A niche market why is it still not mainstream in seek them an example for other countries to follow. The authorities and see come are strict conventionally farmed fruits and vegetables are forbidden so theyre being destroyed. Smugglers were looking to sell this produce at a market in gun talk the state capital the smugglers were caught by pass along to monk who is employed by the government as a food control officer. So we are doing something good for our war our. Thats why we start feel sad because we are again giving examples for the whole world this is not good for a hell this is not good for environment so we are destroying all this things. Fresh produce is destroyed on a regular basis and cecum with its policy the Regional Government is taking a firm stance against global farming practices that rely heavily on chemical fertilizers and pesticides. In 2016 seacom became the worlds 1st 100 percent organic state. Nestled in the eastern himalayas seacom covers 7000 square kilometers roughly half the size of the german state of to your opinion the mile high city of gun talk is its capital. Seeks a might be part of india but in terms of Agricultural Policy its forged its own path for the last 3 years. Produce of eligible to its nearly 700000 inhabitants is organic only. Was organic food because for like heres the problem i saw this is for how you know how theyre listed especially good for kids for us i mean i go for the organic food that festers cites for. Organic farming expert band has traveled to see them on behalf of several International Organizations for sustainability hes here to see if its agriculture really is 100 percent organic and if it is how has the state managed it his 1st impressions are positive if happy if i just try to pepper its fiery hot as a real bite exactly how a pepper should be. By the carrots are very fresh you can tell they were picked just yesterday. Its a pleasure to see how fresh everything is what good quality the papaya is are excellent you just want to cut them open and dig in so thats organic should be delicious looking produce with great flavor make from a dish thats organic let me feel. Ok or has been tasked with deciding it seek him should be nominated for a Prestigious International award for policies promoting agro college e spend a week here as a guest from germany a country seen in c. Comfort as highly progressive in terms of organic farming. Georg meyerhoff runs a conventional farm near passed down in southern germany approximately 60 percent of his earnings come from crops used for bio gas he wants to farm sustainably and avoid using pesticides but he doesnt believe that a complete switch to organic is necessary. By to shimon a both types of farming produce healthy crops that will help you live to 100 and that the auto as that this is the analytics we use are very precise. These days we can identify even the slightest residue so the idea that conventional farming has adverse effects on Peoples Health im very skeptical as us keep this. Despite his reservations my hope for experiments with organic practices now and then this year he did not use any insecticide on the rapeseed he grows for human consumption today he wants to see if thats made a difference. Those of us may use it isnt before were seeing here is an infestation of rape stem weevils for me has long been looked really for me as a farmer its always very hard to gauge exactly what the pesticide does the vehicle museum. You dont know exactly what effect its had. Neuer but id like to try new things out and as a beekeeper i wanted to see if doing without pesticides is a viable option you know. Its all down to the harvest is often not all that often given the infestation were seeing here its not looking promising to get. To switch to organic farming is a time consuming process and calls for a lot of patience crops and soil need to adjust after years of conventional farming. My whole 1st experiment with rate seed has cost him 25 percent of his usual yield next year hell go back to spraying his crops with conventional farming crop losses arent factored into the business model. In order to maximize profits farmers need to be an organized and unanimous group. Its German Farmers day and despite the annual conference of the German Farmers association. The event demonstrates how much of farming in germany works its a large scale industry led by risk adverse Interest Groups pays the price of the delegates insist theyre open minded about organic farming but theyre also quick to stress that its a tricky market. When vio find informative would have and you could obviously if we dont find sellers in the organic farming sector tells us that it prefers organic grain imported from ukraine then we need to take that into account were not operating in a vacuum. Market exists and it will continue to grow but a centrally planned 100 percent switch to organic farming just doesnt make sense. Kinds of. Judging by the mood at the farmers General Assembly organic farming has little chance of flourishing the association carefully. Cultivates its time is to the chemicals industry one of the Worlds Largest pesticide manufacturers is among the event sponsors. And yet among German Farmers there are many opponents of conventional methods here in the all to slant region north of hamburg own race back month turned his back on Old School Farming after 20 years. Its going to rain again on the weekend to go even thats lets get rid of those weeds in culture partly because although i think on thursday august started. His Apple Orchard covers 50 hectares 2 years ago that month stopped using glyphosate and pesticides he uses mechanical methods to tackle weeds and relies on nature to regulate itself but weed control without the help of chemicals is a major challenge. Before weve got an infestation of past. Thats a part of organic farming but for me its a new problem. We dont have the option of regulating it we just have to hope that nature comes to our aid thats enough and that beneficial insects are able to fight the