Soil Biology and Ecological Farming
Emerging as an effective alternative to the agro-chemical-based modern or conventional agriculture, the detrimental impact of which is evident both on human health and the environment, ecological farming, based on sound scientific principles, has yielded rich harvests while maintaining the micro-nutrients, microorganisms and macro-fauna of the soil—the Source of Infinite Life (SOIL)
I ndia’s growing population needs a proportional increase in food production. Much of the land is already under agriculture and, therefore, the required increase in production has to primarily come from increased productivity (yield per unit of land) and reduced pest damage. For at least five decades, India’s agricultural research and education has focussed on agro-chemicals—Green Revolution (GR) technologies, and the development of genetically modified (GM), or transgenic crops. This has, in turn, influenced the agricultural research for development (AR4D) paradigm and the resultant policies.
In the initial years, GR-based agriculture led to a substantial increase in productivity and helped India overcome the low-yield phase. It led the country to being food secure. Over the past decade or so, however, the increase in productivity has essentially been stagnant. In addition, the use of GR technologies over 30 years has caused concern about the impact of agro-chemicals on human health and on the environment.
If in the 1970s, India was importing food grains, today it is importing much of the fertilizers (about 60 per cent of the nitrogenous, 80 per cent of the phosphatic and 100 per cent of the potassic fertilizers) needed for producing this food grain. Contrary to the impression being created, India is not yet a food secure nation. In the past 20 years or so, organic or ecological farming has emerged as an effective alternative to the agro-chemical-based modern or conventional agriculture. Ecological farming is based on sound scientific principles. Several farmers, using good agricultural practices (without agro-chemicals), have claimed harvesting yields comparable to those of neighbouring farmers, who use agro-chemicals. Several review papers and publications including some from the UN-FAO, have reported results in favour of this type of farming.