An Overview Of Our Solution
India with its diverse climatic landscape, agriculture is effectively managed by multi-cultural and social bounties. The lands are very small holdings and many of them continued to practice natural and organic agriculture till the early 1970s. 80% of the food produced in India are by small and marginal growers and most find it difficult to access markets directly and issues pertaining to certification. Some of the solutions to this would include organic certification and providing access to local markets. The Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) as an alternative, was introduced to India with the help of the FAO and IFOAM. As a result the PGS-Organic Council was formed in India with 13 NGOs/VOs working in various states. The PGSOC has been working with more than 7000 farmers since on certification, organic agriculture and market access.
Who is this solution impacting?
Community Type
Rural
Additional Information
- Population Impacted:
- Continent: Asia
General Information
Organization type
Nonprofit
Ecosystem (select all that apply)
Forests
Population impacted
~6,240
Challenge
Size of agricultural area
~6,600 ha
Production quantity
~4,000 tonnes
People employed
~150
Solution
Describe your solution
In 2004, through the initiatives of the IFOAM and MAELA many of these groups from around the world came together to discuss and share their experiences. They are now collectively known as the Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS). In India in 2006, many civil society organizations like Organic Farming Association of India, Keystone Foundation, Institute of Integrated Rural Development and Timbaktu collective along with the Ministry of Agriculture-India and FAO, jointly initiated the PGS with support from IFOAM. The PGS is a system of quality assurance that are directly managed and controlled by organic producers.
PGS complements the organic movement as it is set up and managed by the very farmers and consumers that it serves. Importantly, there is no universal model of PGS. Each variant is adapted and specific to the individual communities, geographies, politics and markets of their origin. The entire process of certification under PGS is very simple on the basis of personal trust and highly operates/controls on group dynamics. The peer review is done by the same community member which in turn places more responsibility among each other and can be complimented with the support of traders and customers. The documentation process can be in various forms like written document, photographs, and videos of the meetings, maps or other media in the local language. This helped to overcome barriers like illiteracy, weaker tribal groups, and regional differences.
Implementation
Describe your implementation
Initially, begun as an informal association of committed organizations, today the PGS Organic Council (PGSOC) is a registered body with an established system in place to help producers to certify their produce. The structure is based primarily on farm appraisal by local peer farmers with support, if required from NGOs.
The PGSOC presently operates with the support and commitment of all the members. However, it may not be possible to continue within this support framework for too long since the needs of expanding the network through workshops with farmers in different parts of the country. There are increasing demands to provide information, trainings, build capacities of existing groups and also importantly, to look at the market side,to work with the consumers to make them aware of such a system and to build their faith in such systems which work at the community level. It is only when customers also start asking and demanding such a system of guarantee and whether certification systems are backed by the government. By the government accepting that PGS systems indeed play a role in building the national organic markets, it gives an added impetus to local groups to look at their own local markets.
This is still an evolving system and based on the needs of groups and organizations, further criteria are being established. Recently, there have been steps to look at PGS Wild as well. In 2006, pilot projects began and the systems were gradually developed to take into account local contexts. It was crucial that the systems of quality assurance were directly managed and controlled by organic producers. There are over 5000 farmers (~617 groups) with an additional ~1465 farmers (~220 groups) in the transition phase across 12 states and the PGSOC helps to create and maintain a simple and transparent system that is being recognized worldwide through the support of 13 facilitation council groups.
External connections
PGS, over the years, has found recognition at the governmental and supra-governmental levels. In India, the Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India with farmers and NGOs, initiated a process to find similar avenues for Indian farmers called Participatory Guarantee System for India (Decentralized Organic Farming Certification System) promoted by the Department of Agriculture & Cooperation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India (http://pgsindia-ncof.gov.in/).
Recently the Department of Agriculture Cooperation & Farmers Welfare- Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare inaugurated India’s first PGS Organic Shop at the Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi. This was was done with the support of the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP; http://www.apeda.gov.in/apedawebsite/organic/index.htm) of the Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India. The NPOP has been assisting with markets for PGS.
Results
What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?
The Indian subcontinent is an agrarian country with 15 different agro climatic regions where agriculture is effectively managed by multi-cultural and social bounties. The lands are traditionally divided to familial heirs which make many of them into very small holdings and many of them continued to practice natural and organic agriculture till the early 1970s. 80% of the food produced in India are by small and marginal growers and most find it difficult to access markets directly. It is imperative that the food produced by them is consumed at the household level thereby addressing the issues of food security, health and nutrition. Some of the solutions to this would include organic certification and providing access to local markets, as it would provide control of land and seeds to the farmers. Over the past few decades, organic certification has remained a costly business, keeping almost all small and marginal farmers and tribal communities outside its concerns.
