Open Letter to MS Swaminathan by Bhaskar Save
*Open Letter*
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 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 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 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 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. 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 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. 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.
"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
year after year. But the earth around remains whole and undiminished.
There is no gaping hole in the ground!
From where do the trees including those on rocky mountains get their
water, their NPK, etc? Though stationary, Nature provides their needs
right where they stand. But 'scientists' and technocrats like you with
a blinkered, meddling itch 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 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 'educated'
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 and narrowly perceived '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 promoted by our institutions 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 'raw
materials' sourced from Nature into commodities. It cannot create anew.
Only Nature is truly creative and self-regenerating 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 rather than wisdom or compassion 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 * 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 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? Within the lifetimeof 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
spiders, frogs, etc. that fed on these insects and 'biologically
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 living on hand-drawn
or hand-pumped water in villages, and practising only rain-fed farming
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 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 vitally needed for root respiration
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 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 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 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 with minimal or zero external inputs 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* 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) 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 in a low rainfall
zone, providing diverse yield round the year without any irrigation
or external input.
1. 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.
[*Note*: Annexures 2 to 6 are being sent separately to avoid
overloading.]
