Over six decades, intensive agricultural practices in India have reduced natural capital, including the stock of all-natural assets (land, air, water and biodiversity), from which ecosystem services flow. Ecosystem services are the benefits provided by nature and managed by farmers on their farmland. For example, soil and vegetation on farms remove carbon from the atmosphere, regulate hydrological flows, and shelter pollinators who pollinate crops. Farm margins give refuge to several beneficial insects that, in turn, provide biological control of insect pests and diseases, nutrient cycling by soil micro and macrofauna, and social benefits supporting culture and heritage. These are the benefits nature provides to support agriculture and the broader economy. Some of these, such as food, fiber, and energy, are marketed, and the market compensates farmers. However, other ecosystem services remain out of the market as there are no buyers. Just as we do not pay nature to provide these ecosystem services, we do not compensate farmers for managing them. Farmers manage these subsidies of “nature” on their farmland, free for the public.
Natural capital and ecosystem services also contribute trillions of dollars to the economy. But intensive agricultural practices prevalent since the Green Revolution began in the 1960s in India suppressed many ecosystem services and threatens India’s food, ecological, and nutritional security. Soil organic carbon in arable land in India has been reduced from 2.4 percent in 1947 to 0.4 percent, well below the 1.5 percent threshold needed for food security. Mineral density in rice and wheat has declined, while toxic elements have increased over this period, compromising nutritional security.
Industrial agri-food systems in India also cost US$1,338 billion annually in hidden damages to health, society, and the environment. The current fertilizer industry, subsidized at US$20 billion, causes 25 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, and intensive practices continue to promote their injudicious use. Because of the loss of soil health, fertilizer response has reduced drastically. Two-thirds of the fertilizers applied on the farm are not available for the plants due to loss of organic matter. Under the current intensive agriculture regime, India risks food shortages driven by rising demand, climate impacts, soil degradation, loss of natural capital and ecosystem services and declining fertilizer efficacy.
Regenerative farming, however, can reduce the decline of natural capital on farmland, enhances many ecosystem services, climate resiliency, and improves productivity and profitability. Natural capital and ecosystem services constitute farms’ ecological wealth. Global research indicates that these ecosystem services provide greater value for sustainable farming than intensive agriculture. Intensive agriculture has replaced some ecosystem services over the years. For example, the replacement of soil nutrient cycling with synthetic fertilizers and the replacement of biological control of pests and diseases with synthetic pesticides worldwide. In contrast, sustainable agriculture, such as regenerative, natural or organic farming, utilizes some ecosystem services to provide food, fiber and energy and enhance other highly economically valuable ecosystem services for the public benefit. It can be concluded that sustainable agriculture does better than intensive agriculture practices, where ecosystem services are suppressed and often substituted by costly, fossil fuel-based agrochemicals.
Indian farmland, at 178 million hectares, is one of the single largest land uses in India. If it follows sustainable agricultural practices, it can, on average, generate ecosystem services worth US$119 billion annually. Farmers can realize some of this value through increased productivity and incomes via improved natural capital (e.g., soil health and biodiversity) on their farms. Some of this ecological wealth will add to the nation’s GDP through wider public benefits, such as the removal of carbon from the atmosphere, better ground cover, reduction in air pollution often linked to the burning of crop residues, and better groundwater quality, which can result in better health and wellbeing of society.
India has an opportunity to value regenerative farming and invest in agroecological-based regenerative farming to redesign its agriculture. Regenerative farming reduces costs, improves soil health, conserves groundwater, and boosts productivity. Testing and promoting such practices nationwide can create scalable models for the rapid adoption and transformation of Indian agriculture.
We are calling for support from national and international organizations that can help us develop a program to assess the status of regenerative farming in India and its efficacy across all 15 agro-climatic zones. This will help us develop a scalable model for the uptake of regenerative farming in India. These measures will help India transition towards sustainability by redesigning its agriculture and ensuring food, nutritional, and ecological security.
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Photo courtesy of Shruti Singh, Upslash
