Theory, Practice and Challenges of Agroecology in India

ABSTRACT

With the Green Revolution in Asia, the gap in agricultural yield with the developed world has been closed, while the gap in farm labour productivity has greatly widened. This reveals a deepening agrarian and environmental crisis in India. The industrial mode of production has led to the massive use of costly industrial inputs to increase yields and offset economies of scale that are almost impossible to achieve in this densely populated country. Such a development path is a trap for millions Indian micro-farmers and their natural capital. We then unveil the promises of a type of agroecology called ‘natural farming' that has developed in Andhra Pradesh, a State in South India. Andhra’s natural farming has pioneered the adoption of technical and organizational innovations that could lead to the first large-scale agroecological transition in the world. But in 2019, these local innovations were accused of following a regressive path and endangering the country’s food security. This attack reveals the current omnipotence of the industrial sociotechnical regime over science, as well as a conception of science and progress antithetical to agroecology.

KEYWORDS:

• Structural transformation
• agriculture
• productivity
• poverty
• agroecology
• India
• Andhra Pradesh
• natural farming

Acknowledgements

The author wishes gratefully to acknowledge the Government of Andhra Pradesh (RySS), which contributed to the development of this research and supported two Indian Research Assistant positions at CSH in New Delhi. We would like to thank colleagues at the RySS for support throughout the investigations, particularly Thallam Vijay Kumar, for providing the author with data, sending information on APCNF and engaging constructively with the research for this paper. We also thank (in alphabetical order) Stéphane Bellon (INRAE), Denis Couvet (MNHN), Françoise Dorin, Barbara Harris-White (Oxford University), Bernard Hubert (INRAE), Anne-Sophie Poisot (FAO), Marie-Hélène Zerah (IRD) and anonymous reviewers for their feedbacks and advices on earlier versions of this text.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This article is a translation (by Renuka George) and an updated version of a chapter of a French book on agroecology edited in two volumes by Bernard Hubert and Denis Couvet, and published in March 2021 by the Presses des Mines and the French Academy of Agriculture (AAF), an institution created in 1761 with over 700 members today.

2 Economies of scale not only in agriculture, but all along the “commodity chain” or “value chain” (“filière” in French). L.G. Soler (e.g. Soler et al., 2011) explains what this specialization, industrialization and commodification of biomass production has led to: an upstream deconstruction of the vast diversity of agricultural productions, and a downstream reconstruction or reformulation of an apparent diversity of final products, by combining industrially produced standardized materials (calories, plant or animal proteins, fats, fibres, vitamins, etc.). In such a process, most of the added value is captured downstream of the commodity chain (food processing and distribution).

3 Some may also argue here that poverty has been exported out of agriculture or rural areas.

4 Between 2015 and 2078, according to our calculations based on the United Nations population projections (Faostat, June 2016).

5 Growth 2002–2017 of gross added value at 2011–2012 (constant) prices.

6 In 2020, India ranks 94 out of 107 countries in the Global Hunger Index (www.globalhungerindex.org), like Sudan and behind Pakistan (88th), Bangladesh (75th), Nepal (73rd) and Sri Lanka (64th). In 2017, according to Faostat data (www.fao.org/faostat), India was the world’s largest net exporter of rice for around 7 billion US dollars (12 Mt), but also the world’s largest net importer of pulses for 3.7 billion (6.85 Mt), and of vegetable oils and fat for 10.8 billion (14.5 Mt). This represents a net deficit of 7.5 billion dollars for these 3 food items, while pulses imports are expected to be higher as they are still too expensive for ordinary Indians, like fruits and vegetables which have become almost luxurious items.

7 Between 65,000 to 69,000 plant food kcal per hectare and per day between 2010 and 2013, as against 42-45,000 in France according to FAO production data (CMIE for our calculations by Indian State).

8 According to S. Palekar, one indigenous cow would suffice to cover the needs of 30 acres (12 ha), since the excreta is not used as organic fertilizer (which emits large amounts of greenhouse gasses).

