India as Organic Garden

India as organic garden article was originally written in way back in the mid-2015.. This article was written in context to then going on crisis in national agriculture. 

Governments, policy makers, economists and agriculture scientific community equates food security with farmers' sustainability. Governments, economist and agriculture scientist think by increasing production and productivity, farmers' income would increase and there would be food security, which is not the case in reality. Production and productivity has been in the focus since heydays of green revolution to hitherto. Technological inputs and costly input intensive agriculture has enhanced the cost of cultivation leaving poor end profits to farmers. So, I do feel and think that as Indian agriculture is at the crossroads; debt trap led suicides, high cost of cultivation, low real incomes to farmers, environment degradation, socio-economic problems in terms of social disharmony, disparity of incomes, biased regional growth is common phenomena. So, governments, economists, policy thinkers and agriculture scientists need to focus on how to reduce of cultivation rather than just focusing on production and productivity. When we think how to reduce the cost of cultivation with environmental sustainability; natural, organic, ecological or sustainable farming comes into picture.

As I had mentioned that this article was written in the mid 2015 in response to the promotion of genetic engineering to improve the overall productivity and well being of farmers by PM Modi on the inauguration of DD Farmers channel. I shared this article with PM Modi for which I got reply. I simply want to reproduce it to show how natural farming, ecological, organic or sustainable farming is the need of hour.

India as Organic Garden

Farmers’ suicide has been getting complex conundrum. Politicians are being using these incidences to leverage their dividends. Thou rightly contemplated that we need to moot what has been gone wrong over the past years. Roughly 300,000 farmers have been lost their life since owning of seeds by corporations especially some MNCs [95% of cottonseeds is monopolised by Monsanto so to be in other maize, soya is going to bein near future]. Some consider globalization, totally dependence on the markets for costly inputs, over reliance over cash crops [monoculture], negligible penetration of govt. schemes and finance are main culprit for agrarian crisis. Searching for every question logically often ignores the basic and natural reason for the problem; and analogy is vividly valid in current agrarian crisis too. We have simply been cut-off the umbilical cord connecting all of us to the Mother Earth, and moved away from bequeathed legacy of timeless tested agriculture practices. Indian philosophy of classical agriculture always worked on the inseparability, integration of life forms to the Mother Earth and the Mother Nature, and the Mother Nature is always being considered as ultimate provider. Unfortunately Cartesian system and possibilism has separated everything particularly human race from soil. Biodiversity is separated, soil is considered as non-living, soils are being made addicted to narcotic chemicals, and abstract GDP digits have become paramount and subjugated everything. Animals and trees have remained integral part of farming not as diets but for manures, seeds and other complementary usages. Every single input was taken from the vicinity depending upon climate, soils and plant requirement without disturbing the balance and cycle of nature. That is why we have been blessed with vibrant diversity among food patterns, people, flora and fauna but it is soil which binds all of us together. That is why India has been known as land of unity in diversity. And now every effort has been done to make farming homogenise, uniform and unnatural. Spray! Harsh chemicals because pests are feeding, kill the weeds because they are worthless; manipulate the seeds to poisonous factories (Bt industries) so other creatures could not think to feed upon them. How selfish we as human retrograded with in this short time frame? We don’t want other living creatures to survive if they share some food with us. Do really we have saved the food from getting waste? Do genetically engineered seeds really helping in food security or just being devastating the whole ecology and biodiversity? Who really is feeding the world, industries or tiny farms? Why health of soil and society has been interlinked? Why Punjab turned violent after green revolution and transformed into capitalist and consumptive economy today? Do really second green revolution or BGREI (gene revolution) with the help of GMOs, harsh chemicals and mechanization would be able to feed the teeming population or it is just myth designed by giant MNCs to exploit trade and rule over life finally, as history better reflects?

