Traditional splendor in agriculture and cattle need of the hour
The Haryana Kisan Ayog has not yet published its report about the future policies of agriculture and cattle rearing in Haryana. It has not revealed the crucial feedback received from the public in response to a Press advertisement
‘THE PEOPLE responsible for running the Haryana Kisan Ayog (HKA) suddenly ran out of ideas and in no mood to revive several time tested traditions in Indian agriculture’, says R.S. Phaugat, the chief spokesperson of Rohtak based Society for People’s Advancement, Technology and Heritage in response to an advertisement by the Haryana government.
He asserted that ‘in this age of biotechnology, GM crops, synthetic pesticides, high density of farm implements and mechanisation, increased absorption rate of toxic chemicals in the soil, dependence of irrigation by method of flooding, wide spread under- and/or malnutrition among women and adolescent children despite overflowing warehouses and multitude of non-communicable diseases associated with unscientific methods of consumption of food, the intention of the Haryana Kisan Ayog for inviting suggestions seems blurred’.
Most of what the Ayog desired to record has already been documented, says Singh and added that it was time for us to revert to traditional wisdom of doing agriculture than organizing expensive campaigns for the second green revolution that might be built around bio-technology, trans-genetic crops, which process may devastate the existing breed of domestic animals for obtaining meat.
Indian agriculture is considered a vast repository of diverse natural wealth that could ensure for us sufficient food for the ages irrespective of natural calamities, irregular rains during the Monsoon season and despite ravages of the invading armies in that historically depleted agricultural produce for natives.
In an age when lifestyles and practices are virtually guided by technology that rapidly evolves to attain monstrous proportions, it becomes impossible to put the world in the reverse gear. However, if the Haryana Kisan Ayog (HKA) is really staid in taking and honoring the suggestions, why doesn’t it let a few thrown open for consideration and public debate such as: discarding the use of chemically synthesized pesticides and insecticides; preservation of the traditional varieties of seeds and recirculation; resorting to rain-fed cropping patterns in arid/semi-arid zones, grow more orchards in canal irrigated fields, opening of vegetable and fruit retail shops in the cooperative sector; rejuvenating the community management practices instead of corporate; rearing of more cowherds and saying goodbye to use of heavy farm machinery, particularly the tractor, so that bulls and oxen can survive the onslaught brought about by decades of neglect and charting out an integrated course of development for farms linking it to improvement in domestic cattle, organic farming and horticulture in a big way.
‘The HKA should strive to bring back the old agricultural splendor in Haryana by relying more on the internal or native wisdom than looking for the rejected and hazardous advice of alien interest-groups who have intellectually subordinated our agricultural universities and ICAR that heralded the 1st Green Revolution’ lamented Singh.
He added that even Dr. M.S.Swaminathan, the doyen of Green Revolution in India, has now become an open advocate of traditional Indian wisdom in agriculture and sustainable farm practices.’
Through the website of the Chennai based Swaminathan Foundation, the renaissance in sustainable agriculture in Tamil Nadu can be witnessed. ‘It would be appreciatable if HKA reveals its true intentions and the feedback received as response to the advertisement on the topic in addition to online publishing of the report’, says Phaugat.
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