Eco-technology focus for sustainability in farming

A RECENT workshop on revival of organic farming under a centrally funded programme which promotes research on environment-friendly and sustainable agricultural practices was timely. The term organic is at times, interpreted as a system of farming that prohibits the use of artificial fertilizers and synthetic pesticides. In the Indian context, however, it should be be considered as the essential minimum. The term ``eco- technological'' which represents all the functions that ``organic'' stands for and still remains ecologically efficient, economically viable and environmentally safe may be used for India.

Eco-technologies

Technologies rooted in the principles of ecology, economics and equity are referred to as ``eco-technologies''. The UNESCO and the Cousteau Foundation are promoting eco technology networks in different parts of the world and the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai is the coordinating centre for the Asian ecotechnology network. A blend of traditional practices and modern advances in science constitute ecotechnology. Traditional farming systems have emerged over centuries of cultural and biological evolution and represent the accumulated experience of the interaction with the environment by farmers without access to external inputs, capital or scientific knowledge.

Traditional methods are treasured as they are based on ``principles of permanence'' to raise agricultural productivity with the use of few external inputs, these methods accumulate and cycle natural nutrients effectively, protect soils from erosion, and rely on genetic diversity. They control pests and weeds by suppression rather than chemical control. The challenge for agricultural researchers in developing countries is to help retain the strengths of traditional agriculture, while meeting the needs of changing times, population growth and increased economic activity. A few traditional practices of unique benefit are presented here for illustration purposes.

Mere crop rotation of corn with soybean: the crop loss was only 3.5 per cent in the U.S. in 1945 when no insecticide was used. But in 1991 corn was the largest user of insecticide, but the crop lost was 12 per cent.

Rotating wheat soybean and spinach could reduce the use of herbicides by 20 per cent. (Univ. of Georgia, U.S.)

Coffee grown under shade trees and without shade, provides larger yields but the loss due to migratory bird population is significant. The shade contribution to the environmental quality is reported to be immense. (National Geographic Magazine Sept 1988). Both coffee and tea contain caffeine which acts as a defences against predators.

Two varieties of rice, one susceptible to blast and the other resistant, used as a mixture in China are reported to control the disease and enhance the rice yield (collaborative study with Yauman,(China) Oregon, Minnesota, U.S. (New York Times Aug 22, 2000).

Three tier cropping, an intensification of crops in time and space dimensions, is ideal for sharing sunshine, nutrients and land (Kerala, India).

In a mixture of grass and legume, the underground transference of nitrogen from legume to cereal is well established, a practice of pastures of the temperate world.

Conventional agriculture

Agricultural developments of the recent past are to be replaced for grave consequences. Thus, monoculture totally replaced crop rotation and the spread of a single variety of rice IR 8 deemed as an achievement of International Rice Research Institute, is now a significant liability to soil health. Fertiliser use, the lynchpin of all crop production efforts, is being dismissed as no longer valid for its inappropriate product patterns, and decreasing use efficiency.

The pesticide industry has been blamed for the persistence of residue in foods and the message conveyed through Silent Spring is that suppression by cultural practices and encouraging natural enemies is to be preferred over total kill under spray and pray policy. Water is indispensable but its overuse and abuse, heavy conveyance losses all favoured under increasing subsidy, led to under ground water pollution and expanding land salinisation. Energy input is soaring with fuel based fertilizer use and mechanisation of cultural operations with increased greenhouse gas effects. Developing countries with substantial draught animal power and human labour can additionally use solar and wind energy for sizable economy and efficiency. With the steep rise in fuel oil based energy prices, India would be well advised to avail bio energy, bio fertilizers and bio pesticides for a marked gain in economy and efficiency and reduced production costs of agriculture. Some of the outstanding opportunities to replace current energy and capital intensive methods with hybrid technologies (of tradition and modernity) are given in the accompanying Table:

(1) It is a switch from synthetic to organic, mechanical to biotic to achieve a shift from unsafe to safe foods which will be within the access of the poor.Eco farming is one in which ecotechnologies are practised. It is the concept equivalent to organic farming with its rewards but without risks. It effectively combines ecological resilience, economic yield maximisation, reduces greenhouse gas effects and higher use efficiency of inputs all culminating in a robust socio-cultural economy.

The principal areas of operation are soil health care, use efficiency of water, fertilizer and energy, and control of pest, disease and weed. The future necessarily belongs to technologists, farmers and public policy makers.

Organic manures - an unclaimed baggage

A common observation is that due to the paucity of organic manures the recourse to fertilizers continues. A few prescient voices have warned of the grave consequences of such an attitude. Both ecological and economic factors dictate that small farmers in developing countries should be very sparing in their use of fertilizer chemicals and pesticides. For a long time farmers are forced to believe that the higher the level of fertilizer used the larger the harvest. Some of the most cheap and dependable sources are:

(i) Loss of nutrients from farm land as crops are sent to urban centres or exported, where nutrients are recovered and enter public sewers.

(ii) Post-harvest crop residues could be combined with inorganic fertilizer and ploughed into the soil. This would raise crop yields to six tons per hectare against fertilizer alone (ICRISAT- 5 yr trials).

(iii) By composting with rice straw a valuable addition of organic manure to increase fertility was demonstrated (ICRISAT). The practice of rural compost by small farmers for vegetable gardens practice ceased with the onset of commercial sale of fertilizer bags. The mechanical compost plant for the urban areas finds no adequate encouragement as a urban hygiene policy.

The possibility of making annual composts and manures that carry as much as, !0, 4 and 4 ml/t of NPK will be available for blending with fertilizers is a universally accepted and most desirable practice to raise the soil fertility.

(iv) The economical and profitable practice of green manures, a time honoured practice, needs immediate revival.

The challenge and the strategy

India faces a serious challenge of raising productivity in irrigated areas by terminating the abuse of high levels of fertilizer and water. For rain-fed areas the utter neglect for both fertilizer and water needs to be compensated. Currently 18 per cent of cropped land of the north has a productivity of 3 t/ha while 82 per cent of the rest of the cultivated area with only 1t/ha of productivity for the country is unacceptable.

The regional differences in productivity must disappear. The best hope lies in the adoption of ecotechnologies with vigour and veracity over the next decade. The problem is one of assembling and distribution of the resources in the rural areas for green manure seeds, compost, silt from tanks and irrigation channels bio pesticides, utilisation of solar and wind energy in chosen areas. Indian farmers are adept but they must be trained to forget the past with no regret. The future with eco technologies is assured for economic yield maximisation, resurgence of the soil and environmental health for stability and unsustainability.

Sankaram Ayala

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