Sustainable Agriculture: Problems, Prospects and Assessment of Performance
The last R&D lecture of the academic year was held in the Mahatma Hall. Mr A V Balasubramanian was the guest speaker. Dr Sudarsan Padmanabhan introduced the speaker to the audience.
Mr Balasubramanian began the talk by outlining the several factors which make India well-endowed. Among several plentiful resources, three-fifth of India’s land is cultivable and it is home to two Vavilov Centres for Bio-diversity. The speaker said that organic farming in India is not the postmodern phenomenon as seen in the West, but is built upon the indigenous knowledge base. Traditional sources of knowledge, like Vrikshayurveda, are composed of both classical and folk traditions. They provide valuable insights into a wide range of applications such as pest control and yield increase. Despite poor support and little recognition from the mainstream agriculture institutions, some of the traditional practices are documented by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research(ICAR). These practices were tested and validated by ICAR, and the results show a remarkable success in 85% of the same.
As part of the NGO, Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems(CIKS)’s initiatives, Mr Balasubramanian presented his assessment of sustainable agriculture. He discussed the different agronomic, nutritional and therapeutic properties of several sustainable crop varieties. He also emphasised the point that there is no level playing field between the organic and the chemical systems of agriculture and hence the comparison of performance is not commensurate.
The talk was followed by a Q&A session. Prof V R Muraleedharan and Dr Mathangi Krishnamurthy also spoke on the occasion.
About the Speaker –
- V. Balasubramanian obtained his M.Sc. degree in Chemistry from Bangalore University and did a Post M.Sc., diploma in Molecular Biophysics from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.Later he studied Physiology and Biophysics at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.Since 1982 he has been involved in work relating to various aspects of Traditional Indian Sciences and Technologies and trying to explore their current relevance and potential. In 1995 he founded the Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems, (CIKS) an institution devoted to exploring the contemporary relevance and applications of Indian Knowledge Systems, particularly in the area of sustainable agriculture. In CIKS he has been involved in the production of educational and training material on various aspects of Sustainable Agriculture as well as research on this topic drawing upon indigenous knowledge wisdom and practices. More recently he has also been involved in helping farmers to set up a large number of producer companies through which various activities relating to the production and marketing of organic produce are carried out as well as services for farmers are offered. He has been a member of several committees of the Government of as well as on the Editorial Board of several Magazines and Journals.
-By Akshay Patil.
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