Challenges of organic produce cultivation and marketing: A study in mananthavady block, Wayanad District of Kerala, India

Indian agriculture system is unique across the world, looking at the farmer land holdings, crop patterns, and farming decidedly differed from each other. In that, organic agriculture is one of the categories which is predominantly popularising in the current situation because of people diet and awareness. In India, the agriculture sector has made a considerable stride in the past 50 years, the green revolution has been the cornerstone of agricultural achievement in India, and it is also a significant problem in using more pesticides and fertilisers. The observation on statistics regarding organic agriculture during the post-green revolution period the production of food grains has increased four-folds in India, from 50.82 million tons in 1950–51 to 265.57 million tons on 2013–14 (Deshmukh, 2015). The traditional crop varieties were replaced with great yielding varieties during this period. The crop varieties which were not adapted to the soil and other environmental conditions attracted new pests and diseases and resulted in outbreaks of crops. The Organic farming is a traditional practice before the green revolution in India, and the revolution introduces high yield verities due to that the conventional cultivation practices were transformed, current days the organic agriculture making importance even health-conscious of people changing the food habits draw the attention of organic produce. However, organic agriculture growing faster, but many challenges are entering into natural practices. The present paper aims to study the problems of organic produce marketing, challenges of organic vegetables farming and develop appropriate strategies to promote organic farming in Mananthavady block, Wayanad (district), Kerala. The study is based on a mixed research method. The study is used in quantitative methods and qualitative methods. This study took a sample size of 60 and conducted in Mananthavady Block, the sample farmers selected using purposive sampling method included small and marginal. The selection of the sample farmer must satisfy three-layer criteria like 1) the organic farmers have to come under the marginal and small farmer's category 2) Organic farmers have three years of organic farming experience 3) An organic farmer has to cultivate vegetables. The data collected through a well-designed schedule canvased among farmers to know about organic farming practices, problems, challenges of organic produce marketing the sample selection used the purposive sample. The study found that the farmers are facing a problem with the variety of suitable seeds, lack of agricultural extension services, increasing labour cost, the low intervention of mechanisation, climatic condition, the absence of certification and lack of branding due to the expensive certification process and no support for organic produce. After understanding of all the challenges, the study proposed EVM Model (Extension, Value Addition, and Marketing Model).