Describe the context in which you are operating
The situation at hand is that the small and marginal farmers operate in rain fed, semi-arid and drought conditions from across the plains to mountain slopes. However, to these small and marginal farmers organic farming is a way of life. It ensures that our agricultural resources including lands are kept productive for the use of future generations. Various methods of organic farming are in use across different eco-regions. Interest in organically grown products has increased exponentially in the last decade. Market share of such produce is still considerably low as organic farmers, especially those from the small and marginal groups, face a variety of obstacles, one of them being certification of their produce as organic. Not only do they have to compete with market forces, but they have to ensure that their product is sold at competitive prices and also brings sufficient net income. In recent times in India, with growing consumer concern over pesticide residues, there is a need to support and encourage organic production of food. In addition to this third party certification has its own nuances, the costs in relation to the volume of produce of each small farmer as well the poor understanding of biodiversity along with insufficient space for cultural aspects and diverse indigenous methods were not taken in to account in the third party systems and hence became necessary to provide an alternative.
How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?
The NGOs/CSOs in the PGSOC believes in organic perspectives where it is not limited to agriculture but it addresses from a more holistic perspective where issues of access to land, assurance of food security, soil fertility, moisture conservation, stake in the resources, which are practiced by the communities, are all addressed. The peer review/inspection is understood in a positive sense where group members engage with individual farmers on how to improve organic practices which gives him or her space for participation.
Along with the promotion of PGS two sets of farming practices were sustained among farmers according to the landscape - traditional food farming with mixed millet and bio-diverse coffee farming amongst tribal farmers in the mountainous regions. Emphasis and training on bio-inputs were also imparted to the farmers. Similar results can be observed in the drought prone areas of Maharashtra and dry land of Andhra Pradesh where CSOs have made the difference through promotion of PGS/organic cultivation among small and marginal farmers thereby increasing the productivity of these arid landscapes.
Language(s)
Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Marati, Kannada, and tribal languages - Irula, Kurumba etc
Water
A majority of the farmers in the PGS grow crops that are rain-fed and non-intensive water usage as the farms are located in arid dry land and rain shadow regions. The need for intensive irrigation systems is mostly non-existent.
Food Security/Nutrition
The bio-diverse cropping system promoted through the PGS does provide adequate food security and nutrition supplements through cultivation of millets and other traditional crops.
Economic/Sustainable Development
The PGS provides credible guarantee by including both farmers and consumers in the certification process, and maintaining transparency at all times. The less paperwork helps address groups with low literacy rates and low cost through direct involvement of farmers (and consumers) and hence reducing the economic burden on the farmers. Given this more emphasis could be given to farming practices, accessing markets etc.
Climate
The traditional farming systems, with native seeds and crops in the landscapes where PGS is promoted are climate resilient.
Sustainability
The NGOs and CSOs who are part of the PGSOC have integrated the PGS activities into their ongoing projects pertaining to promotion of organic agriculture and funding was not sought for PGS alone. The objective of PGS is also to facilitate a market-based revenue system for the small and marginal farmers and the facilitating councils of the PGSOC will enable this. However, the Deutsche Welthungerhilfe had extended its support to the PGSOC initially and is supporting the training programmes of the PGSOC currently.
The NGOs and CSOs who are a part of the PGSOC- India as facilitating councils are being registered with the PGS-India network and would aid in tapping into government schemes as well.
Return on investment
The investment in the PGS process is restricted to the staff dedicated to the facilitation activities within each NGO/CSO that are part of the PGSOC as facilitating council. The expenses incurred such as staff salaries, trainings, maintenance of records; issue of certificates (digitally) are absorbed into the activities of the facilitating council.
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Replication and Scale
How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?
Over the last few years, new groups in the states North East India through the North East Slow Food & Agrobiodiversity Society (NESFAS), Uttarakhand and Tamil Nadu are constantly looking for support. Many of these groups are genuinely looking at working with producer groups and to link with local markets. They are not working with large volumes and hence the link to local markets (in contrast to export) seems a very practical and implementable solution. Presently, the PGS documents are available in 9 Indian languages and efforts are being made in neighbouring countries of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Bhutan, to move the process forward. Meetings have been held and exchange visits made to familiarize farmers and groups to PGS systems are being followed.