Maharashtra - Get Organic Agriculture Product Certificate

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Procedure

Apply In-Person:

1. A person (a farmer/ group of farmer’s /processor/ trader) who is looking for an organic farming certificate for their agricultural produce must ensure that his/her farm conforms to the standards laid out by the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) for organic crop production.
2. They must submit an application in the requisite format along with the fee and complete field verification as specified by the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP).
3. The Natural Organic Certification Agro Pvt Ltd (NOCA) has provided the standards for organic crop production which are available in the NOCA website Link
4. The certification is available in the below link Link
5. The individual form application is available at form can be downloaded at Link .
6. The operator (the person responsible for the unit/farm to be certified) enquires the NOCA office. NOCA then sends a detailed application package including the application form, procedure for certification and copy of Indian Organic Standards. To apply for certification the operator needs to complete the application form and return it to the NOCA office.
7. After receiving the filled in application form, NPOCA reviews the application and sends a quotation for inspection and certification along with the scale of fees. On accepting the offer, the operator needs to send 70 % of the offer fees as advance.
8. The operator is registered on tracenet .
9. Upon receipt of the advance payment NOCA, in consultation with the operator, fixes the date and time for inspection. Prior to the inspection the operator must sign the inspection and certification contract.
10. During the inspection the operator has to co-operate with the inspector as declared in the inspection and certification contract. The inspector completes the inspection report during the inspection visit. The operator acknowledges the same with his/her signature and receives a copy of the same. Also, Scale of sanctions and copies of relevant standards are handed over to the operator during inspection. The original inspection report will be forwarded to NOCA office for further certification process.
11. After inspection, the total inspection and certification costs are finalized and an invoice is sent to the operator. The operator must send the remaining 30% of the final invoice to NOCA.
12. Upon receipt of the full payment the inspection report and the file will be submitted to the certification committee. If additional documents are required, a communication will be sent to the operator.
13. The certification committee will take the certification decision based on the available documentation. Certification decisions will be intimated within one month after the inspection report, payment and relevant documents (if any) has been received at NOCA.
14. For use of the certification agency logo/ India Organic Logo, the operator must send a request for the same to the office which after approval by the Certification committee will be sent to the operator as per the NSOP. The draft of labels must be sent to certification agency office for verification and approval before printing.

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Required Documents

The below are the necessary documents:- Document to be attached with the application form (in order)

• Completed application form email (email) and contact number must be written
• PAN card, copy of Aadhaar card and passport size photo (main operator)
• Aadhaar card and passport size photo (of contact person)
• 7/12 extract
• Filled copy of Farm diary
• Off farm inputs guarantee
• Soil and water test reports
• Organic system plan (according to the sample winter, summer, monsoon season survey number planting crop and its estimated production)
• Recent ground and water test reports Along with the required fee with all the above documents the application form should be sent to The Director, NOCA .

Office Locations & Contacts

Flat No A - 6, 3rd Floor, Pol Heights, Above Lodha Hospital,
Mumbai- Bangalore Highway, Warje, Pune-411058,
Maharashtra, INDIA
PH : +91-20-25237677
Email :[email protected]

Eligibility

The product to get the certification needs to be associated with the authenticity since two to three years. For first time certification, the soil must meet the basic requirements of being free from the use of prohibited substances (synthetic chemicals, etc) for a number of years. A conventional farm must adhere to organic standards for this period.

Fees

• The below is the fee structure:
  
• The detailed fee structure is available at Link
  

Validity

Organic certificate remains valid for one year only, it has to be renewed every year.

Documents to Use

• General standards for organic crop production - Link
• Application form - Link .
• Application form for Group certification Link
• Procedure for Organic certification - Link
• Application form for Organic agriculture input approval - Link .

Sample Documents

Please attach sample completed documents that would help other people.

Processing Time

That depends on the history of your operations and your compliances with certification standards and regulations. It takes two years for annual crops and three years for perennial crops to be certified as organic.

