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Traditional
agriculture in India : High yields and no waste This article on traditional agricultural techniques and indigenous high-yielding seeds appeared in 'The Ecologist' way back in 1983. Since then, the argument and justification to revert to traditional and non-chemical methods of farming have only grown stronger and more imperative. Look for the links to related pages on this website at the end. Today
in India, as in many other developing countries with a rich agricultural
tradition of their own, the words ‘improved agriculture’ and ‘progressive
agriculture’ have become synonymous with the spread of HYVs (High
Yielding Varieties of Crops) grown with ever-increasing doses of (often
imported) chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Wherever the new crop
varieties have spread, time-honoured crop rotations, inter-cropping
patterns and other important features of traditional agriculture have been
harshly uprooted (this choice, however, has not been made willingly by
most farmers, rather it has been forced on them by a package of government
policies, subsidies and selective price incentives).
At
the back of this trend, and the official policies which support it, is the
belief that traditional agriculture is ‘backward’ and incapable of
meeting the desired objectives of agricultural planning, i.e. making
adequate food available for the Indian messes and improving the living
conditions of the peasants who constitute the overwhelming proportion of
the Indian population. But
is this belief, widespread as it is among several international ‘experts’
and India's own development planners and policy makers, supported by hard
facts? In
1889, Dr John Augustus Voelcker, the Consulting Chemist to the Royal
Agricultural Society of England, was sent by the British government to
study Indian agriculture. Voelcker toured the country extensively for over
one year. His report was published in 1893, and since then has often been
cited as an authoritative work on Indian agriculture of this period. For
instance, the Report of the Royal Commission on Agriculture (1928) said of
the Voelcker Report, "Although thirty five years have elapsed since
this work was written, the ability which Dr Voelcker displayed in his
comprehensive survey of the agricultural conditions of India, in his
analysis of problems they present and in the recommendations for their
solution, still renders it a book of the utmost value to all students of
agriculture in India." How
did Dr Voelcker view Indian agriculture as it existed nearly a hundred
years back? Did he consider it backward and incapable of giving a good
yield? The essence of what Dr Voelcker said can be summarised in the
following extract from his report : "I explain that I do not share
the opinions which have been expressed as to Indian Agriculture being, as
a whole, primitive and backward, but I believe that in may parts there is
little or nothing than can be improved, whilst where agriculture is
manifestly inferior, it is more generally the result of the absence of
facilities which exist in the better districts than form inherent bad
systems of cultivation . . . I make bold to say that it is a much easier
task to propose improvements in English agriculture than to make really
valuable suggestions for that of India . . . the conviction has forced
itself upon me that, taking everything together and more especially
considering the conditions under which Indian crops are grown, they are
wonderfully good. At his best the Indian raiyat or cultivator is quite as
good as, and in some respects, the superior of, the average British
farmer, while at his worst it can only be said that this state is brought
about largely by an absence of facilities for improvement which is
probably unequalled in any other country . . . I have remarked in earlier
chapters about the general excellence of the cultivation; the crops grown
here are numerous and varied, much more indeed than in England. That the
cultivation should often be magnificent is not to be wondered at when it
is remembered that many of the crops have been known to the raiyats for
several centuries, rice is a prominent instance in point." More
especially he stated, "To take the ordinary acts of husbandry,
nowhere would one find better instances of keeping land scrupulously clean
from weeds, of ingenuity in device of water-raising appliances, of
knowledge of soils and their capabilities as well as of the exact time to
sow and to reap, as one would in Indian agriculture, and this not at its
best along, but at its ordinary level. It is wonderful, too, how much is
known of rotation, the system of mixed crops and of fallowing. Certain it
is that I, at least, have never seen a more perfect picture of careful
cultivation, combined with hard labour, perseverance and fertility of
resource, than I have seen at many of the halting places in my tour. Such
are the gardens of Mahi, the fields of Nadiad and many others." Voelcker
did not believe that the existing ploughs and other implements used by the
farmers were useless and ready to be replaced, "It has been said that
if the native cultivator had ‘improved’ ploughs he could dispense with
he many ploughings which he gives to the land, and that he would thus save
himself the cost of going over the field again and again, crossing and
recrossing. These ploughings are always three or four in number for
ordinary crops, and eight, twelve and even as many as twenty, for sugar
cane and other special crops. But the answer is that the end is achieved
in time, a finer and better tilth is obtained and the moisture is not
lost." Further, "If for ploughs of new designs there be but
little room, still less is there for more expensive implements, such as
seed-drills, mowers, reapers, threshing machines etc. The native seed
drill will strike everyone who sees it at work as being wonderfully
efficient, and leaving little to be desired . . . Anyone, who has watched
the clever devices of the native cultivators in the implements which they
use, for harrowing, levelling, drilling, raising water, etc., will see
that if anything is to replace the existing implements it must be simple,
cheap and effective. He will indeed be a clever man who introduces
something really practical." An
important agent of traditional Indian agriculture was the well-developed
irrigation system. "Irrigation by wells is at once the most widely
distributed system, and also the one productive of the finest examples of
careful cultivation . . . Further, as regards wells, one cannot help being
struck by the skill with which a supply of water is first found by the
native cultivators, then by the construction of the wells, the kinds of
wells and their suitability to the surroundings and means of the people;
also by the various devices for raising water, each of which has a
distinct reason for its adoption. All these are most interesting points
with which I am not called upon to deal, for I see little to improve in
them which the cultivator does not know perfectly well." Another
aspect, less widely realised, was that of the scientific rotation system.
