Representational image. (Photo | Express)
Representational image. (Photo | Express)

Making Agriculture eco-friendly

Meanwhile, biodiversity loss is continuing at an alarming rate. A recent World Wildlife Fund report states that 68% of the world’s biodiversity has been lost in the last five decades.

A decade ago, over 170 nations came together and resolved to stop the alarming extinction of plant and animal species from Earth. Under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, the nations drafted a list of 20 targets that they had to achieve by 2020 to slow down the startling loss of biodiversity. Last week, a leaked UN report showed that none of these 20 Aichi targets have been fully realised by the world. Nations failed to allocate adequate funding or put in the resources to keep their commitment.

Meanwhile, biodiversity loss is continuing at an alarming rate. A recent World Wildlife Fund report states that 68% of the world’s biodiversity has been lost in the last five decades. The reasons for this have been many—population explosion, unrestrained urbanisation, loss of forest cover to industrialisation among others. The biggest reason, however, according to the report is agriculture. Farming has been the reason for 80% of deforestation in the world. Yet, the world fails to consider the environmental impact of agriculture. The biggest loss of biodiversity has been among freshwater species.

In India, close to a third of the nation’s wetlands have been lost to urbanisation and agricultural expansion. Around 12% of the country’s wild mammals and 3% of birds are at the risk of going extinct. A big reason for this has been the current model of agriculture—rampant pesticide use, water-intensive techniques and the race to boost yield. It’s high time policies are adopted to make the farming and food sector eco-friendly, apart from protecting wetlands from encroachment.

The current Farm Bills were an opportunity to address these larger issues in the food supply chain. But the focus has not gone beyond streamlining the post-harvest pipeline. Even there, no substantial measures have been offered to reduce food wastage. The WWF report states that close to 40% of food produced in India gets wasted due to poor planning and accidents. Legislations to reform agriculture must focus on all these aspects. The government must assess and consider the environmental impact, improve efficiency to avoid wastage and provide solutions for moving towards a better land use pattern to make farming a sustainable activity.

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The New Indian Express
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