But they are mostly marginal farmers sharing only 2.59 per cent of total area under organic cultivation

Going by the average, each organic farmer in India does cultivation on less than two hectares of land. Credit: Samrat Mukherjee

India has the largest number of organic producers in the world, according to the World of Organic Agriculture Report 2018 published in February. With 835,000 certified organic producers, it is home to more than 30 per cent of total number of organic producers (2.7 million) in the world.

Uganda (210,352) and Mexico (210,000) are the second and third largest organic producers.

However, when it comes to area under certified organic cultivation, India contributes only 2.59 per cent (1.5 million hectares) of the total area (57.8 million hectares).

China has around 50 per cent and India has 30 percent of total organic cultivable land in Asia.

The 19th edition of the World of Organic Agriculture report claimed that organic agriculture area, and its products value has increased. The data was collected from 178 countries by the research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), the State of Sustainability Initiative (SSI), and International Trade Center.

Organic agriculture is defined as a production system that sustains the health of soils, ecosystems and people. It depends on ecological processes, biodiversity and cycles adapted to local conditions, rather than the use of inputs with adverse effects.

The organic products worth $90 billion were sold globally in 2016. The USA, Germany and France enjoy the largest share of market in organic produce. Switzerland tops in per capita consumption of organic produce, followed by Denmark and Sweden.

According to the latest data shows that current area under organic cultivation, which is a significant increase from just 11 million hectares in 1999, is still 1.2 per cent of the total agriculture land.

Australia, according to the report, has largest organic agriculture land (27.1 million hectares), followed by Argentina (3 million hectares) and China (2.4 million hectares).