London, January 27:

As European Union (EU) countries switch more to organic foods for value addition, the two big developing countries, and also others in Latin America are beginning to catch up. But it might be too soon to fear any agricultural trade wars now in organic produce.

‘’China and India have a huge potential to tap domestically to begin with,’’ Mattia Prayer-Galletti, country programme manager for Asia with the International Fund for Agriculture and Development (IFAD) said. The Rome-based organisation is a specialised agency of the United Nations dedicated to eradicating rural poverty in developing countries.

At the moment IFAD is trying to ‘’increase the space for organic farming as much as possible,’’ Prayer-Galletti said. Organic farming eliminates use of chemicals both by way of fertilisers and pesticides. That means largely a return to natural and traditional methods of farming.

Given the rapidly growing demand for organic food in Western markets, organically grown food which usually fetches a 20 to 40 per cent premium, represents a new opportunity for small farmers for whom a lack of means to buy fertilisers and pesticides can now be turned into an advantage.

Difficulties arise, however, by way of certifying such produce and then marketing it, even within the domestic market in the developing countries. This is where IFAD is looking to promote organic produce.

One way to promote organic farming is by ‘’carefully integrating the private sector to provide marketing services,’’ an IFAD report on Asia says.

‘’Organic farming is running into technological, intellectual and cultural barriers,’’ Prayer-Galletti said. ‘’On the one hand you have biotechnology, and at the same time governments are committed to increasing production, neglecting the interests of small farmers.’’

The primary IFAD objective in promoting organic farming is a means of lifting multitudes of small farmers out of poverty, now that their limitations have the potential of becoming an opportunity. ‘’Many farming communities are producing organic food without being aware that they are,’’ Prayer-Galletti said.

Organic farming could also create new jobs in rural areas and help reduce urban migration, IFAD says. Such farming is now becoming more organised in India and China. The value of Chinese exports grew from less than a million dollars in the mid-1990s to about $142 million in 2003 with estimates for 2004 of nearly $200 million, and more than 1,000 companies and farms certified.