Sustainable Agriculture in India

2015

Rural Development is a process of changes carried out deliberately for the uplift of the Rural People. It is generally refers to the process of improving the quality of life and economic well-being of people living in relatively isolated and sparsely populated areas. Changes in global production networks and increased urbanization have changed the character of rural areas. Increasingly tourism, niche manufacturers, and recreation have replaced resource extraction and agriculture as dominant economic drivers. Agriculture, with its allied sectors, is unquestionably the largest livelihood provider in India, more so in the vast rural areas. Indian agriculture and allied activities have witnessed a green revolution, a white revolution, a yellow revolution and a blue revolution. The sector accounts for 18 per cent of India's gross domestic product (GDP) and employs just a little less than 50 per cent of the country's workforce. This sector has made considerable progress in the las...

IJARW, 2024

The role of agricultural sector in Indian economy can be seen through its contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Employment. This sector also contributes significantly to sustainable economic development of the country. The objective of this paper is to analyse the importance, issues and challenges of sustainable agriculture in India. Further, it aims to compare the sustainable agriculture system with the traditional system and the current system in practice, across the three dimensions Ecological, Economic, and Social sustainability. Prominent challenges in agricultural sector include land and water issues, old cultivation techniques, lack of information on marketing, poverty, malnutrition, degradation of natural resources and environmental issues. The global warming and climate change all adversely affect on overall agricultural productivity and production in India. Agriculture must change to meet the rising demand, to contribute more effectively to the reduction of poverty and malnutrition, and to become ecologically more sustainable. The challenge is daunting but feasible.

If soil is dried so one ounce become one-quarter ounce, Abundant yields will not require a single handful of fertilizer. Thirukkural (Verse 1037) The five natural elements (earth, water, fire, air, and sky), the sun and the moon, plants, trees, birds, and animals, came into existence much ahead of the human beings. In fact, man, as a part of nature, was the last creation in the universe. Though, we (human beings) have been created with the superlative degree of intellect, there is so much that can be learnt from nature; traditions of wisdom from the world teach us that a divine essence flows through all creations. Together with nature, man can co-create groundbreaking ideas that would help create wealth and well-being, for nature offers solutions for inclusive growth and sustainable development. Food scarcity is the major issue concerning the developing countries these days; one out of every 8 person in the world goes to bed without food (FAO, 2012). Of the several hundred million hungry people in the world, 98 percent are in developing countries. There were several things done to alleviate this problem, but the consequences of those actions are even more costly. Usage of heavy machines, pesticides and chemical fertilisers in the soil created a lasting impact causing imbalance in ecosystem, degradation of soil, soil erosion and land degradation. Natural farming is an ancient form of agriculture which follows the principles of nature to develop systems for raising crops, and livestock that are self-sus taining. The present paper attempts to explicate the sustainable nature of natural farming, as against the quick fix solution agriculture of using fertilisers, and chemicals. This holistic learning outlook also tries to bring out the role of farm animals (and remain of farm animals, and farm produces), microorganisms in the soil, in creating food abundance, concerns about food loss and food wastage and its global impact.

Regarded as a fringe movement of dubious repute, organic farming started from rather meager roots; and yet has managed to gain respect and spread worldwide with sales in the order of about US$40 billion per year. Today one of the debates in this regard is whether organic farming is just a status symbol, or is it really better for us? Failures of green revolution, fall in biodiversity and crop yields, deteriorating levels of human end environmental health etc. make us rethink agriculture in general and sustainable agriculture in particular. For instance, in 2010, farmers, environmentalists and policy-makers in Kerala took the unprecedented step of enacting a policy that requires all Kerala growers to farm organically by 2020. Kerala's example shows that when done right, this kind of agriculture can be good for everyone in our global food system. This paper intends to provide a variety of perspectives to examine nature and relevance of organic farming and explain the pattern of growth of the organic food system, with reference to India. To its credit, the paper also addresses some of the issues, and a few uncertainties about its future development. Keywords: Food; Organic Farming; India; Kerala

Vantage: Journal of Thematic Analysis

This research paper aims to explore the paradigms responsible for using the term sustainability in agriculture, trace the trajectory of the concept of ―sustainable agriculture‖ used in contemporary times and assess its social impact in the Indian context. The study was conducted using primary documents like reports of international organizations and those published by the Indian government and secondary literature i.e. popular articles, academic writings, journalistic pieces, online articles and blogs, to trace the usage of the concept ―sustainable agriculture‖ and understand the social impact of using the sustainable agriculture approach. The study began by tracing the emergence and need for sustainability as a concept in agriculture on a global platform and its introduction in India. The paper ends with an outline of some of the policies and schemes formulated by the Government of India. It focuses on its impacts in due course of time to understand the current situation regarding ...

