2020 has been an unlikely year to all yet the calendar still rolls and festivities visit homes. No wonder, Onam this year certainly holds back a lot of chaos and mass gatherings with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic but the essence of it is alive and being celebrated in each Kerala homes now. Sacrifice of the mere selfish existence and choosing ‘divine consciousness’ in living is the underlying essence of Onam.
This is a logic that needs an expansion over sustainable agriculture too, especially in the post-Covid world.
Agriculture is an inspiration of festivals across the country. It is the most common way of livelihood in Indian culture that devotes to 17-18% of the country’s GDP. About 58% of India is now dependent on agriculture primarily and 82% farmers are from small to marginal agricultural background.
Moreover, our economy is a mixed one, partially agro-based and partially industrial.
These farmers are harvesting mass agricultural produces every year to support the growing Indian population. In between 2017-18, FAO reports an estimation of 275 million tonnes of food production in India alone. But, agriculture in India is till seasonal and inadequate. About 15% of world’s population is made up of Indian malnourished statistics.
India uses the water for irrigation from their major and minor canals, rivers, groundwater systems, newly invested rainwater harvesting projects and typical monsoon for agriculture. The irrigation facility in India is very sound but an exploited one because news reports claim that it has been causing groundwater depletion and degradation of the quality of water. The methods of farming are traditional, not eco-friendly and sustainable, thus the commodities are of poor quality. They have no proper access to markets, incentives, quality hybrid seeds, soil humus, universal extension services, etc. which could have boasted Indian agriculture globally and fixed pocket holes of these hardworking farmers. The low pricing of agricultural products in India is one of the grave problems suffered by our famers and also a cause of unemployment.
The need for sustainable agriculture in India rose from aspects like poverty, lack of food security and storage, low quality produces, inefficient distribution of food across the country, irregular monsoon and climate change, harvest spoilage, poor infrastructure, low productivity rate, etc. In a sustainable agricultural system, the production is edible, organic, healthy and environment-friendly. It is henceforth, the best remedy to control malnourishment and the spread of community diseases in India with pesticide-free and chemical-free modes of natural growing food grains.
Sustainable agriculture bears three revised phases- production, storage and distribution that require optimization and critical supervision. Water can be managed with the help of new advances made in sustainable irrigation projects of India thereby facilitating uninterrupted production of food without the need to succumb to seasonal monsoon. Storage of food grains has to be strictly made hygienic, spacious, airtight, temperature controlled and secure. Only then, rate of production will rise in India. Lastly, distribution of quality routes, good quality seeds, biodegradable hummus, required advanced tools of farming, uniform sustainable produces across states, profitable exchange of goods with pay, etc. can flourish the declining Indian agricultural sector.
This ten-day harvest festival we fondly call, Onam is indeed, a great occasion to start the practice of sustainable agriculture. A great source of rejoice and boon for the farmers.
Sustainable Agriculture is the future of good health. The post-Covid era will demand sustainability in almost all spheres of existence, agriculture being an utmost one.
Image Courtesy : Pinterest
Bibliography: https://borgenproject.org/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_India
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