Promote indigenous knowledge and bio-diversity

British exploited Indian agriculture and promoted the very idea of industrial agriculture and monoculture of crops to feed their infant industries. Simply, they did mould the cultural agriculture to commercial agriculture. Alfred Howard was roped in by British govt. to encourage industrialized and Cartesian system of agriculture. He was supposed to visit Indian farms to encourage Western agricultural techniques but he himself was lured by classical and traditional methods of agriculture. Decades back he observed and felt the connection of healthy soil to overall well being of society. He regarded the indigenous knowledge and embraced the diversity of Indian agriculture where sustainability, conservation of resources, adaptation and use of local resources has remained heart and very core of growing plants. ‘An Agricultural Testament’, worked by Alfred Howard has known as holy book across the globe for organic agriculture despite acknowledging tribal and small farmers of India who taught Mr. Howard basics of natural farming.  Agriculture in India has always been viewed in frame of art and spirituality since antiquity. Seeds, straws and soils have been worshiped and seen as living and spirited entities. With industrialization, monoculture and intensification of input based farming everything have converted in to commodities. Consider example in agriculture few crops [cash crops] have been encouraged to ripe myopic benefits and letting them destruct the whole diversity, ecology, cultures, biodiversity of food crops and micro flora-fauna. Culture of growing pulses with cotton, oil crops with cereals, spices with plantation crops has become opaque and today most of our pulses & oils are coming through import. It gets rare to see earth-worms in the soil which have been considered as ‘Farmers’ Friend’ from the ages. These beautiful creatures have tilled the Indian soils to grow wonderful diverse food plates. When salt can murder them badly what these narcotic chemicals have done to these beautiful creatures. Now farmers are lack in company of most of birds, animals, fungi, lichens, mychorhiza, bacteria which remained helpful to them in their farms. And that is the reason farmer is standing alone in their farms and committing suicides. Every animal, bird, insect, fungus, off-plant and bacteria has been considered as enemy and tried to eliminate in course of industrial and chemical based agriculture. We need to promote traditional practices of agriculture where food, fodder, fuel and medicinal plants have always been grown together. We need to acknowledge the real heroes who are small and tribal farmers working day and night to save the biodiversity of planet. Agriculture is not an invention, not as a human technology but as a co-evolutionary development in which everything is inter-connected and inter-related. All the organisms from tiny one to larger one have their special role entitled by nature to maintain, sustain and develop the ecosystem. In greed we should not think ourselves as superior race and separate from the Nature and other organism. All we are inter-connected; we really need to understand non separation of every single entity.

Punjab is an experimental lab and repetition of similarity is insanity as spoke Einstein

Considered example of Punjab which was once known for its rich fertile soil, now most of soils have become toxic and poisoned so is the overall health of state. Water table has been dwindle, youth is binge on substance abuse; materialism and consumerism is all time high, corruption is in peak, state is not less than police state, ego and anger is boiling everywhere, alcohol has been become integral part of culture and has been accepted very well. This is simply because the soil of five rivers [Punj-Ab] has been marred, maimed and murdered with narcotic chemicals and converted to dead deserts. Really soils are dying in Punjab so is conscious and spirit of Punjab. Green revolution where all focus was pondered on HYVs (high yielding varieties), narcotic chemicals and inorganic fertilizers without considering the harmful effects in long terms. All the seeds were manipulated for the use and promotion of fertilizers and chemicals in name of feeding populations. Do we have really been able to feed the Indians when India is home to 194.6 million hungry people (according to recent FAO report) and, women are wasted, anaemic and stunted in every home? The picture gets clear through looking villages of developed Punjab where education is really miserable, alcohol vendors (thekas) are given free hands, ladies look pale working like slaves, and disparity is all time high; and in cities’ economy has taken shape of capitalist with gulf of social disparity.

I intuit Punjab is always remained as experimental lab of modern agriculture by chemical & seed industries and greedy governments. Consider example of diversification plan of Punjab agriculture wheat-rice is planning to shift on the maize-soy on the directions and lobbying by Monsanto [PAU is only SAU who endorse Bt cotton]. And I feel next plan would be of growing GM corn for animal feed and then consuming animal as food. I feel animal diet is going to be major diet in Punjab so will be the life-style diseases and syndromes. Dear Sir, our agriculture is at cross road and we have sailed in very chaotic situation. Most of the agricultural graduates are leaving Punjab for said modern education to USA and Canada to institutes where systems to own seed, own patents and own food system is putting in minds to reap benefits in coming futures.  It is not exaggeration to say that owning of seeds and privatisation of resources would hijack all the Indian agricultural system analogous to East India Company. We really need to check encroachment of seed companies and foreign institutions in our agricultural institutions which are trespassing in name of project funding, research collaborations or in other ways. Otherwise we will come across Indian blood-flesh with invisible foreign brains working for corporations and seeds giants. It is well designed game plan played by corrupt and capitalist minds. I am not xenophobic and anti-corporate, but we really need to discover why agricultural graduates toil so hard in farms or labs of MNCs or on foreign lands and not in Indian farms? As Thou said Indians work in all the great MNCs but why Google and Microsoft could not born out of Indian Womb, so is valid in Indian Agriculture? Why our cotton institutions did not able to breed single cotton variety to provide alternative variety to death knell Bt cotton? Why alternatives and choice of varieties are disappearing to farmers? Why markets are being designed to reap benefits by MNCs? As monopoly of cotton seeds caused destruction to cotton farmers so would be in case of potato in future, definitely. It is better to take steps now otherwise we will miss the opportunity to save our legacy of agriculture which was noble once and narcotic now. And one more thing real farming happens in farms not in designed labs.

Whoreally is feeding the world?

