From: Bhaskar Save, 'Kalpavruksha' Farm,
Village Dehri, via Umergam,
Dist. Valsad, Gujarat - 396 170
(Phone: 0260 - 2562126 & 2563866)
To: Shri M.S. Swaminathan,
The Chairperson, National Commission on Farmers,
Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India
July 29, 2006
Subject: Mounting Suicides and National Policy for Farmers
Dear Shri Swaminathan,
I am an 84-year old natural/organic farmer with more than six decades of
personal experience in growing a wide range of food crops. I have, over the
years, practised several systems of farming, including the chemical method in
the fifties ˆ until I soon saw its pitfalls.
I say with conviction that it is only by organic farming in harmony with Nature,
that India can sustainably provide her people abundant, wholesome food. And meet
every basic need of all ˆ to live in health, dignity and peace.
[Annexed hereto are: (1) a concise comparison of chemical farming and organic
farming; (2) an introduction to my farm, Kalpavruksha; (3) some recorded
opinions of visitors; and (4) a short biographical note on myself.]
You, M.S. Swaminathan, are considered the 'father' of India's so-called 'Green
Revolution' that flung open the floodgates of toxic 'agro' chemicals ˆ ravaging
the lands and lives of many millions of Indian farmers over the past 50 years.
More than any other individual in our long history, it is you I hold responsible
for the tragic condition of our soils and our debt-burdened farmers, driven to
suicide in increasing numbers every year.
As destiny would have it, you are presently the chairperson of the 'National
Commission on Farmers', mandated to draft a new agricultural policy. I urge you
to take this opportunity to make amends ˆ for the sake of the children, and
those yet to come.
I understand your Commission is inviting the views of farmers for drafting the
new policy. As this is an open consultation, I am marking a copy of my letter
to: the Prime Minister, the Union Minister for Agriculture, the Chairperson of
the National Advisory Council, and to the media - for wider communication. I
hope this provokes some soul-searching and open debate at all levels on the
extremely vital issues involved. ˆ So that we do not repeat the same kind of
blunders that led us to our present, deep festering mess.
The great poet, Rabindranath Tagore, referred not so long ago to our "sujhalam,
sufalam" land. Ours indeed was a remarkably fertile and prosperous country ˆ
with rich soils, abundant water and sunshine, thick forests, a wealth of
bio-diversity, ∑ And cultured, peace-loving people with a vast store of farming
knowledge and wisdom.
Farming runs in our blood. But I am sad that our (now greyed) generation of
Indian farmers, allowed itself to be duped into adopting the short-sighted and
ecologically devastating way of farming, imported into this country. ˆ By those
like you, with virtually zero farming experience!
For generations beyond count, this land sustained one of the highest densities
of population on earth. Without any chemical 'fertilizers', pesticides, exotic
dwarf strains of grain, or the new, fancy 'bio-tech' inputs that you now seem to
champion. The many waves of invaders into this country, over the centuries, took
away much. But the fertility of our land remained unaffected.
The Upanishads say:
Om Purnamadaha
Purnamidam Purnat Purnamudachyate
Purnasya Purnamadaya Purnamewa Vashishyate
"This creation is whole and complete.
From the whole emerge creations, each whole and complete.
Take the whole from the whole, but the whole yet remains,
Undiminished, complete!"
In our forests, the trees like ber (jujube), jambul (jambolan), mango, umbar
(wild fig), mahua (Madhuca indica), imli (tamarind), ∑ yield so abundantly in
their season that the branches sag under the weight of the fruit. The annual
yield per tree is commonly over a tonne ˆ year after year. But the earth around
remains whole and undiminished. There is no gaping hole in the ground!
From where do the trees ˆ including those on rocky mountains ˆ get their water,
their NPK, etc? Though stationary, Nature provides their needs right where they
stand. But Œscientists‚ and technocrats like you ˆ with a blinkered, meddling
itch ˆ seem blind to this. On what basis do you prescribe what a tree or plant
requires, and how much, and when∑?
