The state of Punjab has been at
the forefront of Indian Agriculture since the late 1960’s with the
ushering of our Green Revolution. The cornerstones of this input
intensive strategy were:
- High yielding varieties of seeds
- Irrigation
- Chemical fertilisers
- Pesticides
- Mechanization
- Research and extension
This created increased rural
prosperity and a rise in employment potential in agriculture as well
as allied downstream activities. Of late however, there has been a
stagnation of yields and farm gate profits appear to have declined
sharply as input costs have gone up disproportionately.
- High yielding varieties of seeds are now used across all crop segments in Punjab. In the kharif season, the two most important crops rice and cotton account for over 82% of the total crop area and in the rabi season, wheat accounts for over 84%. The latest varieties of these crops released by ICAR and PAU are well disseminated among the farming community and are quickly adopted. In the case of cotton, the latest GM varieties released by private companies are aggressively marketed and adopted by farmers. The remaining area comprises largely of other crops like vegetables, potato, sugarcane and fruits most of which also benefit from the regular introduction of new high yielding varieties.
- Out of the state’s total cultivated area of 4.184 million hectares, over 4.08 million hectares, or an impressive 97.5% is irrigated. Cropping percentage has increased from 140% to 190%, which means most farmers are already growing 2 crops or sometimes more, each year on their land. Thus there is little scope for further expansion of areas under irrigation.
- Consumption of NPK fertilisers has increased from just 213,000 tons in 1970 -71 to over 1,936,000 tons in 2010 -11. This has resulted in the per hectare use of these fertilisers increasing in the same period from 37.50 kgs to 246 kgs.
- Pesticide consumption has increased from 3200 metric tonnes in 1980 -81 to over 6150 tonnes in 2011 -12 or, from just 765 grams per hectare to over 1470 grams per hectare. This makes Punjab one of the most pesticides intensive states in the country. The immense deleterious impact this has had on its people is known to most.
- Mechanization has made equally impressive strides, for instance the state had just 5281 tractors in 1970 -71 but now has over 500,000 tractors, in other words 1 tractor for every 8.37 hectares, which is almost touching saturation point. The same applies to pump sets which pump out water from over 1 million tube wells, so much so that as many as 90 development blocks out of 138 have been designated “Black” because of an alarming depletion of ground water levels by over 50 cms every year, much faster than the rate of replenishment by nature.
It is
estimated that at some stage only submersible pumps will remain
effective and this could add another Rs 5000 crores to farmers’
costs.
- Despite these efforts, the rate of growth of yields of most crops have stagnated from 1991 -92 to 2010 -11 and in some cases has actually declined. A few examples CAGR over this period are given herewith:
Rice –
0.12%; Wheat – 2.11%; Maize – 3.42%; Cotton – (7.87%); Potato –
(0.01%); Pulses – (2.45%); Oilseeds – (5.86%); Sugarcane –
(0.15%).
As a result,
direct employment in the farm sector may have fallen.
There has
been a steep reduction in the area under pulses and oilseeds in
Punjab mainly due to the lower profits associated with them. This has
been compensated by a corresponding rise in the area under rice and
wheat. This has the potential to create a nutritional imbalance.
- What is worse is that yields have stabilised at levels far below world averages, for instance; the average yield of wheat in the state has remained around 4.5 tons per hectare whereas Germany and France average 7 - 8 tons. Yields of rice achieved in Punjab are also around 3.9 tons per hectare whereas China achieves over 6.5 tons per hectare. In the case of cotton, Australian farmers produce over 1857 kgs of lint per acre as against 708 kgs in Punjab.
- This stagnation is accompanied by a reduction in the average land holding size from 3.95 hectares to 3.78 hectares in the above period.
The number
of marginal holdings (< 1 hectare) have increased from 13.36% in
2005 – 06 to 15.5% in 2010 -11. The number of small holdings (1 -2
hectares) has risen from 18.24% to 18.53% in the same period. This
means that the number of farm households with low purchasing power
and ability to invest in their farms may form a substantial (31.89%)
of the state’s farmers. This proportion will only increase further
over a period of time as land gets distributed between more family
members. The consequence for the state as well as industry will be
grave. For instance, if this class of farmers is unable to invest in
submersible pumps, they will be effectively disenfranchised from the
use of ground water which is a common resource and already accounts
for over 71.5% of the irrigation in the state.
