New possibilities

NESARA means rising sun in Kannada. It is also the name of an organic farming group in Mysore, which runs an organic foodshop located in an old house on one of the city's many tree-lined streets. Here you can buy grains, vegetables and other food items that are grown without the use of toxic chemicals.

Elsewhere in Mysore, once every two weeks, there is a Green Bazaar which works almost like a traditional haath. Several organic farmers from nearby rural areas come to this bazaar and over two years, have built up a regular clientele among the city- folk.

In Bombay, a young activist, Arvinda, moves about with a shoulder-bag shop and helps supply various kinds of organic products both from her home and on the move.

Such enterprises are becoming more and more common in urban India. Yet, they are perhaps on the fringe of the burgeoning global market in organic food. Does this mean that we will all soon have easy access to organic food at affordable prices? Do efforts like Nesara indicate an impending transformation or are they like straws in the wind?

In the business world, organic farming is today called the Sunrise Sector. But this reference to the sun has very different implications from the Mysore group's choice of nesara as its name. For the agro-industry, organic methods represent an opportunity to dramatically increase India's agricultural exports. The growing demand for organic, non-toxic foods in most Western countries is making this a multi-million dollar field in international trade. According to a report in the Economic Times, Indian agricultural companies offering organic produce have seen their sales grow by 200 per cent in the last two years. The Central government is also active in trying to maximise these opportunities and last year launched a National Program for Organic Products and Farming.

Meanwhile, a wide range of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are urging that there is much more at stake here than just another sector of dollar-earning exports. They see the export potential merely as a way of rejuvenating rural development processes. Later in January, many such organisations are gathering in Aurangabad for a National Organic Conference called Road to Solidarity.

This Conference is premised on the conviction that organic agriculture can help India achieve food security and thus alleviate rural poverty. This is because organic methods simultaneously improve soil fertility, water resource management and bio-diversity. The range of concerns at the upcoming conference stretches from the technical challenges of organic farming to trade-related matters like inspection and certification.

However, many organic farming activists stress that there is much more to organic farming than just shunning chemical fertilisers and pesticides. For them organic farming is part of a larger vision - a holistic culture based on ecological renewal and more harmonious relations between humans and the rest of nature.

This scattered community of organic food activists takes inspiration from an older generation of farmers who have struggled to make organic farming a success - such as Bhaskar Save in Maharashtra and Narayan Reddy in Karnataka. Save has not used any artificial chemicals on his 14 acre chickoo and coconut orchard in the last 38 years. Yet he gets record harvests. Reddy, struggled long and hard to switch to organic farming - after years of heavy chemical inputs on his family lands. Today he has a successful organic farm and has received several awards from the Karnataka government.

For environmental activists, these success stories are a beacon of hope at a time when farmers all over India are deep in debt and every year hundreds of them commit suicide because of this economic distress. This crisis, argue activists, can be solved by fostering a local self-reliance that maximises natural resources in sustainable ways.

For example, the Nesara shop in Mysore makes it a point to stock several local leafy vegetables and fruits which are otherwise neglected and thus are not available in the market. Yet most of these plants make tasty nutritious dishes. This wider range of agro-produce is both commercially beneficial for farmers and more healthy for consumers. It is a basic principle of naturopathy that eating the local plants of every season is the best form of health insurance. The indiscriminate consumption of food brought from other regions with a disregard for the climatic context is viewed as the source of many ailments.

Thus in most Indian cities there are now small groups which attempt to forge direct linkages between organic farmers and urban consumers. For example, the Green Bazaar in Mysore is a direct-marketing initiative whose members are committed to an alternative marketing system where producers themselves market their own products. This fortnightly market founded in December 1997 aims to serve the needs of organic producers and consumers as well as establish a forum for the citizens of Mysore district to understand and co-operate on issues relating to earthcentric living.

In the case of Nesara, the group serves as a conduit between farmers and urban consumers. Its members also include urban kitchen-garden cultivators within Mysore. For example, Sadashiva Murthy, a retired engineer of the State PWD, grows and sells pepper, cardamom, papaya, roses and hibiscus in his tiny back- yard garden. He relies primarily on vermicompost to fertilise the plants.

As shops go, Nesara's operation is extremely modest. Its shop has a weekly turnover of about Rs. 10,000, with an average of 20 customers per day. The prices of the products tend to be about 20 per cent higher than the general market price. Since both farmers and consumers are members of the group, there is an understanding about a minimum support price for the produce which is determined by consensus.

Other organic food stores in various cities may have a much higher turnover. But we still have a long way to go before the local vegetable shop round the corner sells organically grown vegetables.

Bharat Mansata, a Bombay-based environmental activist, says that as export-driven, business-oriented organic farming grows, some of that produce may filter into the urban Indian market. But, he warns that this organic market will probably remain limited to the elite. Mansata, who is working on a book about his vision of natural farming, urges that the real hope lies in fostering direct farmer-consumer links. This would help to get a better price for the farmers and yet not make the produce as expensive as it becomes in boutique-like health food stores.

It is clear that groups like Nesara work best as local community forums. They are not inclined to, or required to, geographically expand their sphere of influence. Their purpose is best served by being an example, a signal of new possibilities and beginnings - truly nesara or rising sun.

RAJNI BAKSHI

See "Towards holistic farming", page X, Literary Review.

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