc. Brain storming session on Organic Farming in
India. Sept.7-8, PDCSR (ICAR), Modipurm, Meerut, India.
Funtilana S. 1990. Safe, inexpensive, profitable, and sensible. International Agricultural
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