Standards NPOP

Standards for Organic Production – NPOP

The Standards for Organic Production are notified in National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) by the Director General of Foreign Trade under the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992. The NPOP has a system where in Certification Bodies are accredited with National Accreditation Body(NAB) which is chaired by the Additional Secretary in the Department of Commerce. The Secretariat of the NAB is with APEDA. NPOP covers standards for crops and their products, live stocks and poultry products, aquaculture, apiculture etc. The exports from the country are as per the provisions in NPOP.

National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP): Salient features

  1. NPOP launched during 2001 laid the foundation for systematic development of organic agriculture sector in the country.
  2. NPOP is being managed by APEDA under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
  3. NPOP is the main stay for quality assurance for organic agriculture products in India operated through 28 accredited certification bodies.
  4. NPOP has grown almost 35 fold starting from 42,000 ha in 2003-04 TO to 1.45 million ha during 2016-2017.
  5. All types of agriculture, horticulture and non-food crops are grown under organic certification process.
  6. Livestock, aquaculture, animal feed processing and handling, mushroom production, sea weeds, aquatic plants and green house crop production have also come under the ambit of organic certification.
  7. More than 4.45 million ha area is under organic certification, comprising 1.44 million ha under cultivation and 3.0 million ha under wild harvest collection.
  8. India is producing wide range of crops under organic management with total production of 1180105 MTs which majorly covers Oilseeds, Sugarcane, Cereal & Millets etc.
  9. Indian export kitty for organic food products is about US$ 369.8 million and domestic market accounts for approximately US$ 225 million.
  10. The major export destinations are EU, USA, Canada, Switzerland, Pakistan, New Zealand and Australia.
  11. The quantity exported to EU,USA, Canada, Switzerland, Pakistan, New Zealand and Australia during 2016-2017 were 124398 MTs, 116595 MTs, 42739 MTs, 9427 MTs, 7116 MTs, 1783 MTs and 1732 MTs respectively.
  12. NPOP has equivalence with organic food regulations of European Union and Switzerland and a recognition agreement on conformity assessment with USDA.
  13. TRACENET is an on-line application tool managed by APEDA under NPOP for management of entire organic certification system in the country.

    14. More information is available on:

    http://apeda.gov.in/apedawebsite/organic/Organic_Products.html