Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
the traditional sustainable ways of cultivation without harming the ecosystem.
Thus organic farming, a system with the broad principle of “live and let live,”
came up which was recognized nationally and internationally.
Organic agriculture is not limited to crop production alone, but encompasses
animal husbandry, dairy, fisheries, poultry, piggery, forestry, beekeeping, and
also uncultivated biodiversity . . .
By and large, there is an increasing awareness among consumers on the dele-
terious effects of pesticides and hence there has been a high demand for organi-
cally cultivated food products. Therefore it has become a solemn responsibility
of the Government to encourage organic farming to ensure poison-free food at
affordable prices to every citizen.
There have been . . . doubts on the practicability of organic farming on the
grounds that [food] production would plummet and the country would [expe-
rience] yet another food crisis. This is quite unfounded. Success stories on the
high productivity of organic farming are now abundant. The Food and Agricul-
ture Organization reported at the International Conference on Organic Agri-
culture and Food Security in 2007 as follows: “Conversion of global agriculture
to organic management, without converting wild lands to agriculture and using
N-fertilizers, would result in a global agricultural supply of 2640 to 4380 kcal/
person/day. Sustainable intensification in developing countries through organic
practices would increase production by 56 percent. Organic yields on average
are comparable to conventional yields; although yields do decline initially when
converting from high-input systems and almost double when converting from
low-input systems.” It also has found that organic farms use 33 to 56 percent less
energy . . . than conventional farms.
Worldwide, as of now, more than 22.81 million hectares of land area are man-
aged organically and the market for organic food is around $30 billion. It may
be noted that Cuba, a country with 42,402 square miles of land and with 11.3
million people, is completely organic.
A Brief History of Organic Farming
Pesticides have been in use in agriculture since the Second World War and from
the very beginning there have been concerns about the commercialization of
chemical pesticides. Rachel Carson's
Silent Spring
, published in 1964, brought
out the scientific certainties of the impacts of pesticides on environment. Al-
though DDT was banned in the developed world in the 1970s, and its use in the
agriculture fields of developing countries later, [other] varieties of toxic pesti-
cides found their way into the farms. The scientific predictions of Rachel Car-
son became true and the public, especially farmers and scientists, . . . realized
