Organic farming – India's future perfect?

A budding interest in organic food offers farmers soaring incomes and higher yields, but critics say it's not the answer to India's fast-rising food demands.

India's struggling farmers are starting to profit from a budding interest in organic living. Not only are the incomes of organic farmers soaring – by 30% to 200%, according to organic experts – but their yields are rising as the pesticide-poisoned land is repaired through natural farming methods.

Organic farming only took off in the country about seven years ago. Farmers are turning back to organic farming methods for a number of reasons.

First, there's a 10% to 20% premium to be earned by selling organic products abroad and in India's increasingly affluent cities, a move towards healthy living and growing concern over toxic foods and adulteration plaguing the food market.

Second, the cost of pesticides and fertilisers has shot up and the loans farmers need to buy expensive, modified seed varieties are pushing many into a spiral of debt. Crippling debt and the burden of loans are trriggering farmer suicides across the country, particularly in the Vidarabha region of Maharashtra. Organic farming slashes cultivation and input costs by up to 70% due to the use of cheaper, natural products like manure instead of chemicals and fertilisers.

Third, farmers are suffering from the damaging effects of India's green revolution, which ushered in the rampant use of pesticides and fertilisers from the 1960s to ensure bumper yields and curb famine and food shortages. Over the decades, the chemicals have taken a toll on the land and yields are plunging.

Fourth, the farmer actually is getting paid to replenish the soil. When he rotates his crops, and plants leguminous crop, not only does it enrich the soil but the farmer can also sell the harvest and earn money. His field is never idle.

Indian farmer displays organic cabbage in Gujarat.  Image courtesy Ghetty Images

 

Western, modern farming has spoiled agriculture in the country. An overuse of chemicals has

made land acidic and hard, which means it needs even more water to produce, which is costly. Chemicals have killed the biggest civilisation in agriculture – earthworms, which produce the best soil for growth.

Umesh Vishwanath Chaudhari, 35, a farmer in the Jalgaon district in Maharashtra, switched to organic farming seven years ago after experiencing diminishing yields from his 8-hectare (20-acre) plot. He came across a book on organic farming techniques using ancient Vedic science. He started making natural fertilisers and pesticides using ingredients such as cow manure, cow urine, honey and through vermicomposting – the process of using earthworms to generate compost. Since then, his yields and income have risen by 40%, and worms have returned to his soil. He sells lime, custard apple and drumsticks to organic stores in Pune, Mumbai and other cities. He plans to convert another 2 hectares to organic cotton and buy 10 cows to make his own manure, rather than buying it.

Udday Dattatraya Patil, 43, an agriculture graduate, turned to organic farming after his crops were showing a deficiency in feed, leading to rising fertiliser costs. In addition, his banana crop was being wrecked by temperature fluctuations and climate change. Now he has 40 cows and bulls whose manure he can use for fertiliser, as well as vermicompost units. His yields have increased by 20% and income by 30%.

Although he is hailed as a progressive agriculturalist by his fellow villagers, he is the only organic farmer out 3,000 in Chahardi, in Jalgaon district.

Many farmers are reluctant to make the leap because they fear a drop in yields in the initial period; good results tend to show after three years. Moreover, the market is growing by 500% to 1,000% a year, according to some reports, but it only represents 2% of the food market.

Once the awareness increases, organic agriculturalists believe more farmers will join the movement because it's favourable to small farmers. They already have the cows and buffalos needed to recycle biomass at the farm level, which is, essentially, the foundation of organic farming.

While critics argue that organic farming is not the answer to India's rising food demands, those in favour say it's the only sustainable way out for impoverished farmers.

No pain, no gain

Due to the cruel laws of anatomy, losing weight requires two things:

1. Pain

2. Hunger

This is due to a few fairly simple facts about your body. Your body wants to store fat, because through most of human history, food was scarce and in times of plenty it wants to store up for when supplies are short.

This is a process your body invented to keep you alive, over centuries of living in a world that did not have fast food. Any time you try to stop or undo that process, your body will send unpleasant sensations to your brain, because it thinks you're setting youself up to starve to death.

To lose weight, you must endure those unpleasant sensations. There is no shortcut.

For instance, you can exercise to the point that your body will run out of the ready fuel in your system, at which point it will reluctantly dip into its fat reserves and burn them. You will experience fatigue and pain when this happens. This is your body punishing you for using the fat it has stored up. It doesn't want to use it. Your body was saving it for an emergency.

You can also restrict the amount of food coming into your system so that your body is forced to go through that same fat-burning process, but this time your body will punish you by making you feel hungry, or cravings for fattier foods that will let it replenish those fat reserves on your thighs and belly and everywhere else.

Any pill or cream that claims it can "burn fat" while you sit on the sofa, or exercise machine that claims to make exercise "easy" or "effortless" is a scam to steal your money.

There have also been numerous products put on the market intended to suppress hunger. But turning off one of the fundamental processes that keeps you alive (i.e. your brain alerting you that you need to eat) is not an easy thing, and time and time again those pills turn out to be dangerous or even deadly.

