PGS-India's crop production standard is specific about what crosses the line from organic to non-compliant. Below is what's actually banned and what's explicitly permitted, drawn directly from the standard rather than general "organic farming" advice.
Banned vs. Allowed, Side by Side
| Input category | Status | The actual rule |
|---|---|---|
| Synthetic fertilizers, mineral nitrogen | Banned | Prohibited directly or indirectly, along with chemical hormones and synthetic growth promoters |
| GMO seed, planting material, organisms | Banned | Strictly prohibited — no availability exception, unlike conventional seed |
| Sewage, sludge, human excreta | Banned | Prohibited in any form, including processed products |
| Synthetic herbicides, fungicides, insecticides | Banned | Includes synthetic plant growth regulators and synthetic dyes |
| Mined mineral fertilizers | Allowed | Permitted in their natural composition |
| Micronutrients | Allowed | Where deficiency exists — must be mixed with compost |
| Raw dung / urine products | Conditional | Only after controlled fermentation, never applied raw |
| Microbial preparations | Allowed | Biofertilizers, biodynamic preparations, EM solutions |
| Off-farm purchased inputs | Conditional | Group must evaluate first — unless already NPOP-approved |
If an input is already approved for organic use by an NPOP-accredited certification body, your Local Group does not need to separately re-evaluate it. That shortcut saves a lot of group meeting time.
Pest and Weed Management: The Priority Ladder
The standard doesn't just list banned pesticides — it prescribes an order of preference. An inspector checking your pest management is really checking whether you worked down this ladder rather than jumping to the bottom rung:
rotations, resistant
varieties, habitat"] B --> C{"Imminent
threat?"} C -->|"No"| D["Stop here"] C -->|"Yes"| E["2 · Physical and
biological
traps, predators"] E --> F{"Still a
threat?"} F -->|"No"| D F -->|"Yes"| G["3 · Permitted
bio products"] G --> H["Synthetics stay
banned throughout"]
Weed Management
Permitted methods are mulching with biodegradable material, mowing, livestock grazing, hand or mechanical weeding, and flame, heat, or electrical means. Plastic or other synthetic mulches are allowed — provided they are removed from the field after harvest. Synthetic herbicides are banned outright, with no threshold or exception.
The Composting Requirement People Miss
One specific, easy-to-overlook requirement: biodegradable material of plant or animal origin must be composted using an aerobic method, with the pile temperature maintained between 131°F and 170°F for a minimum of 5 days.
This isn't a best-practice suggestion — it's a stated standard requirement, and it's exactly the kind of detail a peer appraiser will ask you to demonstrate. If your group has no temperature record for its compost piles, that's a finding waiting to happen.
For the farm-level requirements that sit underneath all of this — buffer zones, seed sourcing, and crop diversity — see the farm setup rules.