Feature Sustainable Agriculture & Food Security The Necessity

By Poshendra Satyal Pravat

THE population growth has globally outpaced agricultural production and the gap between demand and supply of food is bound to widen even more in the years to come. It is more serious in the developing countries, which are no longer capable of feeding the exploding population and depend on imports from advanced countries. The persistence of subsistence farming has become an important feature of developing countries, where most of the rural people are struggling for their livelihood. The global agriculture is at the crossroads due to increasing population. The increasing damage to the ecological foundations of agriculture and decline in per capita availability of land and water have further aggravated the situation of livelihood and food security. In this context, sustainable agriculture that can guarantee food and nutritional security for the increasing population is highly relevant.

Issues

The chemical intensive modern agriculture has ignored its non-sustainability and high ecological cost. This has encouraged the indiscriminate use of chemical fertilisers without paying much attention to the natural health of fertile land, which has degraded the fertility and productivity of soils drastically. The use of high dose of chemical fertilisers has made the crops more succulent and luxuriant thus inviting a numbers of pests and diseases. Furthermore, the intensive use of chemical fertilisers and extensive practices of monocultures have turned our fertile land into deserts. Chemical fertilisers have thus increased the erosion of food security through the pollution of land, water and atmosphere. The green revolution has created a perception that soil fertility is produced in chemical factories and agricultural yields are measured only through marketed commodities.

Similarly, the blind use of systemic pesticides and broad-spectrum antibiotics has killed numerous natural predators and parasites of a pest. It has thus generated severe ecological destruction and imbalance at massive scale, which has favoured evolution and multiplication of new kinds of pest menace and nuisance. The repeated overdose of chemical pesticides has resulted in the development of resistance of the pests to many chemicals.

The ignorant use of higher dose of pesticides aimed at gaining higher crop yields has resulted in negative effects in human and animal health. Today, the distribution and sale of pesticides and fertilisers is almost entirely in the hands of transnational companies (TNCs), who eagerly promote the advantages of chemical method of pest control. These ‘chemicals of imperialism’ innovated from the western market are dumped in the developing world when they realise that the chemical is highly toxic and a threat to the environment and biological lives. The developing countries have been exploited as a ‘dumping site’ for their date-expired, out-dated and highly toxic chemicals. Obviously, the dream of sustainable development in the developing world seems to be a Herculean task.

Soil erosion as well as the depletion of scarce water resources has resulted in the reduction of fertile land resources. The introduction and commercialisation of new high yielding varieties and hybrid seeds with unknown parents have intensified genetic erosion and the loss of locally developed, well adapted and successfully grown plant varieties which are on the verge of extinction. We are silently accepting these "gifts" of modern technology to benefit the TNCs. Furthermore, the technology of the green revolution and globalisation has excluded economically poor regions and people as well as many sustainable options resulting in negative changes in the natural ecosystems and agrarian systems. The commodity-centered ‘miracle’ technology for production practices has created a new dependence of developing world on agro-chemicals, seeds, debt and foreign inputs.

The concept of sustainability and food security is gradually receiving greater attention. What we need in the developing countries is an indigenous, bottom up, sustainable, organic farming system rather than the exogenous, top down, resource intensive chemical farming system. The development of alternative, sustainable, eco-friendly, energy efficient and less resource-intensive farming system is desirable for changing the present status of ‘subsistence agriculture’ into ‘sustainable agriculture’. The goal should not be short-term maximisation of yield, but rather stabilisation of yield with the most efficient utilisation of energy and non-renewable resources, and a minimal degree of ecosystem degradation. The technology should be easily available, economically accessible and viable as well as environment friendly. It should be suitable for the majority of small and marginalised farmers. While developing such system, the efficiency of local farming technologies should not be underestimated and ignored. These are typical, traditional and indigenously developed to suit the local conditions. Utmost care is needed for the evolution of national systems for food and livelihood security. The unsustainable and destructive use of natural resources should be stopped and concern should also be socioeconomic aspects of farming along with the sustainability of the resource base. In this context, sustainable agriculture is the only option because it encourages the successful management of resources to satisfy human needs while maintaining and enhancing the natural resource base and avoiding environmental degradation.

It is noteworthy to mention that the civil society groups in the countries of South have been engaged in implementing and promoting sustainable agriculture systems under the banner of permaculture, bio-intensive farming system or alternative agriculture.

Looking Ahead

Sustainable agriculture is the key to ensure food security and livelihood in the developing world. A transition from chemical- and machinery and technology-intensive agriculture to bio-ecological farming systems based on local resources and indigenous knowledge and technology may assure the sustained physical access to food and livelihood. Hence, emphasis has to be given to ensure livelihood security through intensive dissemination of relevant information and technology, employment generation and increased household income. This will help in the sustainable development of the countries with agriculture-based economy like Nepal.

(The author is a faculty member at Himalayan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (HICAST), Gatthaghar, Bhaktapur.)

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