Why India needs to bring back nature-positive farming

Context: The pandemic showed that human interventions in natural processes can have disastrous consequences. It’s time to scale up natural-positive food systems that would simultaneously promote crop, soil and human health.

There is growing consensus among agri-scientists, policymakers and farmers that the Green Revolution has reached its limits and raised several issues of environmental sustainability.

What have been the ill-effects of the Green Revolution?

Due to the Green Revolution (GR), India’s food production grew at an unprecedented scale and farm incomes also improved substantially. High yielding varieties of seeds, chemical fertilisers, assured irrigation and pesticides were key components of this .

However, the rise in food production has also led to some unintended consequences:

– Groundwater depletion

– Land degradation

– Yield stagnation

– Loss of agri-biodiversity and the long-term impact on farmers’ and consumers’ health.

Hence, it’s now time to move from resource-intensive to a sustainable agriculture.

What are the key components of sustainable farming?

Moving away from extractive and input-intensive practices towards a low external input and sustainable system. For instance: organic farming, natural farming, Pesticide-free farming etc.

A more holistic approach to farming, and reducing the use of chemicals in farming without affecting the yields. For instance:

– Non-Pesticide Management (NPM) agriculture: Under this, a farmer is encouraged to engage in synthetic pesticide-free agriculture and create a unique identity for this produce in the consumer market. It involves choosing pest-resistant varieties of crops and practicing crop rotation, intercropping and mixed cropping that are well adapted to the local agroecological systems. If there is need, farmers use sprays made of locally prepared bio-inputs and herbal extracts that keep pests at bay. Most of these bio-inputs are made by the farmers themselves with locally available materials that reduce their costs and debts considerably.

Instead of a standardisation, sustainable farming brings back diversity to farming by promoting crops and crop-varieties suited to different agroecological zones of India.

What is the way forward?

Immense state support, in the case of the Green Revolution, was a major reason behind its success. Hence, there is a need to provide end-to-end support to farmers to create an enabling environment for this transition.

Identify and establish cultivation practices that are crop, soil and region-specific. More agricultural research has to go into developing seed varieties and cultivation practices using locally available materials.

More support is needed for post-harvest management in areas such as transportation, storage and value addition. Since chemical contamination can also occur after the produce leaves the farm, there’s a need to follow the value / supply chain approach and cover all aspects.

The incentive system available to crops has to change. The present system of minimum support price-based public procurement is concentrated in a few areas and crops. Diversification of the procurement basket is important to ensure a fair price for the produce.

Provision of financial services like credit and insurance at affordable price is vital for a vibrant and efficient farming system. Crop insurance, as a risk mitigation mechanism, can protect the small and marginal farmers from climate variations.

Farmer collectives and farmer producer organisations (FPO) need to play a big role in the transition to a sustainable and pesticide-free farming system. Organisations can partner with FPOs to procure directly from farmers at the farmgate and give their produce the recognition it deserves.

Support the entry of MSMEs in the pesticide-free food chains and to raise awareness among the consumers on a large scale, to raise demand and develop territorial markets.

Source: This post is based on the article “Why India needs to bring back nature-positive farming” published in Down to Earth (DTE) on 5th Apr 22.