It is said: where there is lack of knowledge, ignorance masquerades as
'science'! Such is the 'science' you have espoused, leading our farmers astray ˆ
down the pits of misery. While it is no shame to be ignorant, the awareness of
such ignorance is the necessary first step to knowledge. But the refusal to see
it is self-deluding arrogance.
Agricultural Mis-education
This country has more than 150 agricultural universities, many with huge
land-holdings of thousands of acres. They have no dearth of infrastructure,
equipment, staff, money, ∑ And yet, not one of these heavily subsidized
universities makes any profit, or grows any significant amount of food, if only
to feed its own staff and students. But every year, each churns out several
hundred Œeducated‚ unemployables, trained only in misguiding farmers and
spreading ecological degradation.
In all the six years a student spends for an M. Sc. in agriculture, the only
goal is short-term ˆ and narrowly perceived ˆ 'productivity'. For this, the
farmer is urged to do and buy a hundred things. But not a thought is spared to
what a farmer must never do so that the land remains unharmed for future
generations and other creatures. It is time our people and government wake up to
the realisation that this industry-driven way of farming ˆ promoted by our
institutions ˆ is inherently criminal and suicidal!
Gandhi declared: Where there is soshan, or exploitation, there can be no poshan,
or nurture! Vinoba Bhave added, "Science wedded to compassion can bring about a
paradise on earth. But divorced from non-violence, it can only cause a massive
conflagration that swallows us in its flames."
Trying to increase Nature's 'productivity,' is the fundamental blunder that
highlights the ignorance of 'agricultural scientists' like you. Nature,
unspoiled by man, is already most generous in her yield. When a grain of rice
can reproduce a thousand-fold within months, where arises the need to increase
its productivity?
Numerous kinds of fruit trees too yield several hundred thousand kg of
nourishment each in their lifetime! That is, provided the farmer does not pour
poison and mess around the tree in his greed for quick profit. A child has a
right to its mother‚s milk. But if we draw on Mother Earth‚s blood and flesh as
well, how can we expect her continuing sustenance!
The mindset of servitude to 'commerce and industry,' ignoring all else, is the
root of the problem. But industry merely transforms Œraw materials‚ sourced from
Nature into commodities. It cannot create anew. Only Nature is truly creative
and self-regenerating ˆ through synergy with the fresh daily inflow of the sun's
energy.
The Six Self-renewing Paribals of Nature
There is on earth a constant inter-play of the six paribals (key factors) of
Nature, interacting with sunlight. Three are: air, water and soil. Working in
tandem with these, are the three orders of life: 'vanaspati srushti' (the world
of plants), 'jeev srushti' (the realm of insects and micro-organisms), and 'prani
srushti' (the animal kingdom). These six paribals maintain a dynamic balance.
Together, they harmonise the grand symphony of Nature, weaving the new!
Man has no right to disrupt any of the paribals of Nature. But modern
technology, wedded to commerce ˆ rather than wisdom or compassion ˆ has proved
disastrous at all levels... We have despoiled and polluted the soil, water and
air. We have wiped out most of our forests and killed its creatures; ∑ And
relentlessly, modern farmers spray deadly poisons on their fields. These
massacre Nature‚s jeev srushti ˆ the unpretentious but tireless little workers
that maintain the ventilated quality of the soil, and recycle all life-ebbed
biomass into nourishment for plants. The noxious chemicals also inevitably
poison the water, and Nature's prani srushti, which includes humans.
The Root of Unsustainablity
Sustainability is a modern concern, scarcely talked of at the time you
championed the 'green revolution'. Can you deny that for more than forty
centuries, our ancestors farmed the organic way ˆ without any marked decline in
soil fertility, as in the past four or five decades? Is it not a stark fact that
the chemical-intensive and irrigation-intensive way of growing monoculture
cash-crops, has been primarily responsible for spreading ecological devastation
far and wide in this country? ˆ Within the lifetime of a single generation!
