Rich sustainable agri traditions
EducationWorld May 05 | EducationWorld
In my last despatch, I had written about the growing natural farming movement which is gathering momentum across the country. There is increasing awareness that the need for expensive chemicals which endanger the soil keeps escalating to maintain per acre yields. In this despatch I press the case for Rich sustainable agri traditions-natural or organic farming- further. Agricultural malpractices such as infiltration of soils with genetically modified hybrid seeds, irradiation, etc are the reason for human cell mutations and many forms of disease (some incurable) and birth defects that have become commonplace in modern civilization. People like Dr. Vandana Shiva and her organisation Navdanya, are doing invaluable work in building seed banks to prevent the influx of dangerous chemicals into our food chain. At present certifiers of organically grown produce are licensed by the Union ministry of commerce through a national level accreditation committee. The process is very costly, time consuming and complicated. Which is why at the most recent (January 2005) conference on organic agriculture in Bidkin, near Aurangabad it was strongly argued that if certification agencies must multiply to lower the certification cost of farmers, we need to evolve processes by which local certification bodies can be accredited, preferably by the voluntary sector empowered to certify small growers. I remember attending an organic farming conference in Bidkin where a marketing company volunteered to set up a certifying agency, a proposal which was unanimously vetoed. The Bidkin conference was organised by the Institute for Integrated Rural Development (IIRD) which was awarded a prize for sustainable agriculture and rural develop-ment. Farmers, scientists and professionals under the auspicies of IIRD prepared a set of national voluntary standards in 1997, revised in 2001. IIRD spokespersons say that its standards are a guarantee mechanism not just for marketing of organic foods but for preserving indigenous agricultural practices and conserving traditional knowledge banks — important factors to be considered while drawing up regulations for the organic farming sector. Since then only recently in 2005 have our law-makers decided to include the word “organic” within the definitions of the proposed Modern Food Law. We await to see how this legislation evolves. It is estimated that nearly 18 million hectares of farmland tilled by small farmers could be certified “organic” immediately after documentation for certification is completed. Meanwhile as a vendor of organic produce, I trust the certification of people like Kapil Shah, Baroda; D.D. Bharamagoudra, my first farmer friend from Karnataka (who has himself been accredited to certify); Dr. Sushil Sharma of Aarohi and Bharat Bhist of INHERE, Uttaranchal (who has managed to group 1,200 farmers, certified them and markets for them); Mathew of Keystone, Tamil Nadu; Raju Joseph who lives as he preaches in Kerala; Claude Alvares of Other India Books in Goa who put together the first Organic Farmer’s directory, and other great sons of the soil who spend their lives tirelessly working towards being leavers rather than takers as Daniel Quinn says in his must-read book, Ishmael. The pioneers who have switched to organic farming…