Organic Farming, whenever this topic
is discussed, there’s always one intellectual who asks the question, “Rest
everything is fine, but can it sustain the needs of the whole world?”. This
contention is given by the advocates of conventional farming strategies since
there is vastly improved yield in it than the yield of organic farming methods.
A study was done on 40 years of
scientific literature analyzing both methods of agriculture. This showed that
indeed conventional farming trumps organic farming in terms of yield which was
found to be between 8% to 25% less than conventional farming, depending on the
crop. However, this gap can be reduced to 9% with the effective use of organic
polyculture and crop rotation.
According to leading US Agricultural
scientists, one field where organic farming will always trump conventional
farming is in periods of droughts and areas dealing with severe water
shortages. The rate at which global climate is disrupting, the problems with
water are increasing with them.
A paper published in the journal
‘Nature’ by John Reganold and Jonathan Wachter, agronomists at Washington State
University in the United States provides enough evidence that yield is much better
and reliable in organic farming during periods of droughts. While farmers can
be encouraged to use seeds better adapted to organic farming methods to further
decrease the productivity gap.
I am proof of the above statements.
We live in Rajasthan where there are severe shortages of water have adopted the
“Organic Way of Life”. My family has been associated with agriculture for
hundreds of years. During last year’s quarantine, I initiated organic farming
as a hobby, developing and using organic medicines for land and crop treatment.
The results were amazing. Not only did the crops survive the locust attacks
that happened in mid-2020, but the yield was found to be equivalent to previous
years. Moreover, the land didn’t lose its fertility after organic treatment and
even retained moisture just as mentioned in the paper by Reganold and Wachter.
The size and taste of mangoes that blossomed for the first time at our farms
were magnificent.
There is no denying the fact that
organic yields are much healthier and eco-friendly than the ones resulting from
spraying insecticides and pesticides. Organically treated soils retain more
moisture while pesticides pollute groundwater with phosphates and nitrates. The
yield of conventional farming contains lower nutritional values than that of
organically farmed yields. This claim is supported by 12 out of 15 studies done
by the researchers on this subject.
Organic produce is considered a
luxury these days. The farmers making a living by selling organic products
generate 35% more revenue than their conventional farming counterparts. Average
organic products sell 32% more than conventional products in the US. In big and
developed cities a label of ‘ORGANIC’ can shoot up the price of a product up to
10 times more than what the actual price is. For your satisfaction, search the
price for ‘Organic Maize Flour’ on Amazon. The current govt price for maize is
Rs. 18.5/kg (for your reference). Not getting scammed by this tag has become a
challenge in itself too.
The “Organic Way of Life” used to be
the Indian way of life. Things changed rapidly after the Green Revolution in
the 60s. That was the need of the hour, as during that time India was dealing
with the food shortage crisis. Wheat and rice were imported from the US and
were delivered directly to the ration shops. Today we deal with the ‘Food
Surplus Crisis’, according to the Reserve Bank of India. The Food Corporation
of India (FCI) has more than double the buffer stocks in godowns. Currently, we
have around 30 lakh tonnes of sugar, 221 lakh tonnes of rice, and 478 lakh
tonnes of wheat in the buffer stocks, much of it is going to waste due to
disuse. States like Punjab and Haryana which were famous for producing almost
50% of the grains for the country are now losing to droughts and lower yields
due to barren land which was once fertile. We need to recognize the demand of
time and act on it. Organic farming methods have the ability and the potential
to fulfill every demand of the growing population only if they are used
properly.
Name: Lakhan
Maheshwari
Batch: 2021-23
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lakhanmaheshwari27
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