{"id":9457,"date":"2016-06-23T03:30:28","date_gmt":"2016-06-23T03:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globalpress.hinduismnow.org?p=9454&preview_id=9454"},"modified":"2016-06-23T03:30:28","modified_gmt":"2016-06-23T03:30:28","slug":"cow-urine-kills-farm-pests-in-indias-first-fully-organic-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/?p=9457","title":{"rendered":"Cow Urine Kills Farm Pests in India’s First Fully Organic State – Bloomberg"},"content":{"rendered":"
Nimtshreng Lepcha seeps medicinal leaves in cow urine and sprays the brew over his tomatoes. It\u2019s the main way pests are repelled on his farm in the Himalayan foothills and across the northeastern state of Sikkim, the first in India to go fully organic.For more than a decade, Sikkim\u2019s 66,000 farmers have shunned chemical weed killers, synthetic fertilizers and gene-altered seeds. Their return to traditional farming methods has made the tiny state, sandwiched between China, Nepal and Bhutan, a testing ground for a counter movement to the Green Revolution<\/a>, the half-century-old system that relied on modern seeds, chemicals and irrigation to boost crop yields and stave off hunger.<\/p>\n

Now, faced with health and environmental problems ranging from poisoned waterways<\/a> and degraded farmland, to antibiotic-resistant bacteria<\/a> and diet-linked disease, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is backing Sikkim\u2019s approach as a safer, more sustainable way to produce food, support farm jobs and reduce the nation\u2019s fertilizer bill.<\/p>\n

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A general view of the city of Gangtok, Sikkim. Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan\/Bloomberg<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOther states can take a lead from Sikkim,\u201d Modi told<\/a> political leaders in the nearby state of Meghalaya last month. \u201cThe North East can become the organic food basket for this country. Organic products are going to be increasingly used widely,\u201d he continued, and the practice \u201cwill contribute immensely to the income of the people and the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Employment Boost<\/h3>\n

India already has some 650,000 organic producers<\/a>\u2014more than any other country. Expanding the industry could boost employment by 30 percent through recycling resources, and certifying, marketing and packaging products, a parliamentary committee said in a report<\/a> in August, without giving a time frame. Farmers in more than a dozen states, including Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Modi\u2019s home state of Gujarat, are embracing organic farming.<\/p>\n

India isn\u2019t the only country looking for alternative ways to nourish its people. The United Nations\u2019 new development agenda, which began in January, calls for more sustainable food<\/a> production systems and the implementation of resilient agricultural practices that increase production, help maintain ecosystems and progressively improve land and soil quality.<\/p>\n

\u201cPoor farmers who cannot afford the inputs for intensive agriculture can benefit most from adoption of organic methods<\/a>,\u201d said Anil Markandya, a British environmental economist, who has advised international development banks, the UN, European Union and the governments of India and the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

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Farmer Lepcha, who also grows maize, cardamom, cauliflowers, carrots, radishes and pumpkins on 2 hectares (5 acres) in Lower Nandok, abandoned his father\u2019s farming practices 20 years ago, returning instead to the natural cultivation methods of his grandfather. The rewards from organic farming aren\u2019t just monetary, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis field has given us enough of the best-quality food for my family and enabled me to provide higher education for three of my children,\u201d said Lepcha, 56. \u201cWe all are in good health and stamina. I don\u2019t remember when we last purchased medicines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soils<\/a> are nourished with composted cow manure and other organic matter, while pests are managed with the cow-urine spray brewed for three months, he said. In the colder months, Lepcha grows vegetables under clear plastic domes that trap heat and moisture, and are fitted with sprinklers for irrigation.<\/p>\n

Yields Rebound<\/h3>\n

Crop yields fell in the first few seasons after he stopped using conventional fertilizers and chemicals, but then increased as the fertility of his soil improved, he recalled. These days, Lepcha earns more than 400,000 rupees ($6,000) a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am getting profit with low input costs and higher margins,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Farmer Nimtshreng Lepcha, right, attends organic tomatoes at his farm in Lower Nandok. Photographer: Prashanth<\/p><\/div>\n

Farmer Nimtshreng Lepcha, right, attends organic tomatoes at his farm in Lower Nandok. <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Benefits of organic farming include less pesticide-related illness<\/a>, improved household nutrition and gender equality<\/a>, said Markandya, who is the former scientific director of the Basque Centre for Climate Change in Spain. Last year, he edited a 415-page report on organic agriculture<\/a> for the Asian Development Bank.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see organic agriculture replacing conventional, intensive agriculture, but as an important complement to it,\u201d Markandya said. \u201cThere are many places where producers can benefit from adoption of such methods, and the demand for organic products is growing\u2014not only in the rich countries, but also inside India.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing health consciousness among India\u2019s middle-class consumers is fueling demand, TechSci Research said in a report<\/a> last August. It predicts the organic market will expand more than 25 percent annually to cross $1 billion by 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsumers want it even though there is a premium attached to it,\u201d said Renzino S. Lepcha, chief operating officer of Mevedir<\/a>, a non-government organization in the Sikkim capital, Gangtok, that helps farmers to grow, certify and sell their organic produce.<\/p>\n

