India ranks first in groundnut acreage (6.4 million ha), which accounts for 23.87 per cent of the world total groundnut area. The average productivity of groundnut in India is 1125 kg ha~(-1), which is far below the world's average of 1449 kg ha~(-1)(www.agrico.op.nic.in). In the wake of serious pollution problems and bio-magnification of toxic chemicals in the various biological systems, 'organic farming' is the right approach in the present day agriculture. Organic agriculture is increasingly gaining social, political and scientific recognition for its contribution to sustainable agriculture. On a world scale, 23 million hectares are grown organically. Australia is leading with 10.5 million ha, followed by Argentina (3.2 million ha) and Italy (1.2 million ha). The European Union regulation 2092 / 91 for organic agriculture, stipulates that seeds and planting material for organic farming should be organically produced. Further the regulation will allow no more general derogation in the use of conventionally propagated seeds from 2004 onwards. In this background, it is now necessary for the conventional seed sector to make a commitment to scale up and supply the organic market with a sufficient quantity and an adequate quality of organically produced seeds in groundnut too, which is being consumed in larger quantity worldwide.
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