Coming of Age: the Organic Community
of India
Bharat Mansata
The largest organic farming confluence in the world – over 2,500
participants from 22 states of India – gathered at the National Organic
Convention in Chandigarh from Feb 28 to March 2, 2015. The flood of registrations
had to be stopped a month in advance. Such zeal surely signals the growing recognition
of agro-ecology as a burning imperative of our times, reflecting the Convention
aim to ‘Mainstream Organic Farming!’
At the concluding session, Shri Prakash Singh Badal, Chief
Minister of the frontline state of India’s ‘Green Revolution’, ironically hailed
organic agriculture as “the need of the hour,” marking the full turn of a
circle. He mourned the heavy burden of chemical poisons that the land, farmers
and people of Punjab have had to bear, admitting sadly that “Mother Earth,
Father Water, and Guru Air” have all been desecrated. Toxic pesticides have
devastated the health of Punjab. “You people,” said Badal – addressing a
packed auditorium of organic farmers, seed savers, ecologists, scientists and
activists – “are the heroes of this new struggle to save the nation!”
The CM called for
making Punjab the leading organic farming state of India, with diversification in
place of present extensive monocultures. Announcing a 50% state subsidy for rearing
indigenous cattle breeds, he also offered to provide retail/distribution shops
and facilities for selling organic produce. Declaring the setting up of an
Organic Farming Board, he promised panchayati land to set up a demonstration
organic farm in every block of the State.
Earlier, at the Convention, Shri Manohar Lal Khattar, Chief
Minister of Haryana, accompanied by his Agriculture Minister, pledged state
support to turn at least 10% of its total cultivable land to organic farming. Smt Maneka Gandhi, Union Minister of Women
and Child Welfare, rang out a grim warning against the highly dangerous neo-nicotinoid
pesticides (used for treating Bt Cotton seeds) that were slaughtering the
pollinating creatures like bees, an estimated 70% of which have already been
wiped out. This would severely harm agriculture, unless banned, as in the
European Union. “The owners of Bt cotton lied to us,” declared the Minister. “They
told us that it doesn’t require pesticides… but now, we find that Bt cotton
cannot grow without the most dangerous pesticides in the world.”
A few years ago, the beacon IAASTD World Agriculture Report bluntly
stated: “Business as usual is not an option!” Prepared over 4 years by 400 international
agricultural scientists/experts and 1,000 multi-disciplinary reviewers, this
Report was endorsed by 58 nations, including India, as also representatives of
FAO, World Bank, World Health Organization, UNEP, UNDP. Its recommendations stressed
the urgency to adopt bio-diverse agro-ecological farming, and to support small
family farms – to overcome the many serious problems confronting world
agriculture. GM crops, it added, are not
an answer to hunger, poverty and climate change, or to ecological, energy and
economic challenges.
A riot of colours, costumes, cultures and cuisines greeted visitors
at the ‘Nature and Kisan Mela’ and its ‘Organic Food Festival’ and ‘Biodiversity
Festival’ that continued alongside the deliberations of the National Organic Convention.
The Organic Food Festival, with ethnic organic fare from several Indian states,
was a big hit. The Biodiversity Festival presented a dazzling display of over
2,000 distinct seed varieties of crops, brought by 270 seed conservator-farmers
from all over India. Half a dozen new publications were released. Several book
stalls, film screenings and cultural programmes of song, music and dance enhanced
the charm of the memorable Organic Mela, dampened a bit midway by rain and wind.
The Convention was jointly organized by the Organic Farming
Association of India (OFAI), Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture
(ASHA), and Kheti Virasat Mission, in collaboration with the local host
organization, the National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and
Research (NITTTR). The deliberations were bilingual, with communications in
Hindi translated into English for the participants from the south, and vice
versa. Parallel translations into other regional languages – for those who
understood neither Hindi nor English – were self-organised by the various state
delegations.
The National Organic Convention simultaneously hosted
meetings of the Bharat Beej Swaraj Manch (India Seed Sovereignty Alliance).
