<p class="title">India's first fully organic state won top prize in a U.N.-backed award on Friday, with organisers saying its policies had helped more than 66,000 farmers, boosted tourism and set an example to other countries.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The small Himalayan state of Sikkim on India's border with Tibet was declared fully organic in 2016 after phasing out chemical fertilisers and pesticides and substituting them with sustainable alternatives.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Sikkim's experience shows that "100 percent organic is no longer a pipe dream but a reality," said Maria-Helena Semedo, deputy director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which co-organises the Future Policy Awards.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The awards have previously honoured policies combating desertification, violence against women and girls, nuclear weapons and pollution of the oceans.</p>.<p class="bodytext">This year's was for agroecology, which includes shunning chemicals, using crop residues as compost, planting trees on farms and rotating crops to improve the soil and protect against pests.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Proponents say agroecology could increase farmers' earnings and make farms more resilient to climate change as erratic rainfall and extended dry periods hamper food production.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Tourism numbers in Sikkim rose by 50 percent between 2014 and 2017, according to the World Future Council, another co-organiser.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Sikkim sets an excellent example of how other countries worldwide can successfully upscale agroecology," said Alexandra Wandel, director of the World Future Council.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We urgently need to shift to more sustainable food systems. Agroecology is absolutely vital to make our food systems sustainable and inclusive," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by email.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The second prize was split three ways, with Brazil honoured for a policy of buying food for school meals from family farms; Denmark for a successful plan to get people buying more organic food, and Ecuador's capital Quito for boosting urban gardening.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The prizes honour "exceptional policies adopted by political leaders who have decided to act, no longer accepting widespread hunger, poverty or environmental degradation," added FAO's Semedo.</p>.<p class="bodytext">(Reporting By Thin Lei Win @thinink, Editing by Claire Cozens. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, corruption and climate change. Visit www.trust.org)</p>
<p class="title">India's first fully organic state won top prize in a U.N.-backed award on Friday, with organisers saying its policies had helped more than 66,000 farmers, boosted tourism and set an example to other countries.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The small Himalayan state of Sikkim on India's border with Tibet was declared fully organic in 2016 after phasing out chemical fertilisers and pesticides and substituting them with sustainable alternatives.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Sikkim's experience shows that "100 percent organic is no longer a pipe dream but a reality," said Maria-Helena Semedo, deputy director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which co-organises the Future Policy Awards.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The awards have previously honoured policies combating desertification, violence against women and girls, nuclear weapons and pollution of the oceans.</p>.<p class="bodytext">This year's was for agroecology, which includes shunning chemicals, using crop residues as compost, planting trees on farms and rotating crops to improve the soil and protect against pests.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Proponents say agroecology could increase farmers' earnings and make farms more resilient to climate change as erratic rainfall and extended dry periods hamper food production.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Tourism numbers in Sikkim rose by 50 percent between 2014 and 2017, according to the World Future Council, another co-organiser.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Sikkim sets an excellent example of how other countries worldwide can successfully upscale agroecology," said Alexandra Wandel, director of the World Future Council.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We urgently need to shift to more sustainable food systems. Agroecology is absolutely vital to make our food systems sustainable and inclusive," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by email.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The second prize was split three ways, with Brazil honoured for a policy of buying food for school meals from family farms; Denmark for a successful plan to get people buying more organic food, and Ecuador's capital Quito for boosting urban gardening.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The prizes honour "exceptional policies adopted by political leaders who have decided to act, no longer accepting widespread hunger, poverty or environmental degradation," added FAO's Semedo.</p>.<p class="bodytext">(Reporting By Thin Lei Win @thinink, Editing by Claire Cozens. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, corruption and climate change. Visit www.trust.org)</p>