The Indian Agriculture is in Peril.
Rotational conventional agriculture in India had taken care predominantly of the rural society, that had minimum impact on biodiversity and the pollution it caused was localised typically. It is true, nutrients capturing in the product was low but use of energy was almost zero. The idea of sustainable development is the slogan world-wise in twenty first century, the industrial revolution, competition to grow more and meet the pressure of population have led the farmers to undertake specialised method to increase production. We have had reliable safe food grain at a cheaper rate. These changes have led to abrupt habitat loss, diminishing biodiversity on farming-land and the surrounding of the villages. Now, civilisation has become the most significant cause of serious pollution. The agricultural disasters abuse the soil at our peril. Many past civilisations sank into oblivion when their soils turned to dust under sustained cultivation. We do not recycle the soil’s nutrients by spreading our excrement liberally across the land. After good harvests, farming communities do not deliberately stuffed themselves with extra helpings of grains in order to reinvest in their stock of natural capital and replenish the soil. We must know the use and abuse of soil. Many ancient civilisations lost their grip when lost respect for soil erosion. The history of soil is rich and surprising. Soil erosion is a natural process, but on average human is increasing erosion rates many-fold. The modern agric- business is to blame for to-day’s diminishing soil supply. But India is not to blame for that. Agri- business here is now beginning. To meet the demand of exploding population , we have taken the ‘ received wisdom’ of ‘ green revolution’, the high-yield hybrid-crop-varieties that require huge fertiliser and irrigation water has been invited. But the China fed her people through land- reform, not by green revolution. Her hunger for food was beyond the capacity of green revolution. But land-reform may create debate as it involves enforced redistribution, but something effective should be done here. If you think we can go without soil care –taking, our civilisation may vanish in the blue. It is proved that ploughing and fertilisers release large amount of carbon into air. The modern agricultural practices are considered sustainable, must have unexpected down-sides. Planting nitrogen-, fixing legumes may lead to excess nitrogen leaching from the soils, causing eutrophication; ploughing causes soils to lose carbon. Minimising soil disturbance at the time of managing crops, requires herbicides and the method to lessen the pressure on land are the needs of the day. The pressure on land will be increasing for coming, at least, fifty years to make the agriculture sustainable. The Indian population is likely to rise by at least billion by coming years. No one can say, when it will be stabilise. The change of climate will significantly reduce crops and animals, particularly in tropics and sub-tropics. The resent enthusiasm to increase animal product here is rising so first that extra one hundred million tonnes of grain may be required to reach the goal. On the other hand, the source of water in India is now remarkably very poor condition. Ground water level bellows day to day. The farming here in twenty first century may have to be very different to how it was in twenty century. But it does not mean that traditional practices are inevitably more sustainable than new ones. We should change that idea that agriculture has zero impact.
Now we must have to decide which centre on the need to maintain production without increasing damage. The simple and static measures of sustainability are to be abandoned. The need of dynamic interpretation that can look all the ways land is used. These are various ways to measure agricultural performance besides food –yield, energy use, environmental costs, and water purity. Carbon –foot- print, biodiversity. We must remember that crucial is to recognise that sustainable agricultural is not just sustainable food production. Already some simple management change is observed, but they altered the balance between the farmed and non- farmed elements in the landscape and have considerable consequences for farmland –birds and insects. We must not finish our duty to continue to pay lip service to sustainability without ever developing ways to improve it. We need to act quickly in the coming years; agriculture will not only suffer the effects of global warming. It will also contribute to it. We can grow as much as food without using Western farming pattern and fertilisers and sock up a major part of our industrial carbon-dioxide emission through reduced power-driven ploughing. The hybrid production in Indian soil must take revenge that is feared foodless period and hunger. The natural crop growing environment, the originality of crops gin must get changed and soil will take a turn to be barren. The conventional food grains are losing their footings and are being abolished day to day. The day may come when hybrid crops must strand reaping after going through change for long years. The green- revolution may come back as an ultimatum to Indian people when no measure would be adequate.