Contact address
Department Of Enviromental Sciences
Centre For Soil And Crop Managemenet Studies
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University
Coimbatore 641003

Background

Organic farming is a system where readily soluble, synthetic fertilizer and biocides are avoided during cultivation. It relies on crop rotation, crop residues, animal manures, particularly vermicompost, legumes, green manures, and biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and tilth. Organic farming is recommended because the present chemical and machine dominated agriculture practice has resulted in i) loss of natural habitat and species of flora and fauna, ii) pollution of ground and surface water, iii) damage of soil structure, iv) reduced fertility of sol, v) health hazards in food, vi) reduction in food quality, vii) waste of energy since it is an energy intensive system, ix) economically costly. On the contrary organic farming maintains the ecological balance, enhances soil structure, tilth and quality of food and is economically cheap.

Tamil Nadu has total cropped area of about 6.63 mha with the diversified crops as rice, cotton, sugarcane, pulses, fruits, flowers and vegetables of which 10% of the area can be brought under organic farming with the available resources. There had been a decline in soil organic matter from 1.20 % in 1970s to 0.68 % in 2000. Organic matter content is usually used as an index of soil health, since  it influences the soil in three ways, such as, physically, chemically, and biologically. Crop residues and animal dung are good sources of organic wastes to improve the organic matter content in the soil. In Tamil Nadu 200 lakh tones of crop residues and 300 lakh tones of animal dung  are available. These wastes can be composted and good organic manure will be obtained. Composting is allowing organic materials to decompose under more or less controlled conditions to produce a stabilized product that can be used as a fertilizer and/ or soil amendment. Daily around 75 tonnes of municipal solid waste is generated in each block. From the bio-degradable waste (45%) 16.75 tonnes of organic manure will be produced on 60th day . Annualy 5000 tonnes of organic manures produced in each block.

Project Rationale

The awareness of organic farming is lacking among the farmers. It is the need of the  hour to switch to sustainable farming from intensive farming. Organic farming practices gives the opportunity to the farmers to use all the organic  resources available for crop production instead of depending only on chemical fertilizers. In the solid waste management, large quantities of organic wastes are not fully utilized. for manure making. Most of the wastes are either burnt or discarded openly. If all the wastes are fully utilized for manure making large quantities of organic manure will be available for use and the environment will be very clean. So a model is necessary to educate the farmers to learn things. By utilizing all the organic manures it is possible to supply 2.1 lakh tonnes of nitrogen, 1.2 lakh tonnes of phosphorus and 2.7 lakh tonnes of potassium.

Farmers and self help groups will be trained in 129 blocks of 9 districts (Salem, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Namakkal, Perambalur, Dindigul, Ramanathapuram, Coimbatore and Villupuram) on organic farming and organic manure production and establishment of vermicompost unit, model municipal waste composting unit and bio-inputs production units. The trained farmers / self help groups will start doing organic farming and organic manure production units as well as bio-inputs production units. This will serve good source of organic inputs in those areas.

• To impart training on organic farming to farmers/ SHGs
  

The project has the following components and the details are presented below the list of components.

5.1 Training on organic farming 
5.2 Training on organic manure production 
5.3 Establishment of  vermicompost model units, municipal compost units and  bio-inputs production units.

  
Project cost and financing for 2007-08 (Rs in lakhs )

 * 50% subsidy

Implementation chart for the project

Reporting 
The monthly progress report and annual report will be submitted by TNAU and by the respective block level officer. The final report will be submitted after five years or as the project extended by the Government.