It seems like a while since I saw a reason for optimism anywhere except Venezuela and maybe Bolivia. The bad guys keep doing worse things--ruining everything, then successfully claiming that the reason things are bad is that they weren't allowed to ruin everything thoroughly enough. I need a break from that, so I bring you positive change in India:
I remember when I first talked about the miracle brought about in village Pannukula in Andhra Pradesh, many thought I was simply trying to romanticise agriculture. How farming can be done without the use of chemical pesticides, I was repeatedly asked.. . . more than 318,000 farmers in 21 out of the 23 districts of Andhra Pradesh have discarded the intensive chemical farming systems, and shifted to a more sustainable, economically viable and ecologically friendly agriculture. A silent revolution is in the offing. In Kharif 2009 (the monsoon season), some 1.4 million acres was covered with what is now known as Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture (CMSA).
As I write this in the first week of January 2010, the area had expanded to 2 million acres . . .
What began as an experiment to evolve a farming system without the application of chemical pesticides is now also phasing out the use of chemical fertilisers. It uses a mixture of scientific proven technologies, indigenous knowledge and traditional wisdom. Farmers are replacing chemical fertilisers and pesticides with microbial formulations, intensive use of composting techniques, vermi-composting, and apply bio-fertilisers, and use bio-extracts for controlling pests.Paddy crop has increased significantly under CMSA. It therefore brought in a complete shift from conventional agriculture and offered secure and stable livelihoods. The crop yields have remained the same, the pest attack has drastically reduced, and the soil is returning back to its natural fertility levels. As soil fertility improves over the years, crop yields have started going up still further. More importantly, farmer's expenditure on health problems emanating from pesticides application has also gone down by 40 per cent on an average.
There is more money now in the hands of the farmers. The cost of cultivation per acre has also come down by 33 per cent. Take the case of cotton, a CMSA farmer saves more than Rs 12,500 per hectare in a year on account of no application of pesticides alone. With his crop productivity remaining stable, cotton farmers have got a new lease of life. The environment too has become healthier and safe.
. . . No farmer has committed suicide in the areas where non-pesticides management system of farming is being followed.
Well? How about that, huh? Is that totally amazing or what? India has had a horrible crisis in farming for years and it's just been getting worse, with agribusiness pushing pesticides, fertilizers, GM crops, debt, and death on the Indian farmers, resulting in poverty, loss of farms, and an epidemic of suicide. And here we have a community movement totally turning it around; the farmers involved are making more money, paying off their debts, saving the environment, not getting sick . . . and it's growing fast.
Reading this one certainly improved my day, I hope it does yours too.
It has indeed improved my day, PLG. Posting a link on my FB page to help spread the word.
Great to read this article. I'd like to find out more about the movement. Like you, I've been watching events in South America closely. And, of course, we have to wonder what the U.S. will do to mess things up. The goings on in Honduras doesn't bode well looking ahead. And of course Canada is in there cheek to jowl. The quiet mini- imperialist. We've had good teachers.
It's great to know that sustainable agriculture without pesticides is not only being promoted, but practiced. Thanks for the good news.
Reminds me of a scientific publication from 1971-72, wherein an American veterinarian studying cows and energy in West Bengal came to the conclusion that energy use and production balanced out just fine through Indian respect for bovine life. There was no need to import Western slaughter processes and cattle rearing methods because everything was so finely balanced to sustain life - with cows consuming plant matter that cannot be used or digested by humans. I'd rather be a cow in India than in Canada, that's for sure...
http://www.jstor.org/pss/4602240
With the soil returning to it's natural fertility levels, so will womenz and menz, that's a good thing.
If you want the truth about our foods watch Food Inc.
Bravo to India--they show the way but the US won't like that--Monsanto calls the shots, and to grow GMO food you need lots of poison. Will India cave? Don't forget, Bremner's last act in Iraq was to force farmers that had saved and grown their own seeds for a thousand years to now use GMOs.
My fiance and I are in the process of buying a farm west of Ottawa, and we're going to apply for organic certification right away. It'll take 3 years, but there's no way anything Monsanto, Cargill or ADM is ever going to come anywhere near our farm.
Here's hoping we can be as successful as those Indian farmers!
Oh, hey, impressive! Good luck!