Declare suicide prone areas in Maharashtra as organic farming zones: Activist

In the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pitch for expansion of organic farming across the country, a prominent farm activist has urged Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to ban the use of chemicals in 14 suicide prone districts of the state.

"All the 14 districts of Maharashtra affected by farmers' suicide should be declared as organic farming zones, thus banning use of chemicals in form of fertilisers, pesticides, micro nutrients and other toxic substances used in cultivation and post cultivation processes," activist Kishor Tiwari said.

"This will reduce the cost of cultivation by over 50% and is only way to provide safe and poison free food to the people," said the president of Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavalamban Mission, which was constituted as a task force to redress the hardship of farmers.

"The acute distress in more than 5 million cotton growing dry land farms at present is a result of a complete failure of chemical farming. It has not only increased debts and cost of cultivation but also caused soil degradation," he added.

Tiwari, who has been accorded the status of Minister of State, said, chemicals also increases resistivity of viruses causing epidemic attacks. Unregulated use of chemicals and unsafe technology has been one of the main causes of farmer suicides.

"Thus, to address the distress in farmers' suicide prone areas, sustainable agriculture and a holistic non-chemical farming is only ray of hope," he said.

Tiwari also runs an NGO Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJS) which works for widows of farmers who commit suicides because of financial problems.

Indian agriculture needs smart investment

Veteran farmer leader Sharad Joshi, founder of the Shetkari Sanghatana, who passed away last month, swam against the tide for much of his career. A proponent of free markets, leveraging technology and infrastructural reforms in areas like water management, he was an outlier in an economy where state control in agriculture was the default wisdom.

He would have been guardedly pleased with the tenor of the government’s statements on agricultural reform in the lead-up to the 2016-17 budget. Chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian and finance minister Arun Jaitley have both stressed the need for public spending on agriculture; the latter has singled out utilizing technology for maximizing yields, efficient use of water and giving farmers access to timely market information. But he would also, perhaps, have pointed out that much has been left unsaid.

Indian agricultural productivity is cyclical, with high growth periods routinely followed by a drop. The sector is currently in the latter phase; after annual growth rates of 4% across the 11th Plan period, it has been stuttering at 1.7% three years into the 12th Plan. That explains the renewed budgetary focus. And the government has taken cognizance of one of the major reasons—the dependence on the monsoons—with the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana. The plan is to extend irrigation cover to every farm and maximize water-use efficiency with an outlay of Rs.50,000 crore over five years.

Rural electrification is the missing link. According to the NITI Aayog’s Raising Agricultural Productivity and Making Farming Remunerative for Farmers report, India—classified as a water-stressed country as per international norms and sliding into water-scarce status—has created irrigation potential through existing infrastructure of 81% of its ultimate irrigation potential, estimated to be around 140 million hectares. Factor in regional variation and the unsustainability of the heavy dependence on groundwater—62% as of 2012-13—and the brute force approach becomes unsustainable. Improving efficiency via measures such as drip irrigation—also proven to improve yields—is far more tenable in the medium to long term. This is only financially sustainable with electric pump-sets—a difficult proposition as of now given the substantial shortfalls both in the scope and the reliability of electrification in rural areas across the country.

The NITI Aayog report also points to one of the most critical and long-running inefficiencies in the agricultural sector, the mandi system. The lack of rural infrastructure and constraints of the various states’ Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Acts have created long supply chains and compelled farmers to depend on intermediaries, enabling cartelization. This has a cascading effect: farmers receive a low share of the rupee, leading to increased demands for minimum support prices and consequent food inflation.

There have been attempts to work around this. The centre’s Model APMC Act of 2003 provided a template for state governments to adopt. Only 16 have done so thus far, and the initiative suffers from ultimately working within the framework of the mandi system, flawed at its core. The establishment of a National Agriculture Market as an electronic trading portal, approved by the cabinet last year, has a better chance of being effective even with the mandi as a back end by enabling farmers’ options for sale and access to markets. But here too, investment to enable transport and storage of produce is essential for the system to function—complicated by regulatory inefficiencies and dithering on foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail that have scared away private investment.

Entitlement spending like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and interest rate subvention on farmer loans can only ever be palliative measures; they are of questionable effectiveness at best. The bulk of the demand for MGNREGS funds this year has come from middle-income states, not those hit by drought. Both the Reserve Bank of India and Assocham, among others, have questioned the efficacy of farm loan subsidies. Most of the credit is absorbed by farmers with larger holdings, while the rest—two-thirds of farm holders have less than one hectare of land—continue to depend on money lenders, resulting in high levels of indebtedness.

