Organic Farming

A relief from the curse of Fertilizers

The leading cause of the epidemic of ‘Farmer crisis’ in India is due to the deteriorating land quality due to overuse of chemical fertilizers and climate disruptions. It has led them to a deeper cycle of debt.

The land in India, at present, requires a large amount of input in order to be able to produce the regular yield. Farmers believe that increased use of fertilizers will generate higher yield.

In few parts of India, farmers use around 600-800kg of chemical aids (Pesticides and Fertilizers) per hectare of land in order to maximize the yield. This has not only caused complete deterioration of the land but also left the farmers at the mercy of the moneylenders in order to afford these chemical aids that are sold at 2-3 times the cost.

In response to these adverse farming conditions, the India Chief Minister declared his intention to make the state the first ‘Organic Farming State’ in the country.

Grow your Grain is an approach to encourage Organic Farming in the state while ensuring the farmers with a guaranteed income for their betterment.

Advantages of Organic Farming

1. No Poison Is Always Great
Organic farming does not use any type of harmful chemicals to keep pests away, unlike the majority of industrial farming. They use all natural methods that do not harm the consumer or the environment that they are grown in. Herbicides, pesticides, and artificial growth hormones are all forbidden on an organic farm.

2. Closely Regulated
For a food to be labeled as organic, the entire process is thoroughly investigated. The organic food industry is internationally regulated, which means that organic means the same standards where followed, no matter where in the world it should be made.

3. Better Taste and More Nutrition
Fruits and vegetables that are organically raised have a much better taste than other mechanically farmed ones. This is due to the fact that they are given a much longer time to develop and are not pumped with artificial things. The sugar structures in these crops have more time to mature and develop into a tasty and nutritious product.

4. Costs Are Lowered
There is a deep stigma around anything organic that it had to have cost an arm and a leg to cultivate. This is the opposite of the truth. When you cut out the time that is spent to farm organic crops, the actual costs are minimal. These farmers do not have to shell out large amounts of money for expensive chemicals and massive amounts of water, unlike industrial farmers.

5. The Environment Doesn’t Suffer
Another thing that benefits from the use of organic farming is the environment! In industrial farms, the chemicals that are used are soaked into the ground and contaminate the soil and local water sources. Humans, animals, and plant life are all affected negatively by this. With organic farming, there are no chemicals used, so no pollution occurs either.

6. Organic farming gives organic manures-
Produce optimal condition in the soil for high yields and good quality crops.Organic fertilizer are considered as complete plant food.Organic farming helps to prevent environment degradation and can be used to regenerate degraded areas. They improve plant growth and physiological activities of plants.Organically grown crop are believed to provide more healthy and nationally superior food for human beings and animals that those grown with commercial fertilizers.

Harmful effects of pesticides and fertilizers on human health:

Pesticides are designed to kill and because their role is not confined to one form of species, they also kill or harm other living organisms, including humans.

One of the major concerns in today’s world is the population and contamination of soil. More than 300 million pounds of different chemical poison are now produced in the form of fertilizers and pesticides under different brand names. The World Health Organization estimates that there are 3 million cases of pesticide poisoning each year and up to 220,000 deaths, primarily in the developing countries.

Children, and indeed any young and developing organisms, are particularly vulnerable to the harmful effects of pesticides. Even very low level of exposure during the development may have adverse health effects.

Pesticides formulation contains both “active” and “inert” ingredients. Active ingredients are the ones that kill the pest, and inert ingredients help the active ingredients to work more effectively. These “inert” ingredients may not be tested as thoroughly as the “active” ingredients and are seldom disclosed on product labels.

Pesticides exposure can cause a range of deteriorating health hazards to animals as well as humans such as memory loss, loss of coordination, reduced speed of response to stimuli, reduced visual ability, altered or uncontrollable mood and general behavior, and reduced motor skills, asthma, allergies, hypersensitivity, cancer, hormone disruption, and problems with reproduction and fetal development.

Diseases caused by the insecticides, pesticides and fertilizers

We generally face many problems in simple farming in comparison to organic farming such as- Ground water contaminated has been linked to gastric cancer, goiter, birth malformations and hypertension, testicular cancer and stomach cancer. Excessive air and water borne nitrogen from fertilizers may cause respiratory ailments, cardiac disease, and several cancers, as well as can inhibit crop growth, increase allergenic pollen production and potentially affect the dynamics of several vector-borne diseases, including west nile virus, malaria and cholera. Perhaps one of the scariest effects of chemical fertilizers is something called Methemoglobinemia. In infants it is
alternatively known as blue baby syndrome.The risk most often occurs when infants are given formula reconstituted with nitrate contaminated water. The condition causes a decrease in oxygen in the blood and results in a blue-grey skin colour, causes lethargy or irritability and can lead to come or death.

Nitrogen groundwater contamination also contributes to marine “DEAD ZONES”, the increase in the water -soluble nitrates creates an influx of plant life, which eats up oxygen and starves out fish and crustaceans.