The Commerce Ministry has started putting in place new measures to fix problems with organic farming certification on the field. This involves auditing organic farming certification organizations. The development followed ‘several anomalies found in the certification activities,’ according to the Ministry, in response to a grievance filed with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) by the Chennai-based service organization Sri Sri Swami Vivekananda Trust (SSVT). The SSVT wrote to the PMO on February 9 to ask that organic cotton certification be enforced in order to protect customers and small farmers.
Improving monitoring
‘Based on the gravity of the non-compliances, the National Accreditation Board (NAB) has taken action against non-compliant operators and certification bodies in accordance with the NPOP (National Programme for Organic Production) catalogue,’ the Ministry said.
The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has also been working on ways to stop similar things from happening in the future.
Read more at: Govt began extra steps to check for fraud in organic farming certification (agrinews.in)