De-fertilising the soil

The CII might be bullish on Indian agriculture, but the truth is that the agriculture growth rate was a dismal four per cent in the previous quarter of the current financial year—and only organic farming might rescue the situation.

By Suvrokamal Dutta

Even the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is bullish on Indian agriculture and feels that the sector can lift its growth rate above the past decade’s average of two per cent. “Indian agriculture is bouncing back,” says Y C Deveshwar, chairperson, CII’s Agriculture Council, and chairperson, ITC. “It is scripting its own success story, thanks to rising private investment, which will lead to faster growth. Faster growth in agriculture tomorrow will happen because of rising private investment in agriculture today.”

The problem is that the reality of the Indian agricultural sector is not as rosy as the CII projects. With a dismal growth rate of around four per cent in the previous quarter of the current financial year, the agricultural sector needs immediate correction. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has to take drastic measures to boost the growth rate of the agricultural sector if it has to retain its much-hyped pro-poor image.

The CII points out the major bottlenecks in Indian agriculture: poor productivity, falling water levels, expensive credit, a distorted market, many intermediaries who increase cost but do not add much value, laws that stifle private investment, controlled prices, poor infrastructure, produce that does not meet international standards, inappropriate research, and tax evasion by the unorganised sector leading to the lack of a level playing field. In addition, agriculture being a state subject, the states have meagre funds to invest in the sector. According to the CII, if all these problems are removed, India can become the “food factory of the world”.

The excessive usage of artificial manures and fertilisers over the past two decades has had a disastrous effect on Indian agriculture. Most insects and agricultural pests have become immune to manures and fertilisers; in many places, the soil has become saline, and topsoil has lost its natural fertility and texture content. Many areas in India are facing acute yield shortages. Lately, the Indian
government has been encouraging the use of biomanures and organic manure to overcome the problem of excessive use of artificial fertilisers.

Repeated warnings about the harmful use of chemical fertilisers were grossly ignored in the euphoria of the so-called Green Revolution. The consumption of chemical fertilisers per hectare has increased from less than 0.5 kg in 1947-48 to 105 kg in 2005-06. The constant use of pesticides not only creates ecological imbalances but also seriously affects the health of the human and livestock populations. Hybrid vegetables grown today contain high quantities of toxic heavy metals like cadmium, copper, lead, manganese and sulphur, far beyond permissible limits, resulting in serious diseases like lead poisoning, cardiac arrest, kidney failure, cancer, blood pressure, mental disorder and so on in several parts of India.

The fertiliser industry in India uses huge amounts of naphtha, nitrates and sulphur, and raw materials like rock phosphate and gypsum to produce nitrogenous, phosphatic and mixed fertilisers, leading to heavy discharge of pollutants into streams and rivers. One doesn’t have to go very far to see this: the pathetic condition of the river Yamuna is telling. Such a heavy discharge of pollutants has resulted in toxic wastes—solid and liquid—concentrating in soil and gradually percolating into the groundwater.

The consequence: massive health problems, the repercussions of which cannot be imagined. The International Development Research Centre, a public corporation created by the Parliament of Canada in 1970 to help developing countries use science and technology to find practical, long-term solutions to their social, economic, and environmental problems, has claimed that about 10,000 people die every year, and another 400,000 suffer from various effects of pesticides poisoning in the developing countries.

A recent United Nations study found that one of the immediate factors for the enormous number of suicides in several parts of India has been the excessive cost of artificial fertilisers, which has forced poor Indian farmers to take on huge, high-interest loans from moneylenders. Long-term failure of crops due to excessive use of fertilisers, resulting in low productivity and soil barrenness, has led the farmers into deep debt traps.

Why is the government of India encouraging organic farming and the use of organic manures? The answer is very simple: every year India loses around 60 million tonnes of topsoil due to rainwater erosion. Organic farming can prevent this. The three major components of organic farming are: combined plant protection, pest control, and soil and watershed management, all brought together by social forestry programmes. With the increase in organic farming areas, yield crops and soil productivity can be regained.

In the West and the US, there is a gigantic market today for biocrops. Indian farmers can benefit from this demand, which is projected to grow exponentially. As part of 10th Five Year Plan, the Indian government has earmarked about Rs 100 crore for the promotion of organic agriculture in the country. But a lot more needs to be done. Perhaps the government can consider a separate agriculture budget to overcome the problems of Indian agriculture.