It is an accepted fact that, from the pollution point of view, organic farming is superior to chemical farming. But a recent study has found that organic farming is superior even from the viewpoints of economic viability and energy usage as well as other environmental points of view such as emission of greenhouse gases and ground water recharging. These findings are highly significant in light of the frequently repeated statements that organic farming is more expensive and that mankind can not be fed if all farmers adopted organic agriculture. The makers of agricultural policy in India have promoted this dogma for so long that the vast majority of Indian farmers seem to believe it. As a result, they have been caught in the vortex of increasing cost of fertilizers, pesticides, power and water and unable to come out, they are resorting in ever increasing numbers to bankruptcy and suicide. It is welcome that this study conducted by a renowned institution has proven that organic farming is more beneficial not just ecologically, but also economically.
Started in 1981, the Farming Systems Trial at Rodale Institute (Pennsylvania, USA) is one of the world's longest running, side-by-side comparison of organic and chemical agriculture (A study to compare ordinary crops and GM crops is going on for the last three years, but it is too early to come to any definite conclusions). It compares soybean and maize crops grown under three systems, organic manure, organic legume rotation and chemical. The major findings of the report on the completion of 30 years of trial are:
1.Soil health in the organic systems has increased over time while the chemical systems remain essentially unchanged. One measure of soil health is the amount of carbon contained in the soil. Carbon performs many crucial functions such as acting as a reservoir of plant nutrients, binding soil particles together, providing food source for beneficial microbes, binding heavy metals and pesticides, etc. Carbon increase was highest in the organic manure system, followed by the organic legume system. Instead of an increase, the chemical system has shown a loss in carbon in recent years. The organic fields also increased groundwater recharge and reduced runoff.
2. Over the thirty years of trials, the yields were the same in organic and chemical systems.
3. The organic systems used 45% less energy than the chemical systems.
4. Since the expenses are lower in the organic systems, the profits are higher. If one includes the prmium prices commanded by organic foods, the profits in organic systems were three times the profits in the chemical systems.
5. Crops grown in the organic systems emit only 70% of the greenhouse gases emitted by crops grown under the chemical systems.
6. Organically grown crops do not contain dangerous pesticide residues and so are better for human health.
Though the Rodale study reports that organic farming produces the same yields as does chemical farming, studies by the noted Japanese expert, Masanobu Fukuoka have shown that in natural farming (an extreme form of organic farming in which the plants after reaping are allowed to decay to provide manure for the next crop and there is very little application of external organic manure) the soil steadily improves over time in organic matter, moisture, microbial activity and other soil quality indicators and as a result, the yield keeps increasing. This is in contrast to conventional chemical farming in which the yield increases the first few years and then begins to decrease.
So chemical (or "modern") farming is ecologically more damaging, economically more expensive and produces less nutritious (and in the opinion of many, less tasty) food than organic (or "traditional") farming. It is tragic that Indian farmers have been forced to change from the much superior traditional farming to modern farming. Eighteenth century British records show that between 1762 and 1766 there were villages in Chingleput district in Tamilnadu which produced up to 12 tons of paddy a hectare in a year (www.cpsindia.org). In comparson, the best modern US production is nine tons per hectare in a year. It was this superiority of traditional agriculture in India that inspired the founder of modern organic farming, Sir Albert Howard. It is hoped that the Rodale study will open the eyes of the agricultural authorities in India and make them refocus on traditional organic farming.
Maj.Gen. (Rtd.) S.G. Vombatkere, Mysore Grahakara Parishat