EMERGING
THREATS TO AGRICULTURE IN PUNJAB
There is a decline in soil quality, structure and productivity which is a direct consequence of the strategy being followed for over 5 decades.
- Excessive reliance on wasteful flood irrigation has resulted in problems of waterlogging and salinity in the South Western parts of the state which will hamper production
- The degradation of soil has resulted in soil becoming more prone to erosion, as a result it is estimated that we are losing valuable top soil at 10 times the rate at which nature can replenish this valuable resource. Subsoil being less fertile forces farmers to use increasing quantities of chemical fertiliser just to maintain yields.
- Degraded soil with low organic content and low soil biodiversity is unable to absorb and retain moisture and nutrients and is prone to formation of surface crusts and subsurface hard pans (due to compaction by heavy machinery) which hinder germination and root development. Even crop stubble is difficult to decompose under such soil conditions.
- All this creates conditions which increase the generation of greenhouse gases (GHG’s) which are affecting our climate.
The excessive use of chemicals has created another set of problems
- Increased deposition of phosphates in the top soil has contributed to a change in soil profiles making it more alkaline and prone to crust formation. This reduces water percolation and hampers germination of seeds like cotton, forcing farmers to re sow their crop. A phenomenon known locally as “karand”.
- This 15 day delay plus higher cost of seed can result in the young crop becoming more susceptible to the attack of whitefly.
- Higher soil alkalinity encourages the spread of certain soil borne diseases which can prove extremely destructive to crops.
- Leaching of fertilisers to surface and ground water can contribute to problems like fluorosis, methemoglobinemia or blue baby syndrome and eutrophication which affect the health of people in rural areas especially children.
- Resistance of crop pathogens and insect pests to commonly used pesticides is becoming a serious threat as they are simultaneously breaching the genetic defences of the crop so assiduously created by plant breeders. The examples are many:
- Resistance of weeds like wild oats and Phalaris to commonly used wheat herbicides
- Increased incidence of yellow stripe rust of wheat breaching genetic resistance of the crop.
- White fly affecting GM cotton causing large scale destruction.
- Resistance of various crop diseases like blast and sheath blight of rice, phytophthora on potato and yellow stripe rust of wheat etc.
- Resistance of weeds to glyphosate, a commonly used herbicide a common problem in USA where Round Up Ready GM corn and soybean have been cultivated for years. It is observed that a number of weed species have become resistant to glyphosate at even 10 -14 times the dose used earlier.
- The GM seed industry in USA is responding by trying to introduce new traits in these crops that makes them resistant to even more dangerous herbicides like 2,4 –D which achieved notoriety during the Vietnam war as one of the constituents of “Agent Orange”.
- Far from increasing yields and reducing costs, the GM seed industry has added to the woes of American farmers by increasing costs and problems of pesticides residues. Contamination of non GM crops with pollen from new GM crops under field trials like rice have led to rejection of export consignments and huge penalties paid by their seed industry, which seems difficult to enforce in India.
- HLB of citrus has emerged as a scourge of citrus in Punjab with almost all orchards being affected and forcing many farmers to uproot and destroy their valuable crop.
- All this is accompanied by increased use of pesticides which reduces profits even further without resolving the problems.
- In fact this excessive use of pesticides creates the problems of pesticides residues in our food. A problem that has often led to the rejection of major Indian agri exports including basmati rice and grapes and a drop in prices.
- Many pesticides banned in Europe and USA continue to be used in India further exacerbating the problem for our farmers and exporters. There is a case for more ethical and responsible regulation.
- Even for banning a product like endosulfan, which had already been banned in many countries, the intervention of the Supreme Court was required.
- The conditions governing the use of certain pesticides are registered in the West are not followed in India resulting in their misuse and a rapid buildup of resistance. The failure to control whiteflies this year is at least partially attributable to this factor.
