Seeking to cash in on the growing worldwide demand for pesticide and fertiliser free farm products, country's apex agro marketing co-operative Nafed has drawn a plan to back organic farming in a big way.

The scheme envisaged extension of input support and expertise with in-built buy-back agreement to farmers willing to take up organic cultivation of spices, vegetables, fruits and medicinal plants in their land, National Agricultural Marketing Co-operative Federation MD C V Ananda Bose said.

Nafed also had plans to make Kerala the hub of organic farming and set up a national institute to promote it in view of the awareness of its potential among the state farmers.

"Organic farming is an area of great prospects for India.

There is a huge global market awaiting us for a wide range of organically grown products that the country can generate. We are yet to tap the full potential of this high-value farming," Bose told PTI here.

Since quality and certification were critical factors for the acceptability of organic products, especially by the advanced West, Nafed would also make arrangements for that.

"If a produce has to be considered organic it should be grown in a piece of land which is free of fertilizers and chemical pesticides at least for three years. Not just that, a fertilizer-free buffer zone is to be maintained around the organic gardens," he said.

"Our farmers, especially in rural areas, are not fully aware of such quality parameters and protocols followed internationally. We would be launching a mission to make them aware of such things," he said.

In Kerala alone, 3,500 acres of land had been identified for taking up organic farming to grow a host of crops, including banana, pepper, cashew and pineapple.

"One advantage of Kerala is that the awareness about organic cultivation is quite high. Also, youth are now coming forward for professional farming, whatever be the extent of land they have at their disposal?, he said.

For the time being, the focus would be on horticultural products. But side by side, floriculture and medicinal plant cultivation would be encouraged, he said.

The advantage of growing vegetables and fruits was that they could make the harvest in a shorter period.

This would be for the first time a national agency with strong base was coming out with a large scale input support plus buy-back guarantee project to promote clean, healthy and environment friendly farming, he added.