Thaindian News

New Delhi, July 27 (IANS) Activists of Greenpeace India, the environmental NGO, were all geared up to stage a rally in front of parliament Monday morning and demand an alternative subsidy system that promotes ecological farming. However, before they could even start out, they were detained by the police.
Gopikrishna, sustainable agriculture campaigner of Greenpeace India, who had organised the rally against the government policies and was later detained by the police, said the activists will now think of alternative plans to bring the issue on the centre stage.

“Our plan was to set up a huge balance-scale outside the Parliament premises. The balance-scale was a symbolic representation of the budget allocation for fertilizer subsidies,” he said.

“The pan representing chemical fertilizers proved heavy with lot of monetary allocations whereas the other pan representing ecological farming looked empty. The food security meter tilted towards food crisis. However, we were detained by the police before that and released later,” Gopikrishna told IANS.

According to Greenpeace India, the budget allocation for 2009-10 for fertilizer subsidies is Rs.49,980 crore. Ultimately the government plans to adopt a direct subsidy system where cash is transferred to the farmers directly for purchase of fertilizers.

“While it is important to give income support to farmers, the government needs to provide support for ecological farming if future food security has to be ensured. It’s high time that the government starts looking into models and mechanisms through which it can support ecological farming,” he said.

In their report, Subsidising Food Crisis, which was launched this July 1, it is said that intensive agriculture, with high use of synthetic fertilisers and chemical pesticides, was introduced in India in the 1960s as part of the Green Revolution.

“As a result, synthetic fertilisers’ consumption increased from a mere 0.07 million tonnes in 1950-51 to a staggering 23.15 million tonnes in the year 2008-09. This contributed to the growth of food production in the country, but nearly five decades down the line, indiscriminate use of these synthetics has degraded the natural resource base, especially the soil,” the report said.

“As a consequence, food production is no longer increasing and is now affected by diminishing returns and falling dividends in agriculture intensive areas,” it added.

“What we are demanding, therefore, is that the government should look at an alternative subsidy system that promotes ecological farming and focus the money allocated for chemical fertilisers in the same direction,” Gopikrishna said.

“But now that our voices could not be heard by the parliamentarians (because of detention), we will initiate a consultation process across the country involving farmers and other stakeholders to bring this issue to the centre stage,” he added.