Engineered Erosion of Crop Diversity, Scarcity of Organic Matter, and Soil
Degradation
This country boasted an immense diversity of crops, adapted over millennia to
local conditions and needs. Our numerous tall, indigenous varieties of grain
provided more biomass, shaded the soil from the sun, and protected against its
erosion under heavy monsoon rains. But in the guise of increasing crop
production, exotic dwarf varieties were introduced and promoted through your
efforts. This led to more vigorous growth of weeds, which were now able to
compete successfully with the new stunted crops for sunlight. The farmer had to
spend more labour and money in weeding, or spraying herbicides.
The straw growth with the dwarf grain crops fell drastically to one-third of
that with most native species! In Punjab and Haryana, even this was burned, as
it was said to harbour 'pathogens'. (It was too toxic to feed farm cattle that
were progressively displaced by tractors.) Consequently, much less organic
matter was locally available to recycle the fertility of the soil, leading to an
artificial need for externally procured inputs. Inevitably, the farmers resorted
to use more chemicals, and relentlessly, soil degradation and erosion set in.
Engineered Pestilence
The exotic varieties, grown with chemical 'fertiliser', were more susceptible to
'pests and diseases', leading to yet more poison (insecticides, etc.) being
poured. But the attacked insect species developed resistance and reproduced
prolifically. Their predators ˆ spiders, frogs, etc. ˆ that fed on these insects
and Œbiologically controlled‚ their population, were exterminated. So were many
beneficial species like the earthworms and bees.
Agribusiness and technocrats recommended stronger doses, and newer, more toxic
(and more expensive) chemicals. But the problems of 'pests' and diseases‚ only
worsened. The spiral of ecological, financial and human costs mounted!
The 'Development' of Water Scarcity and Dead, Salty Soils
With the use of synthetic fertilizer and increased cash-cropping, irrigation
needs rose enormously. In 1952, the Bhakra dam was built in Punjab, a water-rich
state fed by 5 Himalayan rivers. Several thousand more big and medium dams
followed all over the country, culminating in the massive Sardar Sarovar. And
now, our government is toying with a grandiose, Rs 560,000 crore proposal to
divert and 'inter-link' the flow of our rivers. This is sheer 'Tughlaqian'
megalomania, without a thought for future generations!
India, next to South America, receives the highest rainfall in the world. The
annual average is almost 4 feet. Where thick vegetation covers the ground, and
the soil is alive and porous, at least half of this rain is soaked and stored in
the soil and sub-soil strata. A good amount then percolates deeper to recharge
aquifers, or 'groundwater tables'.
The living soil and its underlying aquifers thus serve as gigantic, ready-made
reservoirs gifted free by Nature. Particularly efficient in soaking rain are the
lands under forests and trees. And so, half a century ago, most parts of India
had enough fresh water all round the year, long after the rains had stopped and
gone. But clear the forests, and the capacity of the earth to soak the rain,
drops drastically. Streams and wells run dry. It has happened in too many places
already.
While the recharge of groundwater has greatly reduced, its extraction has been
mounting. India is presently mining over 20 times more groundwater each day than
it did in 1950. Much of this is mindless wastage by a minority. But most of
India‚s people ˆ living on hand-drawn or hand-pumped water in villages, and
practising only rain-fed farming ˆ continue to use the same amount of ground
water per person, as they did generations ago.
More than 80% of India's water consumption is for irrigation, with the largest
share hogged by chemically cultivated cash crops. Maharashtra, for example, has
the maximum number of big and medium dams in this country. But sugarcane alone,
grown on barely 3-4% of its cultivable land, guzzles about 70% of its irrigation
waters!
One acre of chemically grown sugarcane requires as much water as would suffice
25 acres of jowar, bajra or maize. The sugar factories too consume huge
quantities. From cultivation to processing, each kilo of refined sugar needs 2
to 3 tonnes of water. This could be used to grow, by the traditional, organic
way, about 150 to 200 kg of nutritious jowar or bajra (native millets).
While rice is suitable for rain-fed farming, its extensive multiple cropping
with irrigation in winter and summer as well, is similarly hogging our water
resources, and depleting aquifers. As with sugarcane, it is also irreversibly
ruining the land through salinisation.
