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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Why organic farming is yet to bear fruit -T Ramakrishnan

Why organic farming is yet to bear fruit -T Ramakrishnan

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published Published on Sep 23, 2018   modified Modified on Sep 23, 2018
-The Hindu

Despite concerted efforts to promote this alternative system of food production, a majority of agriculturists are yet to jump on the organic bandwagon, as factors such as costs, land size and viability remain sticking points

Chennai:
Nearly 25 years ago, an event held at the American Center Auditorium in Chennai on the topic of the Green Revolution witnessed a lively debate on the merits and demerits of organic farming and “conventional farming”, a euphemism for chemical-based cultivation practices which came into vogue in the country in the mid-1960s.

Though the idea of organic farming was relatively new back then, many participants did raise points about the ill-effects of excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in agricultural production. The winner of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize and the “Father of the Green Revolution”, Norman E. Borlaug, who spoke at the event from Texas in the U.S., strongly defended chemical farming, and even expressed the apprehension that the total exclusion of fertilizers may lead to famine.

Despite the passage of time and the concept of organic farming gradually taking root in the country, the core characteristics of the debate do not seem to have changed. Farmers do constantly discuss whether the idea makes sense from the point of view of economic dividends.

In Tamil Nadu — a State known for being receptive to new ideas, with a long history of irrigated agriculture — the situation is no different from the rest of the country. In fact, it lags behind other southern States in terms of the coverage of organic farming, though there have been reports of organic food products catering to an upwardly mobile consumer base.

In fact, Chennai alone accounts for 400 shops that exclusively sell organic food, according to this year’s State Focus Paper of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). The figure may look impressive, but if one were to consider the bigger picture, the concept of organic farming is yet to capture the imagination of a majority of agriculturists in the State.

“It is utopian to think that organic farming could completely replace chemical farming. It is only one of several technologies available to the farming community. Having said that, I do agree that organic inputs have certain benefits, such as enriching soil for microbes. Maybe, to the extent of 20%, you can substitute synthetic chemical fertilizers with them. But not more than that. You cannot do agriculture without chemical fertilizers,” asserts C. Ramasamy, who was the Vice-Chancellor of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) from 2002 to 2008, and had worked with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington, D.C., for four years in the 1980s.

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The Hindu, 22 September, 2018, https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/why-organic-farming-is-yet-to-bear-fruit/article25018023.ece?homepage=true


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