On a summer day in 1998, Jasbir Singh fainted while workingon his farm in Hindupur village in Fatehgarh Sahib district of Punjab, some 30km from Chandigarh. He lay there for five hours before a friend found him andtook him to a doctor. The diagnosis brought Singh an epiphany ” told that hehad been knocked out by the toxic pesticides and fertilisers he sprayed on theplants every cropping season, he instantly knew he had to go organic.
“I realised we were growing poison. I decided not to usechemicals in my farm anymore,” says the 46-year-old farmer. The switch toorganic did not come easy. In the first four years, Singh used no chemicalother than urea, a nitrogenous fertiliser. The first season was a story oflosses. The yield fell by 75 percent. The hard times had begun.
In 2002, Singh came to know about training in organicfarming at Hisar University in Haryana and enrolled for it. He learnt differentmethods of producing high quality crops without depending on chemicals whichwould help him make his 12-acre farm organic. He managed to increase the yieldin two years. “I was able to produce 12-13 quintals of wheat per acre in2003-04 which still was 40 percent less than what I produced with thechemicals,” he says.
He replaced chemical fertilisers and pesticides with organicmanure prepared from jaggery, vegetable waste and water which takes threemonths to mature. It is suitable for all crops, controls fungus and isnutrient-rich. Very importantly, in the long run, it becomes cheaper thanpesticides and causes little harm to the environment. But Singh’s problemspersisted despite the increased production. The question of a market stillloomed large. Singh sells organic wheat at Rs 3,000 per quintal whereas wheatproduced from conventional farming sells at Rs 1,285 per quintal. Similarly,organic rice is sold at Rs 100 per kg while the conventionally cultivated cropof the same variety will sell for Rs 50 a kg. This year, Singh got the C-Onecertification for organic produce from the Organic Farming Council (OFC) ofPunjab.
Organic farming will ensure that the next generation is freeof cancer and its reproductive health is not threatened by chemicals used inagriculture, says Umendra Dutt, from KVM, a group which has been trying tocreate awareness among farmers regarding sustainable agriculture, conservationof natural resources, environmental health and eco-sustainable technologies.KVM works largely in the Malwa district, and claims to have 3,000 farmerspracticing organic farming under the mission in 16 districts.
The excesses of Green Revolution practices are causing thesoil in Punjab and Haryana, states with high-performing agriculture sector, tolose valuable nutrients. The soil chemistry is rapidly altering with retentionof chemical by-products of fertilizers and pesticides. Approximately 167 kg offertilizer per hectare is consumed in Punjab, which is 2.3 times the nationalaverage. It has one of the highest pesticide consumption with an average of7,200 million tonnes a year.
By special arrangement with Governance Now
