The constant degradation of natural resources in the name of scientific agricultural practices is affecting agriculture negatively, while threatening food security and farmers’s livelihood in India, says a recent brief from Greenpeace.
One instance is the mindless usage of chemical fertilisers catalyzed by the chemical fertilizer subsidy policy of successive Union governments, which has led to degradation of water and soil resources. While the Government spent Rs. 49,980 crore during 2009-10 to promote chemical fertilizers, the total amount spent on the other flagship schemes that has components to promote ecological fertilization is only ` 5374.72 crore, almost one tenth of the amount spent on chemical fertilizers. Considering the fact that the ecological fertilization, is one of the several components that gets assistance under these schemes, the support for the same is negligible. Greenpeace also stressed on the need for developing a sustainable energy system in India factoring the critical need of energy security, to ensure that the country continues and even builds strategic leadership in the path to developing sustainable and clean energy solutions.
Further a stakeholder survey conducted by Greenpeace India as part of its “Living Soils” campaign, which covered 1000 farmers in five different states between July and November 2010 revealed that only 1% of the respondents received any kind of Government support for practising ecological fertilization.
In a pre-budget consultation with the Finance Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, Greenpeace India has highlighted the need to shift policy focus towards ecologically friendly and sustainable agriculture. It has called to create an alternate subsidy system that promotes ecological farming and use of organic soil amendments, shift the irrational subsidy policy for synthetic fertilisers to sustainable ecological practices in agriculture that will benefit farmers, re-focus scientific research on ecological alternatives, to identify agro-ecological practices that ensure future food security under a changing climate. The suggestions, though tough to implement as India runs for quantity should be taken into account. A start has to be made somewhere.