India: Sikkim's organic revolution under pressure

It is mid-morning, and Amrit Pradhan is repositioning the tomatoes on his market stall in Gangtok, capital of the Himalayan state of Sikkim in north-east India. “People always want the biggest, reddest fruit,” he says. “I try to tell them, the flavour is in the smaller ones, but they don’t want to know.”

Pradhan is one of 66,000 farmers from Sikkim who are part of a far-reaching experiment. Since last year, the state’s farmers have become 100% organic – their produce is free of chemical pesticides or genetic modification. It also means their fruit and vegetables are smaller, less colourful, and more expensive than the imported, non-organic produce from the city of Siliguri in the neighbouring state of West Bengal.

Pradhan, and his farmer’s co-operative in the village in Rhenok, in eastern Sikkim, went organic in 2007, after participating in a government education programme about the benefits of organic farming. “The first few years were disastrous,” he says. “My entire crop failed. Every one in the village who tried organic farming was very worried. Even now, in 2016, we are still making losses. I lost around 1 lakh rupees [£1,180] this year. But the government initiatives educated us about this. They warned us that we may suffer initially, but in the long term, organic farming was better for the soil, better for the farms. So I support the government. I think it is a good thing.”

In Sikkim, years of failed crops could affect tens of thousands of families while the land adjusts to the new methods. Anbalangan says there has been no official survey yet to measure how the switch to organic has affected yields and livelihoods in the state.

Pradhan says the organic crop he produces does not sell well in Sikkim, though he does manage to sell kiwi fruit for export at a premium price to American buyers. Few locals visit the organic market, which Pradhan says is because people don’t yet understand the benefits of organic produce. “The government needs to do more to explain the benefits of organic fruit and vegetables,” he says.

“It’s supposed to be better for you, but the imported vegetables are better and bigger,” says one shopper. Another says: “The organic vegetables are more expensive, and I have a family to feed.”

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