Towards Sustainable Societies: Sustainable practices and solutions in agriculture -

Struggle at both ends of the spectrum

Dr. Arun Balamatti1

Price is what you pay,

Value is what you get.
- Warren Buffet

It appears that the societies of the future will be societies of ‘individuals’ and not of
‘communities’. Should such societies be sustainable, they would be so because of the
‘triumph of individuals’ and not of human collectives.
Communities could be defined as a “collection of people” with a particular social structure.
Sociologists also define society as “people who interact in such a way as to share a common
culture”. The cultural bond may be ethnic or racial, based on gender, or due to shared beliefs,
values, and activities. The societies and communities of today, however, are so disintegrated
that it is hard to see the sense of belonging, community spirit and shared values. We see
around us people who are mere crowds but not communities.
The journey towards sustainable societies appears to be full of roadblocks; however, there are
several ways to act on making sustainable development a reality, it may not be necessary to
take a dooms-day prediction of the future. Is it really possible to live as individuals and live
sustainably?
Farmers and farming: The struggle at one end of the spectrum
The origins of climate change lie principally in the developed economies. But, unjust though
it may seem, its impact will be at least as great in the developing world (Stagg Richard, The
Hindu 13 March 2008).
Farming today is no more a mere means of subsistence. So long as farmers were farming to
earn their food and sell the little surplus to meet their rest of the requirements, farming was an
occupation within their grasp. Farming was a simple and self-contained occupation - seeds
came from the previous harvests, manure was prepared from farm wastes and cattle dung, the
labour requirements were essentially met by family and friends, and the market was as far
away as the village market.
Thanks to the agricultural research and development (R & D) and associated technology
advancements in the last 100 years, we have become self-sufficient in food production but, in
the process, have externalized agriculture. The Green Revolution filled stomachs but emptied
minds. A large majority of today’s farmers are deprived of learning farming from their
parents, as they go to school. The curriculum at the school does not have agriculture, even as
an optional subject. Therefore, many of the present day farmers and the farmers of the future
will continue farming because they could not get away from farming despite their education
which has not helped them to get an alternative employment.

1
Programme Coordinator, JSS ICAR Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Suttur 571 129, Nanjangud Taluk, Mysuru

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In the present day farming, it is hard for even a seasoned scientist to pick the right
combination of inputs what with a large majority of small and marginal farmers. Farming has
thus become both knowledge intensive and highly dependent on external inputs; now, the
seeds, fertilizers, agro chemicals – available in a wide range of varieties - and even the labour
have to come from outside the system that the farmers are no more familiar with; their
abilities and ‘monetary–earnings’ are simply unequal to their requirements. But because they
have nowhere else to go, they continue to do farming, often the wrong way. As a result,
excessive and indiscriminate use of external inputs has led to degradation and depletion of
precious natural resources like soil, water and biodiversity.
Ghanashyam and Sharma, 2008 report that “The human role in climate change is
indisputable as people down the ages have depleted natural resources and contributed to
degradation of natural environments by cutting down trees, polluting water bodies, and
upsetting the balance that exists because of the interdependency between the various natural
resources. These activities have perturbed the climate system and in the coming years several
regions of the world are expected to feel the impact of climate change very severely”.
Farming has long ceased to be for subsistence and has grown into an enterprise; that is, it is
not sustainability but ‘earn-as-much-from-every-rupee-invested’ is the name of the game. The
old ‘self-reliance paradigm’ has become obsolete. Unfortunately, the farmers are not known
to be good entrepreneurs. They could make a formidable force if united but that is not the
case either. Money is a great divider, is notorious for its character of breaking relationships
and not as a bonding agent. The farmers are not a uniform lot; they were already divided as
small and big farmers, rich and poor, and now they are further divided on political lines; the
national rural employment guarantee scheme and the Panchayatraj system have brought
money to the grassroots but have also created divisions among farm families and
communities. The inability of procuring credit, technologies, seeds, fertilizers, agro chemicals
and finding a decent price have pushed the farmers to the brink. The farmers are all alone at
one end of the spectrum.
Service providers: The struggle at the other end of the spectrum
While the farmers are the only ones who are farming, there are a whole lot of players who are
supposedly the ‘enablers’. The present Agricultural Extension System relies on the National
Agricultural Research System (NARS) for technology development, State Department of
Agriculture (DoA) for transfer of technology and on private agencies for supply of
agricultural inputs. It is a “Supply Oriented Extension Service” wherein the technologies
developed by research agencies have to reach the farmers through the state extension
machinery. This system is increasingly becoming ineffective from the farmers’ point of view
because of the lack of effective coordination between the various actors. As a result, the
farmers are expected to approach different agencies for technology, skill, inputs and markets;
the farmers often end up in the market, at private input traders, owing to their aggressive
marketing strategies and the relative ineffectiveness of public extension agencies. The present
extension system is also lagging behind because it has not changed itself while there has been
a significant change in the very purpose of farming, from subsistence to market. Therefore,
there is a need for reorienting the Extension System to approach the farmers not with the
knowledge, technologies and skills available with the extension agencies but by offering the
inputs and services that the farmers are coming in search of. Preaching sustainability to
farmers isn’t taking us very far, whether one likes it or not, there is a need to position the
credible enablers in the market place. After all, the farmers are seeking value for the money
they are willing to pay. Unfortunately, the many enablers themselves do not share common
territory, community spirit or culture. Although they have their tasks cut out, although they