Soil salinisation is the greatest scourge of irrigation-intensive agriculture,
as a progressively thicker crust of salts is formed on the land. Many million
hectares of cropland have been ruined by it. The most serious problems are
caused where water-guzzling crops like sugarcane or basmati rice are grown round
the year, abandoning the traditional mixed-cropping and rotation systems of the
past, which required minimal or no watering.
Since at least 60% of the water used for irrigation nowadays in India, is
excessive, indeed harmful, the first step that needs to be taken is to control
this. Thus, not only will the grave damage caused by too much irrigation stop,
but a good deal of the water that is saved can also become available locally for
priority areas where acute scarcity is felt.
Conservative Irrigation and Groundwater Recharge at Kalpavruksha
Efficient, organic farming requires very little irrigation ˆ much less than what
is commonly used in modern agriculture. The yields of the crops are best when
the soil is just damp. Rice is the only exception that grows even where water
accumulates, and is thus preferred as a monsoon crop in low-lying areas
naturally prone to inundation. Excess irrigation in the case of all other crops
expels the air contained in the soil‚s inter-particulate spaces ˆ vitally needed
for root respiration ˆ and prolonged flooding causes root rot.
The irrigation on my farm is a small fraction of that provided in most modern
farms today. Moreover, the porous soil under the thick vegetation of the orchard
is like a sponge that soaks and percolates to the aquifer, or ground-water
table, an enormous quantity of rain each monsoon. The amount of water thus
stored in the ground at Kalpavruksha, is far more than the total amount
withdrawn from the well for irrigation in the months when there is no rain.
Thus, my farm is a net supplier of water to the eco-system of the region, rather
than a net consumer! Clearly, the way to ensure the water security and food
security of this nation, is by organically growing mixed, locally suitable
crops, plants and trees, following the laws of Nature.
Need for 30% Tree Cover
We should restore at least 30% ground cover of mixed, indigeneous trees and
forests within the next decade or two. This is the core task of ecological water
harvesting ˆ the key to restoring the natural abundance of groundwater.
Outstanding benefits can be achieved within a decade at comparatively little
cost. We sadly fail to realise that the potential for natural water storage in
the ground is many times greater than the combined capacity of all the major and
medium irrigation projects in India ˆ complete, incomplete, or still on paper!
Such decentralized underground storage is more efficient, as it is protected
from the high evaporation of surface storage. The planting of trees will also
make available a variety of useful produce to enhance the well-being of a larger
number of people.
Even barren wastelands can be restored to health in less than a decade. By
inter-planting short life-span, medium life-span, and long life-span crops and
trees, it is possible to have planned continuity of food yield to sustain a
farmer through the transition period till the long-life fruit trees mature and
yield. The higher availability of biomass and complete ground cover round the
year will also hasten the regeneration of soil fertility.
Production, Poverty & Population
After the British left, Indian agriculture was recovering steadily. There was no
scarcity of diverse nourishment in the countryside, where 75% of India lived.
The actual reason for pushing the 'Green Revolution' was the much narrower goal
of increasing marketable surplus of a few relatively less perishable cereals to
fuel the urban-industrial expansion favoured by the government.
The new, parasitical way of farming you vigorously promoted, benefited only the
industrialists, traders and the powers-that-be. The farmers‚ costs rose
massively and margins dipped. Combined with the eroding natural fertility of
their land, they were left with little in their hands, if not mounting debts and
dead soils. Many gave up farming. Many more want to do so, squeezed by the
ever-rising costs. This is nothing less than tragic, since Nature has generously
gifted us with all that is needed for organic farming ˆ which also produces
wholesome, rather than poisoned food!
Restoring the natural health of Indian agriculture is the path to solve the
inter-related problems of poverty, unemployment and rising population. The
maximum number of people can become self-reliant through farming only if the
necessary inputs are a bare minimum. Thus, farming should require a minimum of
financial capital and purchased inputs, minimum farming equipment (plough,
tools, etc.), minimum necessary labour, and minimum external technology. Then,
agricultural production will increase, without costs increasing. Poverty will
decline, and the rise in population will be spontaneously checked.
