[Greenlist] "Campaign to Revitalise Indian Agriculture" Your endorsement required before May 29, 2007.

Mon May 21 17:42:27 PDT 2007

dear friends,

my apologies for the certain-to-occur cross-postings
with this mail. this is a 10-point agenda for
converting india's farming into holistic agriculture
by the end of the 11th plan that several people have
drafted together. Please read this simple, not-so-long
document and if you endorse the views here, would you
please send your endorsement with the required details
to bharat mansata marked above? pls do so urgently
since they are aiming to reach the government before a
crucial meeting on may 29th. many thanks.

kavitha

Note: forwarded message attached.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: bharat mansata <bharatmansata at yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 06:31:47 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Campaign to Revitalise Indian Agriculture

Dear Friends,
Am attaching the latest, improved and final Civil
Society Representation on revitalising Indian
agriculture. Your active involvement in widely
circulating this, as well as vernacular translations
of this, and mobilising maximum possible
endorsements/support, would be a great help.
With warm regards and warm wishes,
Bharat

======================================================

11 Point Visionary Agricultural Agenda for the
Eleventh Plan

   The finalization of India's Eleventh Plan for the
next five years is rapidly entering its decisive
phase. On May 29, 2007, the NDC (National Development
Council) is scheduled to hold a critically important
meeting. This will determine if our Government's
policies invite a deepening of the disaster that is
overtaking Indian agriculture, or will they address
basics with some politically, economically and
ecologically intelligent, indeed visionary, decisions?
   While none can dispute that Indian farmers –
constituting 65% of our population – are facing
unprecedented, multiple crises, a small but powerful
(and now worried) agro-business lobby is furiously at
work to ensure that its boat is not rocked, no matter
how severe the magnitude of people's suffering. This
corporate lobby is pushing for more of the same bitter
prescription that set in motion the pauperization of
Indian farmers. If anything at all seems new, it is
the no-holds-barred thrust to broker GM (Genetically
Modified) seeds and species, garbed as an illusory
savior, but which will only worsen to breaking point
the desperate financial and ecological problems that
Indian farmers face.
   The frightful prospect of "a quarter billion
potential economic and ecological refugees – uprooted
by mounting farm production costs and a rapidly
degrading natural resource base," – looms starkly on
the horizon. It is high time that all voices of sanity
rally together in huge numbers to stop this madness,
and to proactively support the growth of a nationwide
holistic, organic agriculture movement that alone can
offer a viable and peaceful future – with prosperity,
and a greater measure of equity.
   Attached is a rational, non-partisan 11-point
Agenda for the Eleventh Plan – a 'Civil Society and
Farmers' Representation' to reinvigorate Indian
agriculture. This has been drafted with the pooled
inputs and feedback of a large number of concerned
people from different regions of India. They include
experienced farmers, policy analysts, and enlightened
agricultural scientists. The compelling logic of the
holistic, sustainable path that is lucidly proposed,
speaks for itself.
   Each of us is ultimately responsible for the 'make
or break' choice that India now faces, deeply
affecting present and future generations. Every single
concerned voice matters at this critical juncture.
Please, therefore, go through the attached document
and add your endorsement if you agree to its
proposals. Please also circulate as widely as you can,
including vernacular translations. Civil society
groups and bodies of farmers are requested to help
coordinate this broad-based campaign in their
respective areas of reach. DO mobilize energetically
and send individual or group emails/postal letters to
those in positions of influence and power, including
the Prime Minister, the leaders of the UPA, NDA and
various political parties, the Deputy Chairman of the
Planning Commission, the National Advisory Council,
and various State Chief Ministers, with copies to the
media.
   To enhance our collective credibility and impact,
it is important to incorporate verifiable details of
signatories, including contact information, and area
of work. Each of us needs to stand up fearlessly, with
dignity, for this matter of vital, unifying concern.
It is proposed to start an online endorsement campaign
site soon. Collecting and suitably forwarding
hand-written signatures on printouts of the attached
representation would also help. Please work fast and
leave no stone unturned to make this a massive and
effective people's campaign, before more irretrievable
damage is done!

