DC Debate: Organic farming - Good or bad?

No overnight switch-over to organic

Every home is turning into a cancer ward. It is not a scare. It’s a reality. And of the many causes for this, pesticides in food are a major cause. Certain types of the disease like breast and prostate cancers are the most common.  So, what do we do? If we can avoid pesticides in the production of food, we should. Fortunately, in the last decade, many farmers and scientists have developed new and simple farm technologies that can handle most pest and disease issues in plants and these technologies are now a rage among thousands of farmers in India. Panchagavya, Amruthpani, Jeevamrutha, Beejamrutha and some 100-odd herbal combinations have been discovered or rather rediscovered and are being used extensively in farms.

The result – organic or even better natural farming systems are showing success not only in controlling pests and diseases, but also in improving productivity and ensuring better returns to the farmer. These returns are seen in better soil management, better health, food quality, remunerative prices, improvement in farm diversity, and above all, ending the farmers’ nightmare – debt and even suicides. Now, an unnecessary debate is on. Those who have been recommending / promoting chemicals in farming continue to think that only chemicals are the way to handle pests and diseases and improve soil fertility.

Even Governments have moved away from this thinking, and are promoting organic or natural farming. The best example is Sikkim, a state that actually started intensifying organic approach almost at the same time Kerala did, but became fully organic, without any dent in productivity. Objections to moving forward on sustainable, safer, diverse and non-chemical methods are rather fanatic, and have no rationale. Critics of organic farming should understand that the basis for moving away from chemical farming methods is the innumerable number of studies that have shown that food crops do retain residues of these pesticides and many of them are harmful to human and animal health as well as the environment.

Nobody is saying, “Adopt organic overnight”. Every change needs careful handholding, good field-testing, adoption and monitoring. Kerala is taking a firm step towards promoting farming into non-pesticidal management and then to organic. This will give more confidence to farmers, even while consumers get safe food to eat. This is a rational way of doing things. The days of fanatic chemical methods are over.

(Author Sridhar Radhakrishnan is Director for Agriculture and Food Sovereignty programme at Thanal.)

No additional benefits from organic food

Organic farmers and certifying agencies often claim additional benefits from consuming organic food products. But an analysis based on 98,727 studies shows that this claim is hollow. There is no proof to show that organic foods provide better nutrition leading to better health. Organic foods protect you from cancer? This myth was examined in a study that comprised six million women over 50 years age for 9 years. Out of 6 million women, 45,000 were consistently taking organic foods and 180,000 without specially taking organic foods. During the study period 50,000 persons were detected with 16 types of cancers.

“In this large perspective study, there was little or no decrease in the incidence of cancer associated with consumption of organic food except possibly for non-Hodgkin lymphoma” (Bradberry, K.E et al Organic food consumption and the incidence of cancer in a large prospective study of women in the United Kingdom (2014). British Journal of Cancer 2014 April 29. There is a common belief that addition of chemical fertilizers adversely affects the health of soil as well as people. The All India Coordinated Research Project on long term fertility conducted from 1970 onwards shows that organic manures and chemical fertilizers used in an integrated manner has highest productivity and did not degrade the soil. Use of chemical fertilizers alone for a long time resulted in higher acidity, buildup of phosphorus, lowered organic carbon, micronutrients and microbial activity.

On the other hand, use of organic manures alone resulted in unavailability of certain micronutrients due to chelation and higher acidity. So the best option is to go for integrated nutrient management. Another myth is that organic food is tastier. A farm produce will taste well if the plant receives required elements in correct quantity and proportion during different phases of its life. For instance, if potassium is not available in sufficient quantities, banana fruit will develop stone in it and will be less sweet. Organic produce may reduce chances of getting contact with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, but chance of consuming pesticides higher than maximum residue limit is very less.

The allegation that widespread cultivation of High Yielding Varieties has led to permanent loss of many varieties with unique characters is true to some extent. To prevent further genetic erosion, seeds of local varieties were collected from villages by exploratory field visits and conserved in the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) in its 12 centers at -180 C. These seeds were cultivated and their passport information is generated which is freely available. It is well known that productivity is low in organic farming. A study of 316 studies comprising 34 different crops, it is shown that the yield reduction may range from 4 per cent to 34 per cent with an average of 25 percent.

(Author Dr K M Sreekumar is professor at College of Agriculture, Kasargod)