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Organic Agriculture June 2015.Indd TERI Policy Brief DISCUSSION PAPER JUNE 2015 The Energy and Resources Institute Organic Agriculture: An option for fostering sustainable and inclusive agriculture development in India Introduction Land scarcity, degraded ecosystems and climate change are pressures CONTENTS that the agriculture sector confronts in the 21st century whilst needing • Introduction 1 to meet demands for food, feed and fibre, preserve natural resources • Agriculture development as well as ensure profitability, economic and social equity (FAO, 2015). in India: Need for a Industrialized agriculture,1 which is capital intensive, substituting animal paradigm shift 2 and human labour with machines and purchased inputs (IAASTD, 2009) • Scope and diversity of organic has been the favoured model for agriculture development due to its agriculture 4 tremendous success in increasing food production. With a principal focus • Impacts and implications of on enhancing yields, industrial agriculture is typically illustrated in large organic agriculture 7 sized mechanized farms that are chemically intensive, mono-cropping • Suggestions for a way forward 12 production systems. While these systems are dominant in the developed • Conclusion 18 world, the Green Revolution technologies introduced in Asia including • Acknowledgements 20 India in the 1960s also promoted input intensive approaches to farming • Endnotes 20 as a way to achieve food self-sufficiency. Yet, although industrial modes • References 23 of agriculture have led to a significant growth in food production and • Bibliography 27 therefore a decrease in the proportion of the world’s hungry (Godfray et al., 2010; World Bank, 2008), hunger and malnutrition continue to persist Author in today’s world. The current level food production is 1.5 times greater Dr Shilpanjali Deshpande Sarma, Fellow, TERI than what’s needed to feed the world. It is thus sufficient to feed 10 billion people which is the projected population peak of 2050 (Holt-Gimenez, Reviewer 2012). Yet one in nine people remain hungry in the world today (FAO, Mr S Vijay Kumar, Distinguished Fellow, TERI IFAD, and WFP, 2015). Support staff Given the various pressures the planet and its people face today, Mr Shenoy Mooken, TERI focusing solely on high external input-fossil energy-based approach for agriculture development has many constraints. For one, it relies heavily on The Energy and Resources Institute Darbari Seth Block, IHC Complex, non-renewable and finite resources such as fossil energy and phosphorous, Lodhi Road, New Delhi- 110 003 the scarce nature of which is already apparent globally. In addition, modern Tel. 2468 2100 or 4150 4900 agriculture has increased global fertilizer use by 500% (for nitrogen use, Fax. 2468 2144 or 2468 2145 India +91 Delhi (0) 11 over 800%) (Matson et al., 1997; Tilman et al., 2001; Foley et al., 2011) www.teriin.org and induced perturbations in global nitrogen and phosphorous cycles, Discussion Paper Discussion Paper the former having crossed planetary boundaries while the resilience of agriculture production systems and the latter is close to planetary limits (Rockstrom et al., contribute to mitigation through promoting biodiversity 2009). Since a significant proportion of the nitrogen over mono-cropping, increasing soil organic matter and fertilizer utilized is lost to ground or surface water de-linking food production from fossil fuel reliance (De systems instead of being taken up by plants, it results in Schutter, 2010). For this, a variety of approaches that the disruption of aquatic ecosystems and drinking water facilitate agricultural sustainability needs to be examined contamination by nitrates (IFOAM, 2006). in order to comprehend the viability and fit of these Agricultural intensification has been accompanied by options with various agricultural and food systems. severe soil erosion and degradation, loss of soil fertility Small-scale producers and subsistence farming systems and biodiversity, eutrophication, water pollution, and operating in rain-fed areas are predominant in developing water scarcity (various studies compiled in Foley et al., regions such as Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, 2015 and Ponisio et al., 2014). Since current agricultural and South and East Asia. Thus, these options must also systems have often traded the maintenance of ecosystem address the livelihoods and well-being of subsistence services for short-term gains in production (Foley et farmers, numbering over 1.5 billion across the world al., 2005), the very resources that sustain agricultural and generating half of the world’s food (Holt-Gimenez productivity are now under threat. Furthermore in case et al., 2012). of major cereal crops, there is a steady decline in the Despite their