The importance of agriculture for food security and rural livelihoods
cannot be understated. In recent decades, agriculture and farmers'
welfare have both been thrown into jeopardy in India. The alarming
farmers' suicides have recently acquired some visibility, but these are
only symptoms of the larger crisis - a deep, widespread distress among
farmers (see Video
) . Many farmers have been led into high-input high-risk farming where
the increasing prices of fertilizers, pesticides, seeds and water have
caused a debt trap. The chemical intensive agriculture has led to
depleted soils leaving crops more vulnerable and prompting farmers to
apply even more inputs. Further, the government has gradually whittled
down the support systems for farmers and neglected the agriculture
sector, driving farmers out of agriculture. Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents,
it was loaned to you by your children.
We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors,
we borrow it from our Children.
- Native American proverb
| | AIDing Agriculture: On
the brighter side, many new initiatives coupled with the traditional
wisdom of Indian farming are showing the way forward. AID and its
partners are working in these broad directions:
- Low-input Sustainable Agriculture:
The aim is two-fold - to make agriculture remunerative to farmers and
to make it sustainable year after year by enhancing the quality of the
farm and the soil. This requires moving away from the Green Revolution
paradigm of dependence on chemical fertilizers, pesticides and seeds
from the market. In Vidarbha, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttaranchal and
elsewhere, farmers are successfully moving to methods which require
very little expenditure on external inputs. What is more, these methods
rejuvenate the soil at the end of the season so that agriculture is
sustainable year after year. Organic farming is being successfully used
even for crops like paddy, sugarcane and cotton.
- Reclaiming degraded lands: Using
natural methods, large tracts of degraded lands are being regenerated.
This includes fallow land to which Dalits obtained rights,
tsunami-affected lands, degraded forests, etc. After consistent demand
from several organizations, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
is also being used to support farmers doing soil work on their lands.
- Land Rights:
A large section of the Dalits and adivasis engaged in agriculture
either do not own land or do not have title to the land they cultivate.
Our partners are helping hundreds of Dalits and adivasis obtain land
from the government or illegal possessors of land. Many campaigns are
being organized against unjust displacement of farmers from their crop
lands by SEZs and other projects.
- Campaigns on government policies: Much
of the crisis is precipitated by wrong-headed government policies and
global developments such as WTO, which have undermined the support
systems for farmers such as credit, procurement, and agriculture
extension. The introduction of Genetically Modified crops without
appropriate research and trials threatens to compound the earlier
follies. AID and its partners are involved in campaigning against wrong
policies and advocating for farmer-friendly measures.
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