If the government’s budget focus on agriculture is to have a real effect on the sector, the spending and reforms must address the underlying structural issues.

Source - http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/7aPpXijuZ2517NTW4n4OWM/Indian-agriculture-needs-smart-investment.html

Opportunities in Urban Agriculture

Agriculture is the mainstay of Jammu and Kashmir’s economy. About 80 per cent of J&K population depends on agriculture. The total geographical area of this state is 2, 22, 236 sq. km and the population is 1, 25, 48,926 (Census 2011). Over the years, the farmers of the state have adopted new agricultural technologies but still the state is having low productivity of almost all the crops. Like other states of the country, people from rural areas of Jammu and Kashmir are migrating towards the urban areas. Rapid urbanization has increased the urban poverty. Cities like Jammu and Srinagar are not able to generate sufficient income and employment opportunities for the rapidly growing population. The costs of supplying and distributing food from rural areas to the urban areas or to import food for the cities are continuously rising and it is expected that urban food insecurity will increase in future. Food prices are increasing which is an emerging problem for the poor urban consumers. Urban agriculture has immense scope in the state as it can create employment opportunities for the urban poor people. Keeping the scope of urban agriculture in view Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Jammu (SKUAST-Jammu) is creating awareness on urban agriculture among the urban and peri-urban people of the province.
Urban agriculture can be defined as the growing of plants and raising of animals within (intra-urban) and around (peri-urban) cities. Urban agriculture is distinguished from rural agriculture as it is integrated into the urban economic and ecological system. Such linkages include the urban residents as labourers, urban resources such as organic wastes like compost and urban wastewater for irrigation, urban consumers, urban ecology, urban food system, etc. It has been observed by the United Nations that the earth population will increase by 40 per cent and cross nine billion by 2050.It is estimated that 80 per cent of population will reside in cities.
Urban agriculture is different than urban jobs that require travelling to the town centre and industrial area. Urban agriculture may take place inside the cities (intra-urban) or in the peri-urban areas. Urban agriculture is possible on the homeland or on land away from the residence, on private land or on public land (parks, conservation areas, along roads, streams and railways), or semi-public land (schoolyards, grounds of schools and hospitals).By urban agriculture food products from different types of crops and animals as well as non-food products like aromatic and medicinal herbs, ornamental plants, tree products etc. or combinations of these can be produced. Production units in urban agriculture in general tend to be more specialized than rural enterprises. Urban agriculture includes agricultural production activities as well as food processing and marketing activities. In urban agriculture, production and marketing tend to be easier in terms of time and space.
Urban agricultural production is mostly done for self-consumption with surpluses being traded. However, the importance of the market-oriented urban agriculture both in volume and economic value should not be underestimated. In urban agriculture mainly fresh products are sold and some part of it is processed for own use, cooked and sold in the streets, or processed and packaged for sale. In urban agriculture, we may encounter individual or family farms, groups or cooperative farms and commercial enterprises at various scales ranging from micro- and small farms to medium-sized and some large-scale enterprises. The technological level of the majority of urban agriculture enterprises in most of the cities like Jammu and Srinagar is still low. However, in some cities of the country like Bangalore and Hyderabad technically advanced and intensive agriculture can be found. Urbanization is rapidly increasing together with the rapid increase in urban poverty and urban food insecurity. Most of the cities in the state have great difficulties to cope with the development and are unable to create sufficient formal employment opportunities for the poor people.  Disposal of urban wastes and waste water and maintaining air and river water quality problems are also increasing. Urban agriculture can provide a complementary strategy to reduce urban poverty and food insecurity and enhance urban environmental management. Urban agriculture plays an important role in enhancing urban food security since the costs of supplying and distributing food to urban areas based on rural production and imports continue to increase and do not satisfy the demand, especially for the poor people. Urban agriculture also contributes to local economic development, poverty alleviation and social inclusion of the urban poor and women in particular, as well as to the greening of the city and the productive reuse of urban wastes. The importance of urban agriculture is being recognized by many international organizations like the UN, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and municipalities.
Urban agriculture can play an important strategy for poverty eradication and social integration. It can give the positive stimulus especially to the poor urban women. Several  municipalities or NGOs  have initiated urban agriculture projects that involve disadvantaged groups such as orphans, disabled people, women, immigrants without jobs, or elderly people, with the aim to integrate them more strongly into the urban network and to provide them with a decent livelihood. The participants in the project may feel enriched by working constructively, building their community, working together and in addition producing food and other products for consumption and for sale. Urban agriculture may be undertaken for the physical or psychological relaxation. Also, urban and peri-urban farms may take on an important role in providing recreational opportunities for citizens or having educational functions such as bringing youth in contact with animals, teaching about ecology, etc. Urban agriculture can improve the urban ecological system and can play an important role in the urban environmental management system. Now-a-days cities produce more and more wastewater and organic wastes. For most of the cities the disposal of wastes has become a serious problem. Urban agriculture can help to solve such problems by turning urban wastes into a productive resource.  In addition, compost-making initiatives create employment and provide income for the urban poor. The use of freshwater has the additional advantage for urban poor farmer because it contains lot of nutrients. Technologies such as hydroponics or organoponics, drip irrigation, zero tillage etc. substantially reduce water needs and health risks and are very interesting for the urban environment. Urban agriculture can positively impact upon the greening and cleaning of the cities. Degraded open spaces and vacant land are often used as informal waste dumpsites and are a source of crime and health problems. When such zones are turned into productive green spaces not only an unhealthy situation is cleared but also the people can actively enjoy the green area. Such activities may also enhance community self-esteem in the neighbourhood .Urban agriculture and urban forestry can contribute to disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change by reducing runoff, reducing urban temperatures, reducing dust and CO2, while growing fresh food close to consumers reduces energy spent in transportation, cooling, processing and packaging.
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News Source - http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/opportunities-in-urban-agriculture/

