14,491 ha area under Car Nicobar and Nancowry group of islands in Union Territory of Andaman &Nicobar Islands becomes the first large contiguous territory to be conferred with organic certification under ‘Large Area Certification’ scheme.
Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW) is working to identify Traditional Organic Areas to transform them into certified organic production hubs.
Important value additions
Large Area Certification (LAC) programme
Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare under its flagship scheme of Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojna (PKVY) has launched a unique quick certification programme “Large Area Certification” (LAC) to harness these potential areas.
LAC is a Quick certification process that is cost-effective and farmers do not have to wait for 2-3 years for marketing organic certified products.
Under LAC, each village in the area is considered as one cluster/group.
Documentations are simple and maintained village-wise.
All farmers with their farmland and livestock need to adhere to the standard requirements and on being verified get certified en-mass without the need to go under conversion period.
Certification is renewed on annual basis through annual verification by a process of peer appraisals