======================================================
-- 
Kavitha Kuruganti
Centre for Sustainable Agriculture
12-13-445, Street # 1, Tarnaka
Secunderabad 500 017
www.csa-india.org; www.indiagminfo.org

Phone: +91-9393001550

===================================================
Paradigm Shift for the 11th Plan : Livelihood Security
for Small and  Marginal Farmers  &   Regeneration of
Natural Resources through Holistic Agriculture  

 “Organic agriculture is defined as a holistic food
production management system, which promises and
enhances agro-ecosystem health, including
biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological
activity. It emphasizes the use of management
practices in preference to the use of off-farm inputs,
taking into account that regional conditions require
locally adapted systems. This is accomplished by
using, where possible, agronomic, biological and
mechanical methods, as opposed to using synthetic
materials to fulfill any specific function within the
system" ( FAO/WHO, Codex  Alimentarius Commission)  

Agriculture in India is in crisis. The failure of the
'Green Revolution Technology' (GRT) is clearly evident
in stagnant agricultural production, a mounting spiral
of ecological problems, relentlessly rising input
costs, and increasing   farmer indebtedness and
suicides. From the small, peasant farmer to the FAO,
there is global consensus that the GRT path is
unsustainable. It impoverishes both the farmer and the
natural resource base of agriculture, and provides
toxic food and water to consumers. The increasing
billions of dollars spent every year to subsidize 3%
of the population engaged in farming in the USA, is
stark proof of its economic bankruptcy. Large
corporates who provide agro inputs, are the real
beneficiaries of chemical based agriculture.   

India’s ‘National Commission on Farmers’ recently
reported: “40% of Indian farmers would like to leave
farming if it is possible to do so”. This summarizes
the enormity of the present agricultural crisis and
the challenge facing the nation: how to safeguard
agricultural incomes or provide alternative livelihood
support to a quarter billion people who are potential
future economic and ecological refugees – uprooted by
mounting farm production costs and a rapidly degrading
natural resource base.

While some corporate interests are now lobbying for
Genetically Modified (GM) species as the solution, a
growing body of scientific testimony and evidence –
from both India and round the world – warns against
the many serious and irreversible dangers these pose.
Such hazards include the uncontrolled and unwanted
spread of certain genes and genetic traits; emergence
of resistant and more virulent secondary pests;
potential health hazards; and    other unpredictable
problems.  Evidence of the economic
counter-productivity of GM in the long run, is already
emerging.  In China, for instance, which has been
using Bt cotton for over 7 years, there has been a
severe rise of secondary pests when the bollworm is
controlled, resulting in the same levels of pesticide
spraying as before the use of Bt seeds.  In India,
there is an alarming record of an increase in crop
failure, farmer suicides and deaths of grazing cattle
after the use of Bt cotton in rainfed areas of Andhra
Pradesh and Vidharbha, Maharashtra. The high cost,
high risk and ecologically damaging GM technology is
not the solution for our agrarian crisis, and will
further damage Indian agriculture.

Both GRT and GM based agriculture require chemical
intensive and fossil fuel intensive inputs, which
directly contribute to greenhouse gases and climate
change: an estimated 25% of the world's carbon dioxide
emissions, 60% of methane gas emissions and 80% of
nitrous oxide emissions.   In fact nitrous oxide,
produced by the use of nitrogenous fertilizers, is 200
times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse
gas. Chemical based agriculture estimatedly uses ten
times more energy as input than the calories it
produces as food. Shifting to biodiverse organic
systems can contribute significantly to mitigating
global warming and climate change. National
vulnerability to the rising costs of fossil fuels,
inescapable with chemical farming, is also much
reduced.

Small and marginal farmers, whose land holdings are
below 2 ha, constitute almost 80 % of all Indian
farmers, and more than 90 % of them are dependant on
rain for their crops. With GRT, their costs of
cultivation and risks of crop failure are so high that
often the farmers cannot recover even the money spent.
Between 1990-91 and 1995-96, the wholesale price of
wheat went up only 58%, whereas chemical fertilizer
costs increased by 113% and pesticides by 90%. Minimum
Support Prices for all crops, except sugar, were 38%
to 50 % lower than the actual cost of production. Per
capita food grain production has fallen to levels
lower than the 1939-44 famine. Despite the thousands
of crores spent on fertilizer and other subsidies,
farmers are increasingly in debt and despair. Apart
from the necessary immediate reliefs in crisis areas,
through write off of loans/interest, and appropriate
Minimum Support Prices for agricultural produce, there
is urgent need for a planned and vigorous promotion of
low-cost, low-risk, high nutrition, holistic and
sustainable farming systems to reinvigorate Indian
agriculture, and to stem the rising tide of farmers'
indebtedness, distress and suicides.