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may seem to think they are doing what they are supposed to be, they are also aware that they
are struggling to meet the demands of the farmers, thus overweighing the other end of the
spectrum.
Sustainable practices and solutions
If we agree with the problems of farmers and the enablers, how do we explain the record food
production in the last two years? The answer is simple; a few farmers and crops in well
endowed areas have been contributing to the national food bowl. The food self-sufficiency is
largely attributed to fertile lands, abundant water resources, and intensive cultivation
practices by farmers in Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, parts of Maharashtra, Tamil
Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. There are, of course, islands of successes all over the
country. However, we should be aware of the fact that the productivity of almost all crops in
India is far less compared to China. Then, what about sustainability? The answer is rather too
complex. Sustainability is neither about high production of a limited number of crops in
potential areas nor about intensive use of inputs. It is about optimization of resource use and
productivity, it is about adopting less exploitative cultivation practices, it is about using,
conserving and developing natural resources, it is about bringing appropriate technologies to
farmers, it is about putting in place policy and support systems that encourage community
efforts to improve efficiency that is otherwise not possible at individual level. Therefore,
although there are innumerable examples of exceptional cases of individuals, both in irrigated
as well as dry land farming, we are not really moving towards sustainability. It is simply
because sustainability cannot be achieved with individual actions – it carries the risk of
increasing inefficiency, putting one above the other, and hence missing the point that the
human communities are only a subset of nature.
The environmental footprint of agriculture has been large….In using (and frequently
misusing) natural resources, agriculture can create good and bad environmental outcomes. It
is by far the largest user of water, contributing to water scarcity. It is a major player in
underground water depletion, agrochemical pollution, soil exhaustion, and global climate
change, accounting for up to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions (WDR 2008).
Jacques Cousteau, Explorer, Ecologist says, “What we human beings are all living now,
whether we are volunteers or not, is an extraordinary but exceptionally dangerous adventure.
We have a very small number of years left to fail or to succeed in providing a sustainable
future to our species”.
As such, global warming not only threatens the United Nation’s Millennium Development
Goals in the long-term, but it also threatens the capability of people to provide for their own
livelihoods. Climate change will set back progress in human development with negative
implications for social and economic arrangements (The Encyclopedia of Earth, eoearth,
2008).
For attaining sustainability we need to change the trajectory of our thoughts and actions.
How? Again, a very difficult task but as A.P.J. Abdul Kalam says, ‘what we dream we are
also capable of realizing them’. What it takes is, at one end, the farmers have to learn to come
and work together; and at the other end, the scientists should shift their focus from crops and
yields to ‘farmers, farming and natural resource management’, the extension personnel
should be allowed to stop servicing the bureaucrats and politicians and start serving the
farmers, the credit and banking institutions should learn to go to the farmers rather than
evading them, input traders should realize they cannot exploit farmers forever, but will have
to make it a level playing field for farmers.

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One possible answer for coping with climate change, suggested by Andrew Campbell, an
Australian environmental consultant, is, “If we can improve agricultural practices across the
board we can dramatically increase our food production from existing lands, without having
to clear more or put more pressure on soil” (quoted by Ian Sample, 2007).
Climate change is arguably the greatest danger facing humanity in the years ahead. In many
ways, its effects are already being felt and it is too late to prevent warming entirely. However,
the situation is not without hope. Though urgent action is needed, through the combined
efforts of governments, businesses, scientists, and individuals, it is still possible to stop even
greater tragedies and protect the health of our planet for future generations (TakingITGlobal,
2008).
The idea is too farfetched, but we are already paying the price in the form of farmer
disillusionment and climate change by monetizing everything and allowing market to decide
everything for us. It is not the value we as human beings deserve, being the most blessed of
all the living beings. Sustainable societies cannot be built with individuals; they can only be
built by communities and societies who know how to put money and markets in proper
perspective; by communities who value the natural resources, by societies who carry stronger
values and ethics, by individuals who appreciate the value of relationships among fellow
beings and with the nature, much above money and anything else.
References
Ghanashyam, Bharati and Sharma, Manish 2008. Climate change – Myth or reality?
Splash, January 2008.
http://issues.takingitglobal.org/climate?gclid=CK-j_eSK6ZICFQbIbwoddj455A-200408.
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Human_development_and_climate_change-200408.
http://www.sociologyguide.com/basic-concepts/Community.php-
201506http://www.cliffsnotes.com/sciences/sociology/culture-and-societies/culture-and-
society-defined-201506.
Ian Sample, 2007. Climate change could trigger global food crisis, The Hindu, 1 September
2007.
Reid Hannah, Andrew Simmons and Johnson Dr. Victoria 2007. Up in Smoke? Asia and
the Pacific. The threat from climate change to human development and the environment. New
Economic Foundation (NEF) and International Institute for Environment and Development
(IIED), London.
Stagg Richard, 2007. Managing climate change, The Hindu 13 March 2008.
World Development Report 2008. Overview: Agriculture for Development. The
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank, Washington.