Organic Agriculture Bill becomes Act in Uttarakhand
The Governor of Uttarakhand has approved the Organic Agriculture Bill-2019 passed in the winter session of the assembly. With the enactment of this bill, Uttarakhand has now become the first state in the country to bring an organic act. Although Sikkim is the first biological state, steps were taken under ‘Agriculture, Horticulture Input and Livestock Feed Regulatory Act-2014’. In this context, for the first time in any state, the Pure Organic Agriculture Act has been introduced.
Through the Organic Agriculture Act, the government has now taken an initiative towards making the state officially an organic state. Although currently 10 development blocks of the state are organic, but now this act has been brought in view of making the entire state organic. Under the Act, private agencies, NGOs, traders engaged in export, trade and processing of organic agricultural products will be regulated. There will be free registration of buyer entities. Also, sale of chemical fertilizers will be regulated. The Act provides for penalties on the sale of banned substances, which can carry a fine of up to one lakh and a sentence of up to one year.
With the Act coming to the surface, the certification process will now be simpler, which will be helpful in organic certification of agricultural products. Also, the availability of bio-inputs to the organic production system will be convenient. Not only this, the ‘organic Uttarakhand’ brand will also get encouragement.
All the government and private sector nurseries in the state have been brought under the Uttarakhand Fruit Nursery (Regulation) Act i.e. Nursery Act. The Bill related to this passed in the Winter Session has been approved by Raj Bhavan. The act has fixed accountability of everyone from nursery owners to personnel at all levels. It is also the provision that if the quality of the fruit and seedlings provided to the farmer from a nursery turns out to be poor, the nursery owner will have to pay the fine as well as the they could be behind bars. Standards for the promotion of nurseries have been simplified.