It is the experience of increasingly large numbers of
farmers that holistic farming systems, based on
scientifically proven techniques, are a very
successful remedy to the economic and ecological
crises engendered by GRT Holistic farming systems rely
on available natural resources and rebuild the
ecological capital on which all agriculture is
dependent. They also greatly reduce or totally
eliminate the dependence of farmers on the purchase of
expensive external inputs such as seeds, fertilizers,
pesticides and herbicides. Particularly for rain fed
farming and horticulture, which cover at least 60 % of
our cultivated land, holistic farming should be
adopted on a large scale without fear of loss of
production. Depending on the extent of prior damage by
chemical-intensive monocultures, there is some drop in
productivity in the transition phase if adequate
biological inputs are unavailable. But within 2 to 3
years, the system is equally, or more, productive than
other systems – and on an improving and sustainable
growth path. This has been scientifically validated
internationally by FAO reports, and by ICRISAT
Patencheru (O P Rupela  & others). Better nutrition
(balanced and free of toxins), and distributive
justice (helping the poorest) are additional important
benefits of a holistic approach. [Supplementary
documents available on request]

There is clear scientific empirical evidence that a
holistic, organic approach to farming nurtures
numerous effective microbes occurring in nature that
make all the essential nutrients available to crops,
and improve vital physical qualities of the soil,
namely its porosity, aeration, moisture absorption,
drainage, and resistance to erosion. Crop yields thus
increase in a sustainable manner, input costs fall and
farm incomes rise.

Mixed cropping – central to holistic farming – greatly
increases the total yield of biomass which, in turn,
absorbs more carbon dioxide and thus ameliorates
global warming. It also helps maintain soil fertility
through on-farm recycling, heightens security against
climatic vagaries and crop failures, and improves the
nutritional balance of local diets. This will also
help in reducing the large quantities of pulses and
oilseeds imported every year.

With water and energy shortages fast mounting, it is
imperative to cut wastages and improve their use
efficiency. Holistic farming optimally utilizes
available moisture, and vastly improves national water
and energy efficiency. Scientists estimate that for
every 1% of organic matter content, the soil can hold
16,500 gallons of ‘plant available water’ per acre of
soil of one foot depth (Source ATTRA) Groundwater
recharge is also enhanced by  increased biomass and
mulch, correspondingly diminishing run-offs and
floods.

11 POINT AGENDA FOR THE 11TH PLAN

Considering the above compelling reasons for adopting
a holistic approach favoring sustainability, national
health and distributive justice, we strongly recommend
and petition the Government of India to adopt an 11
point programme on agriculture for the 11th Plan as
follows:

1)    Holistic sustainable farming should be promoted
vigorously to cover at least 20% of all farmland
progressively every year, so that the major part of
the cultivable area of India is converted to holistic,
ecologically and economically sound and sustainably
productive farming systems by the end of the 11 th
Plan. Government policies and programmes should be
specifically prioritized, designed and targeted to
help the small and marginal farmers, who constitute
almost 80% of farmers, to achieve food and livelihood
security.  Even small holdings have demonstrated that
they can efficiently meet food and livelihood needs
with proper policy and support.  

2)      The current excessive use of inorganic
nitrogenous fertilizer that is incrementally
destroying the vital biological quality of Indian
soils, and contributing to global warming, should be
discouraged by phasing out the subsidy on urea  
through a progressive 20-25% reduction each year,
publicly announced in advance. Similarly, subsidies
for all other agro-chemicals and heavy farm machinery
should also be phased out within 5 years.

3)      All the money saved by reducing/withdrawing
subsidies as aforesaid (Rs 22000 crore per annum for
urea alone) should be used as incentive/support for
farmers who adopt holistic organic farming This should
include subsidy for local generation of
bio-fertilisers, including the planting of trees for
enhanced availability of biomass and nutrients. Each
farmer adopting holistic, organic agriculture,   helps
build up the nation's agricultural capital of soil and
water, but faces some risks and costs in the initial 2
to 3 years of transition period commonly needed for
ecological and economic recovery.   Soil-depleting
chemical fertilizers have been subsidized all these
years, and it is therefore warranted that   a similar
subsidy should be extended to those who produce their
own fertilizers and enhance soil capacity for
sustainable productivity. A cash incentive to holistic
farmers of Rs. 4,000 per ha per year for 2 or 3 years
is strongly recommended to encourage this vitally
necessary shift.

