Sikkim: Making of the First 100% Organic State of the World

Abstract

A small Indian state, Sikkim, sitting in the lap of the Himalayas, took a revolutionary step by deciding to turn 100% organic. This made Sikkim the first state in the world that is 100% organic. No other state in India has been even close to achieving this. In 2021, Sri Lanka attempted to do the same but ended up with disastrous consequences. President Rajapaksa declared a ban on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides almost overnight. It was impossible for the farmers to change their agriculture practices suddenly. After COVID, Sri Lanka was already facing a foreign exchange crisis; it was worsened with this step since agriculture production plummeted. It is reported that 9 out of 10 Sri Lankan families had to skip meals due to food shortages. Compared to this, the experiment in Sikkim was very systematic. Sikkim decided to turn organic in 2003-04. It gave itself ten years to change the situation on the ground, and it was only by 2015 that it declared itself a 100% organic state. The ban on chemical inputs was made official only in 2015. One hundred farmers from South Sikkim were interviewed by the researcher. It was found that, indeed, no farmer used any chemical inputs and that Sikkim, even after 20 years of experimenting, remains a truly organic state. This paper shows the path taken by Sikkim to become a fully organic state. It shows how the entire process was planned systematically. It also notes the way the farmers adapted to this change – how the cropping pattern changed, as well as the difficulties that the farmers faced while adopting organic farming. The paper looks into the replicability of this operation and also the scalability. We conclude that it is not feasible to scale up Sikkim’s experiment, and it is also difficult to replicate it. But still, the experiment is successful because Sikkim looks poised to remain organic, mostly by choice.

Keywords: 100% Organic State, Sikkim Agriculture, Scalability of Organic Farming

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