A Holistic Approach to Assess the Coets and Benefits of Modern Agriculture System in Punjab, India and Some Solutions

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Since the introduction of Green Revolution, the state has contributed to produce mainly grain crops such as wheat and rice that made India sufficient in food production, thus called ‘food bowl’ of India. The state economy is mostly dependent on agriculture, so these advances in agriculture had led the state to be one of the economically advanced states in the country till 1980s. The state economy grew at a rate of 6 to 7% per annum during 1970-80s compared with 3 to 4% at national level and then it has slowed down to 3 to 4% per annum compared with 8 to 9% at the national level ^[4]. The main agricultural produce is wheat and rice that comprises about 85% of the gross value of total agricultural output and three-quarters of the total cropping area (with 90% irrigated area) in the state as reported by the International Food Policy Research Institute ^[7].

Figure 2. (a) Crop production, (b) Use of various inputs (fertilizers, pesticides and irrigated area) over time in agriculture, Punjab.Source: Statistical Abstracts of Punjab ).

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With the introduction of Green Revolution in Punjab, the focus has been mainly on the production of wheat and rice that involves extensive use of soil and water resources and external inputs. Any associated environmental and/or social concerns due to decline in natural resources or external inputs have been broadly ignored for enhancing production and hence the economic returns. The economic returns from wheat and rice cultivation outweigh any other ecological, social and health concerns. Currently, after 50-60 years, the major focus of agricultural systems is still to achieve higher production outputs that may occur at any environmental or social cost which will be discussed in detail in this study.

The scenario that Tilman et al. ^[3] reported on a global scale as mentioned earlier, is well reflected in Punjab where production of wheat increased from 1,742,000 tons to 15,000,000 tons and of rice increased from 229,000 tons to about 9,000,000 tons from the early 1960s to the late 1990s and then stabilized over the last 7-10 years (Figure 2a), along with increased use of fertilizers and pesticides. The input of N and NPK fertilizers increased from ‘0’ levels in 1960s to about 1000 tonne per hectare in 2004-06 and these estimates are conservative as the actual values will be much higher than reported in here (Figure 2b).

There is no doubt that Green Revolution steered the state to advance agricultural production and related economic gains, however this occurred at the cost of pollution and depletion of soil and water resources, decline in wild and crop plant diversity, loss of general well-being and decline in public health and loss of cultural values (that includes loss of work-culture and excessive use of drugs among the youngsters); the costs of which largely remain unaccounted. Recently people have just started to realize the adverse effects in terms of health, environment and loss of traditional foods to some extent. The state has reached to the stage of stagnation where ecological, social and cultural costs could easily surpass the economic benefits from agricultural produce however such costs are largely outside the ‘economic market’ and remain ‘untagged’ and thus unaccounted.

The present study attempts to apply a holistic approach to address and analyze the various social, economic and ecological issues that are overlooked in lieu of production gains in the modern agricultural systems. This study evaluates the current situation and provides some innovative solutions to develop sustainable agricultural techniques which can offer multiple benefits to enhance well-being of agricultural communities that depend upon these systems for their livelihoods. Moreover, this study suggests ‘lessons’ from a premier Green Revolutionized State such as Punjab for providing a holistic analysis of the long-term benefits and losses of Green Revolution that will be valuable for other developing regions in the world that may be looking to implement such techniques in the future.

The main ecological, socio-cultural and health impacts of Green Revolution over the last 40-50 years are discussed below.

1.2. Ecological Concerns

The main ecological impacts of the current agriculture systems and related practices are:

1. Loss of soil productivity and pollution of soil resources

2. Pollution and depletion of water resources

3. Loss of crop and wild plant diversity

1.3. Loss of Soil Productivity and Pollution of Soil Resources

Continuous cultivation of wheat and rice over a large land area has resulted in nutrient run down in soils ^{[9, 10, 11, 12]} have reported nitrate and phosphorus leaching and subsequent contamination of groundwater throughout the state. Consequently, the agricultural systems have become largely dependent upon chemical fertilizers (N, total NPK), inorganic herbicides and pesticides over time (Figure 2b) that has resulted in higher input costs and, therefore, a decline in the margin of profitability ^[13]. Most importantly, natural resources, i.e. soil and water, were taken as guaranteed and subsequently manipulated and used excessively to enhance agricultural production ^{[1, 9, 14, 15]} to such an extent that recovery of these resources does not seem feasible in the near future.

