Query: An Inventory of Lost Biodiversity.

[SaMvaad SaMvaad]

Dear friends, this is the first query in "SaMvaad: A Community of Natural Resource Conservation Practitioners." We are happy to start the discussion in this group with "An inventory of the lost biodiversity".  We look to forward to your participation and experience sharing in SaMvaad. This query is open till 10th March 2010. Thanks!

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Dear All,

  

A review of the last six decades of agricultural development in India cannot be done without a mention of the Green Revolution (GR). While the population has increased three-fold, from 33 million to over a billion, the food production has gone up by over four times, from 50 Mt (Metric Tonnes) to more than 200 Mt. The Green Revolution indeed helped the nation to move from a hopeless state of starvation to food self sufficiency. The key elements in the GR, as everybody knows, are the seed, fertilisers and the irrigation. Here, we ignored natural resources – soil, water and biodiversity – this is still more an afterthought than a stern warning.

  

The favourable areas and the farmers in those areas moved ahead leaving behind a large majority of the dry land areas and small and marginal farmers. While the irrigated areas came under intensive cropping, the dry land agriculture remained more of an imitation of GR in irrigated areas. Clean agriculture and monoculture replaced mixed and subsistence farming. As a result, the GR was more or less limited to wheat and rice revolution leaving behind degraded natural resources – depleted soils, sinking water tables and the endangered biodiversity.

  

The issue before us now is correcting the past mistakes on one hand and finding new sources of growth on the other hand. It is easier said than done. And it is an issue transcending the abilities of one or few agencies. In this context, the challenges of reversing the damage to natural resources and finding new pathways requires a deeper understanding of the following:

1. The extent of damage to natural resources, especially the biodiversity in irrigated areas and dry lands and the extent to which the damage could be reversed?
2. It is said that irrigated areas suffered greater loss of biodiversity due to intensive farming while the dry lands were rather saved to an extent. Is it true, and how does it help strategising biodiversity conservation?

The comments from SamVaad group members throw up insights on policy formulation on biodiversity and natural resource conservation.

 

Arun Balamatti

Krishi Vigyan Kendra

Mysore

[SaMvaad SaMvaad]

Dear All, we are happy to post the first response from Mr Srikanth on the query looking for "An inventory of the lost biodiversity".  We look to forward to your response in SaMvaad. This query is open till 10th March 2010. Thanks!
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Dear Friends,

  

It is true that GR played a significant role in the growth of agriculture in India. But the negative impacts of the intensive technologies are too menacing to ignore especially for those who think seriously about the sustainable grwoth and development. It is high time we start looking at the growth and development not just in terms of GDP but also in terms of destruction of natural resources during the process, particularly in agriculture as natural resources are the basis for all life on earth.

1. The extent of loss of resources in irrigated areas can be gauzed from the fact that India has 10-12 million hectares of salt affected soils, a majority of which are unfit for any kind of agriculture today. The loss of soil means the loss of diversity of microbes and subsequently vegetative species in such ecosystems. The monocropping in irrigated area has almost obliterated the local land races of crops. The loss of livestock biodiversity in these areas is directly linked to intensive crop practices and monocropping.
   
2. The perception that loss of biodiversity is more in irrigated area and that dry lands have been saved is misconstrued. Although green revolution technologies which suit favorable conditions like irrigation, inputs and cash resources, and technological advancements are less rewarding under dry land conditions, trends have not left these farm lands untouched. For example, introduction of high yielding varieties and hybrids are responsive to inputs like fertilizers and prone to pests and diseases. They have limited adoptability to perform under adverse conditions like drought and semi-drought situations or erratic and uneven rainfall. Introduction of these improved varieties and monocropping practices have led to the loss of local genetic resources (including fodder species) and replacement of organic manures by inorganic fertilizers have degraded soil biology, fertility and moisture holding capacity over the decades. More than the inorganic fertilizers, the discontinuity of organic manures has damaged the microbial biodiversity of these soils.
3. Livestock species have also dwindled due to changing practices of fertilization and monocropping. Another significant damage to these ecosystems is the loss of natural enemies' diversity due to monocropping and few varieties grown in place of multicropping.

