Organic Farming - Policy Pressures and Options

The prospects of farmers adopting organic techniques are currently constrained by a variety of subsidies, hidden and explicit, on external inorganic inputs. This is discussed generally under inappropriate input and output pricing policies and specifically under subsidies on inorganic fertiliser.

The major policy option is therefore that of appropriate pricing, subsidy and taxation policies , generally to remove hidden subsidies on other production systems competing with organic farming and specifically to phase out subsidies on inorganic fertiliser.

It is in the nature of the transition to organic farming that farmers face the higher costs of farming without inorganic inputs for several years, without being able to market their produce as organic, while input residues in the soil disappear. During this period there is a strong case for transitional direct subsidies to encourage conversion - see the discussion of Regulatory Policies, Standards, Charges and Subsidies.

Improved extension will also be important to transmit to farmers knowledge on organic methods.

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