Sunstainging Agricucture – Turning to Organic and Natural Farming

Agriculture and its allied sector are crucial for the development of a country, especially for India where it is the largest source of livelihood. The sector plays a major role in creating employment, rural livelihood, and providing national food security to all. Agriculture is the largest sector on which the major Indian population depends directly or indirectly.  Currently, as high as 70 percent of the total rural households still depend primarily on agriculture for their livelihood where around 82 percent are small and marginal farmers.

The Indian economy has diversified and seen a major growth in past few decades, but some major concerns have also started coming up like the decline in contribution of agriculture in overall GDP, among others. The sector in India has achieved self-sufficiency but the production is still resource exhaustive, cereal focused and regionally biased raising a serious issue about sustainability. Rise in stress on the water resources, desertification, and land degradation, are some major threats to the agriculture sector of the country. Thus, the time requires solutions that are friendly to farmers as well as environment. The shift from ‘green revolution’ led productivity to ‘green methods’ led sustainability in agriculture is the tremendous transformation required in the agricultural landscape.

The goal of sustainable agriculture is to meet society’s food needs in present without compromising needs of the future generations. The three main goals needed to be integrated are: a healthy environment, economic profitability, and social and economic equity. From growers, food processors, distributors, retailers, consumers, to even waste managers, each plays an important role in ensuring that sustainable agricultural system is intact.

Common interests of people working in sustainable agriculture include promotion of soil health, minimum water use, lower pollution levels and strengthen the local economy. Thus, sustainable agriculture can be considered as a collection of practices that combines biology, economics, engineering, chemistry, community developments and many others.

A target to double farmer’s income by 2022 has been set by the Government of India under which several steps are being undertaken ranging from income support schemes, crop insurance, water conservation, waste management techniques to agriculture marketing reforms.