A chance for a Gujarati farmer to work as a global organic agricultural consultant!

Many nations throughout the world are experiencing shortages or decreased production of grains, fruits, and vegetables as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war. The absence of imports in America has resulted in a serious shortage of grain flour, which has pushed the world toward self-sufficiency in grain production. Food security is a challenge for numerous nations. D. T. The Dubai government has made an all-out effort in an effort to finish the "Green Dubai" initiative in the desert region by 2026.

The farmers of fifty to sixty years ago sincerely cared for and treated the land as if it were their mother. They firmly felt that the earth shouldn't be harmed in any way, even if productivity is lower and income or profit may be lower. On one's own farm, adjustments in crop rotation, seeds, fertilizers, or medications were also implemented as advised by a soil fertility specialist.

Farmers have been heavily utilizing artificial fertilizers and pharmaceuticals to produce more or sufficient crops in blind imitation of other nations of the world and due to a shortage of rainfall and unseasonal rainfall. Because there are more chemical drugs in grains and other food items, soil fertility has diminished and human ailments have increased as a result. Every second, one acre of arable land worldwide becomes infertile or barren. Over the past 50 years, soil fertility, nutrient content, and organic carbon content have all decreased. Like a person who continually loses because of an incurable illness.
Farmers are now switching to organic farming, which is carried out without the use of artificial fertilizers or medications. Like in agriculture, manure, earthworm dung, and insecticides are solely made of natural ingredients like neem oil and cow pee. Masanobu Kukuoka developed the natural farming method, sometimes referred to as the "Dukuoka Method," "Natural Way of Farming," or "Do Nothing Farming." The phrase was first used in 1975 by the Japanese farmer and philosopher Kukuoka in his book "The One-Straw Revolution." Sir Albert Howard, a British botanist, is often regarded as the founder of contemporary organic farming, although Subhash Palekar, an Indian farmer who received the Padma Shri in 2016, currently owns that title.

Natural resources that are readily available locally, biological variety for disease/pest management, and nutrients are used in organic farming to increase production in agriculture and animal husbandry while preserving and improving environmental quality. There is a trustworthy way to get. Some standards, known as organic agricultural norms, have been established at the national and international levels in order for this approach to function correctly. Pure organic farming and integrated (mixed) organic farming are the two subtypes of organic farming.

According to a study report recently released by the Center for Science and Environment, organic farming is a natural option that is not only long-term sustainable but also fertile. This analysis is based on 89 scientific studies that were carried out in 16 states starting in 2004.

Only 2.7% of all farmed land in India, or around 38 lakh hectares, is currently used for organic farming, with Madhya Pradesh holding the top spot with over 7.6 lakh hectares. Together, the states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan make up more than half of the nation's total organic farming area. The first country in the world to have 100% organic farming is Sikkim. The primary crops farmed in organic farming include millets, cereals, vegetables, flour, oilseeds, cotton, tea, and coffee spices.

Gujarat became the ninth state in the nation to announce such a policy in 2015, while the country's organic farming policy went into effect in 2005. Since then, comprehensive efforts have been made to promote organic farming in the state of Gujarat, which includes financial assistance ranging from Rs 10,000 per hectare subsidy for four hectares of land per beneficiary farmer to Rs 30,000 per unit of organic fertilizer in addition to training, certification etc. The whole Dang district, some sections of Surendranagar, Kutch and the Dharampur and Kaprada talukas of Valsad all practice organic farming.

As for sugarcane, the main crop of South Gujarat, the production per acre has decreased from 40 to 45 tons to 25 to 30 tons in the last 50 years. A total reduction of 6 million tons for the sugarcane crop taken in 4 lakh acres! On the other hand, a progressive farmer of Nana Ankadia village of Amreli district is getting a bumper production of 3 tones of chilies per bigha by adopting organic farming and getting a production of one and a half lakh rupees per bigha. Whether Vivek and Brida Shah leave Silicon Valley to farm organically on 10 acres in Nadiad, or Parsottam Sidpara, a low-income farmer from a small village called Jamka Gir in Junagadh district, who has been farming organically since 2002 and is invited by the Dubai government as a consultant to farm in the desert, it is up to Gujaratis in this field.

Our Prime Minister advocated organic farming in Anand (and subsequently in Varanasi) in December 2021, emphasizing that we need to move our agriculture out of chemical laboratories and into nature's laboratory. Traditional agricultural practices need to be adapted to the demands of modern times with the help of technology and thereby bring about an agricultural revolution. This will sustain soil fertility, reduce the economic burden of imported chemical fertilizers and benefit the small and marginal farmers of the country, who account for 80%. Today, when this idea has completed a year and today's election results are going to lead to the formation of a new government, let's hope that the state government provides an encouraging and peaceful environment where our Gujarati farmers can do consultancy at world level, this will not only serve the environment but also the confidence of the farmers will return.