If dry land farming community is suffering more than irrigated areas today, it is because of loss of these resources in farm premises which has made them more dependable and subject to greater risks in farming.

Srikanth SP

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[SaMvaad SaMvaad]

Dear All, please find here the response from Dr Vanaja on the query "An inventory of the lost biodiversity".  We look to forward to your response. Thanks!
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Dear All,

 

The issue raised by Arun and the subsequent response from SriKanth are both very valid. What emerges is the over riding introduction of monocultures of a few varieties of Rice and Wheat at the cost of neglecting the diversity within rice and wheat. The loss in diversity also includes the erosion in biomass, green manure and other flora and fauna that maintained the ecological balance within the farms.

 

The same is true for the dryland areas, where HYV seeds of millets are promoted with subsidies which lends to loss of diversity within species. The debate therefore is not whether it is irrigated vs dryland, but industralisation of agriculture that has resulted in loss of diversity and Natural resources which is the very basis of food.

 

The question now is what successful efforts are there and what should be the food policy to retrieve the ecological approach to agriculture and food security.

Dr. Vanaja Ramprasad

[SaMvaad SaMvaad]

Dear All, please find here the response from Dr Deeksha Sharma on the query "An inventory of the lost biodiversity".  We look to forward to your response on this query. Thanks!
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Dear All,

I find this discussion very interesting. However, the concern for irrigated lands and their loss of natural resources is valid as with expansion of irrigated areas and intensive use of external inputs (chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides) these areas are now facing considerable adverse effect on sustaining soil, water, biodiversity and ecology. From the responses it is clear that loss to biodiversity happened in both irrigated and dry land areas.

Here I would like to quote this article raising seriuous concerns on green revolution model of agriculture:

A revolution long turned brown
http://www.indiatogether.org/2004/aug/agr-morechem.htm
It is true that the Green Revolution has succeeded in transforming India from a famine-ridden, starving nation of the 1960s into a food-surplus country today. Notwithstanding this commendable performance, the fallout of this chemical intensive farming has not only left India with severe health and environmental hazards (e.g., soil erosion, water contamination, pesticide poisoning, falling ground water table, water logging, salinisation, depletion of biodiversity, and so on), but has also put the long-run sustainability of Indian agriculture and the survival of the farming community itself under question.

Now, if we wish to look at the alternative this article suggests "organic agriculture is such an alternative to the Green Revolution model, which possesses the rare potential of becoming the panacea for each and every problems highlighted above. It, furthermore, contains the promise of qualifying as an appropriate technology even for the rain-fed or dry farming areas, predominantly characterized by natural farming methods."

Another case study, further substantiate on data ion this issue, where in the face of massive erosion of crop diversity all over India, some farming communities are attempting to conserve and revive their traditional agricultural systems, characterized by the innovative use of a large range of cropping patterns, crop diversity over space and time, and cultural practices oriented toward maintaining this diversity.

Conserving agricultural biodiversity:The case of Tehri Garhwal and implications for national policy
http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-85307-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html
It briefly examines how agricultural development has caused serious loss of crop diversity and farmer self-sufficiency in the hilly Tehri Garhwal district of Uttar Pradesh. It then describes the efforts of the Beej Bachao Andolan, a farmers' movement, in reviving the use of indigenous crops and cropping systems and encouraging the growth of low-input organic farming.

Further it highlights the implications of this case study for India's agricultural policy and argues that it is possible to combine diversity, productivity, and livelihood security in future agricultural policy. For this, strategies should emphasize  and follow a mix of high-productivity high-diversity approaches, building on indigenous biodiversity and knowledge, transformation of negative repatriation from genebanks, inter-farmer exchange, appropriate returns for wider use of farmers' knowledge and resources and the protection of critical agro-ecosystems.

I look forward to responses of other fellow members of this community "SaMvaad".

Regards,
Deeksha Sharma