The Real Green Revolution - Greenpeace UK

India has a number of high profile, large
scale organic production facilities and
networks. This report profiles two Indian
case studies – the Ambootia Tea Estate and
the Makaii bio fibre project. Other
significant projects include:
• The Dooars Tea Plantation in Bengal,
producing half a million kilograms of tea
p.a. (Mohan, pers. corr.);
• The Peermade Development Society,
whose membership has risen from less
than 200 to more than 1000 between
1997 and 1998 (George, 2000), and;
• Enfield Agrobase, a private company in
Tamil Nadu, with 175 acres of organic
farms. At present this group of farms
grows cashews, mango, coconut,
sugarcane, groundnut, sesame and paddy
rice and maintains a herd of fifty cattle for
milk and manure. The farms have
established facilities for processing jaggery
from sugarcane, for processing coconut oil
and shelling and grading coconuts. They
intend to expand to 500 acres in the next
year and to establish facilities for
processing cashews. All of their produce is
presently aimed at domestic markets as
they feel that they are too small to
compete on international markets (Rao,
pers. comm.).
Such examples represent only the most
visible facet of organic production within
India, and are almost certainly only the tip
of the iceberg. Despite official support for
the ‘Green Revolution’, traditional farmers
have maintained a resistance to adopting
such techniques. In such a vast and varied
country it is difficult to estimate the extent of
de facto organic production, especially as
such forms of agriculture have been neglected
by development and extension services. Some
responses to our survey suggest that de facto
organic farming is extremely widespread.
One survey respondent estimated that 40%
of farmers (i.e. 5 million) in his part of Bihar
farm organically, a practice assisted by the
annual flooding of the river (the Nepli),
bringing tons of topsoil from the Himalayas
and providing a convenient, if not
sustainable, source of fertility (Prakash, pers.
comm.). Venkatesh (in Institute for
Integrated Development, 2001), estimates
than only in one in five dryland farmers in
India use chemical inputs, the great majority
relying upon manure and green compost for
maintaining soil fertility.
Notably India has almost twice as many
IFOAM members as any other developing
c o u n t ry, and a large majority of these are
NGO advocates of OAA, working to develop
technical, advisory and logistical support for
I n d i a ’s farming community. The Institute for
Integrated Rural Development in India is one
of the main NGOs involved in pro m o t i n g
OAA. It provides training and extension
s e rvices, runs a three year diploma course in
o rganic agriculture, and has been involved in
setting up local organic food markets. In
J a n u a ry 2001 it promoted the first all-India
O rganic conference (ibid.). The Researc h
Foundation for Science, Technology and
Ecology adopts a more overt lobbying ro l e
and has published a series of publications
questioning the wisdom and sustainability of
chemical-dependent farming practices (Shiva
et al. 2000, Shiva, 2001). 3 4 It also pro m o t e s
o rganic practices, particularly the maintenance
of biodiversity through seed exchange
networks (Shiva et al. 1995). We re c e i v e d
re p o rts about a recently published all-Indian
d i re c t o ry of NGOs engaged in sustainable
a g r i c u l t u re, but were unable to locate this.
Some local commentators (Mohan, pers.
corr., Faisal, pers. corr.) criticized the lack of
resources made available to conduct scientific
research into technical aspects of organic
farming. Whilst not doubting that this is an
under-resourced area we did nonetheless find
evidence of some significant research
capacity and interest in this area through
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