A. Benefits of Organic Farming
1. Organic agriculture offers a means to substitute costlier agricultural inputs with locally produced organic inputs that are cheaper and thereby generate good returns on investment.
2. Organic agriculture also generates incomes through international exports as the demand for organically grown crops is on a rise. Studies across countries have shown that organically grown food has more nutritional value than chemical farming thus providing us with healthy foods.
3. Since organic farming requires more labour input than conventional farming, India will nd organic farming an attractive proposition
4. the organic produce is pesticide-free and produced in an environmentally sustainable way
5. Organic fanning helps in sustainable development of agriculture and India has a clear advantage in producing organic products for both domestic and international markets.
B. Limitations of organic farming
1. Popularizing organic farming requires awareness and willingness on the part of farmers to adapt to new technology.
2. Inadequate infrastructure and the problem of marketing the products are major concerns which need to be addressed apart from appropriate agriculture policy to promote organic farming.
3. It has been observed that the yields from organic farming are less than modem agricultural farming in the initial years. Therefore, small and marginal farmers may nd it difficult to adapt to large scale production.
4. Organic produce may also have more blemishes . and a shorter shelf life than sprayed produce. Moreover choice in production of o-season crops is quite limited inorganic farming.
