Impact Evaluation Study of Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region (MOVCDNER)

Abstract

Indian agricultural sector is in distress with reducing profitability due to rising cost of inputs and stagnant output prices. These twin problems of agricultural sector can be effectively tackled by the wider adoption of organic agriculture (Seufert et al., 2012).Realizing the potential of organic farming in north east India, Government of India has launched a Centrally Sponsored Scheme entitled “Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region (MOVCDNER)” for implementation in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura from 2015-16. The scheme aims at development of certified organic production in a value chain mode to link growers with consumers and to support the development of entire value chain starting from inputs, seeds, certification, to the creation of facilities for collection, aggregation, processing, marketing and brand building initiative. The scheme was approved with an outlay of Rs. 400 crores for three years. Although Indian agricultural sector has grown slowly in the last one decade, it has tremendous potential for improved productivity, possible expansion of employment opportunities and consequently reducing mitigating the levels of rural poverty. Among others, Primary producer organizations or collectivities are one way of improving productivity and profitability of small holdings in agriculture and can protect small farmers from ill-effects of globalization or make them participate successfully in modern competitive markets (Trebbin and Hassler, 2012). Producers organizations not only help farmers buy or sell better due to scale benefits but also lower transaction costs for sellers and buyers, besides providing technical help in production and creating social capital.