Organic Farming: The Indian Perspective

Article Written By: Amit Abhyankar

The recent row over presence of pesticides in Cola products has once again underlined the necessity of avoiding the overuse of chemical fertilizers & pesticides for agricultural purposes. The problem of farmers’ suicides remains an unsolved riddle. Can ‘organic farming’ be the answer? The article tries to locate the answer keeping in view the Indian perspective.

What is Organic Farming?

The scientific definition can be given as — Organic farming is a form of agriculture that relies on ecosystem management and attempts to reduce or eliminate external agricultural inputs, especially synthetic ones. It is a holistic production management system that promotes and enhances agro-ecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity. Utilizing both traditional and scientific knowledge, organic agricultural systems rely on agronomic, biological, and mechanical methods, as opposed to using synthetic materials.

In simple words, organic farming avoids the use of synthetic (chemical) fertilizers, pesticides & genetically modified organisms. It was initiated as a conscious rejection of modern agro-chemical techniques in the 1930s by the British agronomist Sir Albert Howard, often called “the father of modern organic agriculture”. He studied traditional farming practices in Bengal, India and came to regard such practices as superior to modern agricultural science and recorded them in his 1940 book, “An Agricultural Testament”.

What’s the difference?

The significant difference in the approach lies in the fact that while in conventional modern farming, chemical fertilizers are used to feed the plants directly, in organic farming, the organic materials (including animal manure, compost, grass turf, straw, and other crop residues), are applied to fields to improve both soil structure and moisture-holding capacity and to nourish soil life, which in turn nourishes plants. Biological pest control is achieved through preventive methods, including diversified farming, crop rotation, the planting of pest-deterrent species, and the use of integrated pest management techniques. Thus organic faming concentrates on ‘feeding the soil rather than feeding the plants’ as ‘feeding the soil always feeds the plants’. Enhancing soil health is the cornerstone of organic farming. This is a biological process, driven by micro-organisms, that allows the natural production of nutrients in the soil throughout the growing season.

Why Organic Farming?

Modern Agriculture has now become ‘market’ driven, with quantity scoring over quality, the intrinsic & nutritional value. Pesticide and other chemical residues in food and an overall reduced quality of food have led to a marked increase in various diseases, mainly various forms of cancer and reduced bodily immunity. Pesticides are not bio-degradable, are highly toxic and find their way into ground water and water bodies, contaminating them and rendering them unfit for drinking purposes. Food contaminated by chemicals or grown from genetically-modified seeds and planting material is unhealthy. That’s plain and simple and easily understood. Consuming such food is akin to allowing a time bomb tick inside whoever eats it.

Negative impact on environment includes enormous levels of chemical buildup in our environment, in soil, water, air, in animals and even in our own bodies. In the name of growing more to feed the earth, we have taken the wrong road of unsustainability.

The side-effects of modern farming includes land exhaustion, nitrate run-off, soil erosion & compaction, contaminated food, threat to indigenous seeds and animal breeds and species Habitat destruction, increasing cost of chemical fertilisers, pesticides, weedicides, agricultural fuel, imported animal feed etc.

This is where organic farming comes in. Organic farming has the capability to take care of each of these problems. Besides the obvious immediate and positive effects organic or natural farming has on the environment and quality of food, it also greatly helps a farmer to become self-sufficient in his requirements for agro-inputs and reduce his costs.

Organic farming is superior cost-wise as well. The figures of study conducted in Madhya Pradesh (1995) are as follows-

Cost: Modern Farming- Rs. 3000 (for Fert.) + Cost of Weedicides & Pesticides

Cost: Organic Farming- Rs. 1500 (No extra cost)

Yield in Modern Farming: (Wheat) 16-20 Quintals per Hectare

Yield in Organic Farming: (Wheat) 15-17 Quintals per Hectare

Here’s a story of a farmer in Nashik- Mr. Madhavrao Barve insists on making his unique organic blend of fertilizers mixing fresh cow dung with a little bit of honey and ghee. It sounded funny to those who saw him do it, but Barve knew he would bring back his land to life. He got this recipe, he says, from the Arthasashtra, the ancient Hindu epic. Barve now shows off his sugarcane farm saying that he gets 107 tonnes an acre, more than what other farmers who are still using chemicals get from their lands. He spends an average of Rs. 200 an acre whereas farmers using chemicals have to spend Rs. 5000, as the pesticides are expensive. “We must learn to use repellents and not killers,” he says.

The Indian Scenario

Indian Central Government set up a National Institute of Organic Farming in October 2003 in Ghaziabad, Madhya Pradesh. The purpose of this institute is to formulate rules, regulations and certification of organic farm products in conformity with international standards. In 2005, as per Govt. of India figures, approximately 190,000 acres (77,000 hectares) were under organic cultivation. The total production of organic food in India as per the same reference was 120,000 tons annually, though this largely included certified forest collections. Officially, only 0.03 per cent of its land is slated to be under Organic Agriculture.

