Amit Shah: Agricultural production was low in India due to lack of irrigation and good-quality seeds, it is time to switch to natural farming

“Western countries didn’t know farming, whereas our forefathers knew agriculture well. Agricultural production was low here because we didn’t have irrigation facilities and good-quality seeds. However, we concluded that by applying urea, we could increase production. But in the process, we harmed the quality of our soil,” Shah said, addressing a public meeting of farmers after laying the foundation stone of the new headquarters of the Junagadh District Cooperative Bank (JDCB) and inaugurating the farmers’ training centre on the yard of the Junagadh Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Committee (APMC) in Junagadh. He also inaugurated a separate facility for auctioning produce brought by farmers doing natural farming in the APMC yard.

India used to have food shortages in the 1960s and 1970s and the country used to import foodgrains from countries like the US. To overcome this, the government, with the help of agricultural scientists like Normal Borlaug and M S Swaminathan and support from US-based NGOs, launched Green Revolution in 1967-68 by promoting high-yielding and disease-resistant varieties of rice, wheat, jowar, bajara, maise, etc, adoption of mechanisation in farming operations and use of chemical fertilisers like diammonium phosphate (DAP) and urea, and applications of synthetic chemicals for pest control. Thanks to these measures, foodgrain production in the country increased significantly by the late 1970s.

Today, India is among the world’s leading exporters of wheat and rice, besides several other agricultural products. However, the country is dependent on imports of chemical fertilisers and the government pays enormous subsidies to farmers for these fertilisers. Of late, the Centre and states like Gujarat started pushing natural farming while discussing the likely adverse impacts of fertilisers and agrochemicals on soil and human health.

“Natural farming is the only way we shall be able to save our soil in the coming days. If we continue to use DAP and urea as rampantly as we are now, this soil will become like cement-concrete in 25 years,” Shah said.

“Through natural farming, we can save ourselves from diseases like cancer caused by foodgrain cultivated through doses of urea and DAP,” he added.

Natural farming does not use synthetic or inorganic chemicals and relies on cow products to meet requirements for maintaining soil fertility, crop protection chemicals, etc. It differs from the organic farming concept in which organic inputs can be from non-cow livestock.

The Union minister said that the overuse of chemical fertilisers and pesticides has affected earthworms adversely, triggering a vicious cycle. “Those farmers who use DAP and urea, tell me if you find a single earthworm on your farm. We have eliminated all earthworms, a live factory of urea and DAP on our farms. This earthworm consumes soil daily and excretes urea and DAP, keeps soil porous and gives it its moisture-retaining capacity. Thanks to the earthworm, positive bacteria thrive in the soil of our farm, and where there are such positive bacteria, pests don’t develop. Therefore we won’t have to spray pesticides,” Shah said, claiming these were scientifically proven facts.

Citing an example of his own farm, Shah also sought to allay concerns about a drop in production after switching to natural farming. “It has been scientifically proven that production doesn’t fall by adopting natural farming practices. Conversely, the production increases, earthworms return, our soil retains more moisture from rainwater, and we don’t require pesticides. Not only does the production increase, but we also get higher prices for our produce,” said Shah.

“This is a very easy process. I have adopted this on my farm. This is the third year of it, and in these three years, my production has increased over the previous levels. By the fifth year, it will increase almost 1.5 times. It’s been my personal experience that earthworms appear immediately if I dig the soil with a kodali (garden hoe) anywhere.”

Shah, also the Union home minister, said that the Central and state governments were making necessary arrangements for marketing produce cultivated through natural farming practices.

He said the Union cabinet had approved setting up three multi-state cooperative bodies for this purpose. He said that while two of them would procure produce of farmers doing natural farming on the pattern of Amul and offer higher returns, the third would act as an export house for such farmers and praised JDCB president Kirit Patel for making arrangements for separate auction of such products on the Junagadh APMC mandi.

“Lakhs of farmers have adopted natural farming. One cow is sufficient for 21 acres of land. The Gujarat government gives Rs 900 to the farmer who keeps a cow. We will have to turn to this type of farming quickly and show the world the way within a short period,” Shah appealed to farmers while requesting presidents of district cooperative banks Junagadh, Amreli and Rajkot to set up a village-level service cooperative society in their jurisdiction which would procure milk as well as farm produce from farmers.