Organic Farming in India: The Future of Sustainable Agriculture

Introduction

The term ‘organic’ was first coined by Northbourne, in 1940, in his book entitled ‘Look to the Land’. In recent years, organic farming as a cultivation process is gaining increasing popularity . Organically grown foods have become one of the best choices for both consumers and farmers. Organically grown foods are part of go green lifestyle.

***Farmers*** showing their ***Organic Harvest***

Why Being Preferred These Days: The Importance of Organic Farming

Food quality and safety are two vital factors that have attained constant attention in common people. Growing environmental awareness and several food hazards (e.g. dioxins, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, and bacterial contamination) have substantially decreased the consumer’s trust towards food quality in the last decades. Intensive conventional farming can add contamination to the food chain. For these reasons, consumers are quested for safer and better foods that are produced through more ecologically and authentically by local systems. Organically grown food and food products are believed to meet these demands.

Organic Farming Process

Organic farming and food processing practices are wide-ranging and necessitate the development of socially, ecologically, and economically sustainable food production system. The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) has suggested the basic four principles of organic farming, i.e. the principle of health, ecology, fairness, and care . The main principles and practices of organic food production are to inspire and enhance biological cycles in the farming system, keep and enhance deep-rooted soil fertility, reduce all types of pollution, evade the application of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, conserve genetic diversity in food, consider the vast socio-ecological impact of food production, and produce high-quality food in sufficient quantity.

Principles of Organic Farming

According to the National Organic Programme implemented by USDA Organic Food Production Act (OFPA, 1990), agriculture needs specific prerequisites for both crop cultivation and animal husbandry. To be acceptable as organic, crops should be cultivated in lands without any synthetic pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and herbicides for 3 years before harvesting with enough buffer zone to lower contamination from the adjacent farms. Genetically engineered products, sewage sludge, and ionizing radiation are strictly prohibited. Fertility and nutrient content of soil are managed primarily by farming practices, with crop rotation, and using cover crops that are boosted with animal and plant waste manures. Pests, diseases, and weeds are mainly controlled with the adaptation of physical and biological control systems without using herbicides and synthetic pesticides. Organic livestock should be reared devoid of scheduled application of growth hormones or antibiotics and they should be provided with enough access to the outdoor. Preventive health practices such as routine vaccination, vitamins and minerals supplementation are also needed.

Types of Organic Farming

Organic Farming are of two types. Here are the two types of Organic Farming being performed in India.

(a) Pure Organic Farming – pure organic farming, there is avoiding every unnatural chemical. In the process of pure farming, fertilizer and pesticides obtain from natural sources. It is called a pure form of organic farming. Pure organic farming is the best for high productivity.

(b) Integrated Organic Farming – Integrated organic farming consists of integrated nutrients management and integrated pest management.

Organic Farming in India

Organic farming is in a nascent stage in India. About 2.78 million hectare of farmland was under organic cultivation as of March 2020, according to the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare. This is two per cent of the 140.1 million net sown area in the country. A few states have taken the lead in improving organic farming coverage, as a major part of this area is concentrated only in a handful of states. Madhya Pradesh tops the list with 0.76 million of area under organic cultivation — that is over 27 per cent of India’s total organic cultivation area. The top three states — Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra — account for about half the area under organic cultivation. The top 10 states account for about 80 per cent of the total area under organic cultivation. Sikkim is the only Indian state to have become fully organic so far. Even though India has very small organic area under cultivation, in terms of number of organic farmers it is being ranked first. India has over 1.9 million farmers as of March 2020, which is 1.3 per cent of 146 million agricultural landholders.

Advantages of Organic Farming

Organic farming in India is very economical, it uses no expensive fertilizers, pesticides, HYV seeds for the plantation of crops. It has no expenses.

With the use of cheaper and local inputs, a farmer can earn a good return on investment. This is one of the most important benefits of organic farming in India.

There is a huge demand for organic products in India and worldwide and can earn more income through export.

Organic products are more nutritional, tasty, and good for health to chemical and fertilizer utilized products.

Organic farming in India is very environment friendly, it does not use fertilizers and chemicals.

Disadvantages of Organic Farming

Organic farming in India has fewer choices, and off-season crops are limited.

Organic agricultural products are low in the early years. Farmers find it difficult to accommodate mass production.

