No
pesticides, no Bt cotton, no pests!
As
technology takes Indian agriculture by storm, Devinder Sharma suggests
that it’s high time we stopped for a reality check on its pros
and cons
For
the beleaguered cotton farmers who consume an overdose of harmful
pesticides every year and are now being lured to adopt genetically
modified cotton, there is finally a silver lining on the dark and
polluted horizon. 'No pesticides, no Bt cotton and there’re no
pests!' Following this ground rule, the cotton farmers of Punukula,
a tiny village in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh, have successfully
charted an easy escape route from the multiple rings of a chakravyuha
or a trap that the agribusiness industry had very conveniently thrown
around their necks. Like the legendary warrior Abhimanyu in the great
Indian epic Mahabharta, cotton farmers were being pushed into an entrapment
from which there was no way out.
The
greater the attack of insect pests, the greater was the use and abuse
of potent chemicals! In fact, thousands of cotton farmers, unable
to loosen the tightening rope around their necks, had resorted to
the fatal route. Located at about 12 km from Kothagudem town in Andhra
Pradesh and with a population of 860, Punukula too was a victim of
this vicious circle of poison. Indiscriminate application of pesticides
on cotton and chilly had brought in a host of problems, including
deaths resulting from acute poisoning and suicides by debt-ridden
farmers. While the sale of chemicals soared, raking in Rs 20-30 lakh
annually for the pesticides traders, (from only about 500 acres of
land holdings that exist in the village) farmers continued to slide
into debt following the devastation inflicted on the natural resource
base.
If
only the sale receipt from unwanted As technology takes Indian agriculture
by storm, Devinder Sharma suggests that it’s high time we stopped
for a reality check on its pros and cons No pesticides, no Bt cotton,
no pests! pesticides had remained within the village, its economy
would have been on an upswing. Then, in 1999, few farmers from the
village began experimenting with Non-Pesticidal Management (NPM) practices.
A year later, in 2000-01, a local NGO, Socio-Economic and Cultural
Upliftment in Rural Environment (SECURE) with technical support from
the Centre for World Solidarity in Hyderabad was able to convince
20 farmers to opt for NPM. The highly contaminated environment began
to change for the better. Soil and plant health looked revitalised
and pests began to disappear. Such was the positive impact, both environmentally
and economically, that by the year 2004, the entire village had stopped
the use of chemical pesticides. Restoring the ecological balance had
brought back the natural pest control systems and along with it pesticides
and pests too had disappeared. Also, with no pests to worry about,
Punukula had no reason to go in for Bt cotton.
At
a time when more than 55 per cent of the total pesticides used in
the country are applied on cotton alone, the story of Punukula is
a reminder of the dangers of a silent spring. First pesticides and
now Bt cotton is being promoted to reduce crop losses from the dreaded
bollworm pests. As pesticides are harmful to the environment, any
reduction in its usage (with the cultivation of Bt cotton) is an escape
from chemical contamination. However, the industry as well as agricultural
scientists refuse to accept the fact that the pest population multiplies
only because of the unwanted application of chemical pesticides.
This
is justified by the common observation that in sharp contradiction
to the early 1960s, when only six to seven major pests were worrying
the cotton farmer, today, the farmer is battling against some 70 major
pests on cotton. The solution is, therefore, not to push the cotton
farmer deeper by strengthening the multiple rings of poison (and now
the biological treadmill of Bt cotton), but to pull him out of the
pesticides trap.
contd...
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