Dr. N. K. Sanghi Discusses Organic Farming with Students of Rural Management Programme at XIMB

Dr. N. K. Sanghi Discusses Organic Farming with Students of Rural Management Programme at XIMB

"Extensive organic farming is a solution to the agricultural crisis which has surfaced in the recent past with stagnant agricultural production and rising cases of farmers’ suicides," suggested Dr. N. K. Sanghi, Ex-Director National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE) and advisor to the government on policy issues relating to rain-fed agriculture.

Addressing the students of Post Graduate Programme of Rural Management (PGPRM), Dr. Sanghi described extensive organic farming "an emerging paradigm for agriculture".

Existing farming practices are primarily chemical-based, and therefore, it is not sustainable for consumers as well as farmers. Citing the instances of farmers' suicides, Dr. Sanghi said, "The suicides by farmers is a serious issue and it is attributed to conventional farming practices with high external input, credit and extension facility. Existing agricultural practices are leading towards crisis; cotton alone consumes over 50% of total pesticide consumption in the country. The cost of farming has gone up considerably with same production per unit area."

Dr. N. K. Sanghi talking on Organic Farming at XIMB

As compared to conventional farming, extensive organic farming has low cost of cultivation coupled with high productivity and sustainable farming. Citing the example of Punukula, a pesticide free village in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh, Dr. Sanghi said, "We drastically reduced the cost of cultivation through extensive organic farming from Rs. 5000 to Rs. 1000 per unit area. Generally, a three-year period of chemical-free cultivation is required to make it totally organic, but Punukula took five years to become organic farming."

Now, Punukula is reaping the benefits of fully organic village in many ways. "Earlier, farmers of Punukula were practicing NPM to maintain yield. But in the sixth year of organic farming, they did not need this anymore, perhaps because ecology took over since there was no incidence of pest and disease attack in the village," explained Dr. Sanghi.

Advocating extensive organic farming, he said that we need to scale up this operation for which institutional and financial framework is required. "It can be achieved through revolving fund. Once we are able to take this on a sizeable scale and have got some experience, then extensive organic farming will speak on its own. But for upscaling the extensive organic farming, innovative ideas and dedicated efforts are required," he added.

Concluded.

Contributed by -
Team Illuminatix,
PR & Media Cell,
Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar.

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