Para asegurar la ejecución forzada: Interventor recaudador

The most significant contributions to organic policy in India have been made at the State level. Sikkhim is now widely known as the first Organic State in India, winning worldwide recognition after receiving the FAO’s Future Policy Gold Award for its organic policy (FAO, 2018). Several states across India like Karnataka, Kerala and Mizoram have officially adopted policies for promoting organic agriculture, although they remain in the minority. Thottathil details the negotiations between different groups that went into the formulation of Kerala’s 2010 Organic Farming Policy, illustrating the successful mobilization of different groups to collaborate on a common goal (2014). West Bengal currently has no organic policy, so I examine a proposed

Roadmap for Organic presented by the Associate Chambers of Commerce

Assocham suggest that a “Mission Organic West Bengal” be launched by the state, which they estimate would lead to “wealth accumulation of worth [sic] INR 119.99 Billion in next 5 years” (approx. EUR 1.5 billion) (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, 2011). They calculate that 35% of the land area can be converted into certified organic cultivation areas. The state, it is proposed, can help with market development, pricing support, and facilitating backward and forward linkages throughout the value chain with help from international retail giants. The report calculates that such interventions will lead to exports worth 70 million euros, generating around 2 million jobs in the process (ibid, p.2). Organic agriculture here is used to refer only to certified forms (ibid, p.1), with certification playing a pivotal role in the establishment of organic (ibid, p.27). A shift away from field crops to horticultural crops, including exotic crops, is suggested (ibid, p.22). Organic aquaculture is seen as another promising area, and is called “the biggest new opportunity” (ibid, p.23). A West Bengal Institute of Organic Agriculture (WBIOA) is to be set up, to offer certification under Participatory Guarantee Systems which are considered to have standards which are “often the same as for the third-party certified production” (ibid, p.28). A few years before the DFI report, the ASSOCHAM report calls for the need to ensure a more than doubling of net farm income. They calculate that the lowered input costs and higher premiums will help increase average per annum farmers’ incomes by 250% from INR 6,272.18 (approx. 80 euros) to INR 15,680.45 (approx. 200 euros) in five years (ibid, p.30). The role of farmers is reduced to three bullet points, each of which discuss different ways in which farmers can organize themselves into groups to consolidate land, to grow the same commodity over large areas, and to access credit (ibid, p.30). While certain institutional changes are advocated, the most radical of which calls for a reorientation of research, education and extension services (ibid, p.30), a market-driven understanding of organic is key. Organic is understood narrowly, as a way of accessing new markets, as an instrument to coordinate along the supply chain, and to change the type of crops being grown. ASSOCHAM identifies itself as a catalyst, but not more, perhaps limiting its stake in the actual implementation of its recommendations. Despite the absence of any real policies in place, some state government agencies have been involved in helping the spread of organic agricultural practices. Two people at

government level were identified in my interviews. One was Anupam Paul, an assistant director at the Agricultural Training Centre (ATC), Fulia in Nadia district. The other is Purnendu Basu, the former agriculture minister of West Bengal and currently in charge of the Department of Technical Education, Training & Skill Development.

West Bengal, like other states, has a wide network of agricultural extension offices, and Agricultural Training Centres. In recent years, under the direction of Anupam Paul, ATC Fulia has become well-known for its work on the conservation of indigenous rice varieties. He organizes annual workshops for members from other extension offices to come and learn more about indigenous rice. In recent years, various landraces of black rice have gained popularity under his direction, and is seen as a promising new variety. Through his research and network of researchers at other ATCs, he has identified promising landraces that can tolerate long periods of submergence, saline conditions, have high yields, can be eaten without cooking, or are aromatic. He shares the seeds of these varieties with farmers from various districts, who sometimes bring their own seeds, along with a story associated with the rice. He is also instrumental in implementing the clustering of farmers in different villages to farm organic rice under the PKVY schemes. He is going to be transferred in the year 2020, however, and it remains to be seen whether his work will be continued.

Purnendu Bose was West Bengal’s Minister for Agriculture from 2011 to 2017, when he was abruptly moved to the Department of Technical Education (Datta, 2018; “Minister Purnendu Bose Shifted from Agriculture Department to Technical Education,” 2017). During his tenure, he initiated a work on a drafting a policy for organic farming in the state (Press Trust of India, 2016), but the process remains unfinished. He helped set up infrastructure for marketing of organic goods in the city of Kolkata, with four organic hats (periodic markets) built in various parts across the city. Despite having been shifted to the Department of Technical Education, he is still active in the promotion of organic agriculture, using it as a medium for the technical education of rural youth. The current advisor to the West Bengal State government, Pradip Kumar Majumdar, is the chairperson of West Bengal Agro Industries Corporation Ltd., and is thought to view organic agriculture in an unfavourable light (Datta, 2018).

This reliance on having the right people at the right place illustrates a gap that might have been filled with a formal state-level policy. In the absence of formal policies or stances, spread of organic agriculture is slow, and illustrates the risk of smooth spaces, where gains made can always be wiped out by a sudden change in the terms of negotiation, or by the success of a competing idea.