Government of Punjab in 2009 ^[16] reported that pesticide usage has increased from 3200 kgha1 of technical grade in 1980-81 to 5760 kgha1 of technical grade in 2008-09, an increase of 44% in 30 years. These increases are related to higher levels of pest attack which are thought to relate to rises in humidity level in the recent years ^[17].

Figure 3. Water utilization: (A) Change in percentage of area under different water table depths from 1973 to 1994. (B)Increase in no. of tubewells and gross irrigated area over time.Data source: SAP .

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1.4. Pollution and Depletion of Water Resources

Pollution of water resources mainly due to excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides and decline in availability of water for human use due to increase in cultivation area under irrigation throughout the state, are the alarming issues that have emerged due to current agricultural practices ^[15]. Aulakh et al. ^[18] conducted a state wide survey on water quality and highlighted the existence of dangerous levels of arsenic, selenium, lead and other minerals in soils and water that are hazardous to human health.The fall in water table in the state is usually attributed to increase in rice cultivation area from 1,180,000 ha in 1980-81 to 2,614,000 ha in 2003-04 ^[13]. The trends for rapid decline in the depth of the ground water table and increase in mining of water resources (water tubewells at every 2-5 km distance in the central zone) are of serious concern (Figure 3) ^[6].

Recent data collected by the Department of Agriculture (Government of Punjab) showed that despite having good rains in 2010, the water table across the state has further decreased ^[19]. The major rice growing areas in the central zone of Punjab registered a fall in the water table up to 1.75 m from June 2009 to June 2010 ^[19].

Singh and Sidhu ^[13] further suggested that the fall in water table has flow-on effects in terms of:

• The cost of pumping out water has increased, while the quality of water is getting poorer ^[20].

• Submersible pumps are replacing the centrifugal pumps, hence increasing the power use.

• Increase in the number of tubewells resulting in increased use of electricity. Consequently, the electricity is getting in short supply and diesel pumps are serving as a supplementary source of power are being increasingly used, accelerating the cost of production as well as increasing air pollution.

• In economic terms, there is an increase in cost by Rs 161/ha for wheat and Rs 573/ha for rice crop for the usage of water.

International Food Policy Research Institute ^[7] further reported that most districts in central Punjab exhibited severe overexploitation of water resources leading to risk of salinity. Salinity could be a serious problem for food production/security, not just for the state of Punjab but for all over India if it does occur in the current agricultural systems. There are examples in the past such as Harappan civilisation that faced the similar consequences of misuse of natural resources and of salinity causing the end of that civilisation; providing good lessons for the present generation.

1.5. Loss of Crop and Wild Plant Diversity

As more and more area has been brought under wheat and rice cultivation, the diversity of wild plants and other cultivated crops such as pulses and other cereals has decreased. Before the 1960-70s, people used to practice multi-cropping, with wheat, barley, maize, various pulses, cotton and the like (varied according to the region) to fulfill their own needs and to sell the rest of the crop for monetary gains. This system had helped the communities (both producers and consumers) to adapt to the climate and to the availability of natural resources to meet their needs, although there were less monetary benefits than from the present agricultural systems. This has changed drastically over the past half century and farmers largely became interested in agricultural output for economic gains ^[1]. Singh and Sidhu ^[13] reported that a number of crops like sun hemp, cluster beans and sorghum had almost disappeared and there is reduced varietal diversification in rice and wheat. With wheat-rice occupying more than 77% of net cropped area of Punjab ^[16], the crop diversification index has decreased from 0.75 in 1975-76 to 0.58 in 2006-07 ^[17].

