Organic farming to generate Rs 11K Cr wealth in JK: Assocham

JAMMU: Promotion of organic farming can lead to wealth accumulation worth over Rs 10,600 crore and generate exports worth Rs 600 crore in Jammu and Kashmir in next five years, Assocham said today.

"Promotion of organic farming can lead to wealth accumulation worth over Rs 10,600 crore and generate exports worth Rs 600 crore in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) state economy during the course of next five years", Assocham Secretary General (National) D S Rawat told reporters here today.

Besides, organic farming also has the potential to generate over 80 lakh jobs in J&K during the aforesaid period comprising of over 60 lakh jobs in the state apart from additional about 20 lakh jobs in on-farm storing, processing, value addition, packaging and marketing facilities are included, he said.

He further said that considering organic farms provide over 30 per cent more jobs per hectare as against non-organic farms.

This is reflected from a study titled 'Organic Jammu and Kashmir: Avenues of Job Creation & Capital Formation' released by Assocham.

"Adoption of organic farming can increase net per capita income of a farmer in the state by a whopping 250 per cent to over Rs 17,625 in next five years from a meagre Rs 7,050 currently," Rawat said.

"This will also arrest migration of people from J&K to other states in search of jobs," said Rawat.

Of the total organically certified area of 1.7 lakh hectares (ha) across the country, Odisha has the maximum area of over 26,300 ha followed by Jammu and Kashmir (22,316 ha) and Rajasthan (22,105 ha), he added.