Which among the following was the first 100 percent organic state in the world?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — C, Sikkim (India). Sikkim took a policy decision in 2003 to convert every hectare of its farmland to organic cultivation, phased out and then banned the sale and use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, and completed the conversion of roughly 75,000 hectares by 2015-16. Prime Minister Narendra Modi formally declared it India's first fully organic state at Gangtok on 18 January 2016. The claim in the question is the stronger one — not merely India's first but the world's first entire state or region to go 100 per cent organic — and it was internationally endorsed in 2018 when the FAO gave Sikkim's policy the Future Policy Gold Award, judging it the world's best policy promoting agroecology. Note what makes Sikkim different from any other 'organic' region: it is a legally enforced, state-wide conversion covering all farmland, not a voluntary certification scheme covering the farms that choose to join.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Australia has a very large certified-organic land area, which is what makes this option sound plausible, but no Australian state has converted all its farmland to organic. Organic certification there is voluntary and covers a share of holdings alongside conventional agriculture; there is no state-wide ban on synthetic fertilisers or pesticides.  (b) California is a heavyweight in organic production and marketing, but organic there is a market segment served by voluntary certification under the US National Organic Program, not a state-wide agricultural regime. Conventional and organic farming operate side by side across the state.  (d) Quebec has organic certification and support programmes like other Canadian provinces, but it has never declared or achieved fully organic status. This option is filler — its job is to make the list look like a set of rich-country candidates so that the Indian answer feels too modest to be right.

Concept: Organic farming rejects synthetic fertilisers, chemical pesticides and genetically modified seed, relying instead on compost, farmyard manure, biofertilisers, crop rotation and biological pest control. Almost everywhere in the world it operates as a voluntary, certified market niche: a farm opts in, is inspected, and sells at a premium. Sikkim is the exception that changed the vocabulary — the state converted its entire agricultural area by policy, backed by law, in a phased programme running from 2003 to 2016, so 'organic' there is the default condition of farming rather than a choice made farm by farm.

State PCS 2019 Q82 — Environment & Ecology PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2019 Q82 — Environment & Ecology PYQ with Answer