Ecological Agriculture for Sustainable Development

bionomic Agriculture for Sustainable DevelopmentSiddaraju V. G *Dr. M. Indira **IntroductionSustainable development is relevant issue of the act day. Sustainable development refers to development that witnesss the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs. Sustainable development is achieved with sustainable tillage. Food security for the common man is a basic right. Over 800 millions people in the world suffer from hunger which has to be reduced by half by the year 2015. Agriculture plays a crucial rule in addressing the needs of a growing global population, and is inextricably linked to poverty eradication, especially in developing countries. Sustainable agribusiness and rural development is essential to the implementation of integrated approach to increasing victuals doing and enhancing food security in an environmentally sustainable way. fit to Pingali (2001) many countries across the world provide last for innovati onal husbandry, mainly to add-on the productivity for commercial purpose without considering the environment sustainability. Therefore, the concept of sustainability of land is gaining pulse from last few long time. The concept of Sustainability has been discussed in Earth Summits of 1992 and 2002. The Earth summit offered an opportunity for the global connection to address key action on cultivation with a view to sustainability and reducing poverty and hunger, defend biodiversity and access to resources for small bring abouters everywhere. Sustainable development has three components i.e., economic sustainability, environmental sustainability and social sustainability. ecologic agriculture addresses the environment or ecologic aspects of sustainability. Sustainable agriculture embraces several variants of non-conventional agriculture that ar often called radical, alternative, regenerative, and ecologic or low input. ecologic agriculture based on bionomic principles a im at maintaining or enhancing the quality of the environment and conserve natural resources without using chemical inputs leading to sustainable development. The difference amid sustainable agriculture and bionomical agriculture is that sustainable agriculture is a broad concept compared to ecologic agriculture. bionomic agriculture organizations are one of the means of attaining sustainable agriculture. Sustainable agriculture aims continuous join on in contain and greater resilience.For a sound future, bionomical agriculture offers a dynamic fundamental interaction between colly, animal, humans, ecoorganization and environment.Ecological agriculture is economically viable beca theatrical roleReduction in the use of external inputs and increase in farm positive inputs with the greatest potential to benefit the health of farmers and consumers. to a greater extent than productivity through the incorporation of natural process as nutrient cycles, nitrogen fixation, and pest predator relationships in to the coarse outturn process.Greater productive use of the biological and genetic potential of plant and animal species. amelioration of the match between cropping patterns and the productive potential and physical limitations of agricultural lands to ensure long term sustainability of latest production levels andProfitable and efficient production with emphasis on improved management and conservation of soil, weewee and energy and biological resources.The basic requirement in organic ground is to increase input use efficiency at each step of the farm operations. This is achieved partly through reducing losses and toleration of new technologies for enrichment of nutrient content in manure (Sravanan, 2006). The concept of organic farming lays emphasis on economic and ecologic sustainability of agricultural system and hence avoids the dependence on chemical pesticides use (Dhawan and Deshmukh, 2005). correspond to Charjan and Hajare (2002) organic fa rming is only an alternative, which may non be acceptable on short-term basis, nevertheless may be viable on long-term basis, perhaps out-of-pocket to number of issues. An attempt is do in this paper to analyze the economic performance of bionomical agriculture and youthful font agriculture system and to identify the debates for the innovation from modern agriculture to bionomic agriculture.MethodologyThe present study is based on primary data collected from 50 ecological farmers and 50 modern farmers in the production of paddy and Sugarcane in Mysore and Mandya districts of Karnataka. stinting performance of any system could be study by analyzing the price and returns. In the present study relative economic performance of ecological and modern agriculture is analyzed in terms of Farm Business Income (FBI). Location, distribution of sample farmers is presented in table 1. duck 1 Particulars of selected district and talukDistrictTalukNo. of Ecological farmersNo. of Modern FarmersMysoreMysore1616Nanjanagud99MandyaMandya1414Maddur1111The above table shows that Location, distribution of sample farmers. Ecological farmers are located in Mysore and Nanjanagud taluks in Mysore district and Mandya and Maddur taluks in Mandya district. Mysore taluk in Mysore district has the large number of ecological farmers and Mandya taluk in Mandya ditrict has to a greater extent number of ecological farmers. Equal numbers of modern farmers were selected for comparative analysis.Analysis and interventionEconomic PerformanceFarm Business Income (FBI) is one of the indicators to measure the economic profitability of an agriculture farm. It has been elect to down the stairsstand the relative economic profitability of ecological farming and modern farming systems in the production of selected crops. FBI is the difference between the gross returns and constitute A1.Farm Business Income = rough Income bell A1Cost of kitchen-gardeningAverage cost and returns on a lower floor ecological and modern agriculture in the production of paddy and sugarcane are presented below.PaddyAverage cost per acre in the