Introduction:
The history of ecological farming in India is as old as agriculture itself. The great Indian civilizations 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 B.C. Kautilya's Arthasastra of the 3rd Century B.C. gives us a complete picture of the agricultural and forestry practices of his times. Later works, Varahamihira's, Brhatsamhita of the 6th Century A.D., and Kashyapa's Krishi-Sukti of the 10th Century A.D. contain detailed treatises on agriculture, forestry, land and water management. It is interesting to note today, after a process of environmental degradation, loss of forest cover, and the disasters brought about by mono-cropping, and massive use of pesticides, the injunctions of Kashyapa. 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, and who produce two crops a year by taking care of agriculture 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. 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 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 Vitamin 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 terms of variety and availability of nutrients for the poor, the India of a 100 years ago was a land flowing with milk and honey! 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, centralized Green Revolution strategies have not been able to meet the food production needs of the poor living in around a 100 districts declared as 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 the Manjira reservoir. The drift of the rural poor to the City continues, and slums in Hyderabad are growing at the rate of 16% 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 the government and scientists alike are researching 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.
In this short paper we will focus 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. 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 organizations of the poor, such as sangams; and the participation in the governance of such organizations 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, soil and water conservation, for gradually increasing the carrying capacity of the area.
A major 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 the 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 should 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.
Within such a context of gradual improvement of the region and the capacities of the poor, we can try to sketch out what would be the key feature for sustainable agriculture. Till now resources that are costly, difficult to mobilize, and difficult to utilize 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. We must now concentrate not on costly inputs which put an additional burden on the poor, but on their own resources. We must utilize programmes such as the Jowahar Rojgar Yojana to create sustained employment in rural areas in carefully organized environment regeneration programmes. Similarly, by encouraging the catalysis of local groups and utilizing local knowledge to solve local problems, we must move 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. We should encourage the 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 realize 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 community stability; people experiencing a certain measure of confidence in their own abilities; and growth in living standards would 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.
At the very heart of sustainable agricultural practices is the role of communities consciously maintaining the bio-diversity of the regions. The practice 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 will, within a few seasons, cover the area once again with bird-life, snakes, rabbits and other 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, roadsides, and besides households can produce the re-growth of plant variety, and the maintenance of bio-diversity.
b) Traditional Farming Systems
Under the Indian conditions we must utilize to the full un-broken traditions of complex cropping practices that have been followed by farmers to get the best out of poor soils, and to hedge against pest attack, and varying weather and soil conditions. Our 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-pastural systems stretching from Rajastan to the dry Deccan area; and for agro forestry systems, such as the "3-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, i.e. 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 non-chemical methods of managing pests, which is the focus of this national workshop, form an important part of the strategy for the maintenance of bio-diversity. It will be seen that the processes and methodologies identified in this paper are in no sense linear; nor are the categories mutually exclusive. Ecological processes are holistic and reinforce each other. For example, we have stated that the maintenance of bio-diversity is important for sustainable agriculture; at the same time for maintaining bio-diversity we have said we require systems of sustainable agriculture. Similarly, we identified non-chemical pest management as important for maintaining bio-diversity; and we will emphasize that practices for the maintenance of bio-diversity are important for such pest management practices. This form of reasoning is not common in conventional scientific practice, but become 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.
Based on the above mentioned principles, the scientist can attempt to work 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 formulate. In practice, 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 India 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 red-headed hairy caterpillar, Helicoverpa armigera, Spodoptera litura, semiloopers, borers, weevils, grasshoppers, fruit-sucking moths, gall midges, brown plant hoppers, etc.
Again on the third dimension the non-chemical management of pests can be grouped into several clear categories:
Processes involving natural regeneration;
Introduction of biological pest control agents, such as NPV, or innoculum of beneficial bacteria, fungi, parasites etc.
Use of bio-pesticidal formulations extracted from neem, pongamia, garlic or other plant sources;
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;
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 bon-fires, light traps, by picking up of egg-masses, by manual collection of larvae, or similar means.
Last, but not 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 induce a crippling pest attack.
Natural Regeneration
It may be found by the researcher 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. That is, it could be recommended that certain non-agricultural areas be kept aside for natural regeneration. The community could be induced to take up afforestation, or wasteland development in that area, with the help of "social fencing" practices, by which children 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 agents in the control of 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; etc.
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. However, every researcher must be careful that only non-pathogenic strains are used. It is well known that welsh onion when planted together with tomatoes is able to protect the vegetables since its root system is colonized 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.
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 against 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 vermin-composting, 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 bon-fires to destroy a pest in its adult moth phase, or the collection of egg-masses before the larvae hatch, require community group action. In fact, modern science now recognizes that the technologies which are most suitable in dry areas, and for the benefit of small farmers – i.e. the majority of the farming population - require close community group action. Here again pest management science must include catalyzing community action for all round success. 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 the researcher 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. They find 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. The researcher must revitalize traditional knowledge in this area. After carrying out field-based studies on the relevance and efficacy of traditions, the researcher must add to this body of knowledge by carrying out modern studies on pest cycles; on the pest-tolerance property of crops, etc. The researcher should further involve the farming communities 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, the proper design of questions is crucial. 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. 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
In this paper we have tried to present a picture by which sustainable agriculture will strengthen the livelihoods of poor people. We have said that such processes are linked with the maintenance of bio-diversity in nature. We have stated that 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. In essence, we are recommending that we recapture the best aspects of community integration and social responsibility of traditional Indian village communities, within a modern context, which would move people towards incorporating modern democratic values of a casteless society and a scientific society. The objectives of such a society can be reformulated in terms of living in harmony with nature; with all of the 2800 and odd cultural communities that make up the rich tapestry of Indian democracy; and, above all, with ourselves, not only as communities but as conscious spiritual individuals. Such a development has been the focus of our religious thought, whether Hindu, Christian or Islamic.
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 about the ability of the planning process and modern science to deliver us from poverty, but they were somehow unaware of the military colonial roots of the epistemology of western science, which has emphasized the processes of scientific enquiry into the mysteries of nature as an acquisitive process of subjugating nature and differentiating between more powerful and less powerful 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.
National Workshop On Non-Chemical Management Of Pests
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National Academy for Agricultural Research Management [NAARM] , SEPTEMBER 20 - 22, 1994