The Impact of Climate Change
This is not
just something that may happen in future but has already started
making its impact felt on agriculture in Punjab and all over the
world. Instances of unseasonal and heavy rain interspersed by periods
of drought are becoming common and each is destructive in its own
way. A few examples are given below:
- Unusually heavy rain in March –April 2015 put paid to the hope of millions of farmers by damaging their wheat crop.
- Higher temperatures leading to premature crop senescence lead to smaller grains and a sharp decline in yields and quality.
- Destruction of tree crops like Kinnow due to diseases like HLB, robs the land of valuable tree cover further accentuating the problem.
- Reduced soil bio diversity reduces the rate of decomposition of crop stubble forcing farmers to burn this, thereby creating large scale atmospheric pollution and robbing the soil of valuable organic matter and nutrients.
- Reduced soil organic content results in increased volatilization of N fertilisers resulting in gaseous oxides of nitrogen being released in the atmosphere which are several hundred times more dangerous than carbon dioxide and remain in the environment far longer.
There are many more problems, but
for the purpose of this presentation we have focused on just a few.
It must be kept in mind that even a single one of these factors has
the potential to devastate agriculture which can lead to chaos;
history is replete with numerous examples of such incidents. What
adds urgency is the imminent threat of climate change.
An increase in temperatures by
just 2 degrees Celsius can reduce yields of irrigated wheat by 37
-58%. For a country projected to add 500 million people by the mid
century, this is a troubling prospect.
How can this threat be faced?
We now need to focus on achieving
the next jump in production in order to improve the profitability of
our farmers in a sustainable manner. This is just what my company
Sequoia Bio Sciences has been researching over the last 8 years in
North India. We have come up with a holistic system of farming which
tries to join all the dots and helps farmers produce better crops in
a more ecologically sustainable manner. A system of farming which we
call the STEP SYSTEM; which is an acronym for Structured Treatment
for Enhanced Productivity. A system that has already been rigourously
field tested in the states of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.
This promises to help address
most of the issues addressed earlier and raises productivity of soil
thereby enabling the farmer to raise better crops with much better
root systems at a far lower cost.
Farmers have been able to achieve
remarkable yield increases across a wide range of crops grown in the
region at a lower cost. This is accompanied by visible improvements
in quality. A robust method of farming which has already caught the
imagination of leading farmers of the region and is already in use
over thousands of acres of farmland.
Some of the notable achievements
of farmers using the STEP System are listed below:
- Increases in yields of rice and wheat to 7500 kgs/hectare ( 3 -3.5 tons/ha over the state average)
- Improving resistance of crops to wind and rain damage which devastated wheat farmers in April 2015. Yields came down to just 3 tons of poor quality wheat with high moisture content and poor keeping quality this year. Our user trials have achieved yields of 5000 kgs of good quality even under adverse circumstances.
- Potato yields have gone up to over 60 tons per hectare, about 35 tons more than the state average.
- In a few of our trials yields of chillies, a crop extremely susceptible to soil borne pathogens have gone up to over 87500 kgs/hectare.
- Several kinnow orchards in Punjab, Haryana and neighbouring areas of Rajasthan which were on the point of being uprooted due to HLB have been restored to good health within a year and are producing record yields of over 37500 kgs/hectare, 50% higher than the state average.
The impact this can have on the
economy of Punjab state can be startling. Even if we are able to
raise average yield of rice and wheat by just 1 ton per hectare each,
with 6.37 million hectares under cultivation the added income of Rs
30,000/hectare would put an additional Rs 19,110 crores in farmers’
pockets. This works out to almost 6% of the state’s GDP and make
Punjab one of the fastest growing states in the country.
The beneficial impact on
horticultural crops will be even higher because of the phenomenal
spurt in production of almost every important fruit and vegetable
crop demonstrated by us with our STEP System. Incomes of vegetable
farmers can be made to increase by over Rs 1 lakh per hectare,
enabling even small and marginal farmers to become financially viable
and eliminating poverty from the state.