The main disadvantage of organic farming is the lack of marketing of the products and Inadequate infrastructure.

Future of Organic Farming in India

India is an agriculture-based country with 67% of its population and 55% of manpower depending on farming and related activities. Agriculture fulfils the basic needs of India’s fastest-growing population accounted for 30% of total income. Organic farming has been found to be an indigenous practice of India that practised in countless rural and farming communities over the millennium. The arrival of modern techniques and increased burden of population led to a propensity towards conventional farming that involves the use of synthetic fertilizer, chemical pesticides, application of genetic modification techniques, etc.

***Organic Farming*** leads to ***Sustainability*** and ***Holistic Growth***

Even in developing countries like India, the demand for organically grown produce is more as people are more aware now about the safety and quality of food, and the organic process has a massive influence on soil health, which devoid of chemical pesticides. Organic cultivation has an immense prospect of income generation too. The soil in India is bestowed with various types of naturally available organic nutrient resources that aid in organic farming.

***As per data collected from Government of India***

Conclusion

India is a country with a concrete traditional farming system, ingenious farmers, extensive drylands, and nominal use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Moreover, adequate rainfall in north-east hilly regions of the country where few negligible chemicals are employed for a long period of time, come to fruition as naturally organic lands. Organic farming yields more nutritious and safe food. The popularity of organic food is growing dramatically as consumer seeks the organic foods that are thought to be healthier and safer. Thus, organic food perhaps ensures food safety from farm to plate. The organic farming process is more eco-friendly than conventional farming. Organic farming keeps soil healthy and maintains environment integrity thereby, promoting the health of consumers. Moreover, the organic produce market is now the fastest growing market all over the world including India. Organic agriculture promotes the health of consumers of a nation, the ecological health of a nation, and the economic growth of a nation by income generation holistically. India, at present, is the world’s largest organic producers and with this vision, we can conclude that encouraging organic farming in India can build a nutritionally, ecologically, and economically healthy nation in near future.

Urban Agriculture

Urban agriculture can be described as the agricultural practices to producing fresh food or other agricultural products in urban areas and their surrounding regions (peri-urban). This can function centrally where plants can be grown and animal husbandry, horticulture, and aquaculture can be practiced. It also involves the processing, packaging, marketing, and delivery of food. In purview urban agriculture extends to establish food production sites within the city’s sphere.

As more land area is getting urbanized and larger number of people are coming to the urban areas to reside. It becomes very critical to properly utilize the space in our cities and suburban areas. Research in the last two decades is has proven that Urban agriculture can be a viable option for food production. It can also help in decreasing the effects of climate change and make the food supply chain more efficient. Proper land use and spatial planning are crucial to practice this effectively. There are various methods to practice urban agriculture including ground-level farming, hydroponic farming, rooftop farming, vertical farming, greenhouses, and other new technologies.

As cities are expanding, this has created new sets of issues like the urban heat island effect, waste management, lack of biodiversity, and high levels of air pollution. With more people moving around the urban space, this has also increased carbon emissions. With urban agriculture, we can try to offset some of the adverse effects of these problems. This kind of agriculture is now being practiced in many cities. Cities like Tokyo, Seoul, and Sao Paulo have their own urban agriculture initiatives. But one of the cities is betting on urban farming in Singapore. The city-state currently imports 90 percent of its food. This also means that any kind of geopolitical tension or a global crisis can severely affect the food supply of Singapore. This means that growing own food becomes critical and essential. Due to this, the Singaporean government has envisioned an ambitious goal to produce 30 percent of its food in the city itself by 2030. This is a special challenge in Singapore’s care due to its tiny land area and highly urbanized population. The city has almost non-existent agriculture land and this is why the focus of food production is on the unutilized urban spaces, on top of shopping malls, hotels, schools, homes, rooftops in parking lots across the city, etc.

In 2009 Singapore government launched a program that incentivizes injecting greenery into development projects across the nation The program was aptly named ‘Landscaping for Urban Spaces and High-Rises’ (LUSH). Their current initiative to build urban food-growing areas within the city will be built upon this program.

