Every PGS-India crop must pass a conversion period before its produce can carry the organic label. The length depends on the crop and on the farm's documented history. This episode sets out the three tracks in the PGS-India Standards and who can approve each.
The short version
- 36 months for perennial crops, 24 months for all other crops.
- The Regional Council may reduce it to 12 months where earlier compliance is verifiable.
- Default organic areas may be waived, but only by the PGS Secretariat.
- The clock starts when the farm starts complying, not when it registers.
Which Track Applies to Your Farm
The farm's documented history decides the track: full period, 12 months, or a waiver.
The practical question isn't "how long is conversion" — it's which of these three tracks your farm actually qualifies for. This is the decision the Regional Council is effectively making when it reviews your application:
organic history?"} -->|"None"| C{"Crop type?"} C -->|"Perennial"| D["36 months"] C -->|"Annual"| E["24 months"] B -->|"Verifiable"| F["12 months
RC discretion"] B -->|"Default area"| G["May be waived
Secretariat only"]
The Two Base Conversion Periods
36 months for perennials and 24 months for other crops, counted from when the farm starts complying.
For a farm and its crop production to be certified organic, the entire farming operation must have undergone a conversion period complying with all standard requirements for 36 months for perennial plants and 24 months for plants and crops other than perennials.
This clock starts from the point the farm begins complying with PGS-India's organic requirements — no prohibited inputs, proper buffer zones, and so on. It does not start from the date you apply or register. Farms routinely lose a year by assuming otherwise.
When the Period Can Be Shortened to 12 Months
With verifiable records of past compliance, the RC may reduce the period to 12 months.
In cases where the de-facto requirements under the standards have already been met for several years — and this can be verified from available documents — the conversion period can be reduced to 12 months, at the discretion of the Regional Council.
This is the mechanism many traditional or naturally-organic farms use: if you can produce records showing you haven't used prohibited substances for years, you don't have to wait out the full 24 or 36 months from scratch. The operative word is verifiable — the RC is not taking your word for it.
The Rare Full Waiver
In default organic areas, the Secretariat alone can waive conversion, on the RC's recommendation.
There's a third, narrower path. In default organic areas where all of the following hold, the conversion period requirement can be dispensed with entirely:
| Condition | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| No history of prohibited-substance use | The area has genuinely never been under chemical agriculture |
| Administrative ban in force | The local administration has formally imposed a ban on such substances |
| Adequate preventive measures | Controls exist to stop prohibited substances entering the area |
| RC physical verification | The Regional Council has physically verified and recommended it |
| Secretariat approval | Final sign-off comes from the PGS Secretariat, not the RC |
A Regional Council cannot grant this waiver on its own authority. It can only recommend it after physical verification — the decision itself sits with the PGS Secretariat. An RC telling you conversion is waived without Secretariat sign-off is a problem waiting to surface at certification.
What This Means in Practice
No records means the full period; proof can shorten it; only the Secretariat can waive it.
A farm with no documented history gets the full 24 or 36 months. A farm with provable years of de-facto organic practice can petition its Regional Council for the 12-month track. And a genuinely untouched traditional-farming area can, in rare cases, skip conversion entirely — but only through the Secretariat.
If your conversion status upgrade is stuck on the portal rather than in the underlying rule, that's usually a data-matching issue, not a standards one — see our guide on fixing PGS-Green to PGS-Organic upgrade errors.
Check yourself
Tap an answer to see whether you are right, and why.
What is the PGS-India conversion period for an annual crop with no special evidence?
- 12 months
- 24 months
- 36 months
36 months is for perennials.
Who can waive the conversion period in a default organic area?
- The Local Group
- The Regional Council alone
- The PGS Secretariat, on the RC's recommendation
The RC can only recommend.
Remember these things
- 36 months perennial; 24 months other crops.
- 12 months with verifiable history.
- Waiver only by the Secretariat.
- The clock starts with compliance.
Knowing your conversion track early lets you plan the first certified season. KrushiFlow validates these fields and submits farmer records to the portal in bulk.