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Joseph Thomas Ramasubramanian

Knowledge Gaps in Organic Agriculture: A preliminary study on agricultural universities and organic farming practices in India. Joseph Thomas Ramasubramanian. 8 th Jan 2013 | New Deli.

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Joseph Thomas Ramasubramanian

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  1. Knowledge Gaps in Organic Agriculture:A preliminary study on agricultural universities andorganic farming practices in India Joseph Thomas Ramasubramanian 8th Jan 2013 | New Deli

  2. A study of the State Agricultural Universities, their relationship with the Organic Farming movements across India and the changing agriculture policy of state governments

  3. States with Policies on Organic Farming • Sikkim – entire state • Karnataka – mission • Madhya Pradesh – policy & certification • Kerala – policy & initiative • Uttrakhand – policy & initiative • Andhra Pradesh (NPM) – policy & initiative

  4. Central Schemes that promote Organic Farming • National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) – proposed under 12th Five Year Plan • MahilaKisanSashaktikiranPariyojana (MKSP) • Other schemes in parts

  5. Organic Farming & India

  6. Organic Farming in India

  7. Drivers of Organic Farming • Better Commercial Returns • By Default • Cultural Reasons • Environmentally Conscious • Civil Society Action

  8. SAU “The challenge facing India's SAUs for the next century will be to complement the concern for the immediate needs of increased production with a greater emphasis on productivity and long-term sustainability; to balance the focus on disciplinary and commodity research with a greater emphasis on interdisciplinary research and a systems perspective; and to move from being reactive organizations to proactive ones, from hierarchical organizations to participatory ones, from agricultural universities to universities for rural development.” - Lawrence Busch, 1988

  9. SAU “India, since independence, followed a path of science led growth of its agriculture. Agricultural education was placed in the forefront of this strategy. A comprehensive educational system has been evolved for building human resource that could undertake location and situation specific research and transfer its results to improve productivity, profitability and stability of agriculture. Not only the educational system was patterned on the Land Grants Colleges of the USA, but faculty was also trained in the US universities through a joint Indo-US programme….” – KIA, 2009

  10. NMSA & SAU • there is not a single source cited that is from any Agricultural University in India • the four functional dimensions that are elaborated, do not explore the roles of different entities in delivering the functional dimensions • Strategies - the State Agriculture Universities (SAU) are explicitly mentioned four times in all. • Twice: Improved Crop Seed, Livestock and Fish Culture (Strengthening of Research Infrastructure, Capacity Building of Field Functionaries), • Once : Improved Farm Practices (Infrastructure – Strengthening of simulation facilities) • Once: Livelihood Diversification (Capacity Building – Development of Agri-Livestock Extension)

  11. Challenges for Organic Farming • Food Security • Encouragement from State • No risk mitigation exercise • No area specific encouragement offering less protection to organic farmers • Sovereignty of Seeds • Inputs • Pest Management • Irrigation and Labour • Marketing

  12. SAU & Organic Farming • 2 out of 53 agriculture universities have courses / departments explicitly dedicated to organic farming in the country • The curriculum of most agriculture universities indicate Indian Agriculture as having started from 18th century and have in that synonymously connect agriculture departments (and universities) existence to that of agriculture itself thereby denying other knowledge sources…this continues with acknowledging current intermediaries as well

  13. SAUs and Organic Farming University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad in Karnataka has an organic farming cell that has been involved in research and recently announced the following Vice-Chancellor of the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad, R.R. Hanchinal said the “…research conducted by scientists from the university had proved that organic farming ensured more productivity than chemical farming in rain-fed areas.” UAS has developed technology for organic cultivation of 12 major crops and is working closely with the state agriculture department

  14. SAUs and Organic Farming The Sikkim government realizing that the volume of extension work required for full conversion enrolled the help of many different civil society organisations. The Sikkim Organic Policy document states the following “The private sector, commercial and NGOs in Sikkim should be encouraged tojoin forces and form a united organic sector body. Setting up a permanent body, where people from these sectors are represented, may be considered for the consultations between the government and the private sector.”

  15. SAUs & Organic Farming Andhra Pradesh(AP) relied heaving on Self Help Group(SHGs)demanded • Sustainable agriculture based livelihood • Reduced cost of cultivation • Chemical free food citing health considerations. This demand led to Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture (CMSA) The SHG platform was also to be used for scaling up. It should be noted that all 3 demands of the SHGs were met by the CMSA programme

  16. SAUs & Organic Farming In Karnataka the government coordinated with various Non-Governmental Organisations(NGOs) for different levels of extension work. NGOs were involved in awareness generation, training and forming farmer groups. A study was done on the “Role of non-governmental organizations in promoting sustainable agriculture in Karnataka”. The author states that “NGOs are very prominent in effective implementation of government programmes towards sustainability in agriculture”. He further states that“ The government should take more interest and improve organic farming with the help of NGOs”.

  17. SAUs & Organic Farming Kerala organic farming policy is very strong on involvement of SAUs. It expects the full participation of the University in the General Council and Executive Committee levels aside from creating inputs like seeds, fertilizer and plant protection materials. Strategy 4.5 of the policy document states “Kerala Agricultural University and other research institutions should develop suitable crop combinations and locally suitable technology, through participatory research with farmers.” The SAU at Trissur developed “THE ADHOC PACKAGE OF PRACTICES RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ORGANIC FARMING” in 2009. However the document on agricultural practice is little known.

  18. Study Results There is a real gap in knowledge faced by organic farmers that the state agricultural systems are not able to fill. Consequently this is filled by other intermediaries.

  19. Study Results As more states create policies on sustainable agriculture in response to either perceived commercial benefits or climate change or mere common sense, the knowledge gap will only become more pronounced and state level policy does not seem to be (in general) able to address how the knowledge gap will be filled nor envision a role for SAUs in this context.

  20. Study Results Unless Histories, Culture Studies, Anthropology, Indigenous Ecological Studies, Tribal Sociological Studies, etc., become part of the agriculture understanding in the Indian context, we may not see much relevance in the agriculture university system apart from its ‘yield fixated’ mindset. Such an engagement with other disciplines, may lead to revisiting the philosophical roots in a significant manner

  21. Study Results A country with such large number of small and marginal farmers cannot continue to look at small farms as a liability because the agriculture universities teach only about productivity techniques that obviously favour large farms.

  22. Study Results A movement towards nutrition-security centric approach will have the universities acknowledging the traditional knowledge of agriculture within the small farmers meaningfully

  23. Let’s continue the dialogue… Joseph Thomas, jts12000@yahoo.co.in Ramasubramanian, chief@samanvaya.com Thank you

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