A false story and illusion is being spread among the minds by scientific elites that monoculture, industrialized farming, mechanized farming can only feed the world. In doing so sectarian, traditional, indigenous and regional agriculture systems have been destroyed. Seeds, soils and straws [biomass] which have been remained nature dependent are forced to purchase from markets. And this is the result market dependence of farmers forced them to sink in debt and ultimately pushing them to commit suicides. The Mother Nature has blessed us great diversity in food crops [India is primary and secondary centre of biodiversity to great number of crops] according to every need and region wise. Today more than 95% of cotton seed is owned by single giant corporation, Monsanto. Cotton which is always grown with pulses is now being grown as single crop as monoculture. When Bt cotton has increased the yields then why farmers are committing suicides? Only looking through yield figures cannot make the farmers rich, many auxiliary things are pushing them in debt and destruction. Why there is hue and cry of soils becoming hard to plough, weeds becoming uncontrollable and emergence of new pests which are no longer controlled? Because modern seeds are just like brat kids of rich parents, looking so good and intelligent but overall [when consider output entailing all ecological parameters] low in productivity, relied on costly inputs, having low biotic and abiotic resistance. India has remained soil of saints and sages and agriculture is always being venerated here. Nature has blessed us with great diversity in every form whether food crops, medicinal crops, fodders, timbers, fruits, vegetables and most majestic thing is that nature has breed these crops over long span of period according to region wise. We have never been grown single crop in our fields, many crops has been cultivated all together like a joint family complementing each other. Animals, birds and micro flora-fauna always played special roles in farming system. All the resources has been used and consumed on the basis of indigenous knowledge. So there is high need to promote indigenous and traditional agriculture on the large scale totally independent on market based inputs.

Promotion of organic states led agricultural tourism

Every Indian boasts the uniqueness of India because of its plurality, diversity and natural landscape. This huge diversity is only because of indigenous, regional, sectarian diverse farming systems. Farming has remained backbone of Indian rural landscape and culture. We have huge variety of within food crops, people and farming systems. Due to diversity of crops our ancestors have created magnificent and beautiful agricultural systems totally in spirit with local climate, soil type and Mother Nature. We have unique system of bamboo cultivation along with crops in north east where bamboos are used as pipes to take water from one place to another. We have vibrant variety of rice cultivation in Kerala where rice and prawns are cultivated below sea level in unique system of ‘Kuttanad Below Sea-Level Farming System’. We have great farming systems created by our tribal peoples whether in Koraput, Seshachalm hills, Niyamgiri hills, Western Ghats or in Kerawa soils of Kashmir valley. Really Indian agriculture is magical and awe-inspiring. The terrible thing is that we even did not focused on over own discourse of traditional agriculture and just emulating the others like all SAUs are working on Land Grant system borrowed from USA. I feel like many others indigenous agriculture especially tribal agriculture or primitive agriculture needs to promote in spirit with natural farming to preserve our spiritual grooves and forests. Recently Gujrat has started the concept of industrial tourism, why on similar prototype we could not rope in ICAR to promote agricultural tourism and promote organic states? We need to promote activism, journalism and tourism in agriculture through agricultural universities and student swapping programmes among SAUs. We need to promote concepts of medicinal gardening, forest gardening, urban gardening, village gardening, school gardening, desert gardening totally dependent of nature and local inputs. We need to demarcate unique and important diversity conserving farming systems and nominate them as IAHS (Indian Agricultural Heritage Sites) based on the concept of GIAHS (Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Sites). These unique farming systems can be revived as agricultural heritage centres to promote local biodiversity and incomes to local farmers. Every state in India has its own speciality about agriculture. We need to tap eco-friendly concepts to make India true agrarian economy, a natural and magical masterpiece to whole world. For this we need downright overhauling of agricultural system of India which is really difficult to conceive but we have blessed with many creative people across the India who can hit on these concepts, especially local farmers. First and foremost we need to change our agricultural education system which is impractical and disconnected from soils and farmers. We do not need to emulate the west atleast in agriculture because agriculture is rural landscape and roots which connects us all. It is legacy to us by our ancestors and it is our duty to sustain, preserve and conserve it.

I congratulate Thou and Thy government for completing one year in office. In this small time Thou as Pradan Sevak have raised the spirit and standard of nation. Most of the youth has feeling inspired and confident from Thy never dying energy and enthusiasm. I really wish to meet and work along with Thou to promote indigenous and traditional farming. I am in favour of complete overhaul of Indian education system which is hollow, artificial and devoid of values and morals. 87^th anniversary of ICAR is approaching in July i hope you will pick some treads to promote organic and indigenous techniques of agriculture. Recently on the inauguration of DD Farmers channel promotion speaking of genetic engineering to improve the overall productivity and wellbeing of Indian farmers is found illogical idea. I feel certain that soils and human body is analogous. As diversity of micro flora and fauna in soil is diminishing so is in human guts. As chemicals and fertilizers have become food to soils so are allopath medicines among us. In next letter I will try to write how health of soils and humans are inter-related. May universe bless Thou green health and never dying energy to serve the Mother Nation!

