 Speaker: Mr. Santosh Kaulagi, Organic Farmer, Melkote, Mandya Dist. Karnataka
Mr. Santosh Kaulagi’s session was meant to provoke the participants into thinking of how the current global thinking about life and living is organised and what effects it had on people’s lives – especially in agriculture. He began by speaking of agriculture in India from a historical perspective. India and China are the world’s oldest agrarian societies – but since no farmer’s children wanted to continue with the occupation – perhaps the end of this heritage was near. A certain Dr. John Augustus was sent by the British Government in 1989-91 to report on how Indian agriculture could be improved. He reported that contrary to belief in England, there was more for the British to learn from Indian agriculture than the reverse. But in only 120 years, Indian agriculture is facing a major crisis – the self-sufficiency that characterised farming (starting with seeds) is no longer so. The Zamindari system that was introduced to help the imperial British to collect taxes slowly eroded farmers’ ability to decide on what happened on the farm to catering to the raw material needs of a rapidly industrialising Britain (e.g. cotton, indigo and jute). Large volumes of nitrates were manufactured during the World Wars and in parallel western scientists discovered the effects that NPK had on plant productivity. The ammunition plants (whose closure would have led to job losses), chemical and nitrate stockpiles were diverted to farms as inputs after the war. The war in other words was shifted from the battlefield to the farmers’ fields. Post independence in India, the vision of the first Prime Minister was to industrialise the country. The food crisis of the 1960s led the country to seek aid from the West which called the country a basket case. Green Revolution was started to use hybrid food crops which needed chemical fertilisers and pesticides to increase food production. Productivity in India remained high till the 1980s till they started to dip. By then farmers had become used to a package deal (seeds+fertilisers+pesticides), tractors (that relied on more petrochemicals) and had already forgotten the self sufficient mode of farming.
 Resurgence of organic farming: At the time when the world had forgotten self-reliant agriculture, Masanobu Fukuoka in Japan demonstrated that good farming did not even need tilling. Many more practicing farmers began to prove that it is soil condition that matters – not the plant, it variety or yielding capability – the condition of soil determines how plants react. Organic farmers also said that all creatures were important in an ecosystem and no one animal or plant was a pest by itself. Nature is amoral – it finishes off the weak and the healthy combination of predator and prey keep all populations in a balance.
Organic farming is a way of life – some life choices do not fit into an organic way of life. Mr. Kaulagi took the example of expensive schools for children. It will be difficult to afford highly expensive schooling for children for organic farmers for whom commercial farming is not an objective. Farmers must learn to choose lifestyles that gel with organic farming – which is all or nothing at all. Farmers need to free themselves from the paradoxes of modern living and organic living. While much knowledge on organic farming exists the difficulty is for farmers to change their mindsets and lifestyles (or aspiring for certain lifestyles).
The speaker proceeded to answer some of the questions raised by participants.
1. Can hybrid seeds be used in organic farming? Hybrid is not organic – the correct question should be – who makes the seeds, who rely on profits from seed production? Hybrid seeds cannot be grown by farmers – their use makes them dependent on large corporations.
Similarly farmers who bring in organic compost to their farms cannot be considered organic farmers either.
2. How do we shift from conventional to organic farming? Do it in stages – convert 1/3 of land every year so that in the third year all the
land is under chemical free and organic cultivation. Do not try to reduce chemical inputs on your land every year in stages – it is like
taking ½ a dose of antibiotics – it does not work. Visit your farm everyday – this will help you understand lifecycles of weeds and pests.
If a certain weedy plant grows well on your field – its cultivated cousin can also thrive. Cover your soil – the earth does not like to be
nude – every time you clear your land – it covers it up again with more plants (good farmers have clean homes and messy looking farms – conventional farmers have clean looking farms and cluttered homes!). If you want to change – learn to bear it. Nature is not predictable
– there is no point in understanding it completely – learn to go with it.
3. Can I get high yields from organic farming? Why do farmers have a fixation with high yields even when they know that when yields are
high they have earned lower rates? Why do we have to see farmers dumping tomatoes on highways every year? When yields are
reasonable people come to your doorstep to pick up the produce, when there is a glut you need to beg them to pick it up. To be provocative, Mr. Kaulagi told the audience – people who are very clever should take up dryland farming – it is complex and difficult, those
who are reasonably clever can do irrigated farming and those with none can go to universities.
4. Is poultry manure organic? When the chicken reared in poultries are not organic – how can the manure be... (the use of antibiotics in
poultry farms). Manure from backyard poultry may be.
5. Is there a need for certifying organic produce? Certification again creates dependence on systems that are external and high cost. There
are enough people who are willing to buy produce on trust. Especially for small farmers, certification may prove too costly.
6. Are cows essential to organic farming? Managing cows ties down farm women. Green manures work just as well as cow dung based
manure. Cows are poor digesters of organic matter into manure – there are other methods of composting as well. If one loves cows that
is a different matter.
Mr. Kaulagi summed up the session by reiterating that conventional chemical based farming is a system that kills the land, organic farming is one that tries to make people better, kinder and loving. |
