Tuesday 11 January 2011

'Organic farming can't augment food supply'


BS Reporter / Chenai/ Dharwad December 28, 2010, 0:57 IST

Though organic farming has its own advantages, depending solely on it will not help augment food requirements of the country, said director general of ICAR S Ayyappan.

“Organic manures can augment the microbial activity, prevent environmental deterioration and restore soil health. It can reduce the chemical load in soil and farm produce. But at this juncture, when quantum of food is close to deficit, one cannot truly identify with the sole purpose of environmental resurrection alone. The fields around the world will be burdened with the responsibility of supplying grains to this oversized population. Organic farms alone cannot bear this responsibility,” he said while delivering the convocation address at the University of Agricultural Sciences in Dharwad on Monday.

Ayyappan who is also secretary, department of agricultural research and education, Government of India said the precision that manufactured mineral fertiliser offers helps overcome limitations of organic fertiliser. 

“Chemical fertiliser will remain the key inputs in agriculture. It has time and again been proved that they can augment production levels and can help fill the granaries,” he asserted.He called on agricultural scientists and the agricultural universities to develop location and situation-specific strategies for adapting rain-fed farming to emerging climate patterns as the global climate change is now a reality and there is a need to address the issue on a mission mode.

He also stressed the importance of low cost agricultural technologies as there has been a decline in profitability of agricultural sector due to fragmented holdings, an increase in input prices and the reduced ability of farmers to invest.

In future, growth in agriculture productivity can be sustained only through low-cost agricultural technologies, Ayyappan asserted.

Nutrition Security Act
Ayyappan stated that India needs a Nutrition Security Act to help the Nutrition Security Mission and Nutrition Policy become effectively functional. “Just a Food Security Act will not help eliminate malnutrition.
There has to be a coordinated effort between departments which can directly or indirectly influence nutrition security, by means of exhaustive research and by making use of the latest advancements in science and technology.
By breeding highly nutritious and fortified foods, it would be easier to combat issues of food scarcity and malnutrition at the same time,” he said. Expressing concern over the low per capita consumption of fruits and vegetables in India though India stood second in the world in the production of these, Ayyappan advocated the need to identify crops which have lesser demand for water and other inputs besides being more remunerative than field crops.



6 comments:

  1. //Chemical fertiliser will remain the key inputs in agriculture. It has time and again been proved that they can augment production levels and can help fill the granaries,”//


    On a lighter note, I hope the author of this article is not from mars! The Supreme Court not long ago issued suggestions to distribute the excess grains to the needy for free. So production is not at all a problem. Also I hope the author knows some fundamental things on agriculture...key inputs for agriculture will be arable land, functional seeds and healthy farmers. It is highly improper for the author to say that time and again production levels have been proved beacuse to prove one thing it must be compared with another. What did the author compare to come to this conclusion?

    //Organic manures can augment the microbial activity, prevent environmental deterioration and restore soil health. It can reduce the chemical load in soil and farm produce. But at this juncture, when quantum of food is close to deficit, one cannot truly identify with the sole purpose of environmental resurrection alone. The fields around the world will be burdened with the responsibility of supplying grains to this oversized population. Organic farms alone cannot bear this responsibility,//

    I request the author to put his common sense before knowledge. Look at the develop nation's food source. For example lets take US. A great research is not required to come to this conclusion. Go to Walmart look at diffrent food items and they would have listed the sourcing country. Almost 80% of their food is outsourced from developing nations. But these so called devloping nations with vast and rich natural resources still remain poor and have people who starve. So fields in which part of the world is burndened now? He needs to know that his views are lopsided like how the state of agriculture is right now! So again production is not a problem, its only consumption and economic policies based on that kind of a consumption are the problem.

    // the precision that manufactured mineral fertiliser offers helps overcome limitations of organic fertiliser. //

    This statement dosen't bear any significance since the author has not mentioned a single valid limitation of organic farming.

    //“Just a Food Security Act will not help eliminate malnutrition......By breeding highly nutritious and fortified foods, it would be easier to combat issues of food scarcity and malnutrition at the same time//

    The author through this statement makes it clear that he is highly confused. The statement fundamentally wrong. You cannot breed food. let us accept that mistake and take it as plant. Even you cannot breed nutritious plants. Even if that is possible you cannot breed nutritious plants to combat scarcity. To combat scarcity you need to breed high yielding crops (I hope this is basics).

    I wonder how this person has made such high positions. I suggest that these people think of the root cause for the problems of scarcity and malnourishment. Instead of applying nutrition to plants let them think how to take proper nutrition to required people rather.

    Sathya.S.Chammathil

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  2. He is the DG for ICAR. So, he has right to tell anything. Media have no idea to question him quickly.

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  3. Dear Mr.Senthil
    What DG said is most appropriate one.Let us not talk like the modern politician of the country.The blend of traditional and modern methods alone feed the growing population as the fertility varies from place to place.Let us get back the poly crop,mixed crop system and mixed farming and these alone save the mankind under the situation of global warming.One should strictly avoid over doing.
    Regards
    Sundaramurthy

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  4. I am totally confused by what Sudaramurthy is trying to tell.

    1. Who is talking like a mordern politician?

    2.What is feeding of growing population?

    3. What is the relationship between poly crop, mixed crop and mixed farming (different terms but same meaning though) with global warming?

    4.What is it that we are overdoing to stop it?

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  5. @ sathya

    3- How can you say there is no difference between different terminologies of agricultural science , ofcourse there is different meaning and there is a relationship with Global warming

    poly crop- different crops in different piece of land in a particular farm
    Mixed crop - combination of different crop in a same piece of land
    Mixed farm- combination of muitiple components in the farm e.g- crop+ livestock + additional income source agrobased components- poultry, fishery or landscape management/conservation activities.

    Soil is one of the main source for co2 emission.
    continous Monoculture causes drastic reduction of organic matter content , there by there is a decrease in soil microbial biomass - which is important to sequestrate carbon and other important nutrients like Nitrogen into the soil solution and to make it available for plants. Absence of this activity results in increase of greenhouse gases like co2, N2 to the atmosphere which causes global temperature increase.

    This may be the reason behind the relations

    So everything is interrelated in the natural ecosystem. without understanding of these type of natural dynamics only we are facing unfathomable big issues like climate change , global warming and so on.

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  6. @ Tamil

    I am happy that you are saying that there is a interconnectivity between everything in a ecosystem.

    First a farm by itself is an intergrated system. There is no need to say that it should be like this, like that etc., by using goofy terms. Look at your own statement on poly crop and mixed crop. You mean to say the same thing.

    Secondly //Absence of this activity results in increase of greenhouse gases like co2, N2 to the atmosphere which causes global temperature increase.// this statement is highly foolish. Then we can accuse ourselves by saying that we are a major Co2 emmitter since we respire. There is certain carbon that always remain in the sytem through cycles. It is called Neutral Carbon. Instead of analysing things wholistically the science places all it can imagine on the global warming issue. I see people stating that trees emit CO2, cows are a bigger CO2 emitters etc., which are fully absurd.

    Even in a monoculture the plants are not responsible for reducing the soil activity. It is use of increased levels of chemical fertilisers that cause soil incativity.

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