ASSIGNMENT

Certificate in Organic Farming (COF)

(Developed in Collaboration with APEDA, Ministry of Commerce, Govt. of India)

School of Agriculture
Indira Gandhi National Open University
New Delhi – 110 068
Dear Learner,

Welcome to the Certificate in Organic Farming (COF) programme.

We hope that you have gone through the Programme Guide for COF carefully. It was
mentioned in the programme guide that for theory, the weightage to the term end
examination will be 80% and weightage to the continuous assessment will be 20%. There is
one assignment for each course i.e. four assignments for the programme. Each assignment
will be of 50 marks which will be ultimately converted to have weightage of 20 % of the
theory.
You are requested to go through the course materials first and then prepare the
assignment response following the instructions. Your responses should not be a verbatim
reproduction of the textual materials/blocks provided for self-learning purposes. Please
submit your assignment responses at the Study Centre allotted to you on or before the
due date as mentioned.

Instruction for formatting your assignment

1. On the top of the first page of your answer sheet, please write details exactly in the
following format:

Enrolment number:..................................................................
Name :......................................................................................

Address :.................................................................................
....................................................................................................................

.................................................................................
Course code :.........................................................

Course title : ...........................................................

Study Centre :.........................................................

(Name and code)

2. Use foolscap size paper for writing your answer.

3. Leave 4 cm margin on the top, bottom and let side of the paper.
4. Clearly indicate question number and part of the question being solved while writing
the answers.
5. All the assignments have to be submitted to the Programme Coordinator.
Assignment Number Date of Submission
 Assignment I (BAP-001) Before 31 August

Assignment II (BAPI-001) Before 30 September

Assignment III (BAPI-002) Before 31 October

Assignment IV(BAPI-003) Before 30 November

Wish you all the best to complete the programme successfully.

Programme Coordinator

IG-SOA/PO-IT/May, 2008

Assignment 1
(Course Code : BAP-001)
Maximum Marks : 50
Due date: Before 31 August
Note: Answer all questions. All questions carry equal marks.

Q1 (i): Enumerate the significance of Green Revolution for Food Production in India.
Also
highlight the ill-effects of post green revolution.
(ii) Explain the adverse effects of heavy doses of agro-chemicals in the
agriculture.
Q2 (i) What are the benefits and scope of organic farming? Explain with suitable
examples.
(ii) What are the contribution of Sir Albert Howard in the area of organic farming
in
India?
(iii) Describe the significance of India Organic Logo in organic production system.
Q 3 (i) How India is advantageous in organic farming? Explain your views.
(ii) Organic farming: Can it meet the India’s Food Needs? Give your opinion.
Q4 (i) Describe the Conversion, Group Certification and National Standards for
Organic
Farming.
(ii) Critically analyse the difference in the organic norms of various International
Agencies.
Q 5 (i) What are the IFAOM’s standards and principles for organic farming?
(ii) What are the internationally accepted organic norms? Describe the features
of each one. Also mention the difference in their application.

Assignment 2
(Course Code : BAPI-001)
Maximum Marks : 50
Due date: Before 30 September
Note: Answer all questions. All questions carry equal marks.
Q1 (i) Define a farm design and the characteristics of an organic farm. Draw a farm
design
on the line of your nearby farm.
(ii) What are the significances of border tree in organic farming? Illustrate your
views with suitable justification.
(iii) Differentiate the morphology and germination pattern of monocot and dicot
seeds.
Q2 (i) Explain the characteristic of an organic seed .
(ii) What precautions you would recommend while irrigating your organic crops?
(iii) Describe appropriate irrigation methods suitable for organic crops.
Q3 (i) What are the NPOP standards for organic livestock? Explain them.
(ii) Explain the significance of farm implements in organic farming. What are the
common implements recommended for organic farming? Explain.
Q4 (i) What are the approaches to manage soil fertility under organic farming?
(ii) What is the composting and manuring? Explain the best approach to prepare
the compost for organic farming.
(iii) What are the differences between the concentrated and bulky organic
manures? Explain the significance of liquid manures in organic production
system.
Q5 (i) What are the common pesticides recommended under organic farming?
Explain their
characteristics.
(ii) Explain the common bio-pesticides for organic farming and describe the
feature of mycopesticides with examples.
(iii) What are the common approaches to apply the biopesticides? Elaborate each
one of them with suitable examples.
Assignment 3
(Course Code : BAPI-002)
Maximum Marks : 50
Due date: Before 31 October
Note: Answer all questions. All questions carry equal marks.
Q1 (i) What is ICS? Explain its significance and implementation in organic farming.
(ii) Explain the Third Party Verification in organic farming. What is the
importance of Internal Quality System in organic farming? .
Q2 (i) Enumerate the accreditation and evaluation process of a certification agency.
(ii) What is the best approach of certification of small farmers and why ?
(iii) Describe the merits of certification.
Q3 (i) What is the significance of formats in certification?
(ii) Explain the types of documents to be maintained by the farmers and explain
their significance in certification.
Q4 (i) What are the Critical Control Points (CCPs) and HACCP in organic production
 system? Enumerate them.
(ii) Define the Chian of Custody. What is the significance of Chain of custody in
organic farming? Explain the roles of various custodians.
Q5 (i) Explain the significance of organic Trademark. What are the colour
specifications of
this Trademark, explain their significance in relevance to the organic farming?
Enumerate the terms and conditions of the use of this trademark.
(ii) What are the common checklists for inspection and certification of organic
livestock? Explain them. How these checklists help in inspection and
certification?

Assignment 4
(Course Code : BAPI-003)
Maximum Marks : 50
Due date: Before 30 November
Note: Answer all questions. All questions carry equal marks.
Q1 (i) “Organic farming is considered as profitable in comparison to that of
conventional
farming”. Substantiate this statement with suitable example. You may take
example of yours if you are performing organic farming.
(ii) How the government can boost the Organic production in the country?
Through light on it.
Q2 (i) What are the common funding agencies for organic farming? Explain their
terms and
conditions.
(ii) What are the common marketing system for organic products prevalent in
our country? Explain their merits and demerits.
Q3 (i) What is the role of middlemen in the marketing of agricultural products?
Please
specify.
(ii) Enumerate the constraints in organic product marketing in India? Explain
how to overcome them?
Q4 (i) Why organic products are costlier than their counterparts in the market?
Give your
views.
(ii) What do you mean by Basic Marketing functions?
Q5 (i) What are the common marketing functions? Explain them separately.
Enumerate the
common market functions for organic products.
(ii) How the market information is helpful in marketing? Explain your experience
on this aspect.