This pledged to regenerate and widely share the enormously rich diversity of
traditional crops and crop varieties in India as a collective open-source
heritage belonging to all, free of any private/corporate Intellectual Property
Rights. The Alliance also sought to reclaim the many thousands of native crop varieties
collected from farmers all over India by national and international germplasm
banks. It was suggested that every farmer or family should adopt at least one
crop variety for decentralized on-farm seed conservation and open-source propagation.
In sharp contrast, Mr Swapan Dutta, Dy Director General,
ICAR, declared a few years ago in an interview to the Wall Street Journal, that
India had over 4,00,000 varieties of plant germplasm (both cultivated and
uncultivated). These included crops with unique features like
nutritional/medicinal qualities, drought tolerance, flood tolerance, salinity
tolerance, and pest resistance, all of which it was willing to offer corporates
for a small share of profits!
GM crops were categorically rejected as an unnecessary
technology with numerous potential hazards. The serious contamination risk by recently
sanctioned open field trials of GM crops – disregarding the recommendations of
several Government, Parliament and Supreme Court appointed Committees – was warned.
Also part of the National Organic Convention was a scientific
conference organized by the Society of Agro-Ecology, and the Centre for
Sustainable Agriculture. This saw scientists from prime research
institutions discussing with farmers and farmer-scientists their observations
and research on soil health, plant nutrition, plant protection, water
management, and Iivestock development, especially indigenous breeds.
With so many outstanding
farmers around, and multiple parallel sessions on offer, participants felt they
could barely whet their appetite. But they carried back a collective energy and
renewed confidence, knowing they had a growing fellow community of organic pilgrims
and path-finders they could call upon when needed.
Missing the vibrant presence of veterans like Nammalwar, who
passed away last year, and of ailing Bhaskar Save, who completed 93 years in
January 2015, the 5th National Biennial Organic Convention paid
tribute to these towering, dedicated stalwarts, noting that they have inspired
innumerable others on the natural, organic path. Tribute was also paid to Sir
Albert Howard, considered ‘the father of sustainable agriculture’ in the west,
who confessed more than a century ago that he learnt it all from humble peasants
in India.
In 2016, the international community will return to draw
fresh inspiration from India. It was announced that the ‘International Organic
Farming Convention’ organized by the ‘International Federation of Organic
Agriculture Movements’ (IFOAM) will be held that year in India.
The final 16 point declaration from the
convention pledged to safeguard and regenerate our soil, water, forests,
biodiversity and seed sovereignty; and to work towards mainstreaming ecological
farming in the country as “the only way forward for meeting the nutritional,
livelihood, socio-cultural and spiritual needs of our people, including those
of future generations.”
The Convention further declared that land under food
cultivation must not be diverted for other purposes through forced land
acquisition.
PM Narendra Modi called for the North-eastern and hilly
states to become an organic hub. But ‘achhe
din’ (good organic days) must include all of India! What we need to ‘Make
in India’ is an agro-ecological paradise that gratifies all basic biological,
aesthetic and spiritual needs, not a global factory for a growing array of
resource-hogging and pollution-spewing, non-essential industrial and
consumerist goods.
The overarching eco-spiritual tradition of this land is the
unity of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – the
earth is one family in one home. Mother Earth, the only known cosmic body with
a living biosphere, must not now become a spew-chamber of chemical-industrial
toxins, her inner vitals vandalized for short-sighted economic growth. The
organic community is waking to the enormous challenges ahead.
PS: Given below is the Declaration of the National Organic Convention, Chandigarh, 2-3-15
March
2, 2015
Declaration
of the Organic Farmers community of India at the 5th National
Organic Farmers’ Convention, 2015, Chandigarh, India
The
organic farming community of this country, represented in strength by over 2500
participants at this fifth National Organic Farming Convention, pledges to
carry forward with renewed strength our endeavour to mainstream agro-ecological
farming practices across the country. The gathering, comprising practicing
farmers, including women, tribal and adivasi people, seed savers, ecologists,
scientists, non-governmental and community organizations, is supported in this
effort by the international organic farming community spread across 130 countries
and represented by IFOAM, the International Federation of Organic Agriculture
Movements.
