There are many reasons why the Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu should consider itself blessed. Sitting in the middle of black granite hills on a plateau that rises a kilometre above the sea level, it enjoys a salubrious climate — conducive for growing a large variety of fruits and vegetables. By providence, Krishnagiri is at the junction of not less than five major national highways, the lifeline of horticultural commerce.

Here, a revolution of sorts has been taking place in the last few years. An ‘organic’ fever appears to be sweeping across the district — farmers are giving up chemical fertilisers and pesticides and returning to “traditional farming”.

Ninety-one-year-old mango farmer Siddhiah Naidu recalls how he went organic. In 2012, at the instance of a friend, he attended a workshop organised by Subash Palekar, the Padmashree awardee organic farming evangelist, whose ‘zero budget natural farming’ movement has been gaining attention across the country. Naidu was impressed by the promised savings on the non-use of fertilisers and pesticides. He lost no time putting his learning to practical use. Five years (and as many workshops) down the line, Naidu’s conviction in organic shows in his high-spirited denunciation of conventional, chemical farming.

Naidu was among the region’s early converts to organic farming. Today, 58 farmers in Krishnagiri have switched to organic practices and are seeing financial gains. Farmer Rajendra Naidu says he has saved ₹1 lakh in costs annually ever since he switched to organic farming on his 4-acre holding — the inputs are nothing more than a fermented cocktail of cow dung, cow urine and a dash of jaggery.

In the last four years, the cultivation of 300-400 tonnes of mangoes has gone chemicals-free. Yet the story of the Krishnagiri horticulture cluster is incomplete for now — what’s missing are the crucial government and extension services.

Not without downside

Conversion from chemical to organic farming is not without its downside. First of all, there is a 30-50 per cent dip in production in the first 2-3 years of the changeover. But even if the farmer braves through this trying phase, the quest for a premium tag for his products — something that he was led to expect — has proved elusive so far.

The most lucrative market for organically grown fruits is ‘exports’ — which is a sort of promised land. To begin with, there is little awareness of the complex procedures involved in reaching the export markets. “They don’t know about the certification process involved, nor the monitoring systems they need to put in place,” says Dr S Renganathan, a medical doctor from the nearby city of Dharmapuri, who has also been an organic farmer for the last ten years.

Renganathan’s Om Sakthi Plantations has a ‘Scope Certificate’ from Control Union, the Netherlands-based global agricultural certifying body, for production, processing and trading, and is able to export. The doctor-farmer produces mangoes, coconut (for oil extraction) and moringa leaves. Such certification entails four years of rigorous inspections. If a part of a farm is non-organic, it doesn’t pass muster.

Also, certifications are required from the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA). For many farmers such as Don Harish, a mango and papaya cultivator, exports is still a distance away as they are still in the process of going “100 per cent organic”.

A cluster-based approach

A part of the Krishnagiri horticulture belt lies in Andhra Pradesh. The farmers in that State seem to be getting a better deal. The government recently appointed a ‘cluster resource person’ for each mandal, to hand-hold farmers. (Incidentally, the State had appointed Palekar as its advisor for natural farming only last month; he will also help AP set up a ‘natural farming university’ in the upcoming capital city of Amaravati.)

Interestingly, for farmers like Renganathan, who owns around 40 cows, manure is the main output from the cattle; milk is only a by-product. However, the price of milk tips the economics in favour of organic cultivation. Farmer Rajendra Naidu complains that while the ‘A2 milk’ that is produced by their desi cows sells for around ₹150 a litre, it goes for as little as ₹30 at the farm gate. Naidu wants help with better price realisation for the milk, which he says is far better for health than the ‘A1 milk’ produced by imported jersey cows. Further, after the cow stops producing milk, manure becomes the only useful product, but the manure yield does not meet the cost of maintaining the animal. “We never sell our cows for slaughter — they die in our farm and we bury them right there,” says Renganathan, but notes that the government could chip in with some help in maintaining the animals.

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