Gedenkschrift in Honour of the late Dr. N.K.Sanghi
The writer
is very grateful for being invited to contribute a paper for a memorial in
honour of the late Dr NK Sanghi, a pre-eminent agricultural scientist, a warm
human being and friend, and a nationalist who served the poor farming
communities of India with single-minded devotion. He was one of the few top
scientist-officials of India who convinced civil society organizations to work
for sustainable agriculture. He uniquely integrated modern science and
indigenous knowledge in several practical ways to produce immediate support for
thousands of poor farmers.
An
Historical Introduction:
The
history of ecological farming in India is as old as agriculture itself. The great civilizations of India developed on
the basis of an agriculture that was rich, efficient, and ecological. The very first mention of agricultural
practices is found in the Buddhist Pali texts, Kullavagga and Mahavagga
of the 5th Century BCE. Kautilya's Arthasastra
of the 3rd Century BCE gives us a complete picture of the agricultural and
forestry practices of his times. Later
works, Varahamihira's, Brhatsamhita of the 6th Century CE, and
Kashyapa's Krishi-Sukti of the 10th Century CE contain detailed
treatises on agriculture, forestry, land and water management. It is interesting to note today the
injunctions of Kashyapa, after a process of environmental degradation, loss of
forest cover, and the disasters brought about by mono-cropping, and massive use
of pesticides. He enjoins kings to keep
the top slopes of hills covered with mixed forests, which should contain fruit
trees, such as the mango; trees which have bio-pesticidal properties, such as
neem and pongamia; trees which are rich in Vitamin C, such as the amla; and leguminous trees for producing fodder,
and nourishing the soil, as well as ornamental and timber trees. He insists that the forests should be guarded
by brave soldiers. Turning to
agriculture, Kashyapa extols the virtue of Indian farmers, who are vigilant and
methodological, who have cordial relations among themselves, leading to
community group action, which Dr Sanghi used to say repeatedly was essential
for successful farming. In ancient days, farmers produced two crops a year by
taking care of agricultural labour, livestock, seeds, water channels, tanks,
and farm implements. That Indian farmers
were famous for careful cultivation of several species of trees, crops, and
vegetables is also known to us by reading the accounts of early Arab
travellers, such as Ibn Batuta, and conquerors, such as Baber himself. The Ain-i-Akbari
mentions that farmers in the Doab grew around 25 taxable crops during the
kharif season, and another 15 taxable crops during the post-rainy rabi season.
The great emperor Akbar was well aware that the magnificence of the Moghul
Empire rested on their efforts. He not only passed laws to see that the
peasants were not crushed under excessive taxation, but insisted that the
tax-collectors should make individual assessments after meeting the cultivators
in person, and not depend on the estimates of local landlords or chiefs. The
emperor also instituted taquavi loans
for helping cultivators in distress. The pleasure-loving Jahangir was no less a
lover of Nature than his forebears, and one of the best accounts of the flora
and fauna of his times is found in the Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, penned by the
emperor himself. In it, he writes: ‘Whenever
all the energies and purposes of justice-serving Kings are devoted to the
comfort of the people and the contentment of their subjects, the manifestations
of well-being and the productions of fields and gardens are not far off. God be
praised that in this age-enduring State no tax has ever been levied on the
fruit of trees, and is not levied now.’ The belief that justice will lead
to plenty is an ancient one in this country, and is still adhered to by the
people. That Indian farmers continued to sustain our populations through
ecological farming methods right down to modern times is witnessed by Dr.RA Voelcker,
Consulting Chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society of England, who said in
the late 19th Century that he had never seen a more perfect picture of careful
cultivation combined with hard labour, perseverance, and fertility of the
soil. He said that Western experience
could contribute little to the wisdom of the Indian farmer, and added that any
advance may come from ‘an enquiry into
natural agriculture and from the extension of better indigenous methods....’
