Sikkim to receive ‘100% organic state’ award in Rome

State beat out 51 other nominees from 25 countries for the Future Policy Award 2018

The “100 per cent organic state” Sikkim, the first in the world, will receive the “Oscar for best policies” at a UN ceremony in Rome as it bolsters efforts to attain the Sustainable Development Goals, an Indian lawmaker said yesterday.

Sikkim beat out 51 other nominees from 25 countries for the Future Policy Award 2018 — the world’s best laws and policies promoting agroecology — which will be presented during the World Food Week at headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today.

Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling and Sikkim Democratic Front MP Prem Das Rai are in Rome to attend the awards ceremony, along with Ambassador Reenat Sandhu.

“We are pleased to know that a Himalayan state of India has been awarded this year’s Future Policies Award in agroecology,” Rai told journalists in an email reply.

“The leadership under Chief Minister Pawan Chamling has to be lauded. Farsighted and with huge political will has been the underpinning of this policy. It’s even more important to understand that the magnitude of the policy in both its simplicity and wideranging implications for human development and climate change mitigation.

“It bolsters efforts to attain the Sustainable Development Goals. Hence Sikkim and India need to be proud of this great moment,” an elated Rai added.