The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda) has extended the deadline to July 3 for the 100 per cent mandatory physical verification of Indian farmers cultivating organic crops in all growers’ groups. 

This is the second extension given for the physical verification of farmers, which began on November 3, 2025. In a communication, Apeda said requests were received from the stakeholders for extending the deadline to complete the verification process due to “network issues, updation of grower group farmer records and temporary migration of farmers, among other things.

“The representations and requests were examined, and it has been decided to extend the deadline for completion of the farmer verification process…,” the communication said. 

52% growers covered

Initially, Apeda had given three months deadline for the verification process of farmers. Apeda Chairman Abhishek Dev said so far 52 per cent of the total farmers have been covered under the process.

In July 2022, the government told the Lok Sabha that 25 lakh farmers were engaged in organic cultivation. However, on July 29, 2025, it told the Lower House that per available records, there were 19,29,243 farmers certified by the accredited certification bodies under National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) under 4,712 active organic grower groups. 

Apeda said that after the expiry of the deadline on July 3, the Tracenet system will not allow any kind of operation for the unverified farmers, including yield updation and sourcing from their lots. 

Riders for tardy growers

In addition, for the grower groups which have verified less than 20 per cent farmers till now should have covered at least 50 per cent by June 3.. 

In case of any default, Transaction Certificates for such groups would not be issued from June 4, till they achieve cent per cent farmer verification in the group before July 3. 

Apeda said it was regularly reviewing the progress at the level of certification bodies. Action would also be taken against such bodies for “slow/unsatisfactory” progress per NPOP regulation.  

Apeda made it mandatory for registration of new organic farmers, renewing the scope certificate that confirms a grower’s compliance and issuing a no-objection certificate (NOC) to switch certification organisations. 

Other norms

Any failure would lead to penalties on the certification body, delay or withholding of transaction certifications and scope certification renewal or registration getting prolonged, said Apeda, which acts as the secretariat of NPOP accrediting certifying bodies, fixing standards and facilitating exports of organic products.

It said there should not be any inconsistency in farmer names or formatting through Aadhaar identification during the verification. In that case, Apeda would or the technical team of Tracenet, the authority’s software system, would have to be informed.

The verification also required farmers to be available for physical verification and ready access to documents, registers, maps and acreage records.

The process requires  every farmer group to appoint a manager acquainted with the internal control system (ICS) of organic farming, registering it under the Companies Act or the Cooperative Societies Act or a similar cooperatives or societies Act. Each group should have a three-member approval committee. 

Apeda will fix the maximum charge a certification body can levy for the verification process. The growers’ group will have to bear the travel and accommodation expenses of the certification body personnel.

An industry source said a farmer group may have to pay ₹2 lakh, including the fees and travel expenses. The charges could be a burden for some groups and could be a reason for the delay. 

Published on May 7, 2026