Unfortunately,
the early Sanskrit tests on agriculture ceased being referred to when our
modern education system was established by Lord Macaulay. The impoverisation of the Indian peasantry
brought about by colonial rule did further damage to oral traditions of
knowledge which had come down from father to son, and mother to daughter for
over a thousand years. Even great
patriotic leaders, such as Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, had to go through a process
of ‘discovering’ India. Systems of
agricultural and farm management based on European and American experience were
introduced into India without much regard either to our local agricultural
knowledge; or the historical and social processes of community joint
responsibility for the maintenance of fields and water systems; or even the
fragile nature of many of our soils, and the inter-relationships within a
region of agriculture and forests. Though
modern science through the Green Revolution has enabled us to stave-off
the spectre of mass famine, or neo-colonial dependence on the import of food grains
grown in America, by and large, our farmers have been left with a legacy of
over-application of pesticides; the destruction of their soils and
water-harvesting systems, following the great destruction of forests by government
and industry; and commercial mono-cropping systems for profit, which has
reduced the availability of several greens and non-economic plants, which once
gave the poor free access to proteins and inputs of Vitamins A and C. Some
studies into the nutritional deficiencies of the diet of the poor in
present-day India have even gone to the extent of saying that in comparative terms
the India of a hundred years ago was like a land flowing with milk and honey
for the poor! Institutional attempts at
correcting such deficiencies do not produce expected results. For example, the supply of high density
capsules of Vitamin-A to rural children
in the Deccan, in response to growing cases of blindness among children, has
also resulted in producing childhood cirrhosis of the liver, a condition which
can apparently develop if excessive Vitamin A dosage is imbibed along with a
malnourished diet.
In any
case, centralised Green Revolution strategies have not been able to meet the
food production needs of the poor living in around a hundred districts declared
as perennially drought-prone. The poor of such areas faced with declining food
production have tried to survive by adopting non-ecological practices, and by
cutting down trees, which have all added to environmental destruction. Lands around the City of Hyderabad, once
thickly forested, which could boast of the existence of even leopards on the
urban outskirts 30 years ago, have now lost all of their trees, resulting in
massive loss of top soil, and the siltation of reservoirs. The drift of the rural poor to the City
continues, and slums in Hyderabad are growing at the rate of over 15% per year.
The City once among the best planned in the country is now unable to supply
sufficient safe drinking water to its population.
All
these problems interact with each other, further reducing the agricultural
viability of vast acres of land, and the capacity for survival of the poor
living in such areas. It is under these
conditions that a few scientists, among whom Dr Sanghi was the most notable,
researched into the benefits of incorporating ecological systems of
agricultural production, and land management.
The non-chemical management of pests is an important and integral part
of the development of ecological science.
Community
Survival
In this
short paper, the focus will be on such processes as might help communities of
the poor to survive in resource-poor, drought-prone and environmentally
degraded areas, such as are found in the Telangana, Marathwada, and North
Karnataka region. The late Dr Sanghi spent a great part of his working life
tackling these problems.
No
ecological agricultural practices can be promoted unless we also promote social
processes of community coalition which will encourage people's participation in
a very fundamental manner in all development strategies. What is required is much more than assent of
the local poor to plans designed to promote environmental regeneration or
agricultural production. We require
their full involvement in the articulation of priorities in the design of such
plans, and in bringing to the fore their local knowledge about their
environment. Clearly what is needed is
to go beyond PRA exercises towards planning by the poor of their own
development strategies; the implementation of such strategies by organisations
of the poor, such as sangams; and the participation in the governance of such
organisations by the poor. A prior requisite for successful involvement of the
people would be enabling strategies which gives them access to land, the most
important natural resource available, as well as to trees and water resources. Access
to land and natural resources cannot be made effective without full involvement
of all sections of the local community, followed by discussions, mediation and
arbitration processes. If access even on
an experimental scale to land and natural resources is provided to the poor,
then we can build strategies which combine sustainable agricultural practices
along with environmental regeneration through afforestation, and soil and water
conservation, for gradually increasing the carrying capacity of the area.
A primary
focus of such a combined strategy should be food security for the poor,
and food conserving bio-diversity to
produce a proper nutritional balance in their diets and variety. Such food security would increase the ability
of the poor in environmentally degraded regions to move towards
self-provisioning at the local level, and towards public health improvement
through the reintroduction of preventive medicine and herbal medicine.
At the
same time, such strategies would generate employment at the local level through
focusing on labour-intensive environmental regeneration. Such extra employment would lead to income
generation, the growth of savings in rural households, and ultimately the
growth of purchasing power in the hands of the poor.