Kind regards

Fragmentation emerging crisis in Indian agriculture

Fragmentation crisis in Indian agriculture

Originally this article has been published on vijayvani.com 

Agriculture has always being viewed as an integrated activity, including crop production, resource conservation, and livestock, in one seamless whole. The present scenario in Indian agricultural academia has witnessed fragmentation and division over the years. The rising trend of inter-disciplinary specialisation and compartmentalisation of related disciplines as subsidiary occupations calls for immediate attention to save the integrity of agriculture.

The loss of integration within the agricultural system as a whole tends to invite another agrarian crisis across India, the evidence of which can be felt with the lack of sustainability in farming, leading to over-exploitation of valuable natural resources and increasing cases of farmer suicides.

The State Agricultural Universities, created on the pattern of the land grant system of education in the United States, has been acclaimed worldwide for ushering in the a “Green revolution” in India in the mid-1960’s. The introduction of high yielding cultivars and improved crop production practices led to monoculture with the aim of filling the buffer stock and increase foreign exchange. The prosperity thus brought by the green revolution resulted in the sacrifice of natural resources, with no thought given to sustainable farming and resource conservation practices. Over time, crop production has come to be viewed as a primary occupation and the once integrated disciplines are being viewed as subsidiary occupations.

This dramatic shift has led to compartmentalisation of integrated disciplines with emphasis on specialization of individual enterprises (dairy, fishery, piggery, mushroom, resource conservation et al) leaving to the neglect of the age-old integrated natural concept of farming as proposed by Masanabu Fukuoka, a Japanese farmer and pioneer of natural farming.

Presently, the administrative and academic agricultural setup decides upon a specific discipline for bestowing grants to undertake rigorous research and popularize a technology or ‘improved’ practice among state farmers without much analysis of socio-economics factors and long term benefits. Certainly, advancements in science and technology have brought some relief to state farmers, but these are short term and temporary gains.

The rising crises for resource conservation and replenishing sick soils are now evident, and can only be attributed due to discretionary practices and lack of interdisciplinary approach in farming systems. Lack of integration and compartmentalization also shift blame on each other in times of crisis, as agriculture as a whole is impacted by many uncalculated factors.

The current crisis in agriculture calls for immediate attention of policy makers, administrators, university academicians and farmers, to analyze the grim situation and put forth concrete steps to safeguard the ailing economic backbone of our country. There is need to review the present system of budgetary allocations in agriculture, specifically in the interest of replenishing sick soils. A segment of the grants should be devoted to motivate individual farmers practicing in-situ resource conservation strategies.

In recent decades, agriculture and veterinary science were separated, and two separate universities for these studies have been established without much inter-operability. State agricultural universities (SAUs) are now being further bifurcated into agriculture and horticulture universities. In the states of Haryana and Punjab, efforts are being made to allocate a special grant to carve out a separate horticultural university from the mother agricultural university; this will divert energy and resources in research of specialised compartments and further destroy the integrity of agriculture as a holistic enterprise.

Presently, most agricultural and animal science subjects are taught separately. To be more specific, separate departments have been carved out to conduct research, teach and do extension work independently, regardless of the emphasis given to the inter-dependence of these subjects as observed in natural ecosystems. With the availability of more grants, various departments have been separated to undertake their teaching, research and extension activities independently without paying much heed to inter-operability of natural agricultural systems as a whole.

As a result of this segregation, a student undertaking research on crop production, emphasises only narrowly laid objectives, without taking into consideration the several factors that are imperative to the net yield of a given crop. This fixed pattern and design restricts inter-operability and inter-linking as observed in natural agri-ecosystems. This is one of the crucial factors that is responsible for our inability to solve the emerging crisis in agriculture.

Acquisition and merging (A&M), consolidation and integration are becoming a new trend in every sector of the economy in order to compete and survive market forces. Several agricultural seed and chemical companies such as Bayer, Monsanto, Syngenta, ChemChina, DuPont and Dew, and several public sector banks; telecom companies, oil companies, higher education regulation agencies and so on are merging and integrating together. Even the Government keeps harping upon minimum government, maximum governance through consolidation and centralised systems; so why is there fragmentation in the agriculture sector?

We need to stop splitting universities as this will breed excessive bureaucracy, corruption, and friction. We need to focus upon the performance and footprints of exiting universities at the farmer or field level, rather creating more universities. Agriculture should not be viewed as a venture invented by man, rather it should be perceived as a wonderful gift of Mother Nature to satisfy the needs of man.

(Views are personal and written in individual capacity)