Sustainable agriculture returning to the Punjab?

[S.Annadana]

By Clyde Grubbson August 2, 2008 5:20 PM

India adopted Western style agriculture beginning in the 1960s. The so called "Green Revolution" which used chemical fertilizers and anti pest poisons helped double outputs of wheat and rice in the Punjab. But in the last decade, says Professor R.K. Mahajal, an agricultural economist at Punjabi University. "The Green Revolution is not as green as it was earlier -- it has now become brown and pale," says Mahajal. "The profit margins have skewered to the minimum. At this rate, in 50 years Punjab will become a desert, like Rajasthan."

In a significant article in Alternet there is a critique of Western style agriculture and evidence that sustainable ways of agriculture must be adopted soon to prevent soil depletion, and serious health risks to the population.

"People are fed up with chemical farming," says Amarjit Sharma, a farmer for 30 years who began organic farming four years ago. "The earth is now addicted to the use of these chemicals." Sharma is now the custodian of his village's organic seed bank. He sells his crop of wheat for more than twice the price of his neighbors who use pesticides and fertilizers, while he reaps just over half the yield. And he doesn't have to invest in costly inputs from the marketplace, such as hybrid seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, which keeps him from going into debt every season. He uses natural, homemade pesticides such as cow manure mixed with urine, soured milk, garlic, chilies and the leaves of a native plant to ward off parasitic insects.

"The major difference between chemical farming and organic farming is that with chemical farming the yield either decreases or stays stagnant over time, while of organic farming, field and quality of the soil increase," says Sharma. "After two or three years, the yield will be equal."