Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
more flexibility around how to use their incomes, even though their yields
had fallen. Additionally, by growing their own food, Padayeti's farmers
did not have to purchase rice and vegetables at market prices in shops,
increasing their community's food security. Organic farming, therefore,
can offer one pathway to decreasing the dependence of farmers on ex-
ternal markets and debt. Furthermore, researchers working for the Bio
-
diversity Board predict that yields are likely to go back up once soil health
is restored.
Decades of fear about overpopulation and resource scarcity served as
a major motive for introducing Green Revolution technologies in India,
which ultimately and dramatically altered social and ecological relations
in several destructive ways. The resulting agrarian crisis in this and the
previous century led to thousands of farmer suicides. Ironically, chemi
-
cals have only stripped soils of nutrients, rendering them incapable of
producing large yields in the long-term. Kerala has already experienced
declines in pepper and coffee output, for example.
Ultimately, food security is tied to economic and political decisions,
not solely to population numbers or agricultural output. For example,
during the India-Africa Forum Summit in 2010, the Government of India
for the first time pledged over $5 billion in food aid to Africa; much of this
was in the form of infrastructure development, financing, and training.
This decision to provide food aid stemmed from the government's desire
to secure greater market opportunities on the continent, stimulate India's
economy, and increase opportunities for Indian investors. Unfortunately,
millions of people in India were estimated to be malnourished in 2010.
Several million metric tons of food grains also roted in government re-
serve silos that year.9 A fixation on yields does not address this type of
disconnect in India's trade and domestic policies.
To date, few studies that examine yields from organically farmed plots
in comparison to those grown under conventional and industrial meth-
ods have come out of India.10 The small number of existing studies have
suggested, though, that organic production and yields could be improved
with beter training and more eicient disbursement of government sub-
sidies to farmers.11 And still others have argued that because many Indian
producers already farm without chemicals, yields are unlikely to decline
