Article 2 :

Organic farming : a tool for social and ecological development of Indian Arid zone
Arun K.Sharma Jodhpur,INDIA

North western part of India spreads in three states i.e. Goujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana. About 41 million ha area of this region is having stressed production environment for agriculture, mainly due to low (100-400 mm/yr) and erratic (>50% variability) rainfall and light soil.

Traditional farming systems have been developed with the integration of trees, crops and animals for sustenance in climatic uncertainty by spreading risk among components.

However, the productivity of these systems is low mainly because of poor input use efficiency. These farming systems are based on extensive use of organic inputs only therefore can be called default organic. Other wise also, productivity along with quality enhancement with efficient and exclusive use of organic inputs, is yet to be done for meeting the growing demand of organic produce.

During last 4-5 decades, the traditional default organic systems have been adulterated with the use of synthetic inputs mainly in the high value crops and animal products. Most of these high value produces are also known for high quality produce from arid zone only due to favorable edapho-climatic conditions. Many of them are directly consumed by human being therefore residue of synthetic inputs may be harmful for consumers.These crops not only cover large area of agriculture of the region but also fetches good amount from export as shown below: 51% of global demand (70 countries) is meet by India and out of this 80% is produced from north-western India. Psyllium from India meets 90% demand of the worlds.

Due to increasing health awareness among consumers, residues of synthetic chemical in products will affect the market and economy of this region on the other side organic production will be a great opportunity for both market & economy Some other produce from this region are also gaining export market. Some of them sesame, guggul (olio-resion), Acacia Senegal (gum arabic, seed), Capparis (fruit). These produce are grown without use of any input therefore, immense possibility to increase their production with organic management. Although this region is rich in term of organic input availability e.g. animal manure, botanicals (neem, calatropis, karanj etc.), natural minerals (gypsum, rock phosphate), yet the research and development on the efficient and integrated use of these inputs is the need of the hour to get the advantage of the market of organic produce, besides long term sustainability. Farmers of this region are not able to bear the cost of certification therefore the need is to get involve some exporters/enterpenures who can arrange quality processing facilities and bear the cost of certification ( group certification). This will be a great support to the social and ecological development of this region.

The writer can be contacted at arun.k_Sharma@yahoo.co.in . You can also send in your feedbacks on life(at)maati(dot)com

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