production of paddy under ecological and modern farming systems, yield per acre, returns from main product and returns from by product, net returns per acre are presented in table 2.Table 2 Costs and Returns from Ecological and Modern Agriculture in the point of intersectionion of PaddySl. No.ParticularsEcological AgricultureModern Agriculture1Farm Power614755392 native Nutrients19576553chemical substance Fertilizers10304Seed3673525Irrigation3793896Land Tax29247 dispraise Charge on Farm implements10184498 wear and tear Charge on machinery6236039Repair of Machineries44923310Total Cost of Cultivation(1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9)10968927411Yield (Quintal/acre)232212Price Received (Rs/quintal)63961213Returns from main Product (Rs/acre)146971346414Income from by-product (Rs/acre)106778615 perfect(a) Returns/Rs(13+14)157641425016Net returns/Rs(15-13)47964975Source inspect selective informationGross returns from paddy produced under ecological agriculture found to be marginally higher(prenominal) compared to the paddy produced under modern farming system. While gross returns from ecological agriculture was Rs. 15764 per acre, the same from modern agriculture was Rs. 14250 per acre, a difference of Rs 1514 per acre. save net return was relatively low from ecological agriculture (Rs. 4795 per acre) compared to modern agriculture (Rs. 4975/acre), because cost of agriculture was higher for ecological farms (Rs. 10969 per acre) compared to modern farms (Rs. 9274/acre). Cost of organic nutrients, farm power, farm disparagement charges are higher in ecological agriculture. Marginal differences could be seen in other be. While organic nutrients were expensive, the transportation of FYM, its administration, transplantation, weeding require more labour, which is reflected in the farm power. Farm dispraise charge is higher in ecological agriculture due to more use of farm equipments. The yield from ecological agriculture was not found to be much higher than modern agriculture. While ecological farms produced 23 quintal/acre, 22 quintal/acre were produced from modern farms. Ecological farmers received Rs. 27 per quintal of paddy, which is slightly higher price than the modern farmers. The yield and price was not much difference under the two methods of cultivation. Therefore, net return too was not much different.SugarcaneSugarcane is a commercial annual crop grown mainly in Mandya and Mysore districts of Karnataka. Average costs and returns in the production of sugarcane is presented in table 3.Table 3 Costs and Returns under Ecological and Modern Agriculture in the Production of SugarcaneSl. No.ParticularsEcological AgricultureModern Agriculture1Farm Power22589204412Organic Nutrients24148613chemical substance Fertilizers35024Seed130013005Irrigation4244436Land Tax27267Depreciation Charge on Farm Implements180034038Depreciati on Charge on Machinery117214999Repair of Machineries vitamin D20410Total Cost of Cultivation(1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9)302253167911Yield (Ton/acre)524912Price Received (Tonn/Rs)98996113Gross Returns/Rs514284708914Net Returns/Rs(13-10)2120315410Source Survey DataNet returns from sugarcane were found to be higher from ecological farms (Rs. 21202 per acre) compared to modern farms (Rs. 15410 per acre). Similarly the gross returns were Rs. 51428per acre from ecological agriculture and Rs. 47089 per acre from modern agriculture. Relatively higher cost of cultivation in modern agriculture is due to higher cost of chemical fertilizers and farm depreciation charges. Chemical fertilizers kindred Urea, Potash, Complex and Salt were expensive. Farm depreciation charge is higher in ecological agriculture due to more use of farm equipments. Marginal differences could be seen in other costs except farm power. Because the cost of the transportation of FYM, weeding, harvesting and its administration requi re more labour, which is reflected in the farm power. The cost of cultivation of sugarcane with modern agriculture is costing Rs. 1454 more per acre. Yield per acre under ecological farming is nearly three ton more than that from modern cultivation and ecological farmers received Rs. 28 higher for one ton of sugarcane than the modern farmers. Higher yield and returns have contributed to higher returns from ecological farming than the modern farming. Net returns from sugarcane under ecological farming are Rs. 5792 more than that from modern agriculture.Farm Business IncomeFarm business income under ecological and modern agriculture in the production of annual crops (paddy and sugarcane) is presented in table 4.Table 4 Farm Business Income of Annual wreaks under ecological and modern farming systemPaddySugarcaneVariablesEcological AgricultureModern AgricultureEcological AgricultureModern AgricultureGross Returns15,76414,25051,42847,089Cost A110,9689,27430,22531,679Farm Business Incom e (FBI)4,7964,97621,20315,410Source Survey DataThe above table shows that larger variation in the FBI could be observed in the production of Sugarcane, which is a commercial crop. In the production of Paddy, FBI under ecological farming is marginally lower i.e., by Rs.180. Cost A1 under ecological agriculture is higher by Rs.1694 per acre. However gross returns is higher by Rs.1514 per acre. But in the case of sugarcane, FBI from ecological cultivation is higher by Rs.5, 793 per acre. In the case of sugarcane, cost of cultivation under ecological cultivation is relatively low. It is lower by Rs.1, 454 per acre. Gross returns are higher under ecological agriculture.The above analysis clearly shows that ecological agriculture is economically profitable. It has double advantage to the tiller it provides greater returns to the growers at present and ensures the sustainability of these returns in future by protecting the profuseness of the soil. variationTransition is the process of co nversion from modern agriculture to ecological agriculture. After introduction of all necessary changes inevitable also, it might take some time before the