intrinsic role in meeting global food relative rate of yield gain (Cassaman, 2007; Cassman et security (Nwanze, 2011),2 resource poor, small-scale al., 2002). farmers in developing countries comprise the “largest Along with expansion, the intensification of agriculture portion of world’s chronically hungry people”(FAO, 2009; contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and Ponisio et al., 2015; Holt-Gimenez et al., 2012; De Schutter, climate change as well as global hydrological shifts that 2010). This underscores the fact that rather than problems increase the risk of catastrophic ecological regime shifts with food production per se, hunger stems from poverty (Gordon et al., 2008). Increased use of pesticides has and inequality which arise due to socio-economic-political generated residues in ecosystems with effects on human factors that prevent access or affordability to sufficient beings and wildlife (Ponisio et al., 2014). Furthermore, food and/or adequate diet (Ponisio et al., 2015; Holt- industrial production systems have been implicated Gimenez et al., 2012; De Schutter, 2010).3 While improved in contaminating food chains and water bodies with productivity is one of the essential elements for addressing persistent pesticide residues, and encouraging low-cost hunger and economic vulnerability, for these resource- yet intensive food production and/or processing that poor farmers who own small and marginal landholdings, have reduced nutrient and flavour contents (Lairon, input intensive-monoculture based agriculture is neither 2010). Consequently, there is a growing demand for safe sustainable, nor viable (Holt-Gimenez et al., 2012). For food the world over. these reasons, there is growing interest and support for The externalities generated by industrial agriculture agroecological and organic forms of agriculture especially have often been masked by the productivity success of for small holders (De Schutter, 2010; Altieri et al., 2012; the Green Revolution (IFOAM, 2006). Additionally, the IFAD, 2005; IFAD, 2003). Hence, these approaches hidden costs of addressing human health and environment must be explored for their feasibility in the context of externalities generated by the food system while not developing countries. included in the price of food, are borne by government and society. The costs to health from the food system Agriculture development in India: Need for a in Germany and the UK in 1996 were estimated at $81– paradigm shift 117 per ha and $343 per ha, respectively (Pretty et al., 2000). India’s total cropped area is 195.25 million ha out of There is an urgent need to re-orient agricultural which 54.44 million ha is sown more than once. The production systems in ways that balance food production nation’s average cropping intensity rests at 138.67% and with environmental and resource sustainability to achieve the gross irrigated area is 46 % of the total cropped area food security (Foley et al., 2011) and safety. The threat of (GoI, 2014a).To meet food security needs, irrigated areas climate change also demands approaches that enhance with better soils and water availability were targeted for 2 JUNE 2015 Discussion Paper Discussion Paper developing input and energy intensive, mono-cropping On the other hand, rain-fed agriculture is also based cultivation systems directed mainly at rice and practiced in approximately 60% of the total cropped wheat (Mishra, 2013) (Box1). Forming the base of the area of the country. Rain-fed farming systems are green revolution, these practices and technologies have extensive, location specific, diverse, and highly been instrumental in increasing food grain production integrated production systems that are characterized and availability in India. by low external input and energy use (Mishra, 2013) (Box 1). However, considered as drought prone with low productivity, there is a thrust by state agencies for BOX 1 INPUT-INTENSIVE AND RAIN-FED replicating the input intensive approach of agriculture FARMING SYSTEMS IN INDIA originally conceived for irrigation intensive areas in rain- Green revolution technologies were fostered in irrigated areas from the fed regions (Mishra, 2013). 1960s onwards. These specialized mono-cropping systems utilized high yielding varieties that require water, fertilizer to translate their inherent Challenges faced by the agricultural sector potential into productivity gains. Double cropping or even multiple cropping cycles are undertaken in these areas, although the focus has The socio-economic and environmental challenges been mainly on 4–5 crop varieties (Mishra et al., 2013). Input intensive facing Indian agriculture are immense. While unseasonal systems primarily comprise of the green revolution belt—mainly or extreme climate events unfavourably impact
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