Sikkim will be the country’s first state to produce everything from maize and rice to orchid and ginger through organic farming, starting in January next year.
Prime minister Narendra Modi may declare Sikkim as an organic state in January after almost all agricultural land holdings are certified as free from chemicals, sources said. The state’s agriculture secretary Khorlo Bhutia confirmed that the prime minister has been requested to make the announcement.
There are 77,190 hectares of farmland in Sikkim where both agricultural and horticultural crops such as rice, maize, orchids, cardamom, ginger, mandarin are grown. Out of that, around 44,000 hectares are currently certified as organic while the remaining will get certified by December 31, Bhutia told Financial Chronicle.