Some of the benefits that Urban farming enjoys are immunity from water pollution, a better-controlled environment from the physical forces, and minimal to no use of pesticides and insecticides. But there are some limitations as well. This type of farming can be quite energy-intensive and the outputs can be comparatively lower than traditional farming. This also makes it more expensive.

To make Urban farming more effective governments will also need policies that will make use of the maximum amount of land across the city. Hydroponic farming can be a very effective way to rapidly scale the production where plants are grown with the help of water and the additional nutrients and minerals are added to the water to substitute soil. Additional Urban farming can also help in reducing carbon emissions and making cities cooler. Private firm involvement can also help in stepping up the scale of this kind of farming. This will be the step towards sustainable food production in the cities of the future but to make this happen greater involvement across the citizens and sectors will be needed.

References:

IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE ( in Indian Economy)

The word agriculture is derived from the Latin language importance of agriculture. So we all know that India is an agricultural country . And we have been hearing this since the very beginning . That is , most of the people here are involved in agriculture, So no doubt that when so many people are involved in agriculture, then maximum people will get national income. So agriculture plays a very important role in the Indian economy. Agriculture generates 24% of the nation’s income. Means, out of 100 rupees, 24 rupees comes from your agriculture and the rest is in other sectors. And which is 60% of the population of India, it is in agriculture, which means that 40% of the population is either they are doing service or they work in the industry. And until production does not come from agriculture, then you can think that no industry will serve. The industry which depends on the agricultural product also cannot survive without the product And the agriculture that plays an important role of development of industries and foreign trade. Because so many companies are, it depends on the agricultural product itself. Agriculture play the back bone of Indian economy.

Following one the role of agriculture in the India economy.

24% of the national income comes from agriculture.
There is 60% employment in agriculture.
Supply of raw material: If we want to make any product, then we need items. Like we need seeds to make oil. We need cotton for textile industries, so all these sources we call raw material, The things from which any other product is made, we called it raw material like cotton, seeds accepted vet, all these raw materials are supplied to us from agriculture.
Role A agriculture in international trade: About 70% of the products we export to other countries, we export products that are supplied from agriculture or apiculture. There are some important products which export from India. Like Tea, Sugar, Oils Seeds, Tobacco, Spices, Rubber are all agricultural products which we export to other countries.
Contribution to GDP(Gross Domestic Product):Apart from the industries in our country, agriculture sector and human being contribute to the multi GDP.So we can say that agriculture plays a very important role in increasing GDP.Agriculture has contributed 51% in 1950-52, while between 2018 and 2019, only 14.4% was contributed But this does not mean that there is no importance of agriculture sector but agriculture also plays a very important role If the contribution of agriculture to GDP has been reduced, then the reason is because that the people who are they have started moving towards the secondary and territory sector They have moved out of the ruler area to Auburn Places and started working, so the agriculture contribution has come down a bit in GDP But still we will say that agriculture is very important for us.
Supply of wage goods: We get oil, wheat, rice, all from agriculture. In India or outside country, we also need important stuff like oil, rice, wheat. All that we get from agriculture And you can see that in today’s time, 121 crore people in India get all these things from agriculture.85% of what we take every day is an agricultural product, while the remaining 15% comes from egg milk and meat.
Source of employment: Agriculture is a huge source of employment because even today there are many people who depend on agriculture He grows crops on his farm and he himself takes consume and also earns money by selling it to the market 50% of the population is engaged in agriculture Agriculture is also taken care of in the economy planning that is made for India.

Source of demand for industrial goods :The work of industrial goods is to make heavy products, make heavy machines And now our agriculture sector which is there demands this kind of machine Because we need tractor, compiler, all this in agriculture which comes from industries This means that agriculture demands industries to make machines and we will buy them So agriculture plays a very important role for industries as well.
Support to transport industry :So we all know that rail, roadways, air comes in transport But agriculture, which is mostly beneficial for railways, roadways Like goods trains, trucks, food items go in all these, if there is no agriculture then there will be no sugar can then there will be no transport Means has also given maximum employment opportunity in this, Agriculture is also very important in transport industries.
Wealth of Nation : The most important thing in our country is that we have agricultural land And there will be very few such countries in the world which have agricultural land So this is our heritage and we have to protect it and keep improving That’s why we would say that agriculture is very important to us because it is a wealth of nation.

And these are all the points due to which agriculture is considered important .

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this: