Propagating sustainable technologies
How do you convince farmers about the benefits of sustainable agriculture?
The best way to convince one farmer is to let another farmer speak to him. I organise get-togethers for the farming community and then move out of the way, allowing successful organic farmers to narrate their experiences and handle queries.
What holds back the majority of farmers from taking up organic farming?
The fear that production will decline. True, production nosedives in the first 3-4 years after the application of chemicals is stopped. To overcome this problem, I advocate that farmers should first bring only 25 per cent of their land under organic farming, increasing it after this area recovers its natural fertility.
Why is organic farming still considered an elitist occupation?
Because the approach is not commercial. Organic farmers take to farming not as a business in which the maximum possible must be extracted from the soil for their own profit, but as a loving relationship with the earth. Indian farmers should only aim to be self-sufficient. They should just go back to having a barter system with their neighbours and forget about world markets. Only after every farmer begins to produce enough for himself and his neighbours through sustainable farming can Indian agriculture become self-sustaining.
So you recommend that organic farmers should not even sell their produce?
That would be ideal. But for now I have helped to organise an organic farmers' cooperative in Valsad district, called Nisarg Seva. It helps farmers in the production and processing of organically-grown food and also sells their produce in the local market.