It has been observed that higher
yields of crops like chillies create enormous income opportunities
for rural women folk engaged in manual harvesting. As these crops
become more profitable, farmers are able to pay much higher wages and
the longer duration of harvest, spread over several months provides
assured income to farm labour over a better part of the year.
Multiple cropping of high value vegetable crops by enterprising
farmers without the use of pesticides has opened up additional
revenue streams such as through bee keeping. (This is borne out of
our actual experience in Punjab where one farmer has already achieved
a phenomenal harvest of over 35 tons of chillies per acre already
with a few more months of harvest yet to be completed. The complete
absence of pesticides use has helped him raise more than a dozen
hives of honey bees). Such farmers, for instance growing chillies
over just 4 acres, are able to pay an effective daily wage of over
Rs 300 – 400 and provide employment to 15 -20 ladies for
harvesting, sorting and packing for more than 5 months a year. Their
ability to raise multiple crops on the same plot only increases the
employment they are able to provide.
The presence of pesticides
residues has been a major bottleneck for Indian agriculture exports,
by almost eliminating this, the STEP System will provide a fillip for
a major thrust in fruit and vegetable processing in Punjab for
export. The higher yields obtainable together with lower costs of
production will also provide a competitive advantage over competing
nations in Asia and Africa for exports to the profitable EU and US
markets.
The area under vegetables in
Punjab is just 200,000 hectares, with its proximity to major urban
centres in North India and good rail connectivity to the rest of the
country, a pesticide free, healthy produce will add immensely to the
goodwill Brand Punjab enjoys in the rest of the country, paving the
way for increased sales of fresh vegetables. With proper marketing
and backward integration, it should not be difficult to increase the
area under horticulture in Punjab to add value up and down the chain,
creating income even for small and marginal farmers. We have observed
that it is possible to increase farm gate incomes by over Rs 250,000
per hectare by using our STEP System which can raise farm gate
incomes of Punjab farmers by another Rs 5000 crores or even more.
The opportunities that this can
create for the agro processing industry in Punjab can be imagined.
Modification to the Seed Act and
signing the WTO Agreement by the Indian Government has enabled MNC’s
to dominate the seed industry as well as the specialty segment in
pesticides. This has created a monopolistic situation to the
detriment of the farming community. The Government should look into
these aspects and ensure a level playing field to encourage
competition and prevent exploitation of our farmers since this is in
the nation’s interest and is already being followed in the pharma
industry. This will enable Indian industry to grow and compete
globally just as China has done.
The carte blanche given to the
seed industry to introduce more GM crops for field testing should be
reconsidered because of the threat of genetic contamination they pose
and has been seen in the US even though the safety conditions for
such trials strictly enforced. Contrast this with India where the
seed industry flouted such conditions for sale of GM cotton with
impunity for years.
Nowhere in the world has it been
proven that GM crops increase productivity, reduce pesticides
consumption and help reduce costs. The Indian seed industry when
questioned had only the fig leaf of Indian cotton yields having
increased to show for their efforts. The fact that this gain can at
best be illusory has been conclusively proven with the failure of the
cotton crop in North India this year and yields have dropped to just
1/3rd in many fields. Statistics show that
even before the whitefly epidemic, yields of cotton had stagnated in
Punjab.
If this is the daunting situation
faced by farmers in Punjab, just imagine the flight of their less
well endowed brethren in the rest of the country. Farmers do not need
just subsidies or loan waivers, they need the knowledge to confront
the emerging problems of this century. If we fail, we will probably
lose our hard won food security within the next 20 -25 years. The
consequences of this are surely not lost on our policy makers.
It should be realized that
phenomenal increases in productivity and lower costs can be achieved
by eco friendly methods using naturally occurring ingredients and
microbes, this technology already exists and has been proven over
years of field trials. The additional value these impart, by
restoring top soil, reducing erosion and the negative impact of
excessive use of chemicals to our environment are too great to
ignore. The Government should provide encouragement to such methods
and products by eliminating the burden of excise, taxation and
excessive data requirements for registration to encourage Indian
companies to rise to this serious challenge that our farmers and our
country faces.
Reference
http://www.earth-policy.org/books/pb2/pb2ch4_ss3
No comments:
Post a Comment