The Hindu : Karnataka News : More farmers keen on organic farming

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 17, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Karnataka

Karnataka

More farmers keen on organic farming

Special Correspondent

Scientists on a mission to ascertain the results

Organic farming is a solution to the fertilizer crisis, says former Vice-Chancellor
‘It will reduce farmers’ debt burden and make them self-reliant’

MANDYA: Describing organic farming as a solution to the present crisis plaguing agriculture, the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Agricultural Sciences, G.K. Veeresh, has said that more farmers are evincing interest in it.

He was speaking to The Hindu on Wednesday after visiting a few farms in villages around Mandya where organic farming has been taken up on an experimental basis. Dr. Veeresh, who is a member of the State Empowered Committee on Organic Farming, along with a few scientists was on an evaluation mission to ascertain the results of organic farming.

Farmers are volunteering and expressing a desire to switch over to organic methods given the increase in inputs in the conventional method of agriculture. The State Government is promoting organic farming to reduce the input cost, to ensure greater environmental protection and better water management all of which is possible in organic farming.

Allaying fears and arguments that organic farming cannot feed 1.1 billion people of the country, Dr. Veeresh said yield in organic farming was not only encouraging, but also made agriculture economically sustainable and viable unlike the present scenario wherein experts had declared farming as economically unviable.

This would not only reduce their debt burden but also make them self-reliant, he added.

Dr. Veeresh, who headed a committee constituted by the State Government to investigate the reasons for suicide by farmers, said that he never came across any case of a farmer, who had taken up organic farming, ending in debts and committing suicide. In fact, more than 80 per cent of the suicide cases involved cotton farmers as external input cost, including fertilizers, had increased the farmers’ burden.

He interacted with a group of farmers who have adopted organic farming and sought their feedback. Dr. Veeresh was accompanied by Vasanth Kumar of the Visvesvaraya Canal Farm (V.C. Farm) and other scientists.

Karnataka is one of the few States which is promoting organic farming in a big way with the objective of making agriculture self-sufficient and reducing farmers’ expenditure, increasing food security by encouraging traditional crops and traditional food habits.

The other objectives are to increase soil fertility and productivity.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka