Organic Certification of Individual Farm

Individual farmers having agricultural lands can apply for organic certification after understanding and following all the standard requirements as per National Program of Organic Production (NPOP).

Organic Standards for NPOP can be downloaded from the link given below.
(www.apeda.gov.in)

Organic farmers who wish to have organic certification can download the application kit from our website. The application and organic management plan for the year for their organic farm must be filled in properly and sent to CHOLA Organic Certification Agency either by mail or by courier/post,

CHOLA will review the application and management plan and see the suitability of the project for getting the required organic certification. The operator will get a quotation and a set of agreement forms. After completing the payment and signing agreement the operator will be registered under APEDA’s TRACENET. The registration number along with login and password details for Tracenet will be sent

CHOLA will send an inspector to verify whether all the organic activities of the farm are in compliance with the Organic Management Plan and the standards for which the certification is required. The inspector will also check all the registers, farm diary, and other relevant documents to ensure organic integrity in the management of organic crops. The inspector will make a risk analysis and take samples of soil, water or plant parts if there are any suspicions of contamination with prohibited substances. After discussions, the inspector will prepare an inspection checklist and report and record all observations including any minor or major non-compliances. The operator and the inspector will jointly sign the inspection reports.

The inspection report will be reviewed at the CHOLA’s office, by the evaluator. He/she will check whether all the inspection requirements have been followed correctly and whether all the required details about the farm have been collected. If some details are missing, the required details will be obtained from the operator. The evaluated report will be sent to the certification authority.

If there are any minor non-compliances, the operator will be given time to correct the practice and send an action taken report. After resolving the issue, the scope certificate will be issued to the operator.

If there are any major non-compliance, the operator’s explanation will be obtained. On receiving the required information, action will be taken accordingly. There may be sanctions for major non-compliances like extension of conversion period or denial of certification depending upon the severity of the non-compliance.

Please note that there is a conversion period of 24 months for annual crops and 36 months for perennial crops from the date of inspection. The certificate will be issued for the conversion period as in conversion to organic 1st year, 2nd year, 3rd year etc. After completion of the conversion period the organic certificate will be issued in the subsequent year. The operator is expected to continue organic certification without any break. If it is discontinued for any reason the operator has to start the whole process from the beginning.