Fifteen years ago, the tiny Indian state of Sikkim launched a radical experiment: Its leaders decided to phase out pesticides on every farm in the state, a move without precedent in India — and probably the world.
The change was especially significant for India, a country whose progress in agriculture was defined by the introduction of fertilizers and pesticides that rapidly boosted food production across the country, staving off famine and reducing the country’s reliance on foreign aid.
But with the indiscriminate use of pesticides came a spike in cancer rates in industrial farming areas. Rivers became polluted, and soil infertile. Sikkim’s leaders say they were driven to go all-organic by those concerns and because pesticide residue — including from some chemicals banned in other countries — was tainting fish, vegetables and rice.
The cloud-wreathed Himalayan state is starting to see the dividends. Overall health has increased in the state, leaders say, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has embraced Sikkim and organic farming throughout India, pouring about $119 million to support organic farmers nationwide. India is betting that Sikkim can be the global model for other jurisdictions around the world that want to go all-organic.
In the years since the shift to organic, Sikkim has outlawed pesticides and chemical fertilizers, aided farmers in certifying about 190,000 acres of farmland as organic and on April 1 banned the import of many nonorganic vegetables from other states. The transition has not been always easy: Some farmers have complained that their crop yields have decreased and that they haven’t gotten enough support from the government.
The small state’s organic acres constitute just a sliver of India’s 5.6 million acres of chemical-free farmland, which itself is a fraction of India’s nearly 400 million acres of agricultural land. (The United States also has about 5 million acres of organic farmland.)
Demand for organic food is high in India and growing fast. Concern about pesticides and desire for chemical-free food are fueling market growth that is rising 25 percent a year, more than the 16 percent globally, according to a recent study by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India. The market for organic products is about $600 million now and could top $1 billion in the coming years, the study said.
“This is a big moment for India,” said Radha Mohan Singh, the country’s minister of agriculture and farmers’ welfare.
In a brightly colored tent in a mountain town one recent day, Sikkim’s chief minister, Pawan Kumar Chamling, exhorted 300 or so constituents in the audience to embrace the eco-friendly lifestyle.
“The approach Sikkim has started will be adopted by the whole world tomorrow,” he said, in a speech that stretched five hours. “This is our vision!”
Date: June 06, 2018