SAVE (Sustainable Agriculture for Vitalising Environment) LAND

Why is AGRICULTURE in India LIFE, more than just Profession?

India ranks second worldwide in farm output. Agriculture and allied sectors like forestry and fisheries accounted for 16.6% of the GDP in 2009, about 50% of the total workforce. The economic contribution of agriculture to India's GDP is steadily declining with the country's broad-based economic growth. Still, agriculture is demographically the broadest economic sector and plays a significant role in the overall socio-economic fabric of India.

Where the Agriculture Production of India stands today in Crops and Vegetables??

As Per the 2010 FAO world agriculture statistics, India is the world's largest producer of many fresh fruits and vegetables, milk, major spices, select fresh meats, select fibrous crops such as jute, several staples such as millets and castor oil seed. India is the second largest producer of wheat and rice, the world's major food staples.

India ranked within the world's five largest producers of over 80% of agricultural produce items, including many cash crops such as coffee and cotton.

Rice output in India also hit a new record at 95.3 million tonnes, a 7% increase from the year earlier. India exported around 2 million metric tonnes of wheat and 2.1 million metric tonnes of rice in 2011 to Africa, Nepal, Bangladesh and other regions around the world.

Despite these recent accomplishments, agriculture in India has the potential for major productivity and total output gains.

If everything is so rosy, then what comes in the way of India as a Huge Hurdle for Agricultural Development rather Green Agri-Development and Land??

There are Major problems to tackle with in India ?..

What is the biggest Source of WATER??

The answer is simple?..However, may be very astonishing for others, its still MONSOON. In spite of receiving high achievements and making high increases in the Production level, its still the Monsoon that decides whether the Crops create a Landslide Production or will flow away with the Landslide.

Due to this, there are severe Droughts in some areas whereas Plenty Plenty of Water for some areas leading to Flood- Struck situations. Both these situations create heavy losses for the Farmer as well as the State. However the biggest loss?.Could You Guess, its of Environment.

It affects environment in the form of Land degradation, natural floods surge away the upper fertile layer of soil. The misuse of Method of flood irrigation creates problem of water logging and secondary salinization, thus degrading the fertile land.

Is this Practice a Sustainable Practice??

The answer is quite Simple, No.

Now, let us examine if three Triads of Sustainability- Water, Energy and Environment really used in the so called DEVELOPMENT?

 In the recent years there have been Developments like Irrigation facilities provided to the farmer but Is First Component of the TRIAD- Sustainability of Water being fulfilled??

It?s again wretchedly a Simple NO. There is lot of water being wasted daily ?..Million and Millions of Gallon of Water is wasted for flood-Irrigation. At the same time. Irrigation takes a lot of energy that is used to pump the Water uphill.

Even, Our new Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi has stressed upon Sustainable Use of Water in his Action Plan.

What is the Simple Solution??

The simple and the most acceptable solution could be drip irrigation. The Indian state provides 100% Subsidy on the material of Drip Irrigation. There is 50-60% of subsidy on Solar-Pumps given by state leading to Sustainability of ENERGY. However, the people have neither adapted this solution nor the state has publicized or encouraged the farmers to find possibilities in this method.

Moving to the SeconD Component of TRIAD- Sustainability of ENERGY. There could also be the possibility of phenomenon of Gravitation used in irrigation to minimize and make the optimum use of energy.

 

We must not think about Great and Amazing INNOVATIONS With astounding FACTS and Figures explaining a lot of Stats because at the end of the day the LAME farmer is not going to understand any of these and consequently will not get inspired.

We need not bring innovations, when we have a possible solution which is being kept aside unheard for years. It?s time to aware people about this solution rather than wasting our valuable time wondering about Noble Prize winning Innovations.

2-The second problem is of Profit for the farmers is low even if Productivity may be high for them. 

This solution in itself is an Innovation for a country where still half of the country?s villages are deprived of 24hrs Electricity and water supply. In a county where 60% of 1.237 Billion people are in agriculture, committing thousands of suicide for less Productivity and Profit.

This Idea could bring the second Green Revolution in India and will also achieve the GOAL of Sustainable Environment.

The other major Crisis experienced by the farmers is the involvement of Middle Man which decreases the Cost of the Yield and hence the profit by nothing less than 100%. For example, 1KG of rice bought at the rate 8 from the farmer is sold at the rate of minimum 16 to 30 in the Market.

What the Farmer gets??

Simply nothing to what he sows, this tremendously effects his desires and at times the necessity of getting out of debt forces him to aim over ambitiously and he deliberately uses more fertilizers or does intense farming. Leading to Land degradation and at last the land turns out to be infertile and unsuitable for any Use.  

To counter the effect of Middle man. There could be a solution that is :-

 

There could be Online Vegetable Markets and physical Outlets created where directly the vegetables could be brought in and sold. Here, FDI can also be well utilized where the companies can give a good cost to the farmer and buy the Vegetables and Crops.

Hence, this would reduce the burden of common man as well as increase the income of Farmer, in turn increasing his purchasing power and motivating him to invest more. Hence, increasing the GDP and Economy.

At the same time we can also take into consideration that this idea will decrease the energy consumed in the transport and storage as simplicity is brought in, through such a process. There is no more a need to burn so much of fuel in transporting it into different hands.

This is a true but a bitter fact that farmers in India still Use tools and machineries 30-40years old. Therefore, if the farmers can come out of severe debts and buy new technological tools then they will save a lot for the Environment as well as for themselves.

This will also decrease the loss of HUMAN resource in the form of SUICIDES ??..DEATH or END is not a SOLUTION. We together with new aspiring ways can help each other to make a better EARTH.

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My idea follows the 3-Ps those are?. ?Planet, People and PROFIT.?

The Last and foremost cause for land degradation in INDIA that prevails from inception is the Tradition of division of Land on Inheritance. It follows the Slogan partly of WDCD-2014 i.e. ?Land belongs to the Future? but ironically to ?Climate Proofing?, this tradition leaves no land for any further use after repetitive division and makes the Potential land into deserted land.

 

So, to combat this problem and make this tradition of some Eco-profitable usage. The solution could be Land Rotation rather than Crop rotation. Suppose, there are two sons of a father who are interested in farming. The father is no more interested and wants to pass on the land to next generation under the idea ?Land belongs to the Future? but he wants to ensure Climate Proofing. Therefore, he rather than dividing, can mutually make both his sons the Co-Owner of the land. So, it would prevent the land getting small. Now, both brothers will not have any conflict of interest and so can completely focus upon farming.

 

By becoming smarter, the 21rst Gen farmers can incorporate Sustainable Land Use for Combatting Climate Change. By, virtually dividing the land in two two halves, carrying out growing vegetables like tomato etc at one end and grains like rice and wheat at the other. The next year the land used for vegetables can be used for grain crops and the grain one into vegetables.

 

This would create three basic gains:-

 

1)    If any of the crop fails, the other can help. Increasing Security as well as interdependence- ?the basic funda for all development.?

2)    The country suffers from malnutrition and food insecurity, this can be prevented from such practice bringing a balance of both. The other most important fact is India Grain production is overwhelmingly more than the demand but not the vegetables creating Price rise. Therefore, this problem can also be tackled.

3)    The land remains fertile through Land rotation (crop as such) and the huge wastes of different kinds could well be decomposed to provide all types of nutrients as organic manure.

We must always remember

?DEVELOPMENT is MUST but  

ENVIRONMENT is  FIRST???.

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