ISSUES
Go back to the basics
DIONNE BUNSHA
| Organic farming is not the only solution to the problems
contributing to the farm crisis. However, it is the only one
within the farmer's control. |
WITHIN THEIR CONTROL:
Farmers can get the same or a better yield without spending on
pesticide and fertilizer.
WHILE hordes of media swamped Vidarbha just before the PM's
visit, I was there with two agricultural scientists Vipin and Devang
on a different trip.
Vipin and Devang are from Sristi, an organisation
that works to develop eco-friendly solutions to local problems. They
have a long-term remedy to the farm crisis, one that will go beyond
the temporary relief that the PM has doled out. Yes, immediate
action is important. It may prevent several suicides. The PM's
interest waiver and re-scheduling of bank loans will give people
much-needed loans to sow their next crop of cotton and soyabean. But
then what? What happens at the end of the season when they can't pay
off their loans once again?
Crux of
the crisis
They will be in the same dilemma simply because the
cost of farming is higher than the pathetic price they receive for
their inputs. That is the crux of the farm crisis — spiralling
costs, miserable prices. In the last 10 years, the cost of living
has risen dramatically, but the price of cotton has fallen. That's
why the rural economy is collapsing. All the other symptoms —
inadequate bank credit, exploitative moneylenders, the unscrupulous
input traders, illness, school dropouts — are aggravated by this
basic problem.
There is not much farmers can do to change
government policy that determines output prices, trade tariffs,
social security and subsidies. That is beyond their control. But the
one thing farmers can do is to try and reduce costs of cultivation.
That's where Sristi has a plan. They have developed
and verified several indigenous, organic farming practices that have
worked. Farmers can get the same or a better output without spending
a penny on pesticides and fertilizers. All they have to do is
prepare organic pesticide, fertilizer and growth promoters from
plants and other material available in their own environment.
There's no need for them to depend on a shop owner and get entangled
in a web of exploitation and debt.
"In fact, the solution is simple," says Prof. Anil
Gupta, founder of Sristi. "Why spend so much resources on
pesticides? Go along with animal rearers in your area and look for
plants that animals do not eat. These plants are the potential
source of pesticides, because animals do not eat them; the toxicity
inherent in them." Sristi tries to document, develop and share local
solutions, ones that farmers have invented.
Several tried and tested organic techniques may
save farmers from the clutches of trader-moneylenders. For instance,
farmers can use the whey from buttermilk as a growth promoter. You
don't need Bt seeds to ward off the bollworm; you can use whey or
lantana extract. This is a two-in-one solution — you control lantana
weed and at the same time get a local cheap pesticide. Calotripis or
many other such plants found abundantly around the field, uneaten by
animals, can be sprayed or even mixed with irrigation water. Farmers
in different parts of Gujarat and other states have developed these
techniques.
Contrary to popular misconceptions, organic farming
doesn't mean low productivity. The output is the same or sometimes
more than that of others who use chemical inputs. Sristi makes sure
each method they advocate has first been tested scientifically by an
independent research organisation before it suggests that farmers
adopt the technique.
We met a bunch of farmers in Wardha who have
switched to organic cultivation. They are not as anxious as most
other farmers here who illogically douse their fields with pesticide
and fertilizer. They don't have to worry about how they will get a
loan, or how much pesticide to buy in the coming season. Most
farmers dread the end of the season — it's payback time. But organic
farmers look forward to a good crop that they can sell at the price
they choose, not that dictated by exploitative moneylenders.
Pramod Kadam, a farmer and agricultural consultant
from Wardha, is still paying off a huge debt he accumulated while
using chemical inputs on his 15-acre field. "Now that I have
switched to organic cotton cultivation, my costs have reduced from
Rs. 5,000-8,000 an acre to around Rs. 3,000 an acre (for seeds,
hiring bullock carts and wages for labourers). My yield is higher.
The average here is around 2.5 quintals per acre, but I get four."
So, he has saved on costs and gained in productivity.
Switch
to organic
Many small farmers are apprehensive about the
switch to organic. They feel it is too much of a risk, an experiment
that can only be tried by big farmers or those who have irrigated
land. But many of the organic farmers we met had small holdings.
"Small farmers gain the most because we can't afford the high costs
of cultivation. Big farmers can afford chemical cultivation,"
explained Sanjay Tigaonkar, an organic farmer from Wardha.
Organic farming is not the only solution to the
problems contributing to the farm crisis. But it is the only one
within the farmer's control. All other factors like prices, credit
or irrigation are decided by a government that is more concerned
about the Sensex than suicides. The farm crisis will continue until
the Government decides to protect our farmers like the U.S. and EU
protect theirs. Farmers in the EU are paid one dollar a day for
every cow they rear — more than the daily wage of agricultural
labourers in India. Until we protect our farmers, they will remain
on the edge. Organic farming will definitely ease the burden of
costs. But if that is not a viable route, will the government spend
a fraction of the money it spends on promoting non-sustainable
technologies on promotion of non-chemical alternatives?
Technical inputs
Besides monetary inputs, Vidarbha also needs
technical inputs. If there were better agricultural advice, there
may not have been such a dire demand for credit. There has been no
competent agricultural guidance for decades. Few have thought of
creative solutions. Even simple things like finding other sources of
income like planting trees or rainwater harvesting in a region where
only 11 per cent of farms are irrigated.
Until now the only technical advice has been from
agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and film star Nana Patekar
peddling Monsanto's Bt cottonseeds. Most people can't remember the
last time they met an agricultural extension officer. So it's left
to the input shop dealer to give advice, pushing the most expensive
products to increase his sales.
Despite the massive failure of the Bt cotton crop
last year (after which the Government had to compensate farmers),
most people still opt for the seeds this year. Why? Simply because
the company has lowered the price from Rs. 1,800 to Rs. 750. Now,
it's only Rs. 200 cheaper than the hybrid variety. Might as well try
it again. Though proven to be more effective, organic methods will
never get the kind of hype that surrounds Bt cotton, simply because
there is no money to be made from promoting self-reliance.
Vidarbha's crisis shows that we have gone full
circle and it is time to go back to the basics. "India aspires to be
a knowledge society but in agriculture, there is hardly any effort
to draw upon our rich data base of agricultural practices (many of
which have been compiled by Sristi for dissemination). How many
sites exist where scientists are working with farmers' on their
fields? We have to promote farmers' experimentation and innovations
to generate sustainable solutions," says Prof. Gupta. Sometimes the
answers are right in front of us, but we can't see them because they
are too simple.
For more information: http://www.sristi.org/
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