Karnataka - Mysore   

Organic farming may not take off without institutional support

MYSORE: Despite the Government’s commitment to promote organic farming, there is little by way of institutional support to encourage small farmers who wish to make a shift to alternative form of agriculture in the Mysore region.

A major policy shift in favour of organic farming evolved more than two years ago in the backdrop of heightened awareness about the negative fallout of indiscriminate use of fertilizers. So much so that even the agricultural research station at Naganahalli on the outskirts of Mysore was declared as an organic hub with thrust on research and practice of organic form of agriculture.

Though the change in the mindset of the Government was initially welcomed, there is a growing perception that in the absence of institutional support by way of easy access to funds, the concept of organic farming will remain the domain of the “progressive” and the “elite farmers”.

Farmers with more than 25 years of field experience in organic farming have pointed out that switching to this form of agriculture is the only solution to sustain farming in future in view of the increasing production cost.

As Vivek Cariappa, organic farmer, pointed out: “The cost of agricultural inputs has skyrocketed, while farmers have lost their sovereignty over seeds. They have to pay additional sum for seeds. But at the end of the day, the yield is less than what it used to be in the past, while the support price does not even meet the input cost.” But there is a growing perception that if more farmers switch over to organic farming, there should be a sustained effort to provide greater financial support and security for small farmers among them. At present, there is no crop insurance scheme for organic farming or crop loan, and in its absence, no small farmer will risk shifting from chemical farming to organic farming, despite the pitfalls in the conventional method of agriculture.

However, the existing rules and clauses that are linked to agricultural loan and crop insurance provided by banks and other financial institutions are biased in favour of chemically intensive form of farming, according to farmers. So this calls for bring about a change in the rules as also an attitudinal shift among officials and those at the helm of financial institutions who are currently wedded to meet the “targets”. But the concept of organic farming does not revolve around target and calls for a different attitude, according to experts. Hence, there is a perception that unless there is a basic belief in organic farming and its philosophy, knee-jerk reactions will only aggravate the plight of farmers.

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