pests in the largest the shipping the myths of the come from. A drop in yield is to be expected after a switch to organic farming the oil in all this is here weve also got clouded drab moths and apple scab thats leaving. In the 1st year the apple harvest shrunk by 30 percent a tough lesson. Monkfish trying to get Financial Support for converting but its nowhere near enough to offset the risk of too far you have to shoulder the risk yourself. Hes also not allowed to label his produce organic for the 1st 3 years thats because after decades of conventional farming the soil isnt yet certified as organic. I have the production costs of organic farming but im not in a position to market my produce as organic 35 so that adds up to costly production but uncertain prices through. The here and. Farmers who convert to organic farming get little to no subsidies it varies from state to state but now a discount supermarket better known for pressuring farmers to lower their prices is trying to help. Penny subsidiary launched an initiative to help farmers who are transitioning into organic standards thereby boosting the sector. Debt. We give producers who have decided to make this transition a higher return for their produce than they would get on the free market for conventionally farm produce that means were paying them a premium which they pass on in the retail price high so our customers are paying slightly more for this produce than they pay for conventionally farmed goods but not as much as they pay if the goods were certified organic. Its a scheme that makes Financial Sense for penny it saves costs by reducing its share of expensive imported goods. Just 8 percent of farms in germany are organic demand for locally sourced organic vegetables tends to exceed supply. Back in sea come here it took 13 years for the states agriculture to transition to organic 66000 farmers were retrained. Visiting mom and her husband. They have just 4 hectares of land but grow 16 sorts of fruits and vegetables even though they could live from sales of cauliflower broccoli and the tree. We like do it well not only to plug the harvest of us divil from the fair but we like to see the health of. We go for practising. We go for maintaining the soil fertility and planting only a single crop. In every tang gives us the back to those in. The healthy ways so we go further of an idea of that. They harvest 3 times a year. And practice means they grow a main crop such as cauliflower alongside other crops that help it grow. The aim is to cultivate healthy and robust crops and suppress needs insect pests and diseases. Compost replaces artificial fertiliser. Part of the process they help break down the organic waste into high quality compost for the fields. You know the crops clearly dont need chemical the harvests have been steady for 6 years so the farmer is astonished to find her potatoes affected by a fungal disease for the 1st time it could mean total crop failure. But in these setbacks arent a disaster making a profit isnt the 1st priority and in the long run they know their harvests are dependable and in the. One reason is Crop Rotation another is the compost it ensures a very healthy fertile soil so theres an old soil Borne Disease in. And the crops are very robust and here they use the curative properties of Plant Extracts to prevent the crops bawling prey to disease in. The company. She comes organic farmers have faith in their methods they cant understand why other countries arent following their example especially germany. What they feel is the money is being all of it is sound in value they have a lot of knowledge and we have a small states here in germany many many. Many many people. With the intellectual mind so i can. Go and practice this. Family in germany. The reason why farmers in seacom suffer so few setbacks has its roots in the National OrganicFarming Research institute here scientists develop methods to optimally protect and strengthen agricultural crops based both on traditional practices and the latest scientific findings. The farmers themselves have to be proactive over 700 further Training Programs are available to them maize cultivation for example this farmer is experimenting with using named tree extract as a form of pest control that doesnt adversely affect beneficial insects. Biologist ravi kind of history fervently believes the extra work is worth it. Or going to farming is and bridging the Ecosystem Services that we have a lot of. The population has increased the bumblebee population increase appropriate prices for permission of them grieve for you have the impact on the production system. In seeking feeding the population is the 1st consideration but all the while protecting biodiversity. And the environment a wealth of expertise in organic farming has been built up here in the himalayas nature is seen as a valuable asset that deserves to be handled with care. The fact that seacom became the worlds 1st region to switch to 100 percent organic agriculture has a lot to do with peoples attitude. That the big. Friends are big friend or big friend the great idea for you would you. Pass by that i noticed here is that these farmers have a different mentality. Understand that theyre part of nature. Or might be something to do with their fates but they respect nature. Now is the same as because of that they cant really imagine using agro toxin eyes and artificial fertilisers dillards as its. Chemical free farming in a vision that seacom is making reality. Here at another Research Institute staff and farmers have gathered to meet the man who led sea kms reinvention as a model organic state. It was in the longest serving chief minister he is the son of farmers and travels regularly through the state drumming up support for his mission. You can persuading farmers to dispense with pesticides and artificial fertilisers wasnt easy at 1st for more than 40 years conventional farming was the norm here as it is across the rest of the country. On chumming is playing the long game it was. The. It was