Sustainable Development

The input-intensive agriculture involves various types of agriculture with a high level of input and output per unit of agricultural land area. It is characterized by a low fallow ratio, higher use of inputs such as capital and labour and high crop yields per unit land area. It helps in getting high crop yield on smaller land due to inputs like fertilizers, HYV seeds, machines etc. It is more efficient and it makes it easier for farmers to supervise the crops and also helps in raising their income levels. In India, input-intensive farming can be seen in Kerala, West Bengal, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and other regions like Haryana, Punjab, UP, Bihar as well. However, the practice of input-intensive agriculture in India needs to be overhauled due to various reasons:

• Environmental impact: This type of farming involves numerous types of agro-chemicals, including chemical pesticides, fertilizers, and insecticides etc., which leads to eutrophication of water bodies, bioaccumulation and biomagnification, and biodiversity loss. It also leads to:
  • Increase in soil erosion due to constant furrowing by machinery
  • Use of artificial agro-chemicals adversely affects the soil pH, CEC, soil structure, soil texture and soil organisms.
  • Traditional varieties of seeds and their genetic resources faced extinction due to introduction of hybrid varieties.
• Capital intensive: Given the need of high capital investment, large-scale farmers benefit while small-scale farmers who are short of capital often fall under huge debt.
• Animal cruelty: Intensive farming is highly criticized and thought to be cruel to the animals as it involves the use of various chemicals, growth hormones and excess crowding on a small space and thus unhygienic conditions leading to infections and other diseases.

In this context, Low External Input Sustainable Agriculture (LEISA) has become important. It is based on the ecological principle of minimal use of external agents and involves the process of stimulating soil microorganism. It also ensures optimum nutrient availability through processes like nitrogen fixation. It involves the process of biological pest control methods and also biodiversity through the process of synergetic and symbiotic conditions.

This method is gaining prominence because of its significance in

• Providing Food security: SOFI Report 2021 stated that the number of persons facing moderate to severe food insecurity in India has increased by about 9.7 crore in the last 2 years. The increase in production required to meet this demand will need to be achieved with less water, less labour, and less land, and without adversely affecting the environment.
• Tackling climate change: Agriculture production is estimated to decrease by 10-20% by 2050 because of climate change. Adoption of LEISA based practices can help cut GHG by promoting sustainable agriculture and reducing reliance on non-renewable and unsustainable inputs, particularly environmentally harmful ones.
• Protecting indigenous knowledge and empowering local communities: It acknowledges the right of local communities to control, manage and benefit from natural resources. Thus using the expertise of farmers and tapping the most viable indigenous knowledge and practices and ecologically friendly technologies in a given ecological and socio-cultural setting.
• Efficient use of water resources: It would lead to sustainable water management practices and reduce water pollution as is seen in case of input-Intensive agriculture farms discharging large quantities of agrochemicals, drug residues and pesticides in water bodies.

Thus, adoption of LEISA should be promoted as it aims at making optimal use of locally available natural and human resources becoming economically feasible, ecologically sound, culturally adapted and socially just.