2014

Agricultural growth faces a serious challenge in terms of sustainability. Whereas the main problem faced by the developing countries in the south pertains to sustainability of resource use, the main challenge facing the developed economies in the north is overuse of chemical inputs. These problems have led to increasing awareness and a felt need for moving away from the input intensive agriculture perused during the Green revolution phase, to sustainable farming in different parts of the world. While the need for a paradigmatic shift in the growth strategy is well recognized, the transition from input intensive to sustainable farming however, has certain inherent difficulties. Notwithstanding these limitations, policies in both the north as well as the south have led increased emphasis on promoting sustainable agriculture. In the above setting, the paper made an attempt to briefly analyze the need for sustainable agriculture and further it also advocates for Policies of sustainable ...

Sanju Kumari , 2020

With the ongoing developments, maintaining sustainability is quite a challenging task. Rapid urbanization has led to shift in agriculture in many Indian metropolitan cities. One such city is Mumbai, where transformation of agricultural land for housing purposes has resulted in scarcity of land forcing people to find alternative solutions to meet the food challenges. Various Urban and Peri-urban agricultural (UPA) activities like terrace farming, balcony farming, vegetable production along railway tracks, usage of waste water and sewage for irrigation, goat keeping, tables etc. has helped the residents to sustain the agricultural production in the city. This paper tries to assess the level of sustainability (Ecologically, Environmentally and Economically) of UPA development in one of the global cities of India i.e. Mumbai. Further, it reveals the limitations of UPA and provides possible measures for ensuring sustainability.

Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 2013

The idea of sustainable development has been prominently in discussions lately. The developed nations have observed high economic growth in the twentieth century and now the onus has been shifted to the developing nations, majorly the BRIC countries, to provide the large, ever-increasing population a decent level of living. The unscrupulous usage of natural resources earlier by developed nations and now by the developing nations has led to problematic social and ecological changes. This paper tries to explore the pressure of economic growth and the consequences at village level. The study, exploratory in nature, is based on the experiences of a small village (Ramgarh) in the hills of Uttarakhand in India. The area was famous for the orchards, prominently apple, but over the years has seen unprecedented construction of cottages: mostly owned by rich people from outside. It is worth mentioning, that these areas have limited employment opportunities and had high dependence on the local agricultural/horticultural production as source of income. The uncertainties of income have forced large-scale migration to other parts of the country. Consequently, the socio-cultural fabric is also getting fractured. The study is important because it is a situation faced by most of the sections of the society in the rural hinterland of the country.

2017

India has been witnessing a blinding pace of growth and development in recent times. There is talk of the country leapfrogging into the league of developed nations sooner than later. But this growth has raised concerns from sundry quarters as regards its basic texture and health. Experts are now calling for "sustainable development" and the term has gained currency in the last few years. In spite of fast growth in various sectors, agriculture remains the backbone of the Rajasthan economy. This paper attempts to tackle and explore the issue of sustainable development in agriculture in Rajasthan. Further it aims to compare the sustainable agriculture system with the traditional system and the current system in practice, across the dimensions of ecological, economic and social sustainability. It also tries to give long term solutions to solve the problems plaguing the system so that sustainable practices can be promoted and practiced.

2020

The objective of this research is to highlight the need of sustainable agriculture, issue and challenges of Sustainable Agriculture Development in India. The balanced equilibrium between demand and supply of agricultural produce can be stated as “sustainability”. Due to the Green revolution, productivity of agricultural products increases remarkably. The cumulative performance of various resources, the strategies and methods adopted, signifies the ultimate performance of agriculture. To face each and every adverse condition due to the natural calamities, all the innovative strategies has to be used by the agriculturist. The findings of the study reveal the innovative strategies & achieving the overall development. Agriculture is the back bone of Indian economy. As it is a multi-disciplinary approach, which connects link from all the sectors like production, processing and marketing; so it continuously dominate to bring the change in India. The principal objective of this paper is to...