Back H. S. Singh
Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India
Full Paper (PDF File: 239KB)
Abstract
Nature
has given us enough to fulfill our needs but not our greeds. In the present
materialistic age, our needs include intensive farming for producing more and
more to meet our demands for food, fiber, fuel, fruits, and industrial goods.
Densely populated countries of the world are being forced to produce more than
the sustaining capacity per unit of land permits. India, the land of Ashoka the
Great Lord Buddha, was one of the most prosperous countries in the world in the
ancient past. However, due to the increase in population and exploitation of
resources in the past few hundred years, India has experienced a set back.
Again, during the last three decades, India has emerged as a strong developing
country by increasing more than threefold its food grain production from about
51 million .Mg in 1950-51 to over 171 million Mg in 1988-89. Increases in the
production of other essential commodities like cotton and surgarcane also have
been two and threefold, respectively, during the postindependence period. No
doubt we have been able to make ourselves sufficient in food grains and in
other essential items but the proportionate increase in fertilizer consumption
per hectare has been about a hundredfold (0.55 to 53.2 kg ha-1) and
twenty fold in pesticides (4,000 to 80,000 Mg) during the same period. Gross
irrigated area in 1951-52 was only 23 million ha and has increased to about 55
million ha in recent years. In this race for increasing agricultural
production, we have learned positive and negative lessons. The problems of
rising water tables in irrigated areas and increasing nutritional imbalances
are evident. Perhaps the time has come when we have to stop exploitive types of
farming and develop techniques for conservation/nature farming in order to
sustain agricultural production and meet our demands without further
degradation of our land, water, and environment. This paper reflects on the
progress made by India in agriculture, with increasing use of modern technology
including agrichemicals, and on the constraints and prospects of nature farming
in the future.