Challenges being faced by farmers:
• Benchmark survey of the region for identifying the potential areas for organic food production
• Lack of R&D and extension strategies for promotion of organic cultivation
• Lack of sufficient trained Human Resource persons for production of organic inputs like bio-fertilizers, vermi compost, botanicals for pest management etc.
• Insufficient technical assistance to farmers in post- harvest technology, handling, processing & value addition
• High certification charges levied by national/international organic certification agencies on the farmers is a major hurdle to farmers
• Lack of cold chain infrastructure, storage & processing facilities near the production centers
• Lack of marketing support outside the region; as there is no demand for organic products within the region.
The entire horticulture scenario in the NE region has not improved at par with the rest of the country, and the region’s potential has not been tapped, mainly due to lack of market led production practices, poor commercial understanding of farmers, insufficient infrastructure at the farm level, poor transportation system, inadequate road network, lack of post-harvest infrastructure like dedicated markets, pack houses, cold storages, sorting grading lines, processing industries etc, which leads to not only very high (about 15-20%) post harvest losses but also high dependency of farmers on middlemen for marketing.