Related Videos

Videos explaining the procedure or to fill the applications.
Attach videos using the following tag <&video type='website'>video ID|width|height<&/video&> from external websites.
Please remove the '&' inside the tags during implementation.
Website = allocine, blip, dailymotion, facebook, gametrailers, googlevideo, html5, metacafe, myspace, revver,
sevenload, viddler, vimeo, youku, youtube
width = 560, height = 340, Video ID = Can be obtained from the URL of webpage where the video is displayed.
e.g In the following url 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0US7oR_t3M' Video ID is 'Y0US7oR_t3M'.

Instructions

• Application shall be scrutinized.
• Any information required shall be communicated to the operator and operator shall submit the requested information immediately.
• Application without prescribed fee shall not be reviewed.
• After review of application decision shall be made by NOCA on acceptance/ rejection of the application.
• The rejected application shall be returned to the applicant citing reasons for rejection along with the fees enclosed.
• Fee paid for the applications accepted by NOCA shall not be refunded at any circumstances.
• An initial onsite inspection shall be fixed and communicated to the operator after registration or shall be noted in the registered copy of application itself.
• If the operator does not accept the certification decision, he/she can request for reconsideration of the decision in writing. The file is submitted to the certification committee for re-consideration. If the operator still does not agree with the revised decision, he/she can appeal to the appeals committee in writing within 30 days of the notification of certification decision. The file will then be submitted to the appeals committee, which takes final decision on the case.
• The operator can make the label incorporating the logo and other relevant details and should send to NOCA for approval. After approval NOCA sends the approval decision to the operator. Operator may use the label for marketing only after the label approval.

Required Information

The below are the necessary details for Organic Agriculture product registration:

• Name & Address of the Organic Producer
• Liscence
• State
• Website
• Address
• Expiry date of Licence
• Responsible person
• gujaLegal status of Company
• Farm Name
• Farm Address
• Name of contact person
• Organic Certification No
• Email id
• Phone no
• Pin code

Need for the Document

Organic certification addresses a growing worldwide demand for organic food. It is intended to assure quality and prevent fraud. For organic producers, certification identifies suppliers of products approved for use in certified operations. For consumers, "certified organic" serves as a product assurance, similar to "low fat",
"100% whole wheat", or "no artificial preservatives". Certification is essentially aimed at regulating and facilitating the sale of organic products to consumers. Individual certification bodies have their own service marks, which can act as branding to consumers—a certifier may promote the high consumer recognition value of its logo as a marketing advantage to producers. Most certification bodies operate organic standards that meet the National government's minimum requirements.

Information which might help

• If the Organic System of operation does not comply with the Standards, the operator shall be intimated about denial of certification stating the reasons for such action with non-conformities noticed and time limit for submission of correction.
• The operator may write to certification agency office if there are any complaints against either the staff or the organization or certification decision or any other related matter
• In cases where the operator is not satisfied with the manner in which the complaint was dealt with, particularly related to any certification decision, the operator may appeal in writing to the certification agency appellate authority along with a prescribed fees within 21 days of certification decision.
• The appellate authority shall review the case and submit a decision to the operator. All complaints and appeals will be dealt with confidentially in a fair and appropriate manner and a decision will be taken and informed to the concerned operator.
• A notice of denial of certification shall inform the operator about the reasons and applicants right to reapply for certification or file an Appeal to the Appeal Committee.

Other uses of the Document/Certificate

India Organic Certification is a label given to organic products after validation, which ensures that the product or raw materials used in the product were grown through organic farming - without any chemical fertilizers,  pesticides, or induced hormones. A trademark - "India Organic" will be granted on the basis of compliance with the National Standards for Organic Production (NSOP). Communicating the genuineness as well as the origin of the product, this trademark will be owned by the Government of India

External Links

Place some external links which might help.

Others

More information which might help people.