{"id":50221,"date":"2019-07-19T19:00:57","date_gmt":"2019-07-19T13:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/?p=50221"},"modified":"2019-07-19T17:06:20","modified_gmt":"2019-07-19T11:36:20","slug":"7-pm-the-ruinous-impact-of-chemical-farming-19th-july-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-the-ruinous-impact-of-chemical-farming-19th-july-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"7 PM | The ruinous impact of chemical farming | 19th July, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Context:<\/strong> organic\nfarming and its prominence on Indian agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Organic\nfarming system in India is not new and is being followed from ancient time. It\nis a method of farming system which primarily aimed at cultivating the land and\nraising crops in such a way, as to keep the soil alive and in good health by\nuse of organic wastes (crop, animal and farm wastes, aquatic wastes) and other\nbiological materials along with beneficial microbes (biofertilizers) to release\nnutrients to crops for increased sustainable production in an eco friendly\npollution free environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Significance\nand need for organic forming in India:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Growing awareness:<\/strong> Globally, there is growing awareness of the adverse impact of chemical inputs on the soil, environment and human health. This has prompted both developed and developing countries to shift towards organic farming and organic food products.<\/li><li><strong>Demand:<\/strong> Increasing per capita income and growing health consciousness among the people led to increase in the demand for organic products. According to a report produced jointly by Assocham and Ernst &amp; Young, the organic products market in India has been growing at a CAGR of 25 per cent and it is expected to touch\u00a0\u20b910,000-\u20b912,000crore by 2020 from the current market size of\u00a0\u20b9\u00a04,000crore.<\/li><li><strong>Input cost:<\/strong> A substantial increase in input costs of materials has led to a decline in crop income over the years. This has resulted in the purchasing power of farmers not improving even though there was an increase in farm output. But Organic farming reduces the input cost, increases fertility of soil and increases the production.<\/li><li><strong>Small farmers:<\/strong> according to 10<sup>th<\/sup> agriculture census, there is a marginal increase in small and marginal farmers and nearly 86% of farmers in India are small and marginal farmers. Commercial agriculture in small fields is not cost effective and organic farming look promising<\/li><li><strong>Environmental issues:<\/strong><ul><li>Fertilizers: per hectare consumption of fertilizer is 165kg approximately, although it is less than developed countries. Both drinking and irrigation water wells in large numbers have been found contaminated with nitrates, some of them are having even 45 mg per litre, well above the safe level.<\/li><li>Pesticides: the use of pesticide in agriculture is 350gm\/hectare as against world average is 500gm\/hectare. Almost all pesticides are toxic in nature and pollute the environment leading to grave damage to ecology and human life itself. This indiscriminate use leaves toxic residues in foodgrans, fodder, vegetables, meat, milk, milk products, etc. besides in soil and water.<\/li><li>Salinity and water logging: Heavy irrigation is necessary to get high production, as the new varieties cannot withstand water scarcity. This leads to salinity and water logging leaving the land uncultivable. Over exploitation of underground water is another effect. When water table falls, increasing energy will be required to lift water for irrigation.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>Healthy products:<\/strong> A study conducted in USA on the nutritional values of both organic and conventional foods found that consumption of the former is healthier. Apples, pears, potatoes, corn, wheat and baby foods were analyzed to find out &#8216;bad&#8217; elements such as aluminum, cadmium, lead and mercury and also &#8216;good&#8217; elements like boron, calcium, iron, magnesium selenium and zinc. The organic food, in general, had more than 20 per cent less of the bad elements and about 100 per cent more of the good elements.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Challenges\nto organic farming in India:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Behavioral\nfactors:<\/strong>\nsince last 5 decades, majority farmers in India adopted to intensive\nagriculture (where fertilizers, pesticides, high yield seeds are used). And\nmoreover majority farmers are small and marginal due to that they are not able\nto take the risk of adopting organic farming<\/li><li><strong>Productivity:<\/strong> in\ninitial years like 4 to 5 years, organic farming doesn\u2019t produce desired\nresults to farmers. Because of the lack of productivity organic and\nconventional farmers are not willing to take organic farming<\/li><li><strong>Area\ncoverage:<\/strong>\naccording to world of organic agriculture 2018, India is home to&nbsp;30\nper cent of the total organic producers&nbsp;in the\nworld, but accounts for just 2.59 per cent (1.5 million hectares) of the total organic\ncultivation area of 57.8 million hectares. Out of 141 million\nhectares net sown area, only 1% of area is under organic farming in India.