Now, most of the weight loss supplements you see at your grocer store now are just mild appetite suppressants, usually just packed full of caffeine or another stimulant, since the nervous, jittery, mildly sick feeling they induce does tend to kill your hunger. Just note that it is only replacing one unpleasant sensation with another (the body does not give up easily). Occasionally they will package these supplements with "all natural" ingredients on the label (such as "Hoodia" or "Green Tea Extract").

So is the situation hopeless?

Not at all. Most people have a higher tolerance for physical suffering than they think. And it is temporary; exercise gets easier as muscles get stronger (though at the point it becomes TOO easy, it's time to increase what you're doing) and your system WILL adjust to getting less food.

Also, you can reduce the suffering that will come with weight loss by losing the weight slowly - your body won't kick and scream as much about losing one pound a month as it will if you are trying to lose five pounds a week Biggest Loser-style. It's impatience that makes most diets fail.

The even better news?

Weight loss doesn't cost a dime.

Exercise can be done on the floor - mankind was getting exercise long before any machines had

been invented for the purpose. Google around for the best techniques. Diet is just a matter of not eating the foods you already know you shouldn't be eating. Both of these will cause you some mild suffering. Enduring that suffering is the only thing between you and being thin.

Good luck.

What is the deal with Organic?

This blog is in response to some very valid questions asked by one of our Facebook page users and consumers, Bhuvana Adishankar. We are certain that the questions she has asked do rear their heads in the mind of every consumer considering Pro Nature Organic as an option. So here are the answers:

Question: Who certifies and at what stages of cultivation/processing?

Answer: There are a host of organic certification bodies in India. You can find the list on http://www.apeda.gov.in/apedawebsite/index.asp . Pro Nature is certified by IMO control, which is one of the leading certification bodies globally headquartered in Switzerland.

Pro Nature procures from only certified organic farms. These farms are regularly monitored and checked by their respective certification bodies to authenticate their organic status. Each of the transaction between Pro Nature and certified organic farms are monitored by IMO to preserve the organic status. Apart from that, IMO conducts annual audits with Pro Nature and the certificate is renewed only after due diligence and verification.

Question: How are farmers able to grow without chemicals/pesticides/fertilise​rs in this day of polluted environment and less immunity even for plants?

Answer: Organic farming was how farming was always meant to be. It is only after population explosion that the farmers had to increase the yield per harvest to meet the gap in the supply and the demand of food products. And using chemicals/pesticides would help them achieve that.

Coming back to organic farming, organic food products can be grown only in areas that are naturally suited for the crop. For example weather and soil condition in Kerala is the best for growing spices like cloves, cardamom, pepper etc. Thus the soil does not need additional treatment to yield the best of these.

For added authenticity any organic farm is required to have a buffer zone around it to stop cross contamination from the non-organic farms. Also for a farm to get an organic certification, it has to go through a minimum of 3 years of conversion period. These three years are required for the soil to recuperate from the chemical treatment, and lose all traces of chemicals. It is only after this that the farms are certified.

However, any farmer that grows organically is exposed to the natural risks involved in organic farming.

Question: What happens when any organically grown crop gets an attack of pests/insects, etc? How is it tackled?

Answer: The crop has to be discarded. Since the farmers cannot use chemicals to kill pests and insects they are extra vigilant to ensure that a pest/insect attack does not happen in the first place. This is also what makes organic farming very labour intensive.

Question: Why should organic food be expensive? Is it because of the lower volumes; higher profit; or is the cost of all input resources being higher?

Answer: This is the most frequently asked and the most relevant question. Organic food should not have to be expensive; it is expensive in the current scenario for a laundry list of reasons. In its journey from the farm to the store organic food gathers expenses in every step.

At the farm level: Organic farming is extremely labour intensive. As we have discussed earlier, a farmer cannot use chemical fertilizers/pesticides to increase crop productivity or to guard the crop from insect/pest attack. He has to manually; make compost for the soil, remove weed, control pest/insect infestation and even water the fields. This adds to the labour cost associated with the harvest. In addition to that the farmer is taking more risks. He is completely exposed and vulnerable to the forces of nature. And not to forget, the cost of the organic certification for the farm. Pro Nature pays a premium to the organic farmers for all these. That is the first level where organic food products get costlier than regular ones.

Storage: Chemical fumigation is not allowed for organic products. Organic food needs to be stored in cold storage or in vacuum to prevent infestations. These methods of storage are a lot more expensive than regular warehousing. That adds the second layer of cost.

During transport: Since the volume of organic food products is minuscule compared to regular food products the per unit cost of transportation is significantly higher. Pro Nature pays a higher cost per kilo of organic food transported. This is the third cost addition to organic food products.

At the retail outlet: Since the demand for organic is lower than regular food products, organic items tend to move out at a slower pace. This means more occupied shelf space for the retailer. The retailers thus ask for a higher margin to even keep Pro Nature products. This adds another layer to the final cost of the product.

These are the key elements that add to the overall cost of organic food. However, as the volumes for organic grow, these cost factors will reduce and we will be able to bridge the gap between the cost of organic and regular food.

We hope we have been able to answer all the questions. Please feel free to post as many questions as you want in the comment section or on our Facebook page.