With
the growth of food security and employment, the poor can move towards higher
literacy levels, and local empowerment for local management. All these factors would lead rural
communities towards the Gandhian ideal of Gram
Swaraj and community survival.
Sustainable
Agriculture
Sketching
out such a context for the gradual improvement of a region and the capacities
of the poor, Dr Sanghi in discussion spelt out the institutional problems faced
by agriculture. Till now resources that
are costly, difficult to mobilise, and difficult to utilise by the poor, such
as capital, technology, and elite expertise, have been considered as essential
for producing growth or improvement in living standards. Development experience
has shown that such inputs lead to highly skewed development, and a widening
gap between the rich and the poor. Even
the best estimates produced decade-after-decade show that around half of our population
live below the poverty line.
Malnourishment is endemic in the country. For vast populations there has been little
improvement in literacy or educational levels, which are crucial indices of
development and growth. On the other
hand, we have had the destruction of soils, of water-harvesting capacities, and
of invaluable genetic material, plant species once available in plenty in the
environmentally degraded area. Resources
which could have been quickly developed, such as employment potential in rural areas,
traditional knowledge, local skills, and the aptitude of village communities to
come together, to act together, to undertake group action, all these resources,
social and material, have been neglected by experts, who have seen the elite as
the prime movers in development processes rather than the masses themselves.
Sustainable
agricultural strategies call for a reversal of such priorities. Dr. Sanghi argued that we must now
concentrate not on costly inputs which put an additional burden on the poor,
but on developing their own resources. Programmes
such as the MNREGS should be utilised to create sustained employment in rural
areas in carefully organised environment regeneration programmes. Similarly, by encouraging the catalysis of
local groups and utilising local knowledge to solve local problems, a move
could be made towards community management systems for developing watersheds,
afforesting wastelands and hill slopes, and for improving soils through organic
manures, green manures, mulching, and other ecological practices.
Dr
Sanghi encouraged communities to optimize the use of water so that this
precious resource is neither cornered by the rich, nor wasted in a unsuitable
manner, such as by growing paddy on light friable soils leading, perhaps, to
water-logging elsewhere in down-stream areas.
It is only when the farming community can once again act as one that we
will be able to secure the minimum maintenance of bio-diversity in an area. If
all of this looks like a tall order, let us also reason out that the very
depths of poverty to which the poor have sunk should encourage them towards
ecological agriculture, since even small benefits or increases in yield will be
jealously measured and protected by the poor. Provided government officials and
community activists drawn from among NGOs can patiently support the poor
through the next decade, the regions which are today degraded should see an
increase in agricultural production, and regional carrying capacity. This should happen hand-in-hand with
environmental regeneration, perhaps through natural regeneration that may take
place by the people providing ‘social fencing’ for community planted
woodlots. Consequent to community
stability, and people experiencing a certain measure of confidence in their own
abilities, growth in living standards should lead not only towards prosperity,
but also people's empowerment, and the development of democratic values, since
much of this advance would be based on group action undertaken through
democratic processes. It is with this perspective that Dr Sanghi placed so much
importance on community group action.
The Role of
Bio-diversity
At the
very heart of sustainable agricultural practices is the role of communities
consciously maintaining the bio-diversity of the region. The practices that could lead to the
strengthening of bio-diversity could be identified as follows:
a)
Processes of natural regeneration
There is
wide experience all over India that once communities of the poor have accepted
the importance of afforestation, they are able to control effectively their
cattle, goats and sheep from grazing over hillocks of wasteland which they have
planted under useful saplings. A legal
and social pre-requisite, of course, is a Tree-Patta
scheme by which the poor know that the trees they are growing will be theirs,
and will continue to supply them with fruits, fodder, fuel-wood, fibre, timber,
and medicinal materials. The protection
of such woodlots results in a process of natural regeneration, bringing the
whole of the area back to life. With
grasses, weeds, herbs, and plants growing in profusion, even under low
rain-fall conditions, within a few seasons, the area will be covered once
again with bird-life, snakes, rabbits
and other small animals. It is not
necessary to think that only very large contiguous areas have to be put under
natural regeneration. Provided there is human care and ‘social fencing,’ even
narrow lands, along field bunds, road-sides, and besides households, can
produce the re-growth of plant variety, and the maintenance of
bio-diversity.
b)Traditional
Farming Systems
Under
present-day conditions small farmers may be encouraged to utilize to the full
un-broken traditions of complex cropping practices that have been followed by their
forefathers to get the best out of poor soils, and to hedge against pest
attack, and varying weather and soil conditions. Indian farmers are famous for growing several
crops on small pieces of land; for inter-cropping pulses and cereals; for mixed
cropping so that they may get yields over a much longer period of time; for
crop rotation to rebuild fertility of soil; for companion planting either to
protect plants or to increase their nutritional efficiency. They are also famous for their silvi-pastoral
systems stretching from Rajasthan to the dry Deccan area; and for specialized agro-forestry
systems, such as the ‘three-tier’ cultivation of Kerala, with banana growing
under arecanut cover and cardamom under the banana. While the tangya
system of South East Asia has come to be known throughout the world, the
Indian farmers' ability to integrate agriculture, livestock management, and
non-farm activities into one integral unit is no less sophisticated. The recovery and extension of such farming
systems will lead not only to crop protection, but to self-provisioning, even
in resource-poor areas.
c) Soil
improvement
While
it is true that tropical soils are more fragile than temperate soils, and have
a lower carbon content, the careful use of organic and green manures and the
reintroduction of mulching, the use of leaf-litter, bio-fertilisers, earthworms
and vermi-composting should enable our depleted soils to recover rapidly. The bulk of our farming community have been
too poor to go in for excessive use of chemical fertilisers or petroleum based
agro-industry. Their poverty itself has
in this respect been helpful, since the bulk of the small and marginal farmers,
that is, the bulk of the rural population, have continued organic farming
practices. However, sustained support
from governments and institutions is necessary so that the small farmer may
receive support similar to that received by the richer farmer, to enable him to
continue to expand on the use of organic soil-improvement techniques. Many of these techniques really require hard
and long labour hours, and employment generation strategies should be
reconsidered to see how they can be utilized for such careful on-farm work,
which will not only increase plant vigour, drought-resistance and pest
resistance, but also produce better yields from poorer soils.
d) Non-chemical
pest management
The
writer came in close contact with Dr Sanghi mainly in the area of using
non-chemical methods to manage pests. It
will be seen that the processes and methodologies identified in this paper are
in no sense linear. Ecological processes
are holistic and reinforce each other.
For example, we have seen that the maintenance of bio-diversity is
important for sustainable agriculture; at the same time for maintaining
bio-diversity we have seen we require systems of sustainable agriculture. Similarly, we identified non-chemical pest
management as important for maintaining bio-diversity; and that the maintenance
of bio-diversity was simultaneously important for ecological pest
management. This form of reasoning is
not common in conventional scientific practice, but becomes understandable in
terms of a holistic approach that integrates several categories and
sub-categories of activities as an organic whole, and places human communities
at the very centre of such activities, as part and parcel of un-broken nature
cycles.
A Three-Dimensional Model
Based
on the above mentioned principles, Dr Sanghi worked out a three-dimensional
model, involving main crops on one dimension, main pests on another, and
non-chemical control methods on the third.
While this system looks rather complex and formidable, in practice it is
not really all that difficult to operate.
It will be found that despite changes in region, soil, or climate,
certain crops continue to remain important for the community: these would be
the main cereals and pulse crops, such as rice or jowar in the southern Indian
region, and red-gram and green gram. Oil-bearing
crops such as sesamum, sunflower, safflower, groundnut, and mustard would
figure in this matrix, as well as some vegetable crops; and some horticultural
crops, such as banana, papaya, mango, guava, and the main cash crops - sugar,
cotton, or tobacco, whichever is important in the region. While there are, of course, several pests
that attack all our crops, among the salient dangerous ones are, of course, the
amsacta albistriga, helicoverpa armigera, spodoptera litura,
semiloopers, borers, weevils, grasshoppers, fruit-sucking moths, gall midges,
brown plant hoppers, and the rest.
On the
third dimension the non-chemical management of pests can be grouped into
several clear categories:
a) Processes involving natural
regeneration;
b) Introduction of biological pest control
agents, such as NPV, or innoculum of beneficial bacteria, fungi, parasites etc.
c) Use
of bio-pesticidal formulations extracted from neem, pongamina, garlic or other
plant sources;
d) The reversion to traditional farming
practices, involving complex cropping patterns, inter-cropping, multi-cropping,
mixed cropping, and crop rotation, which create barriers to pest attack and
movements;
e) The use of cultural practices and
manual practices, involving the timely identification of a vulnerable phase in
the pest's life-cycle, to destroy it through bonfires, light traps, by picking
up of egg-masses, by manual collection of larvae, or similar means.
f) Last,
but not the least, the use of traditional knowledge regarding the life-cycle of
the pest; and its movements through the fields or across the seasons. Modern research can also be used in better
understanding the ability of plants to withstand pest attack without
diminishing yields. For example, it is
now understood that a groundnut plant may suffer close to 50% defoliation from spodoptera attack at the podding stage
without appreciable loss of yield.
Further, a better understanding of the nutritional needs of the people
would help the farming population diversify its crops, which in itself should
produce a marked reduction in pest attack.
Similarly, a better knowledge regarding development processes in the
farming community would help them plan their agricultural priorities better,
without falling prey to the temptation of growing mono-crops, such as sugarcane
or cotton, which could invite a crippling pest attack.
Natural
Regeneration
It may
be found that natural regeneration processes figure across the widest spectrum
of such ecological practices, and are recommended for the protection of almost
all crops against the attack of all pests. The community could be induced to
take up afforestation, or wasteland development in that area, with the help of ‘social
fencing’ practices, by which the youth of the community prevent cattle from
grazing over the newly planted woodlots.
Such areas within a matter of a few years produce generous natural
regeneration. This has been widely
experienced throughout India, however degraded the region might be. With the coming back of plant life in
profusion, we witness the return to the area of birds, spiders, lady-bird
beetles, assassin bugs, potter wasps, which are all important predators of
agricultural pests. For example, it is
known that the potter wasp is one of the best predators of helicoverpa larvae, which otherwise destroy varied crops, from
pulses to cotton. Similarly, lady-bird
beetles and assassin bugs, are among the best protectors of pulse crops,
groundnut, vegetables and fruit trees.
Cattle egrets and drangos clean out spodoptera
larvae from groundnut fields. Owls prevent
rodents attack and spiders are among the best guardians of rice fields.
Introduction
of beneficial bacteria; and micro-organisms.
While
the introduction of beneficial micro-organisms, such as bacteria, fungi, NPV,are
part of natural control processes, this is a much more complex matter. NPV has been tried out successfully against helicoverpa larvae; and larval and pupal
parasites are successful against borers and grasshoppers which attack fruit
trees. The best protection against gall
midge attack on rice again seems to be parasital infestation of the pest. Beneficial fungi control nematodes. It is well known that welsh onion when
planted together with tomatoes is able to protect the vegetables since its root
system is colonised by a bacteria, pseudomonas
gladioli, which prevents fusarium wilt. However, there are also pathogenic strains of
the bacteria which would be harmful to the crop. Dr Sanghi always stressed that we must be careful to
use only non-pathogenic strains.
Cropping
methods
Indian
farmers even under the worst of agricultural conditions have designed intricate
cropping systems. It is well known that
one row of red-gram is usually inter-cropped with three rows of jowar, and the
cereal creates a barrier to protect the pulse from pest attack. Similarly, crop
rotation methods are used to clean out pests from the soil. For example, when cereals are infested with
cyst nematodes, a brinjal crop is normally grown on the field to clean it out. Crops are also used to trap pests that would
otherwise cause economic damage. For
example, a castor crop can be protected by growing cucumber or calotropis along the edge which would
attract the red-headed hairy caterpillar.
The pest can then be manually killed, a practice mentioned even in ancient
Indian texts on agriculture! Even a trap crop of mustard is used to protect
cabbage from the diamond-backed moth.
Ecological
strengthening of the region
Ecological
farming methods through the use of mulching, introduction of earth-worms and
vermicomposting, or the use of blue green algae or the water-fern azolla, all
improve soil conditions, or nutrient supply to the plants. Such practices also increase the number of
beneficial micro-organisms in the soil; improve the physical and chemical
quality of the soil; and enable the plants to grow vigorously without excessive
use of chemical fertilizers, which could also attract a pest attack. Hence, such ecological practices should be
thought of as having the same importance as preventive medical practices have
for the maintenance of public health.