We
reiterate our conviction that agro-ecological farming practices are the only
way forward for meeting the nutritional, livelihood, socio-cultural and
spiritual needs of our people, including those of future generations. This
conviction is strengthened by the experiences of our farmer friends in Punjab
and Haryana who have paid a high price and sacrificed their environment and the
health of their people. We pledge to stand by them in their journey to recovery
and restoration.
We, the participants representing
the organic farming community of India, declare:
1.
Organic farming practices CAN meet
all the food and nutritional needs of our nation, and it is the only
sustainable way to safeguard the food security of present and future
generations. The growing number of organic farmers and rising demand for
organic produce is evidence of its rapid spread.
2. The IAASTD World Agriculture Report, authored by 400
international experts, including UN representatives, and endorsed by 58
nations, including India, recommends agro-ecological practices and small family
farms, suitably adapted to local needs and conditions. It adds that GM crops
are no solution to hunger, poverty, climate change as well as ecological,
energy and economic challenges.
3. We categorically reject Genetically Modified Organisms as an
unnecessary technology with numerous potential hazards. It is also an example
of bad science. We also object to open field trials of GM crops, since they
pose a threat to our food, farming and environment, while blatantly
disregarding recommendations of several Government, Parliament and Supreme
Court appointed committees.
4. We pledge to safeguard the integrity of our eco-systems and
work towards the conservation, protection and re-generation of soil health,
water resources, forests, biodiversity and seed sovereignty.
5. Land, water and other natural resources must be prioritized
for sustainably meeting basic needs and nutritional security. Land under food
cultivation must not be allowed to be diverted for other purposes through
forced land acquisition. Similarly, water resources for irrigation must be
directed to essential food needs rather than
water guzzling monocultures of sugarcane or other industrial non-priority uses.
6. Forest habitats and traditional access rights of forest
dependent communities must not be undermined, as uncultivated forest foods and
medicinal plants have played a critical role in the lives of those residing in
the country’s tribal forested regions.
7. The current form of chemical agriculture is completely
dependent on steadily depleting resources and leaves farmers vulnerable to
foreign/corporate dependence. This must not and cannot continue.
8. All agri-chemicals should be progressively phased out; and
the money thus saved used to propagate and support ecologically safe food
growing practices. Suitable budgetary allocations must be made for
mainstreaming agro-ecological practices.
9. The educational curriculum and calendar in rural India needs
to be sensitive to local agricultural practices, needs and rhythms. A
land-based pedagogy must become an integral part of education in rural India,
with suitable adaptations for urban India.
10.
Agriculture departments and
universities need to reorient their attention to agro-ecological systems and
practices, including reviewing their curricula, evaluating hidden costs of
technologies they recommend, and aligning research activity to the needs and
challenges of the local community.
11. The role
of women, the mainstay of a self-reliant agricultural system in India, needs to
be recognized, acknowledged and supported, in terms of land rights as well as
support from the government.
12.
The Organic Farming Community
appreciates the Haryana government’s efforts to revive indigenous breeds of
cattle. Since this is crucial in facilitating self-reliant agriculture, we seek
such policy initiatives from other state governments as well as the central
government.
13.
The public distribution system must
source food from the local/ bio-regional neighbourhood in which it is consumed.
The convention suggests a grid of several localized markets as one of the ways
forward.
14.
We demand better marketing support
from government agencies so that the organic producers have assured demand and
fair prices for their produce.
15.
Govt schemes such as MGNREGS, NRLM
and SLRM should support agro-ecological practices as they supplement economic
needs of farming families, landless labourers as well as people in
distress.
16. India
has a great wealth of crop diversity with unique features like
nutritional/medicinal qualities, drought tolerance, salinity tolerance, pest
resistance, and flood tolerance. This diversity has been conserved and shared
by farmers as an open source collective heritage belonging to all. The concept
of private property rights over such traditional heritage is alien and
unethical in this land.