4)       A country-wide campaign must be undertaken on
a war footing to regenerate our natural resources of
soil, water, biodiversity, tree/forest cover, etc.
Natural forests, grasslands and wetlands must be
conserved and regenerated as they shelter fauna,
avifauna and insects vital for agriculture, besides
creating new fertile soil and augmenting recharge of
groundwater. Outstanding benefits can thereby be
efficiently achieved in the shortest possible time
with significant savings in expenditure.

5)       Decentralised water harvesting and its
optimal and equitable  use must be actively promoted
and financed by Govt policies, programmes and fiscal
incentives/disincentives.  Since at least 60 % of
Indian farming is rain-fed, the small and marginal
farmer is at the mercy of an increasingly erratic
monsoon.  The first priority should be protective
irrigation, through full subsidy for small farm ponds
and/or ground water recharge by farmers This will
reduce monsoon crop failure and facilitate
introduction of a winter crop, thereby greatly
reducing risks and increasing agricultural production
and farmer incomes.  This can be financed by
decreasing the proposed massive and wasteful
expenditures on large irrigation projects, having long
gestation periods, high inefficiencies, fiscal
irregularities   and high social displacement,
rehabilitation and ecological costs. Farmers need
immediate provision of water on-farm, not through
interlinking of rivers. Where irrigation projects
exist, water delivery must be regulated through
suitable local bodies   like Water Users Societies,
SHGs (Self Help Groups) and/or Rural Producer
Companies controlled by locally resident farmers.  A
differential, incremental pricing mechanism should be
mandatory for higher per capita /per acre levels of
consumption of surface or ground water   in excess of
the minimum/basic allotment. (The water used to
irrigate one acre of sugarcane is sufficient for at
least 25 acres of jowar, bajra or maize.)

6)       The main objective of EGS, grants, subsidies,
loans and Govt schemes should be asset creation for
the small and marginal farmers.  Delivery should be
channeled through local SHGs, associations, or bodies
of farmers. These, as well as Producer Companies that
are wholly owned and controlled by locally resident
farmers and   which can engage the services of
professionals to handle marketing, finance and other
support services, must be actively promoted and
supported. Such support/incentives to local farmers'
bodies should be proportionate to the number of farmer
members represented by each such recipient body, with
additional benefits to those consisting exclusively of
small and marginal farmers primarily engaged in
natural resource regenerating holistic agriculture. 

7)       The financial capacity  of small Indian
farmers, who are at the mercy of the market, should be
strengthened so that they can hold their surplus
produce till the prices are remunerative, and be
helped to take up activities to add value to their
produce through basic processing, packing, and
collective marketing. Some Cooperative Banks, which
provide grain storage and loans to farmers against
grain stocks, are examples to be up-scaled. Government
should promote the formation of local bodies/ Producer
Companies of farmers and help them meet their needs
for working capital, storage structures, community
banks for grain, seed, fodder and other biomass, basic
food and biomass   processing units, tree planting,
rainwater harvesting, biodiversity regeneration,
extension and education, subsidy on small
machinery/farming tools/aids, oxen, bullock carts,
etc. The Government has long provided generous
incentives for the promotion of industry. Bodies of
small and marginal farmers engaged in holistic farming
should similarly receive tax waivers/concessions, low
interest loans, and easier access to credit. There
should be a farmer-friendly, single window delivery
system for credit and Govt schemes through the rural  
banking network, which must be rapidly extended to
support farmer groups. Organic Certification must be
provided free. In fact, certification of chemically
cultivated and GM crops, and cautionary labeling of
those that are packaged, should be mandatory in the
interests of consumers. 

8)       Low cost and nutritious food must become
available to all, and particularly to the poor.  The
Public Distribution System should   offer a wide
variety of locally produced nutritious crops and   be
managed by local SHGs or Producer Companies under
civil regulation. This will reduce the high fuel cost 
 and carbon dioxide generation of long-distance
transportation. There should be total liberalization
for primary processing, free movement and regional
marketing of farm produce within a 150-200 km radius
from farm to retail outlet, and proactive government
support for basic transportation and regional
marketing infrastructure which shortens the supply
chain between farmers and consumers.

