Organic Farming

With the increase in population our compulsion would be not only to stabilize agricultural production but to increase it further in sustainable manner. The scientists have realized that the 'Green Revolution' with high input use has reached a plateau and is now sustained with diminishing return of falling dividends. Thus, a natural balance needs to be maintained at all cost for existence of life and property. The obvious choice for that would be more relevant in the present era, when these agrochemicals which are produced from fossil fuel and are not renewable and are diminishing in availability. It may also cost heavily on our foreign exchange in future. 

• Protecting the long term fertility of soils by maintaining organic matter levels, encouraging soil biological activity, and careful mechanical intervention
• Providing crop nutrients indirectly using relatively insoluble nutrient sources which are made available to the plant by the action of soil micro-organisms
• Nitrogen self-sufficiency through the use of legumes and biological nitrogen fixation, as well as effective recycling of organic materials including crop residues and livestock manures
• Weed, disease and pest control relying primarily on crop rotations, natural predators, diversity, organic manuring, resistant varieties and limited (preferably minimal) thermal, biological and chemical intervention
• The extensive management of livestock, paying full regard to their evolutionary adaptations, behavioural needs and animal welfare issues with respect to nutrition, housing, health, breeding and rearing
• Careful attention to the impact of the farming system on the wider environment and the conservation of wildlife and natural habitats

  In India, where certified Organic farming was being done on 42000 hectare land in 2003-2004, by 2010 it has started to be done on 4.5 million hectare land. Organic farming can still be seen in three categories in our country India.    The first category comes those farmers, who are already doing farming by adopting the method of antiquity, that is, the method of chemical farming has not reached these areas or it may be that those farmers lack the resources, so that they could not adopt chemical farming. The second category consists of those farmers who have experienced the loss due to chemical farming,  that is, either the fertile power of their land has decreased, or their cost of production has increased, so now they will also take up farming by adopting organic farming. The third category consists of a small number of large commercial farmers or agriculture related units, who have deliberately chosen the path of organic farming by analyzing the market orientation, as they know that most people do not like adulterated or chemical food.  Agriculture is the foundation of rural economy in India and agriculture is the main income of farmers. In view of the increasing population since the time of the Green Revolution, it is necessary to increase production from the point of view of income and for more production, more amount of chemical fertilizers and pesticides are used in farming, due to which the marginal and small farmers have high cost in low holdings. Water, land, air and environment are also being polluted as well as food items are also becoming poisonous. Therefore, in order to deal with all the above problems of this type, it has been recommended to cultivate the principle of sustainable farming continuously over the years, which was encouraged by the State Agriculture Department to adopt this particular type of farming, which they have been promoting for organic farming. Government of India is also promoting to adopt this farming.  The 96th annual conference of Indian Economic Association, a leading organization of economists of India, was held on 27 to 29 December at Meenakshi University in Tamil Nadu. Although the conference discussed the 12th Five Year Plan and the development prospects thereafter, the unorganized non-agricultural sector in the Indian economy, regional agricultural development and the economic considerations of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, but the chairman of the conference, Dr. L.K. Mohanrao gave his presidential address on organic farming. Since organic farming is a subject of agricultural science, topics like organic farming are not discussed in traditional economic conferences and seminars. Thus Dr. L.K. Mohanrao's presidential address was off the league. He told that the experience of farmers doing experiments and farming in other countries of the world including India has proved that the use of organic manure increases the water holding capacity of the land and increases soil fertility, increases the productivity of crops and Farmers reduce production costs and increase incomes. Organic farming is also very useful from the environmental point of view. Dr. Mohanrao , in view of the demand of the times, suggested to promote organic farming in the larger interest of the nation.