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Organic goods typically fetch about 20 percent more than conventionally grown products, according to Lepcha, who is not related to farmer Nimtshreng Lepcha. \u201cThis is creating jobs, an avenue and a market. This is favoring farmers and India.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sikkim achieved organic certification of 74,190 hectares (183,000 acres) of agricultural land last year, the culmination of a movement<\/a> that began in 2003.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe start was not smooth,\u201d said S. Anbalagan, executive director of the Sikkim Organic Mission<\/a>, in an interview in his office in Gangtok. \u201cWe struggled to provide farmers required knowledge and infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Birds and the Bees<\/h3>\n

With those problems behind them, farmers are now expanding into poultry, bee-keeping and other areas of livestock production, while the state focuses on improving services, including marketing, cold storage and transportation, he said. \u201cWhatever Sikkim has achieved, it has done it mostly on its own,\u201d Anbalagan said.<\/p>\n

Organic exports will be bolstered by an airport in Sikkim, Modi said<\/a> in January at an organic festival and conference. Discussion at the meeting \u201cset the tone for a new holistic vision for the country\u2019s agriculture,\u201d he said. \u201cThe winds of this organic effort would now spread across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Vendors sell organic vegetables from stalls at the Sikkim Organic Market in Gangtok, Sikkim, India Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan\/Bloomberg<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Modi\u2019s government has earmarked 4.12 billion rupees ($61 million) for spending on organic farming<\/a> in the year ending March 2017. It\u2019s promoting organic fertilizer and says the use of natural nutrients could defray part of the 700 billion rupees India spends each year on fertilizer subsidies.<\/p>\n

With the second-highest<\/a> number of undernourished people in the world and an annual food requirement set to increase by almost 20 percent to 300 million tons by 2025, India\u2019s needs won\u2019t be met with organic farming, according to Shanthu Shantharam, a scientist who helped formulate the country\u2019s agricultural biotechnology regulations in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

\u2018Romantic Idea\u2019<\/h3>\n

\u201cIn many ways, organic farming is a romantic idea that won\u2019t work,\u201d said Shantharam, who teaches plant biotechnology at the Iowa State University. He argues that organic production is impractical on a mass scale because of inadequate supplies of organic fertilizer and the lower crop yields resulting from organic farming. \u201cIndia cannot meet its food security obligations if the entire nation goes organic. Organic is good as a kitchen garden.\u201d<\/p>\n

Product integrity is also a challenge for India\u2019s organic industry, he said. \u201cWhether organic rules are strictly followed or not, they slap an organic label on it and sell it a premium price,\u201d Shantharam said. \u201cTheir niche market is urban elites who have lots of cash jingling in their pockets, and who want to buy organic just to feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prohibitive Prices<\/h3>\n

At the Sikkim Organic Market in Gangtok, vendor Birbal Rai says it\u2019s mostly the health-conscious who are aware of the advantages of organic products and are buying from his stall. \u201cOthers turn away when they see the price difference,\u201d Rai said. Still, \u201cthe demand for the organic foods is gradually picking up.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Vivek Cintury. Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan\/Bloomberg<\/p><\/div>\n

Vivek Cintury.Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan\/Bloomberg<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

About 40 kilometers away, Vivek Cintury has set up a business to process ginger and turmeric, and dreams of becoming one of his country\u2019s biggest organic exporters. \u201cAfter overcoming some difficulties, like a lack of cold storage and residue-testing laboratories in Sikkim, we have started making a profit,\u201d Cintury, 29, said. \u201cThis inspires me to expand the business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Environmental activist Vandana Shiva says organic farming provides a solution to conventional \u201cchemical farming\u201d promoted since the late 1960s\u2019 Green Revolution, which she says, leads to $1.2 trillion a year in environmental and social costs in India.<\/p>\n

\u201cOrganic farming<\/a> is also the only solution to climate change,\u201d said Shiva, a former atomic physicist and the managing trustee of Navdanya<\/a>, a movement that promotes organic farming, biodiversity and conservation. \u201cAll the mega problems, it has a solution to. All the life and death problems, it has a solution to.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Source: Cow Urine Kills Farm Pests in India\u2019s First Fully Organic State \u2013 Bloomberg<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nimtshreng Lepcha seeps medicinal leaves in cow urine and sprays the brew over his tomatoes. It\u2019s the main way pests are repelled on his farm in the Himalayan foothills and across the northeastern state of Sikkim, the first in India to go fully organic.For more than a decade, Sikkim\u2019s 66,000 farmers have shunned chemical weed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[1141],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9457"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9457\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}