Govt. cautioned against pitfalls of Western model of farming

By K. Venkateshwarlu

HYDERABAD, FEB. 21. Is the typically Western model of big, mechanised, chemical-based, high-input, least labour-oriented agriculture, as is being fiercely advocated in agricultural policies, across the country, the one and only option left? And more importantly what is the fate of this model in the West itself more precisely the United Kingdom?

Simply put it has been "disastrous", vouches Mr. Edward Cross, a farmer from the UK's main crop-growing area of East Anglia, in a chat with The Hindu. In Hyderabad, to attend a "Mobile bidoversity festival" organised by the Deccan Development Society in 65 villages of Medak district of Andhra Pradesh recently, he gave a "peep" into the farming trends in UK, "that are increasingly plunging the farming class into a crisis".

"Many States in India like Andhra Pradesh which has similar fare dished out in its Vision 2020 agriculture policy, should be cautious. The perils of chemical-based, mechanised, export- oriented commercial farming are too many", warned Mr. Edward, who is on the verge of bankruptcy, crippled by high cost of modern farming.

He has a 900-acre farm called "Abbey Farm", which he manages with his father. They grow winter and spring barley, sugar beet and peas. Typical to the region, they use a range of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides and herbicides. The large machinery used include four tractors powered with 80 to 125 HP motors, one combine harvester besides the ones for doing tasks like sowing, spreading fertilizers and harvesting sugar beet.

And now the transformation. In the entire village of 180, his is the only farming family left now. The 900-acre farm now employs only two outside labourers. This was not the case about 40 years ago when 20 people worked on Mr. Edward's farm. In the not too distant past, land consolidation was taking place. Old maps of his village showed that before the arrival of modern technology- based farming, the individual land holding used to be much smaller and hence there were more farmers.

Only four crops are grown in fields that vary in size from 25 to 100 acres, as the use of machines demands fields of this size. Within the farm, there is a combination of large fields and low crop diversity.

"In fact in the UK as a whole, there has been regional concentration of agri sectors. Cropping is now concentrated in the East and livestock in the West. This means that soils in the East do not get sufficient manure, with the result that soil structure and water holding capacity got worse. On the other hand, the excess manure in the West means farmers have problems disposing it of without causing water pollution", Mr. Edward said.

All four crops grown on Abbey Farm are sold to processors instead of being consumed locally. These commodity crops have to compete on the global market, which has its pitfalls like undercutting by competitors. "The farmers in UK now face the heat from their counterparts in Spain. The sudden drop in prices that results from this can rapidly put farmers out of business. Once this happens there is no going back to farming".

In short, the 900-acre farm employs few people, uses chemicals and large machines and sells crops to the global market. But is it making money? His farm fetches him an income of 260 pounds an acre or about Rs. 18,000, including a 30 per cent subsidy from the Government which amounts to Rs.6000 per acre.

Despite this "high" income, Mr. Edward makes no profit. In fact he loses about Rs. 1300 per acre and if the level of losses continue for the next three years, Abbey Farm will have to close down. That is because chemicals, commercial seed, machinery costs him around Rs. 20,000 per acre!

"Such losses have become typical of farms in the UK. In the past five years, livestock farmers from all sectors have been going out of business and agriculture farmers had to make many changes to keep afloat financially. It has made labour redundant or handing farms over to contractors common", he added.

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