Organic Agriculture in Hill Areas

Abstract

Intensive agriculture with chemical and industrial inputs has increased crop yields but also posed severe environmental problems by releasing green house gases (GHGs) to atmosphere during production, transportation and storage. Modern agricultural practices over the past four decades have resulted in not only loss of natural habitat and soil health but have also caused many hazards like soil erosion, decreased groundwater level, pollution, genetic erosion, ill effects on environment, reduced food quality and increased the cost of cultivation, rendering the farmer poorer year by year. Farmers do not find agriculture a viable proposition any more and in fact, a large number of farmers have committed suicides. Local indigenous farm techniques have been wiped out and replaced by the modern techniques, resulting in an unviable and unsustainable farm enterprise. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has noted that agriculture as practised today (conventional/modern agriculture) accounts for about one fifth of the anthropogenic greenhouse effect, producing about 50 and 70 per cent, respectively of the overall anthropogenic methane and nitrogen oxides emissions. Scientific surveys and evidences indicate that pesticide particles are transferred to human and other living bodies through grains, vegetables, fruits and grasses, causing a number of health problems, where The pesticide residue persistence are considerably more than maximum residue limit (MRL) of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954. According to WHO, 14,000 people die every year in the third world countries due to pesticide poisoning. Hence, sustainability of agricultural systems with low or without emission of GHGs has become an important issue all over the world. It is in this context, alternative farm techniques and strategies for growing crops ought to be found in the larger interest. Essentially, organic agriculture is a farming system which supports and strengthens biological processes without recourse to inorganic remedies. Organic farming is increasingly becoming popular because of the perceived health and environment benefits and farmers are benefited through price premium. Organic matter additions are the only means of making some soils economically productive. Therefore, the use of organic amendments is synonymous to soil productivity. Increasing soil organic matter has added benefit of improving soil quality and thereby enhancing the long term sustainability of agriculture. Initially lower yields on organic farms have been attributed to the negative effects of conventional practices on the soil microorganisms that mineralize soil organic matter, or that control soil-borne pests. But, these systems may improve soil quality than industrial conventional systems and provide better yield later, especially in developing countries.