Our Standards

Organic certification is a process that helps producers of organic food and other organic agricultural products to get their products certified through internationally accredited certification bodies such as Control Union, Onecert, IMO, Indocert etc. Organic certification is intended to assure quality and prevent fraud. “Certified organic” label is a product assurance for consumers worldwide.

The standards are laid down and administered in India by APEDA. The standard is called the NPOP – National Programme for Organic Production. Similarly the US standard is called USDA NOP (National Organic Programme) standards and the European Union standards are specified by regulation EC 834/2007

• A farmer is required to engage in a number of activities, in addition to normal farming operations, to get the farm certified.
• The farmer has to study the organic standards, which cover in specific details all aspects of farming, including storage, transport and sale, allowable and disallowed substances.
• Farm facilities and production methods must comply with the standards, which may involve modifying facilities, sourcing and changing suppliers
• Paperwork detailing previous three years farm history at the minimum and current set-up is very essential
• Written annual production plan must be submitted, detailing everything from seed to sale
• Each farm goes through multiple checks
  • Group supervision by other farmers in the group
  • Sresta associates regularly visit the fields typically at least once in a fortnight
  • Internal inspections by the Sresta Internal standards compliance team
  • Annual on-farm inspections by the external certification agencies
  • Random Pesticide residue tests of soil, water and the produce
• A written record of day-to-day farming and marketing records should be available for inspection at any time
• For first-time farm certification, the farm soil must meet basic requirements such as being free from use of chemicals for a few years, usually 3 to 4 years. This period is known as being in transition. Transitional crops are not considered fully organic.

At H&V Organic farming projects, products and processing facilities have been certified for EC 834 / 2007 standards, US NOP and Indian NPOP organic standards. Most of the projects are certified by Control Union International, and Onecert. We are a member of IFOAM and are registered with US FDA.