Environmental policy and administrative management

"Organic agriculture is a holistic production management system which promotes and enhances agro-ecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity. It emphasizes the use of management practices in preference to the use of off-farm inputs. This is accomplished by using, where possible, agronomic, biological, and mechanical methods, as opposed to using synthetic materials, to fulfill any specific function within the system." - Definition proposed for adoption by FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission. Low input organic farming produced equivalent yields, with low CO2 emission, uses about 50% less energy than conventional farming, improves soil fertility, and provides more habitats for wild plant and animal species (Miller, G, Living in the Environment). It is generally more profitable for the farmer than high input farming. Organic farming could help in slow global warming. A report by FAO estimates that Organic Agriculture reduces CO2 emission by 48-66% compared with conventional agriculture using pesticides and chemical fertilizers (FAO, 2002). Hence, Organic Farming can be considered that it offers not only services that are sustainable but also friendly to all living organisms share the same planet. Despite claims products are certified based on the results of inspector s report evaluated against certification parameters. On the basis of cropping history and the uses of external inputs over time farms or villages can be described as i) organic farm, village, ii) farm or village under conversation and iii) agriculture products that are cultivated under these farms. There are certain norms by which farms are converted into organic farms. For all these to evaluate internal control system should be developed that bound all parties to adopt certain norms and procedures. The certification of the land into organic mode made more farmers to get attracted into this practice as farmers will be benefited with larger sum of money nationally and internationally. The conversion of conventional land into organic land means, the land is providing a sufficient ground to absorb CO2 which is the major green house gas. The massive use of fertilizer following conventional mode of farming make the soil dead, decrease the humus content, water holding capacity of soil, oxygen contain and also cause the water pollution that result in the eutrophication in the near lake and stream and also release greenhouse gases such as N2O and enhance the global warming. GEF-SGP has been supported The Organic Village (TOV) to implement TOV project to produce and market the organic agro-products. The extensive field visit during the TOV project made us felt that Nepal still occupies large area of land uncultivated and the area of about 30, 0000 ha went barren during the insurgency period. Such barren land has already been converted to organic cropping suitable land, as no chemicals and pesticides were used. Besides, the activation of natural pest and manure generated naturally could have made such land highly arable. So it is deemed necessary to promote organic farming on such left over land. However, further gaps have been found at three levels. Firstly, maintaining the product uniformity at producers level is difficult task without having a standard organic agriculture production guidelines and internal control system (ICS) plan. There is an urgent need to create mechanisms that harness the growing market for organic products. Secondly, marketing organic products internationally need certification from authorised party which has yet to be materialised. Until and unless there are locally established bodies that have accreditation with international certifying bodies TOV decided to contract with ECO-CERT for certification of the TOV products. The international certification company, ECO-CERTS has made agreements with several parties and therefore would have greater scope for international marketing. Thirdly, stakeholders involved in organic agriculture production are diverse due to their accreditation with different certification authorities which resulted weak co-ordination and linkages to develop own national standard. There is an urgent need to create a common forum which can jointly work together for sharing experiences, building national standards and lobbying to influence policy. On other hand, the Tenth Plan of Nepal government has given emphasis on organic production and certification mechanisms. Therefore, this is a national demand and project will contribute to achieve this goal. The general objective of this project is to develop organic certification standard (OCS) for a geographic area, farm and agriculture products cultivated under certain scales in accordance with the guidelines endorsed by the Government of Nepal and international certification agencies

Nepal