The Chief Minister's Office of Uttarakhand, on behalf of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, on Sunday, June 7, 2026, issued a direct appeal to the state's farming community to get their soil tested and transition toward organic and natural farming practices. The statement was made in the context of Almora, a hill district known for its smallholder agricultural traditions.

Context

In his appeal, CM Dhami said — 'मैं अपने किसान भाई-बहनों से आग्रह करता हूं कि आप मिट्टी का परीक्षण कराकर जैविक और प्राकृतिक खेती की ओर कदम बढ़ाइए' ['I urge my farmer brothers and sisters to get their soil tested and take steps towards organic and natural farming']. The appeal positions soil testing as the foundational first step before any shift in farming practice.

Almora district, located in the central Himalayas, has a predominantly agrarian population dependent on smallholder and subsistence farming. The region's fragmented landholdings and agro-climatic conditions make it particularly suited to low-input organic cultivation rather than chemical-intensive agriculture.

Policy Backdrop

The appeal aligns with the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY), the central government's flagship scheme launched in 2015 to promote organic farming through cluster-based development and soil health management. Under PKVY, farmers are encouraged to form groups, adopt organic inputs, and access certification support — all of which require baseline soil health data.

The national Soil Health Card scheme has been a parallel instrument, providing individual farmers with soil nutrient reports to guide input decisions. Uttarakhand, with its ecologically sensitive terrain, has been identified as a priority state for reducing chemical fertiliser use in favour of organic alternatives. The example of Sikkim, which achieved full organic state status in 2016, has served as a reference point for Himalayan states charting similar transitions.

The Uttarakhand government has progressively promoted sustainable agriculture suited to hilly terrain, leveraging the state's agro-climatic conditions to position its produce as premium organic products in domestic and export markets.

Stakeholders and Impact

The primary beneficiaries of this push are Uttarakhand's small and marginal farmers, who often rely on expensive chemical inputs that erode both soil quality and household incomes over time. A shift to organic and natural farming, once established, can reduce input costs and open access to certified organic markets that command higher prices.

Organic certification, however, requires a transition period — typically two to three years — during which yields may dip before stabilising. State-level support through subsidies, training, and guaranteed procurement is critical to sustaining farmer confidence through this period. The Chief Minister's emphasis on soil testing suggests the government views scientific data as the entry point to building that confidence.

What's Next

Observers will watch for follow-through in the form of expanded soil testing laboratory infrastructure across Uttarakhand's hill districts, as well as certification and market-linkage support under state agriculture schemes in the coming seasons. Potential updates in the state budget or agricultural policy documents regarding natural farming subsidies would signal whether this appeal translates into programmatic action.

With Himalayan soil degradation a growing concern and national policy increasingly favouring natural farming, CM Dhami's statement from Almora could mark the beginning of a more structured state-level push — one that will be measured by the number of farmers who actually receive Soil Health Cards and transition to certified organic cultivation in the seasons ahead.