Organic farming has been identified as a major thrust area of the 10th plan of the central government. 1 billion rupees have been allocated to the aforementioned National Institute of Organic Farming alone for the 10th five-year plan. It’s a $31 billion (2005) global organic market and India‘s current share is only 0.001 per cent.

The irony and difficulty of the new governmental push for organic agriculture is that 65% of the country’s cropped area is “organic by default,” (or at least ‘relatively organic’) according to a study by Rabo India. Because About 65% of India‘s cropped area is not irrigated. Chemical fertilisers require sufficient water to respond. Pesticide use in these lands would also be less as the economics of these ‘not-so profitable’ crops will not permit expensive inputs. These areas are at least “relatively organic” or perhaps even “organic by default”. While neither of these terms necessarily denotes a healthy farm or a recommended agriculture system, it would at least imply a non-chemical farm that can be converted very easily to an organic one providing excellent yields and without the necessity and effort of a lengthy conversion period.

There are a number of farms in India which have either never been chemically-managed/cultivated or have converted back to organic farming because of their farmers’ beliefs or purely for reason of economics. These thousands of farmers cultivating hundreds of thousands of acres of land are not classified as organic though they are. Their produce either sells in the open market along with conventionally grown produce at the same price or sells purely on goodwill and trust as organic through select outlets and regular specialist bazaars. These farmers will never opt for certification because of the costs involved as well as the extensive documentation that is required by certifiers.

The Problems

The weak link in the organic/economic chain is certification. Under current government policy, it takes four years for a farm to be certified as organic. The cost of preparing the report is a flat fee of Rs. 5000, and the certificate itself costs another Rs. 5000. While these costs are bearable for any organic greenhouses, they are equal to or more than an entire year’s income for the average small farmer, if the costs of travel and inspection are included.

Another problem is the transition from non-organic to organic farming. This transition isn’t going to be easy, owing to several direct and indirect costs involved in the whole process of conversion. At the initial stages of conversion, yields may be lower compared to those under conventional practices, although they may turn out to be equal or even higher once the transition phase gets over.

New investments may be needed in farm machinery, fencing, storage space etc. Additional costs may also be associated with organic fertility building measures, such as, reseeding grassland, establishing green manure, legumes and so on. Since such organic techniques are generally more labour intensive so labour costs are also likely to be higher compared to the pre-conversion period.

Information and knowledge gathering may be expensive as well, due to the costs of literature, training courses, advisory services etc. Furthermore, high costs would also be involved in getting the inspections (at least once a year) and ultimately certification done by an established certification agency. Besides, there are problems like lack of demand in the domestic markets, constraints on access to international markets, inadequate availability of different organic inputs, such as organic seeds, bio-fertilizers, bio-pesticides etc.

What needs to be done?

Given the multiplicity of direct as well as indirect benefits of organic farming (that includes financial, economic, social, environmental, ecological and other benefits), which far outweigh the initial costs of conversion, there is enough justification for a conversion support policy on part of the Central Government.

It is high time that the Government of India make a structural shift in its current policy stance of promoting organic agriculture merely as a means of enhanced earnings from the export front and support it as the technology of mainstream agriculture in the country. The Ministry of Agriculture should devise a full-fledged long-term policy framework to create an environment conducive enough for organic agriculture to flourish.

Well-thought-out subsidy and other support schemes need to be designed so as to make conversion to organic agriculture easier and cheaper Support structures may also be introduced for small farmers’ group certification.

Appropriate networks should be created in the country for dissemination of information among the farmers about international as well as local markets for organic produce.

The creation of a proper balance between export and local consumption, however, warrants exploration of various domestic market and marketing alternatives, such as weekly farmer’s markets, buyers-sellers meet, organic fairs, and so on.

Steps also need to be taken to enhance consumer awareness about the health-safety and environmental implications of organic produce. Heavy investments are required to be undertaken over a longer period in order to carry out several promotional activities and for development of domestic marketing networks before local marketing of organic products can actually take off in India.

Market development needs to happen for various organic inputs as well. Products such as bio-fertilisers, bio-pesticides, bio-control agents etc., should be made available in adequate quantities and at reasonable prices.

Conclusion

The condition of Organic Farming in India is best summarised by P.V. Satheesh, Director of the Deccan Development Society in the Hindu newspaper’s annual environmental report,- “It’s a sobering thought that the farmers producing the best and cleanest food must pay extra to certify, instead of inorganic foods being certified as potentially bad for our health.”

Organic Farming cannot be looked at as a panacea for the all the food & agricultural problems. However it’s beyond doubt that a conscious effort in the direction of making organic farming as the technology of mainstream agriculture is not by any means unwarranted.