THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The agriculture department and the State Planning Board seem to be heading for a direct confrontation. The department has disowned the board's draft approach paper that proposes to enhance crop productivity but negates certain practices, like natural farming, followed by the government.
Even as Kerala has been promoting organic farming and working towards becoming a Carbon-neutral state, the approach paper advocates, albeit indirectly, the need to use more chemical fertilisers. The agriculture department's stand against the approach paper may open up a major debate on natural farming and the planning board’s reluctance to promote the same.
The paper for the 14th Five-Year Plan for 2022-27, while proposing transformation in productivity of crops, plays down major aspects like environment, climate and agriculture, and remains silent on organic farming.
Curiously, it even terms chemical-free agriculture an irrational practice. "Irrational cultivation practices - at one extreme, the advocacy of chemical-free agriculture, and at the other, a complacency towards the misuse and overuse of chemicals - should be discouraged through the development of a modern and responsive agriculture extension system," says the draft approach paper.
It’s reliably learnt that there are differences even within the planning board over the approach paper. Also, it has drawn severe flak from within the government too, with Agriculture Minister P Prasad rejecting the paper. The minister made it clear that the state government fully disagrees with the approach put forth by the planning board regarding organic and natural farming.
"We have been implementing and promoting various centralised schemes that facilitate organic farming in the state. Special emphasis is being given to Carbon-neutral agriculture. The agriculture department has no plan whatsoever to implement the approach paper in its present form," Prasad told The New Indian Express.
Environmentalist Sridhar Radhakrishnan pointed out that many practices followed by Kerala are not being addressed in the paper.
'Paper silent on tackling climate refugee issues'
"There's no mention of organic farming, which currently bags the biggest share of funds from the Union government. Contrary to the situation in Sri Lanka, where organic farming was introduced all of a sudden leading to a major chaos, here it’s being done in a phased manner," said Sridhar.
"The approach paper appears biased as it does not capture the state’s changing perspective regarding climate and agricultural practices like organic farming. It totally negates the agriculture practices and climate initiatives being followed by the government. Though the state has been advocating a Carbon-neutral target, there’s no mention of the same. In short it’s an approach paper with no 'approach'," Sridhar quipped.
He also said the paper is totally silent on how to rehabilitate climate refugees. "The state witnessed major calamities like floods, Ockhi and Covid during the 13th Five-Year Plan from 2016 to 2021. The majority of those affected are yet to be properly rehabilitated. The paper should have given priority to tackle the issue of climate refugees," he said.
Professor R Ramakumar, who is in charge of agriculture in the State Planning Board, said the board has been promoting organic farming and there is no reason for making a special mention it in the paper.
"Besides, natural farming being followed in central schemes has not been scientifically validated either by the Indian Council of Scientific Research (ICSR) under the Union government or the agriculture university under the state government. Numerous reports of ICSR have rejected zero-budget natural farming as a rational alternative," he said.
Ramakumar said organic farming and natural farming are two different concepts. The approach paper talks about practices like natural farming, which are being presented as further alternatives to organic farming, he said.
'Alarming dip in fertiliser use'
"Contrary to the view that there’s an excessive use of fertilisers in the state, the consumption of N, P and K fertilisers in Kerala was only 36.4 kg per hectare, the lowest among the states. Kerala’s consumption of N, P and K fertilisers declined alarmingly over the past decade, from 106 kg per ha in 2010-11 to 36.4 kg per ha in 2018-19," says the draft paper.
'No plan to implement paper in present form'
Agriculture Minister P Prasad made it clear that the state government fully disagrees with the approach put forth by the planning board regarding organic and natural farming. "The agriculture department has no plan whatsoever to implement the approach paper in its present form," the minister said.