Jun 27, 2008

Age of organic farming - critical analysis

The term organic farming or organic product is not a new one to the Asian people. But the people’s interest to the organic products is gradually being increased, many survey remarks.

It may be just two or three decades ago, there was a great thought about green revolution. Actually what is green revolution? What are the causes to this phenomenon? Let see about some thing on this Para.
Though this term do not belong to Asian people, it is better to concern the Indian experiment for the easiness of this studies.

After the independence of India (at 1947) The government led by congress decided to the planned economic policy for the future movement of Indian economy.Sinjce the Russian experiment become success in the east and Neru, the first prime minister of independent India was greatly attracted by socialist approach of Russia, his government decided to march on socialist path way after the independence.

The 2 main sectors of economy are agriculture and corporate sector, we knew. At that time government put forward a planned economic policy which is able to satisfy the concept of self sufficiency. So that most of imports was restricted and they put forward a policy caller “alternate import policy”.
Though many fruitful effects of this policy was achieved ( for example, human resource development, corporate sector development and higher GDP growth( 8 time of British Indian GDP ) what main turning point is green revolution.

In agriculture traditional methods was being practiced for many centuries by underdeveloped countries. But due to the subsequent impacts of industrialization in Europe, tractors were introduced to ploughing. It is the first evolution in green revolution.

The green revolution is the successful gain by the collective impacts of following reasons.

1. The increasing trend of world population. It necessitates the production of stable food for huge mass.
2. Works become easy due to mechanization of agriculture. Large acreage was cultivated.
3. Invention of new hybrid seed varieties.
4. To use the agrochemicals.

Above mentioned inputs was introduced as package in certain fertile land of India and all land lords was insisted to invest and involve in food production at next years.

No one could deny the the boost of food grain production in India during green revolution. At following year’s excess grain storage increased and self sufficiency was achieved to a certain level. (But government could not curtail poverty level. it is a controversial issue. some criticize that excess grain in go down is due to depletion of purchasing power of rural people).

But now it is widely postulated that all the bright memories of green revolution has been finished and now the time for the analyzing the mistakes about what we did.

Why the success of green revolution was not being enjoyed by majority of people. Beyond the technical views, political and socials setbacks are answering to this critical questions. Actually it is a great issue but we tend to summarize all things in brief at following Para.

1. Indian government has failed to implement land reform in nationalwide.All the land lord was belonging to high caste and agro people are normally comes from many low caste. So the benefits of green revolution were exploited by small number of minorities. It is the major reason. If state would ensure the ownership of land to all people the benefits would be equalized and they would achieve equal growth without bias. As I mentioned in my former articles, socialism may not a enough condition to get development. But it is a necessary condition to ensure gradual growth and development.

2. The population growth reaches to maximum capacity of nation. It was another problem. As we study the economical and social pattern of many developed countries (USA, Singapore, Japan etc.) the low population and more natural resources led to high life standard. But whole Asian countries came down to implement strict family planning project in their home lands.
3. As far as Indian field works are concerned, green revolution was started based on ground water source not based on huge water tank. Nowadays many researches denunciate that most of the problems faced in sustainable water management is caused by this above mentioned situation.

4. Hazardous effect of the agrochemicals has been realized and pest and disease attack become more serious due to the development of new resistant strains.


Among the above mentioned reasons, 4th one is emphasizing us to move to organic farming in future.

Organic farming


Introduction
The term actually refers that not using agrochemical in the farming or minimum usage at risk.
At the beginning of green revolution, all the policy makers put forward a policy to devastate the forest area and to increasing the cultivating acreage for maximum food production. This wrong practice leads to devastation of bio diversity. So that subsequent effects are obtained by rural community. Nowadays agro forestry and sustainable developments are often suggested to the safe of future generation.


World trend of consumer preference to organic products


Consumers from west now prefer the non chemical products than other parts do. It is due to the full awareness about their health and food security. As usual most of the west states have banned unwanted and dangerous agro chemicals that are still practiced in developing countries. This infers the mal organizing marketing system to these agro chemicals.


The consumer behavior on organic product in world- An over view.


Latin American farmers show higher interest to produce and market the organic farm product in large acreage. But it is not suited to Asian people. Because most of Asian farmers are fully lobbed by low price agro chemical companies and their behavior of farming is always profit oriented and not health and social oriented. This mentality is paramount set back that is restricting the evolution of sustainable agriculture in the areas. For example in Srilanka Jaffna region is typical example to this chemical oriented agriculture. What is the dangerous aspects is higher ground water pollution is observed in this region due to its dependency on ground water for agriculture.


But fortunately Latin American farmers show high interest in their safety of production. Some case studies are;
1. Brazil started organic cotton in 1993 when a group of small scale farmers in Taua in semi arid regions of they state of Ceara, decided to include it in their farming system. For ensuring ten years different textile companies tried to buy agro ecological cotton.( In this area referred to as cotton produced to organic standard but not normally certified as organic)


Despite of many challenges farmer were able to sell their product in small Brazilian organic market at prices up to 30% higher than for conventionally produced cotton.