Status of organic vegetable cultivation in Palghar district

Organic agriculture is a whole system of approach based upon a set of processes resulting in a sustainable ecosystem, safe food, good nutrition, animal welfare and social justice. The present study was conducted in Palghar district of Konkan region of Maharashtra to know the socio-economic characteristics of the organic vegetable growers. The study employed an ex-post facto research design. The study was conducted by taking total sample of 90 respondents. The data was collected with the help of pre tested interview schedule through personal interview. Study concluded that the about two-third of the respondents (66.67 percent) purchased their seeds from agro service centre, majority of respondents (42.22 percent) adopted bed/ridge planting techniques in their vegetable cultivation. majority, 75.56 percent of the respondents, utilized labor for harvesting that fell within the category of 2 to 4 man-days, nearly all respondents (75.56 percent) sold their agricultural produce through wholesalers, Moreover, 95.56 percent of the respondents sold their produce in the local market (within 10-20 km distance), more than half (78.89 percent) of the respondents do not paid commission to middle man, nearly 77.77 percent of the respondents conducted pre marketing operations such as cleaning of vegetable after the harvest. majority (62.22 percent) of organic vegetable growers had ‘medium’ level of use of on-farm inputs, majority (48.89 percent) of organic vegetable growers had ‘medium’ level of use of off-farm inputs, majority (52.22 percent) of organic vegetable growers had ‘medium’ level of impact of organic inputs on agro-ecological health.