Urgency for Organic Farming

Urgency for Organic Farming

According to a report published in Times of India dated 7 February 2011, a Dutch national, Tom Deiters, a native of Amsterdam in Holland, is visiting villages in Punjab to take stock of consequences of excessive fertilizer use. According to media reports, the excessive use of pesticides and chemicals has led to growing cancer incidence in toxic Punjab. Tom is prevailing upon the villagers to go in for safe food by growing pesticide-free grains. While asserting that many European Union countries have started practicing the organic farming model, Tom Deiters opines that even if large scale conversion takes time, at least the concept of organic gardens, organic kitchens should be started. What the Government of Punjab and the civil society should do is being done by a foreigner.

Broadly speaking, organic farming is the form of agriculture that relies on techniques such as crop rotation, green manure, compost, and biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and control pests on a farm. The use of manufactured fertilizers and pesticides, plant growth regulators such as hormones, livestock, antibiotics, food additives and genetically-modified-organisms is discouraged in organic farming. The mechanism of organic farming usually entails mechanical weed control, via cultivating or hoeing, rather than herbicidal weed control. It is high time to encourage organic farming by making the small farmers aware about it. Synergy between the Government and the Civil Society is essential to popularize the organic farmng.