9)       Good Agricultural Practices used by
innovative holistic  farmers should be widely,
systematically   and urgently disseminated by use of
Govt institutions, media, personnel and funds. Since
the knowledge base for holistic farming systems is to
be found among experienced, innovative farmers, a
partnership should be forged between them and existent
educational, research and extension facilities to
document, use and disseminate this knowledge.  This
can be accomplished faster by granting/leasing 10 % of
the land of Agricultural Universities and KVKs to
innovative farmers with at least 3 years of
demonstrated success in holistic farming for
demonstration and/or extension of low cost holistic
farming systems, including agriculture, horticulture,
livestock and rainwater management, etc.  Agricultural
scientists and extension workers should help in
scientifically documenting and widely disseminating
this information.

10)   Genetically modified organisms/seeds must be
banned in India – or, at the very least, strongly
discouraged through the most stringent regulation and
heavy, deterrent penalties for any spread of genetic
pollution. They are likely to create new and more
damaging cycles of ecological and economic risks. A
handful of multi-nationals and Indian corporates are
inducing farmers to adopt this high-cost, high-risk,
poorly regulated technology by offering credit and
promises of short-term benefits. Consumers across the
world have been rejecting GM food and increasingly
demanding poison free organic food. This is India's
opportunity to be a leading producer of organic food
and avail of this fast growing domestic and global
market. The promotion of GM and GRT destroys this
capacity and must be immediately halted and then
reversed.

11)  Policies which permit the dumping of heavily
subsidized agricultural products in India by developed
countries – facilitated by the WTO – or which promote
cash crop monocultures for export, making Indian
farmers vulnerable to the disastrous consequences of 
any fall in global prices, must be discontinued.

Promoting  holistic farming systems - which can
provide food security to the 650 million Indians
dependent on agriculture and nutritious food to all
consumers- can effectively counter this threat to the
nation's food security and farmers' livelihood and
survival. It should therefore be the keystone of our
agricultural policy, practices and priorities.

CONCLUSION :

            Holistic farming involves knowledge,
native wisdom, and labour, rather than external
industrial inputs or large per capita finance - with
their attendant high costs and risks of indebtedness.
It can create significantly higher employment
opportunities in the rural sector, thereby halting and
reversing migration from rural to urban areas.  It
benefits the small and marginal farmers, who are the "
Aam Admi" of the farming community.  Government funds
and resources should therefore be made available to
them in proportion to their percentage in the rural
population to honour the promises made in the Common
Minimum Programme of the UPA government. 
Expropriating their land, the only asset  of small and
marginal farmers, by the Government for SEZs, and
providing  huge fiscal incentives to their promoters,
is a policy that would inevitably lead to further
pauperization of the farming community and the growth
of armed insurgence.   Empowering farmers to ensure
their own food and livelihood security through
holistic farming systems, and through dispersed small
industry based on agricultural produce, is the real
need of the hour and the demand of the farmers, who
constitute 65% of India's population.

All over the world, the demand for toxin-free produce
is rising at an exponential rate of growth. Consumers
in India are also entitled to it. Many States, and the
farmers themselves, would be   keen to adopt holistic
farming systems if necessary support, as stated above,
is made available.  The Planning Commission, the
Government of India, and the leaders of all political
parties will fail in their duty if appropriate actions
are not taken urgently to halt the promotion of GRT
and GM agriculture, and to introduce the low-cost,
low-risk, holistic farming systems which can save the
small farmers from desperation and suicide. We thus
earnestly call for your support in implementing the
above proposals in the interests of the farming
community and the nation as a   whole.

WE, THE FOLLOWING INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANISATIONS, ARE
DEEPLY CONCERNED WITH THE PROBLEMS OF SMALL AND
MARGINAL FARMERS AND WITH THE NATURAL RESOURCE BASE OF
AGRICULTURE. WE HAVE EXPERIENCED OR OBSERVED THE
IMPROVEMENTS IN FARMERS’ INCOMES AND FOOD SECURITY
THROUGH HOLISTIC, ORGANIC AND SUSTAINABLE FARMING AND
THEREFORE ENDORSE THIS REPRESENTATION  :

Name, Address, Email of Organisation/Individual       
              Area of Work     

======================================================

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