changeover is completed. Modern farming system depends on external inputs and is market oriented. On the other hand ecological farming is based on ecological principles of nature and depends more on inputs produced on farm. The production under ecological agriculture need not necessarily for subsistence. The growers may have several objectives in shifting from modern system of cultivation to ecological system. By understanding the motivation behind the shifting, it is possible to encourage more conversions.Reasons for Transition Process development on what made the selected farmers to switch over to organic farming system from modern farming system was gathered. In many cases majority of the farmers reported that transition from modern agriculture to ecological agriculture was due to the possibility of producing healthy food, e nvironmental protection and soil fertility management under organic farming system. A detailed analysis of Paddy and Sugarcane is presented in table 5.Table 5 Crop wise Reasons for transition from modern agriculture system to ecological agriculture systemSl. NoReasons for transitionFrequency and PerpennyagePaddySugarcane1Cost of cultivation is low8(28.6)10(35.7)2Health28(100.0)23(82.1)3Employment14(50.0)15(53.6)4 farming Fertility Management20(71.4)22(78.6)5Environmental Protection16(57.1)19(67.9)6Yield18(64.8)12(42.9)Source Survey Data,Note Values within brackets represent parting to total growers (Percentage dont add to 100 due to multiple response)In recent years paddy farmers are practicing ecological agriculture due to different reasons. jibe to selected farmers, more than 70 per cent of the total farmers have shifted from modern agriculture to ecological agriculture, in narrate to maintain soil fertility. According to them, by using cowdung, ash, farm yard manure soil ferti lity can be maintain for many years. Health is one of the important factors influencing the paddy farmers to shift from modern agriculture to ecological agriculture. According to these farmers ecological food has positive impact on health and to be sure of the supply of organic food, they shifted to ecological agriculture. Paddy farmers also said that ecological agriculture takes more enjoyment compared to modern agriculture. Survey results have shown that employment in ecological agriculture is more by 9 mandays/acre compared to modern agriculture. More than 50 per cent of the total farmers have shifted from modern agriculture to ecological agriculture due to employment. Cost of cultivation is high in ecological agriculture compared to modern agriculture, because initially more investment is inevitable in ecological agriculture. After completion of transition (5 years) gradually cost is decreased in ecological agriculture. Nearly 65 per cent of the ecological paddy farmers said that they shifted due to higher and stable yield that they are expected under ecological agriculture. The results support this and yield under ecological farm is more by 1 quintal per acre.In the case of sugarcane, 82.1 per cent of the total farmers have shifted from modern agriculture to ecological agriculture because they believe that it leads to healthy life. More than 65 per cent of the total farmers have transform from modern agriculture to ecological agriculture due to soil fertility maintenance and environmental factors like pollution control, sustainability, water management etc. Sugarcane farmers also opined that ecological agriculture creates more employment compared to modern agriculture. Only 36 per cent of the farmers shifted because they think that cost of cultivation is low under ecological agriculture. In the case of paddy more shifts took place due to ecological factors than economic factors.The main reasons for transition can be found in environmental sustainabili ty as well as health and soil fertility management. Paddy and sugarcane farmers mainly reported that cost of inputs like chemical fertilizers and pesticides are exceedingly expensive. The results clearly show that the awareness about environmental impact of modern agriculture is the main reason for the farmers to shift to ecological agriculture.ConclusionThe over all analysis of the study highlights that ecological agriculture is economically profitable compared to modern agriculture. It provides greater returns to the growers at present and ensures the sustainability of these returns in future by protecting the fertility of the soil and enhancing the quality of environment and conserve natural resources. Farm Business Income from ecological agriculture is more due to higher yield and price. It is mainly due to the purchase of organic manure by the growers. Efforts should be made to encourage farmers to keep livestock to produce on farm organic inputs in order to reduce the cost of organic manures. The main reason for transition from modern agriculture to ecological agriculture was the awareness about environment and health. This awareness is limited only to those who are educated. Efforts should be made to create awareness about two aspects of ecological farming i.e., awareness about environmental consequences of ecological farming and economics of ecological agriculture.ReferencesCharjanY.D and T.N Hajare (2002), Ecological Agriculture Solves the Problems of Indian Agriculture, Kisan World, l29 (7), pp. 43-4.Dhawan AS and MS. Deshmukh 92005), Organic Farming in affinity to Environment Pollution, Kisan World, 32(2) February 2005, Pp 27-28.Saravanane M et al (2007) Organic Production System Kisan World, 34 (03), Pp. 45 47, March 2007Thakur and Sharma KD (2005), Organic Farming for Sustainable Agriculture and Meeting the Challenges of Food Security in 21st Century An Economic Analysis, Indian Journal of Agriculture economic science, 60 (2), April-June 2005, Pp 205-219.1* Senior Research Scholar, Department of Studies in Economics and Cooperation, University of Mysore,Mysore, Email emailprotected** Reader, Department of Studies in Economics and Cooperation, University of Mysore, Mysore,Email emailprotected.