Self-reliant farming ˆ with minimal or zero external inputs ˆ was the way we
actually farmed, very successfully, in the past. Barring periods of war and
excessive colonial oppression, our farmers were largely self-sufficient, and
even produced surpluses, though generally smaller quantities of many more items.
These, particularly perishables, were tougher to supply urban markets. And so
the nation‚s farmers were steered to grow chemically cultivated monocultures of
a few cash-crops like wheat, rice, or sugar, rather than their traditional
polycultures that needed no purchased inputs. [See Annexure 5 on an old,
six-crop integral system (of cotton, 2 millets and 3 edible pulse legumes) which
successfully provided farmers in low-rainfall regions with more diversity and
continuity of yield round the year ˆ without any irrigation or external
inputs.]
In Conclusion:
I hope you have the integrity to support widespread change to mixed organic
farming, tree-planting and forest regeneration (with local resources and rights)
ˆ that India greatly needs. I would be glad to answer any query or doubt posed
to me, preferably in writing. I also welcome you to visit my farm with
reasonable prior notice. Since many years, I have extended an open invitation to
any one interested in natural/organic farming to visit Kalpavruksha, on any
Saturday afternoon between 2.00 and 4.00 pm., which continues till date.
I may finally add that this letter has been transcribed in English by Bharat
Mansata, based on discussions with me in Gujarati. (The annexures hereto are
excerpted from his forthcoming book, 'The Vision of Natural Farming,' Earthcare
Books, which draws largely on my experience.)
Whether or not you agree with my views, I look forward to your reply.
Yours sincerely,
Bhaskar H. Save
Copy to: (i) The Prime Minister of India, (ii) The Union Minister for
Agriculture, (iii) The Chairperson, National Advisory Council, (iv) The media.
Annexures:
1) Comparison of Chemical Farming and Organic Farming
2) An Introduction to Kalpavruksha (my farm)
3) Recorded Opinions of Visitors
4) A Biographical Note
5) Note on a Traditional Six-Crop, Integral System ˆ in a low rainfall zone,
providing diverse yield round the year without any irrigation or external input.
6) Content Overview and More Excerpts from 'The Vision of Natural Farming'
Annexure 1: Comparison of Chemical Farming & Organic Farming:
-- by Bhaskar Save, transcribed from Gujarati to English by Bharat Mansata
1) Chemical farming fragments the web of life; organic farming nurtures its
wholeness
2) Chemical farming depends on fossil oil; organic farming on living soil.
3) Chemical farmers see their land as a dead medium; organic farmers know theirs
is teeming with life.
4) Chemical farming pollutes the air, water and soil; organic farming purifies
and renews them.
5) Chemical farming uses large quantities of water and depletes aquifers;
organic farming requires much less irrigation, and recharges groundwater.
6) Chemical farming is mono-cultural and destroys diversity; organic farming is
poly-cultural and nurtures diversity.
7) Chemical farming produces poisoned food; organic farming yields nourishing
food.
8) Chemical farming has a short history and threatens a dim future; organic
farming has a long history and promises a bright future.
9) Chemical farming is an alien, imported technology; organic farming has
evolved indigenously.
10) Chemical farming is propagated through schooled, institutional
misinformation; organic farming learns from Nature and farmers‚ experience.
11) Chemical farming benefits traders and industrialists; organic farming
benefits the farmer, the environment and society as a whole.
12) Chemical farming robs the self-reliance and self-respect of farmers and
villages; organic farming restores and strengthens it.
13) Chemical farming leads to bankruptcy and misery; organic farming liberates
from debt and woe.
14) Chemical farming is violent and entropic; organic farming is non-violent and
synergistic.
15) Chemical farming is a hollow 'green revolution'; organic farming is the true
green revolution.
16) Chemical farming is crudely materialistic, with no ideological mooring;
organic farming is rooted in spirituality and abiding truth.
17) Chemical farming is suicidal, moving from life to death; organic farming is
the road to regeneration.
18) Chemical farming is the vehicle of commerce and oppression; organic farming
is the path of culture and co-evolution.
Other annexures ommited here