Apart from the loss of minor crops, there has been significant loss of wild species where hardly any data is available. Some examples include disappearance of wild species such as Chenopodiumalbum, Commelina indica, which were widely used in famous winter dish ‘sarson ka sag’. Due to decrease in crop species diversity, there are greater incidents of diseases and insect-pests ^[17]. There is also a risk for the potential breakthrough of wheat and rice related diseases (such as rust/bacterial blight) that will be devastating for the state as its economy is mainly based upon agriculture. Due to loss of plant diversity and forest cover (which is only 6% (1382 square km) of the total area of the State), loss of fauna such as honey bees that play important role in agricultural systems and loss of common birds such as sparrows, peacockshas occurred at a fast speed (State of Environment, Punjab reports ^{[21, 22]}). The situation is so worse that there are rare sightings of a famous bird-peacock (a national bird of India), of sparrows, crows and honey bees which used to be seen common about 20-30 years ago. Moreover, many natural honey producers (operating at a small commercial scale) have to travel to other states to find forested areas for their bees to enhance honey production. This possesses another challenge for cultivation of minor crops which may need the natural fauna for pollination. It could limit the capacity of the state to produce only wind-pollinated crops and could be a major backlash that has not been explored in any of the studies.

1.6. Socio-Cultural and Health Impacts

Each of the ecological impacts, mentioned above, has multiple repercussions on the social system that is closely linked to agriculture. During the course of the Green Revolution, the socio-economic fabric of agricultural society has changed remarkably in terms of social relations, cultural, health and economic values. The agricultural communities have changed from part subsistence-based agriculture (and part-commercial) to mostly commercialized agriculture. Moreover, the other rural communities in the state that indirectly depend upon agriculture, for example carpenter or lock and smith who used to make tools and help people in agriculture are badly affected. Such a situation is rather alarming when most of the population of the state relies upon agriculture not only for monetary gains but also for their basic living and other associated socio-cultural gains.

Figure 4. Total indebtedness of Punjab farmers over time(Source: SAP )

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In terms of health impacts of current practices, pollution of soils due to excessive use of chemicals (fertilizers and pesticides) has exceeded above the permissible limits for human consumption in a large part of the state ^[19]. Some of the chemicals have entered the food chain (vegetables, fruits, milk) leading to many health problems. Aulakh et al. ^[18] highlighted the existence of dangerous levels of arsenic, selenium, lead and other minerals in soils and water that are hazardous to human health. Water availability and pollution have become another major health problem over the last decade, as a major study by the Central Ground Water Board revealed that ground water is polluted with chromium, lead, manganese, iron, nitrate, selenium and arsenic, due to rampant use of fertilizers and increase in industrial effluents in most parts of the state (23 – The Tribune, 1/9/06). A recent study conducted by the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) has indicated that ~ 80% of Punjab’s groundwater is unfit for human consumption due to higher than permissible arsenic levels and suggested a link with rise in skin and lung cancer, especially in the six south-western districts of the state (18; 23 (The Tribune, 06/06/07)). Kaur and Sinha ^[24] provided a direct evidence of the effects of modern agriculture, particularly pollution of water and land resources, on human health. They reported increased incidents of cancer, mental retardation and kidney failures from various villages in the state in relation to changes in agricultural practices.

The other main social issues linked to current agricultural practices are financial burden, female foeticide, breakdown of social network, unemployment and meager career options leading to drug and alcohol addiction amongst youth. The landholding size has steadily decreased. About 800,000 farming families of the state have land holding of <5 ha, amongst which ~ 300,000 families have <0.5 ha of land ^[8]. The dependence for livelihood on such small landholdings has put 90% of the farmers of the state into debt (Figure 4; 23- The Tribune, 6/4/2007).

Figure 5. (a) Conventional cropping: wheat (sown in Oct-Nov and harvested in April) and rice (sown in June and harvested in Sept-Oct)and (b) Proposed ST system (based upon scientific and traditional knowledge, suitable summer crop can be selected after consulting (a) Socio-economic and health benefits, Mainly economic gains (unsustainable) Reduced social, natural and health capital, (b) Socio-economic and health benefits, Economic viability with sustainable gains Gains in Socio-cultural, natural and health capital

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