The Hindu Business Line : Organic farming and food security

Notwithstanding the isolated cases of successful marketing and increasing demand for sustainably grown foods, organic farming cannot at present ensure global food security.

An organic farm in Tamil Nadu… Healthier produce, but enough to feed billions?

K. S. R. K. Murthy

Lately, one sees increasing interest and media attention in organic farming. Supporters of organic farming promote organic produce which are natural and free from harmful residues arising out of the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides and, thus, a healthier option.

They advocate a shift from the chemical-intensive cultivation, using fertilisers and pesticides to organic farming, using farmyard manure and biological pesticides such as neem. They are against hybrid and genetically modified seeds also, as they believe that food from traditional seeds is tastier and healthier.

It is also argued that the Western world increasingly prefers organic produce and is willing to pay a higher price for organic foods, and that India should take advantage of this by exporting organic foods to Western countries. All these arguments may be true. But proponents of organic cultivation often miss the big picture of its inability to solve the global food problem.

Indian picture

Let us look at the Indian scene. The per capita annual food-grain availability in 2006 was 179 kg, against 552 kg in Europe, and 909 kg in America. In other words, we are getting just one-fifth of what the Americans get and one-third of what the Europeans eat. So, in a way, we are already under-fed, as a nation. This figure of 179 kg conceals the fact that nearly 20 per cent of our population, living below the poverty line, do not get two square meals per day.

The scenario ahead is even more disturbing. The global production of food-grains is not able to cope with the demand. The gap between the global production and consumption of wheat is 15 million tonnes and, in the case of rice, the shortfall was 6 million tones in 2007. Consequently, global food-grain prices have shot up steeply in the recent past.

Recently, wheat prices touched $400 a tonne in the international market. India, for various reasons, including a shift from cereals to commercial crops, is already facing shortages and importing wheat. India is a traditional importer of oilseeds and pulses. Given the current stagnation in the productivity and production of food-grains, we cannot afford to allow any slippage in food-grain production. There is a definite need to enhance per hectare yields and food production to meet the demands of our growing population.

Given this scenario, can organic farming come to the rescue of a hungry nation and produce adequate food-grains for India’s population? It has been proved that the crop yields in organic farms are 30 per cent to 50 per cent less than those from chemical-intensive farming.

The energy consumption to produce a tonne of food-grains in organic farming is far higher than input-intensive farming. Consequently, the cost of production is much higher in organic farming — one of the reasons for the higher prices of organic produce!

Secondly, where do we get the massive quantities of “organic” manure, required to replace synthetic fertilisers? We need to grow far large number of cattle, to produce the manure and to feed the cattle, we need very large area of farms to grow fodder. Consequently, we will have to convert the forest lands into farm lands. That would be fraught with a lot more environmental consequence than the intensive farming.

Dr Norman Borlaug, the renowned agricultural scientist and the Nobel Laureate, who was instrumental in ushering in the Indian green revolution in the 1970s, said: “The idea that organic farming is better for the environment is ridiculous, because organic farming produces lower yields and, therefore, requires more land under cultivation, to produce the same amount of food. Thanks to synthetic fertilisers, global cereal production tripled between 1950 and 2000, but the amount of land used increased by only 10 per cent”

As the certification process in India is still in its infancy, and it is difficult to monitor the input use in organic farming, some unscrupulous farmers may fool gullible people, who will end up paying high prices for produce said to be organically produced but which, in reality, is not!

Herbicides

Supporters of organic farming are against the use of “herbicides” which keep weeds under check. Traditionally, manual labour was used to de-weed, as technology was not available. Today, as effective herbicides are available to do the job, far more efficiently and at a lower cost, farmer’s children should spend more time in the school than removing weeds in the fields.

Lately, it is becoming increasing difficult and expensive to get labour for farming in rural areas. In certain regions, thanks to the industrialisation, labourers for agricultural operations are not available and the farmers have no other option than to use herbicides to control weeds.

Further, manual weed control cannot do what herbicides can do — not allow the weed-seeds to germinate again, thereby saving valuable crop nutrients. Whichever way one looks at it, technologically or socially, herbicides are any day a far better option than manual weeding. The widespread adoption of herbicide use in rice and wheat in Punjab and Haryana has, in a way, contributed to higher farm productivity levels than other States. In horticulture, the country is showing good progress and India has emerged as an exporter of quality grapes, pomegranates and mangoes, thanks to the use of right technology and scientific inputs such as pesticides.

Food security

In spite of wide media support, the area under organic farming in India is about 2 per cent of the total cultivated area, Let us not ignore or take the balance 98 per cent of the area for granted, because it is here that farmers produce food for the billions, and at affordable prices!

It is worth quoting Dr Jacques Diouf, Director General, FAO: “Organic agriculture can contribute to fighting hunger but cannot substitute conventional farming systems in ensuring the world’s food security. You cannot feed six billion people today and nine billion by 2050 without the judicious use of chemical fertilisers”.

There are certain specific situations where organic farming can be adopted to the economic benefit of farmers as, for instance, export to western countries, where the consumers are willing to pay a very high price for organic produce, and also in the bigger cities such as the metros.

Notwithstanding isolated cases of successful marketing and increasing demand for sustainably grown foods, organic farming cannot at present ensure global food security.

It is even more necessary not to miss the bigger picture of ensuring India’s food security, by stepping up agricultural production through intensive, technology-driven farming, as otherwise, we may be driven to the dark days of 1970s, when we had to import food-grains from the US under PL 480. A self-confident nation has to be self- reliant also, particularly in the matter of food!

(The Secunderabad-based author is President, Plant Protection Association of India. E-mail: ksrkmurthy@gmail.com)

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