<\/li><li><strong>Shortage\nof Bio-mass:<\/strong> The small and marginal cultivators have\ndifficulties in getting the organic manures compared to the chemical\nfertilizers, which can be bought easily. Along with that Increasing pressure of\npopulation and the disappearance of the common lands including the wastes and\ngovernment lands make the task difficult.<\/li><li><strong>Expensive:<\/strong> organic produce are usually more expensive due to\nhigher labor cost and comparatively lower yields and post-harvest handling of\nrelatively small quantities of organic foods also results in higher costs\nbecause of the mandatory segregation of organic and conventional produce, especially\nfor processing and transportation.<\/li><li><strong>Output\nmarketing:<\/strong>\nlack of assurance from the government and market many organic farmers sell\ntheir product at very low prices. It was found that the farmers of organic\nwheat in Rajasthan got lower prices than those of the conventional wheat.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Government\ninitiatives and measures to increase organic farming:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>National\nmission on sustainable agriculture (NMSA):<\/strong> NMSA is envisaged as one of the eight\nMissions outlined under National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), the\nmajor thrust is enhancing agriculture productivity especially in rainfed areas\nfocusing on integrated farming, soil health management, and synergizing\nresource conservation. All the components of NMSA such as Rain fed Agriculture,\nSoil Health Management, Organic Farming, etc. have significant role in\nachieving Sustainable Development Goals &amp; Intended Nationally Determined Contributions.<\/li><li>&#8220;<strong>Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY)\u201d<\/strong> a sub- component of Soil\nHealth Management (SHM) scheme under National Mission of Sustainable\nAgriculture (NMSA) aims at development of models of excellence in organic\nfarming through a mix of traditional wisdom and modern science in value chain\nmode to install sustainability, ensure long term soil fertility buildup,\nresource conservation and to offer safe and healthy food grown through organic\npractices without the use of agro- chemicals.<\/li><li><strong>Mission\norganic value chain development for north eastern region<\/strong>:\nRealizing the potential of organic farming in the North Eastern Region of the\ncountry, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has launched <strong>a&nbsp;<\/strong><strong>Central Sector Scheme<\/strong>&nbsp;entitled<strong>\u201cMission Organic Value Chain Development for\nNorth Eastern Region\u201d&nbsp;<\/strong>for implementation in the states of\nArunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and\nTripura, during 2015-16 to 2017-18. <\/li><li>The scheme aims at development of\ncertified organic production in a value chain mode to link growers with\nconsumers and to support the development of entire value chain starting from\ninputs, seeds, certification and creation of facilities for collection,\naggregation, processing, marketing and brand building initiative.<\/li><li><strong>Organic\nstate:<\/strong>\n12 years of efforts by Sikkim government and people, Sikkim state to become\nIndia\u2019s first fully organic state by implementing organic practices on around\n75,000 hectares of agricultural land. So the governments both central and\nstate, civil society should promote organic forming throughout India.<\/li><li><strong>Zero\nbudget natural farming (ZBNF):<\/strong> Andhra Pradesh is pushing for a\nchemical-free agricultural practice of zero budget natural farming (ZBNF),\nwhich it plans to scale up from about 160,000 farmers currently to six million\nby 2024. On the same lines other state governments also promote ZBNF in a\nphased manner.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Way\nforward: <\/strong>India\nhas traditionally been a country of organic agriculture, but the growth of\nmodern scientific, input intensive agriculture has pushed it to wall. But with\nthe increasing awareness about the safety and quality of foods, long term\nsustainability of the system and accumulating evidences of being equally\nproductive, the organic farming has emerged as an alternative system of farming\nwhich not only address the quality and sustainability concerns, but also\nensures a debt free, profitable livelihood option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Source:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindubusinessline.com\/opinion\/the-ruinous-impact-of-chemical-farming\/article28562858.ece\">https:\/\/www.thehindubusinessline.com\/opinion\/the-ruinous-impact-of-chemical-farming\/article28562858.ece<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Context: organic farming and its prominence on Indian agriculture. Organic farming system in India is not new and is being followed from ancient time. It is a method of farming system which primarily aimed at cultivating the land and raising crops in such a way, as to keep the soil alive and in good health&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-the-ruinous-impact-of-chemical-farming-19th-july-2019\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">7 PM | The ruinous impact of chemical farming | 19th July, 2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":49370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7-pm","category-public","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/7-PM.png?fit=1000%2C500&ssl=1","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":1700775392,"cached_date":1702314171},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}