9 According to Vijay Kumar, natural farming with 'Pre-Monsoon Dry Sowing' (PMDS) developed since 2019 after previous experiments by Indians such as Subhash Palekar, Subhash Sharma (Maharashtra) or Deepak Suchde (Gujarat), then the scientific support of Walter Jehne (Australia), is a 'global breakthrough' because it allows green coverage and agricultural production for 365 days a year. It is a real economic game-changer in semi-desert areas like in the district of Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh. 365-day green cover is also a powerful way to mitigate global warming.

10 Indian Admistrative Service: an inseparable feature of executive power in India, although IASs are never part of the government.

11 Self-Help Group: committee of 10–20 young adults, most often women, who invest a part of their savings to finance a member’s project, usually with the support of a bank.

12 From 2000 to 2010 in Andhra (11.5 million rural women), then from 2010 to 2015 with the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (70 million rural women). Some of these women SGHs and their 'champion farmers' have scaled up SRI like in Bihar, perhaps at the expense of landless labourers as in the Janagaon region of Warangal District, Andhra Pradesh (Gathorne-Hardy et al., 2016).

13 After the 2019 April-May elections, Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy became the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh; on 17/09/2020, he promoted Vijay Kumar 'Ex-Officio Special Chief Secretary to Government, with independent charge of natural farming within the Agriculture Department'.

14 Rythu Sadhikara Samstha: farmers empowerment corporation, created in October 2014 by the Government of Andhra Pradesh.

15 In this text we use an exchange rate of 78 Indian rupees (INR) for 1 euro (EUR).

16 Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives: https://azimpremjiphilanthropicinitiatives.org

17 Without further explanation from Palekar or the journalist, we assume here that these greenhouse gas emissions are the 'atomic bomb' in question, since they would be multiplied if the guiding principle of organic agriculture is to replace chemical fertilizer with animal manure when livestock are a major emitter of greenhouse gas (Steinfeld et al., 2006; Yuan et al., 2017); in natural farming on the contrary, cow dung and urine are not used as fertilizers, but in limited quantities mainly to stimulate the microbial life of the soils “so that the 'soil food web' can provide on due time” only the quantities of nutrients that plants need during their growth.

18 Unless agroecology or natural farming are placed under 'organic agriculture', as Koner & Laha (2021) did explicitly for example. The definitions of organic farming and agroecology both remain multiple, vague and evolving over time. With our own simple but rather precise definition of agroecology (see introduction to this third section), we think we clarify the debate, at least help identify when organic agriculture is agroecological or not. The previous footnote on soil fertilization also helps to distinguish organic agriculture from natural farming.

19 442,000 'cultivators' (owners or tenants of agricultural land) and 253,000 'agricultural labourers' (workers without land except a kitchen garden). According to the 2011 population census, for the first time in India since its Independence, the number of agricultural labourers (144 million) surpassed the number of cultivators (111 million).

20 RySS’ breakdown of this sum: 73% for ZBNF capacity building, 17% for supporting community institutions, 8% for PGS certification, quality assurance, tracking and monitoring, and 2% for technical support and overall programme management at the District and State levels.

21 Savings that would be even higher if chemical fertilizer and electricity for pumping water were not so highly subsidized: 755 million euros in 2018 for Andhra Pradesh.

22 Our RySS-Cirad-FAO foresight study “AgroEco2050” using the quantitative, retro-prospective and interactive model “Agribiom” (Dorin & Joly, 2020) adapted to India: http://www.fao.org/agroecology/slideshow/news-article/en/c/1259916

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Bruno Dorin

Bruno Dorin (PhD. in economics, postgraduate in agricultural engineering) has 17 years of research experience in France and 15 in India. Is an economist at CIRAD (www.cirad.fr) and CIRED (www.centre-cired.fr) based in New Delhi at CSH (www.csh-delhi.com).