Cultural
practices
Traditional
cultural practices, such as timely lighting of bonfires to destroy a pest in
its adult moth phase, or the collection of egg-masses before the larvae hatch,
require community group action. Dr
Sanghi emphasized that modern science recognizes that the technologies which
are most suitable in dry areas, and for the benefit of small farmers – that is
the majority of the farming population – require close community group
action. All our technological solutions
must be inter-linked with social processes.
Bio-formulations
The use
of neem and neem based extracts are widely known to farming populations. Well over a dozen million neem trees exist in
the country, and agriculturists must take every opportunity to revitalize the
use of neem, either in the form of a simple solution, produced by crushing
fresh leaves; or by mixing neem oil or kernel extract with water as
prophylactic sprays. Neem first finds
mention in Kashyapa's famous Krishi-Sukti of the 10th Century. Such technologies whether utilizing neem or
other plant formulations are non-phytotoxic.
Such prophylactic technologies must be used before a pest attack sets
in. Otherwise they may not be effective
in repelling pests, and may lead farmers to the wrong conclusion that they are
ineffective against the pest.
Ecological
knowledge
Mention
has been made earlier that perhaps the most important technology for the
non-chemical control of pests is a knowledge system that is well understood by
the farming population. After carrying
out field-based studies on the relevance and efficacy of traditions, the agricultural
extension worker must add to this body of knowledge by carrying out modern
studies on pest cycles; and on the pest-tolerance property of crops. The farming communities should be involved in
PRAs, with an especially important
role for women, so that the community may clearly articulate the real
nutritional and security needs of the community. During PRAs, appropriate designing of
questions is crucial to success.
Such community articulation will help the farmers rethink their cropping
priorities, and enable them to grow a wide variety of crops. Diversity in cropping in itself will create
barriers to pest attack. Further, the
growth of umbelliferous crops like coriander, will not only supply a spice with
important nutritional priorities, and which will produce tasty food, but it
also attract predator wasps, which will help control the larval population of
dreaded pests, such as the helicoverpa. As Dr Sanghi demonstrated, these systems of
non-chemical management of pests are rarely used in isolation. In fact, farmers recommend a complex of
different methods to be used to control a pest.
Participatory
governance
This paper,
which owes so much to Dr Sanghi’s wisdom, tries to present a picture by which
sustainable agriculture will strengthen the livelihoods of poor people. It points out that sustainability is linked to
the maintenance of bio-diversity in nature.
Further, neither community stability, nor agricultural sustainability,
nor the maintenance of bio-diversity can be expected to take place in
equilibrium over a period of time unless the poor of the country are involved
in participatory governance of their own communities. If there is political
will, all this can be facilitated by strengthening Panchayati Raj Institutions
as laid out in the 73rd amendment to the Constitution. In essence, it
is recommended that we recapture the best aspects of community integration and
social responsibility of traditional Indian village communities, but within a
modern context, which would move people towards incorporating in their
communities the values of a modern scientific, democratic, casteless society. This
was Mahatma Gandhi’s ideal of Gram Swaraj.
The objectives of such societies can be reformulated in terms of living in
harmony with nature; and applicable to all of the 2800 and odd cultural
communities that make up the rich tapestry of Indian democracy. Such a humane development
has been at the spiritual focus of our religious life, whether Hindu, Jain,
Buddhist, Christian, Islamic, or Sikh.
It need
not be thought, as was believed by many Indian leaders at the dawn of
Independence, that such a vision of rural India is somehow backward. The modernists at the time we achieved
Independence were not only profoundly mistaken in their belief that the
planning process and modern science would deliver us from poverty, but they
were also unaware of the military colonial roots of the epistemology of western
science, which has perceived the path of scientific enquiry into the mysteries
of nature as an acquisitive process of subjugating nature and conquered
communities. The Gandhian vision was no
less scientific than theirs. It was perhaps
more profoundly Indian and ecological.
We are beginning to see that such a vision would not only benefit the
rural communities but by strengthening their purchasing power, their skills,
and their markets, enable India to develop a strong and competitive industry
which would once again bring her to the fore-front of powerful, rich
manufacturing nations, a place which she held for several centuries, till
colonial subjugation destroyed the very fibre of her industrial strength.