Voelcker pointed out, "It is quite a mistake to suppose that rotation
is not understood or appreciated in India. Frequently more than one crop
at a time may be seen occupying the same ground but one is very apt to
forget that this is really an instance of rotation being followed. It is
not an infrequent practice, when drilling a cereal crop, such as jowar
(Sorghum vulgare) or some other millet, to put in at intervals a
few drills of some leguminous crop, such as arhar (Cajanus cajan). "There
are many systems in ordinary use which are far more complicated than the
above. For instance, not only may there be rows of crops, side by side, as
noticed above, but the alternating rows may themselves be made up of
mixtures of different crops, some of them quick growing and reaped early,
others of slower growth and requiring both sun and air, and thus being
reaped after the former have been cleared off. Again, some are deep-rooted
plants, others are surface feeders, some require the shelter of other
plants and some will thrive alone. The whole system appears to be one
designed to cover the bareness and consequent loss to the soil, which
would result from the soil beating down upon it, and from the loss of
moisture which it would incur." Voelcker,
moreover, was not the only agricultural scientist to point out these
assets of traditional agriculture in India. There were several others,
scientists and expert scholars, who did so. Here we quote from only two
others—J. Mollison and A.O. Hume. J.
Mollison, who later became the first Inspector-General of Agriculture in
India, published in 1901 a volume ‘Text Book of Indian Agriculture’.
Like Voelcker, Mollison stressed the suitability of the implements used
traditionally in Indian conditions. "I believe that the implements in
ordinary use are entirely suitable for the conditions of Indian
agriculture. This statement may be objected to by other authorities, but
if such is the case, I am afraid, I cannot change a deliberately expressed
opinion. To those who are skeptical I can show in parts of the Bombay
Presidency cultivation by means of indigenous tillage implements only,
which in respect of neatness, thoroughness and profitableness cannot be
excelled by the best gardeners or the best farmers in any part of the
world. That statement I deliberately make, and am quite prepared to
substantiate." Mollison
gives the following account of the practice of artificial warping in
Bombay Presidency, "Artificial warping differs from the natural
formation of alluvium only, in that the water of a turbid stream may be
diverted from its course, and held in a particular area sufficiently long
to deposit a large amount of sediment, and if the process is often
repeated, a soil of considerable depth may be formed on rock or any other
sterile area. Many of the small rice-fields on the Western Ghats have been
formed by throwing bandheras across the turbid hill-streams and either
diverting the water or allowing a small lake to form above the weir. In
this way the current is so obstructed that suspended earthy matter is
deposited and in time the silt layer becomes so deep that a rice-crop can
be raised thereon. The lower terraced rice fields of the Ghats are
annually warped and improved by the silt carried down by the drainage
water of the uplands." Speaking
of the soil-mixing practices, Mollison writes, "Mixing is not unknown
in India. Clay is often carted from rice-fields in sufficient quantity to
add a layer one to two inches thick on sand land. The addition changes the
consistence of the sand, so that it becomes better suited for sugar cane
and other garden crops raised under irrigation. The cultivator appreciates
the value of tank silt and in those districts where these water reservoirs
are common they are cleaned out with the utmost care and regularly each
year. The silt which has collected in these tanks being the washings of
village sites and cultivated fields, has some manurial value, and applied
as it is at the rate of 40 cart loads or more per acre, adds considerably
to the body of the soil." A.O.
Hume, in Agricultural Reform in India, (1878) wrote about weed-control by
Indian farmers at that time, "As for weeds, their wheat fields would,
in this respect, shame ninety-nine hundredths of those in Europe. You may
stand in some high old barrow-like village site in Upper India, and look
down on all sides on one wide sea of waving wheat broken only by dark
green islands of mango groves—many square miles of wheat and not a weed
or blade of grass above six inches in height to be found amongst it. What
is to be spied out creeping here and there on the ground is only the
growth of the last few weeks, since the corn grew too high and thick to
permit the women and children to continue weeding." Continued,
click here for the concluding part Pages
on this website relevant to chemical agriculture, the need for organic
farming, traditional agriculture and related issues : 18
ways how "modern" farming affects our world
Natural
farming succeeds in Indian village
Hunger,
and why technology cannot feed the world Indian
farmers rediscover advantages of traditional rice varieties You
may also like to read on this website :
Myths
and fallacies about organic farming
Techniques
and practices in organic farming
On
the
effects of pesticides : Pesticides
in your food (and water)
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