Sikkim becomes India's first organic state

Sikkim has become India's first fully organic state by converting around 75,000 hectares of agricultural land into sustainable cultivation.

"We have achieved fully-organic status in the end of December. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will formally announce this at a sustainable agriculture conference in Gangtok on January 18," Sikkim Organic Mission's executive director Dr Anbalagan said.
He said around 75,000 hectares of agricultural land was gradually converted to certified organic land by implementing organic practices and principles as per guidelines laid down in National Programme for Organic Production.
In the long term, organic farming leads in subsistence of agriculture, bio-diversity conservation and environmental protection, agriculture secretary Khorlo Bhutia said.

Sustainable farming will also help in building the soil health resulting in sustainable increased crop production, he said.

Besides it will also boost the tourism industry in the tiny landlocked Himalayan state.
Resorts have already been marketing themselves as completely organic where tourists can pluck, cook and relish fresh organic food from their kitchen gardens.
Bestowed with varied agro-climatic condition, some of the major crops in Sikkim include large cardamom, ginger, turmeric, off-season vegetables, flowers, Sikkim mandarin, kiwi, buck wheat, paddy maize and millets.

As Sikkimese farmers were never dependent heavily on chemicals, the yield per hectare has not been affected by organic farming.

The use of chemical fertiliser and pesticides was only about 8-12 kg per hectare, officials said.
To ensure availability of organic manures and pesticides, the government trained farmers on producing it, they said adding a bio-fertiliser production unit was set up at Majitar.
Organic produce command a premium price in the market both inside the country and outside as it is becoming a craze among health and environment conscious people.
According to estimates, Sikkim produces around 80,000 million tonnes of farm products.
The total organic production in the country is estimated to be around 1.24 million tonnes while the total area under organic farming is 0.723 million hectares.

A number of other states in India like Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Kerala are now trying to become organic.

Courtesy -  http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-sikkim-becomes-india-s-first-organic-state-2166492

India posts steepest fall in NR output: IRSG

Among top producers of natural rubber, India reported the steepest fall in NR output during the first nine months of 2015. According to IRSG data, India’s NR production during the period stood at 416,000 tonnes, down 21 % compared to 527,000 tonnes in the year-ago period.

During the nine-month period, the world NR production increased at a moderate rate of 1.7% to 8.86 million tonnes in the first nine months of 2015. NR production during the corresponding period of 2014 stood at 8.72 million tonnes. Thailand, the largest NR producer, was the biggest contributor to the acceleration by posting a 3% rise in production to 3.13 million tonnes. While Malaysia, China and Vietnam increased their NR output, Indonesia reported lower output.