Technical team of COF has compiled and developed package of practices’ for different mountain crops. Further the team is closely monitoring crops to improve package of packages of practice. The successfully field tested ‘packages of practices’ have been published in the form of booklet and distributed to the farmers. UOCB has developed a training kit for MTs. The kit comprises of different compositing techniques, making of bio-pesticides and pest control methods.

The kits have been designed in such a way that a Master Trainer could impart training at village level. Beside these a number of posters, pamphlets have been printed for villages and blocks. These posters have been facilitated for distribution at several common places with the help of MTs. The technical team of COF has provided the technical inputs for the publicity material.

Since the inception of the project, the technical team has been providing technical support to various NGOs, and government department of other states of India like Himachal Pardesh, Sikkim, Kerala, Arunachal Pardesh, Andhra Pradesh etc. in the form of project appraisal and technical information related to organic farming. Making of documents like Farm File, farmer’s Diary, internal Check List etc. necessary for the establishment of the Internal control system and certification was technically supported by technical by technical team.

A number of CDs were made on different techniques. These are

Internal Control System
Different Composting Technologies
Different Bio-Pesticides
TTDC and Uttara
National Seminar on Organic farming in Mountain Areas

Special Villages Adoption Program

Need for several bio village with 100 percent saturation was felt for different purposes to understand the impact of various organic farming technologies on crops, impact on village livelihood, cascading effect of large scale adoption to the surrounding villages etc. For this, Tilwadi Village of Sahaspur block Dehara Dun has been developed as a ‘model bio-village’ covering the consolidated land areas of 6ha of 20 farmers. Several other villages in the mountain are proposed to be developed as model bio-villages.

Organic Certification
Internal Control System ------ Organic Farming Certification Through ICS


Internal Control System

Internal control system developed by UOCB has been appreciated by international agencies. FAO has commissioned a study on UOCB’s ICS.
8 MTs have been trained as internal inspectors.
CD in Hindi containing details about certification and ICS have been prepared.

Organic Certification

Certification is an important tool responsible for resource stewardship through the labeling of consumer products, thereby fostering a trust in consumers regarding the sustainable organic harvest and legal origin of the produce. UOCB is not directly involved in certification , as certification has to be done by external independent agencies that are accerdited by APEDA. However, UOCB has installed Internal Control System (ICS) for facilitation of certification to small landholders. For certification purposes, Government of Uttaranchal has established Uttaranchal State Seed and Organic Production Certification Agency (USS &OPCA). ICS has been developed by UOCB helps USS & OPCA and other certification bodies for direct inspection and for the certification of small landholders who cannot afford to pay the high certification fee. As per the National Organic Guidelines, certification agencies cannot get directly involved in training and documentation through their extension team.

COF supported UOCB for the installation of ICS, the rest of the certification activities are being facilitated by UOCB. The major achievements are as follows:

Organic Farm Certification Through ICS

693.08 hectares land of 1792 farmers in 162 villages in the State under various organic projects was facilitated for organic certification after internal and external inspection in 2003-2004 (From IMO & ECOCERT).
Designing the internal control system of various organic products and its implementation in the State for organic certification by organizing regular internal inspection with the help of the team of internal inspectors recruited under Center for Organic Farming COF. Internal inspection for kharif 2004 has been completed and external inspection is being done.
It is estimated that in 2005-06, certification would be done for 700 hectares focusing mainly the hill areas.

Organic Mill Certification

UOCB has facilitated the organic certification of a rice processing mill. The only mill in Uttaranchal with the organic certified rice-processing process.

Organic Store Certification

Certification process has started for 11 warehouses across Uttaranchal under OBEP.

Certification Document Development

Internal regulation manual has been developed.
Farm files has been developed, printed and distributed to field motivators.
Farmer's diary has been developed, printed and distributed to farmers.
Inspector report format and checklist have been developed.
A systematic and well designed code system has been developed.
Farmers, bio-villages, district and projects have been coded.

Certification of Rabi 2003-04

693.08 hectare land of 1792 farmers in 162 villages in the state under various organic projects was facilitated for organic certification after internal and external inspection (from IMO & ECOCERT). Designing the internal control system of various organic products and its implementation in the state for organic certification by organizing regular internal inspections with the help of the team of internal inspector recruited under center for organic farming (COF).

Certification of Kharif 2004

Internal inspection for kharif 2004 has been completed on an area of 527.77 ha. This year, a number of farmers have been dropped in Naugaon block of Uttarakashi District, where the program on jaivik rajma is being run by HARC. Besides, in chakrata block of Dehradun district, 125 rajma farmers have also been dropped.