Requirements for organic certification of sorghum production

Organic certification is only economically reasonable if the market demands it. Demand for organic sorghum grains for food may be still low, but may increase continuously with the growing worldwide demand for organic food.

Certification requires that the entire farm complies with organic rules. This includes abstaining from synthetic pesticides and fertilisers and chemically treated and genetically modified seeds for all crops.

Farmers should have sizeable land to produce commercial sorghum volumes beyond the household requirement in order to be able to cover the extra costs of certification. The land should be owned by the farmers or they should have assured, long-term leasehold.

Ideally farmers of the same village or area with adjacent fields form an organic producer organisation to minimise the risk of contamination from neighbouring fields and negotiate for preferential treatment of their harvests and good prices. Establishment of an internal control system helps to minimise the costs of organic certification. Eventually, as volumes increase, a producer organisation can acquire its own processing facilities.

To avoid contamination clean sacks only should be used for storing sorghum. These should not have been used for synthetic fertilisers or any chemicals.