because people. That have it and where for thinking this is a very difficult. But slowly people. Realize we have decide to become organic. Now 3 other states in india are planning to go fully organic in the house come on channeling one the people who seek him over to his vision others are now following suit. Should be organic by 2050 and for that we. Work to get that part out a better. If we all walked to a good though. It is definitely possible this is my message to the work. But the acid test is this does organic farming have the capacity to meet demand in large industrialized nations. Researchers in fricks switzerland are looking to answer this question for 40 years this field has been farmed conventionally directly next to it are fields that are being farmed organically the long term experiment has led to a significant finding the soil on the organic fields is of considerably higher quality. Of course neatly heads up this ambitious experiment the only one of its kind worldwide he says it shows that organic plants are stronger and more robust than their detractors maintain. Your theology is to be faceless after 40 years we can see that here we have 75 to 80 percent of the yield of conventionally farm tweet is calling the incident bite since hall and you can see with the naked eye that the crop is healthier. Poster device and based on see if this will boost the 3 weeds under control no problem its a flourishing wheat field. I go to john oh you says the fall guys youre right. The researchers have also shown that there are fewer pest investigations on the organic fields obviously problems do arise organic pesticide has failed to tackle potato beetles for example you know it seemed it was a bit late so it wasnt very effective listed cool isnt it going to turn an unusual amount of damage. In fact a sort of problem is usually very easily solved with organic farming methods you know. Even if organic farming requires time and effort fortunately predicts tough times ahead for conventional farming. But the soco soon used a small income its a dead end because a number of problems have become insurmountable seem to be going to be certain weeds are resistant to or bizarre seeing that a certain diseases are resistant to fungicides. Really seeing were seeing increased sorely erosion and soil compaction hobby or that as a result systems are becoming uncontrollable because theyre no longer robust cognition reroll groups. From his and his colleagues point of view the only type of farming that can meet the needs of the World Population and benefit the environment is organic farming. But it is consumers who will decide if they want organic were not organic for the time being 9 out of 10 consumers buy conventionally farmed produce mainly because its more affordable. But why are fruits and vegetables grown with the help of pesticides and artificial fertilisers so cheap its partly down to the supermarkets price wars but theres more to it than that. Another decisive factor the real costs and who bears them. Mr Adrian Miller has been exploring this issue for some time to take milk 24. 00 grass fed cows are kept in the cowsheds at the Swiss Research center each of them produces 6000 liters of milk a year high performing breeds in conventional dairy farming are expected to produce up to 50 percent more if they are to be profitable this increased production is bad for the environment and its not usually the farmer who bears the cost. In the coast on the phone and if thats what gets played were the ones who bear the cost. For example because we have to pay for purification of Drinking Water due to the nitrate and pesticides used in farming talk to say what we hear those costs if we import animal feed then its the other countries who carry the cost of the animal feed production so were shifting the problem to other countries and in terms of Climate Change its the next generations will carry the cost of what were doing today so its an all round bad deal this is the least of the new. British researchers have calculated that if all the costs were taken into account we should be paying at least twice as much for conventionally produced food. But on the other hand in the future organic products could become cheaper thanks to agricultural robots and satellite navigation. Machinery i mean food out of this machine as an infrared camera. Can see it identifies weeds among the lettuce and cuts it away with a knife. Hope 3 to buy it. This is fate used to take 25 people working a whole afternoon to achieve the same result we can now achieve with one person using a tractor and a robot that would help. Them. Geier rounds off his trip to see come with a visit to the countrys largest agricultural area the tell me tea garden covers 177. 00 hectares 400. 00 people work here producing some of the best organic tea in asia. Harvests are completely stable he added nutrients in the loamy soil ensure the tea bushes are highly resilient. These because organic tea plantation shows that its possible to produce tea in harmony with nature its a boy anyone who maintains that large scale monoculture farming is impossible without chemicals should come here and see that it is a little bit ive been there come here im going there. Once the leaves have been harvested the tea pickers take them to be weighed they earn significantly higher wages than their counterparts in neighboring darjeeling not least because the yields are good although they werent right after the plantation went organic harvests dropped by 2 thirds the plants were used to artificial fertilizers and pesticides and werent resilient enough all of the things that weve quite significantly but no it has been almost 12 years now all the birds and im going back again both 200 metric tons will do been increasing every year for hopefully coming next 5 to 6 years movies that david vitter you from have been really going through and. Now the tea produced here meets all the requirements of major interNational Organic certification. And in the vanguard geier strip is drawing to an en