India Must Formulate Agriculture Pricing With An Ecosystem Approach Well Within TEEB Framework

If CMNF programme in Andhra Pradesh can demonstrate such remarkable performance, there is hope from the Dantewada experiment, and also from the National Mission on Natural Farming when extended to one crore farmers in various parts of the country

In her book ‘My Regenerative Kitchen’, author Camilla Marcus, who is known for launching New York City’s first zero-waste restaurant, talks of regenerative farming as “the single biggest impact we can make on the climate crisis.”

It is as simple as that. But whether we are able to ensure regenerative farming at a scale that many people envisage will depend on how loud the consumers begin to ask for it. As I have often said, unlike the Green Revolution, which was primarily driven by virile farmers, the next food revolution will be consumer-driven.

Coming back to the book, while I await the Indian edition (it is quite expensive for me) but going through her interview on Fast Company news portal, I was able to track her journey a little, and capture the simple practices that can reduce your carbon footprint.

Before I can lay hands on her book, I realise that her journey to make ‘regenerative farming as ubiquitous as organic’, must be inspiring. I am still curious to know more.

But what struck me more was a quote from the forward to the book, wherein Alice Waters writes: “Let us embrace the soil as a sacred trust, a reservoir of hope from which the seeds of sustainable future shall sprout. For in the embrace of healthy soil lies our greatest salvation – a beacon of resilience illuminating the path toward a thriving planet for generations to come.”

Very well said, and if the policies shift towards protecting and preserving the soil treasure, it will still be an opportunity to recover and build on nature’s abundant reservoir that literally lies below our feet. This brings me to another timely initiative that policy makers in India have recently announced – the launch of Rs 2,481-crore National Mission on Natural Farming. It plans to cover 7.5 lakh hectares of the land area reaching out to one crore farmers. The mission envisages setting up 2,000 model demonstration farms along with 10,000 need based bio-resource centres that will provide ready-to-use bio inputs. It all appears laudable so far, but how well it is implemented in 15,000 planned clusters in Gram Panchayats will determine the future of the sustainable pathway that is the need of times.

The proposal to lay out the contours of the National Mission on Natural Farming also comes at a time when the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture at Hyderabad had become a partner in an ambitious transition towards organic Dantewada in the Maoist-hit Bastar region of Chhattisgarh.

There are about 27,000 farmers in Dantewada district, of which only about 750 farmers use chemical inputs. Given that roughly 80,000 hectares of cultivable land has already been certified organic, the challenge to convert the remaining farmers who follow chemical farming practices to transition to natural farming systems is relatively less daunting. How well Dantewada emerges on the organic farming map of the country will show the possibility of reaching out to similar hostile terrains.

When I talk of taking organic farming to Dantewada district, adequate attention also needs to be drawn to the success of the Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming (CMNF) systems in the neighbouring State. With already 850,000 farmers adopting natural farming practices, the programme has a target of converting 1.3 million by 2025, and hopefully reaches out to six million farmers in the next few years.

Between 2020 and 2022, farm incomes have increased by a whopping 56 to 80 per cent per year under natural farming in Andhra Pradesh. Such is the impressive transformation that for every dollar invested the return on investments is six to eight dollars. More importantly, the Green House Gas (GHGs) climate emission reduction has been to the tune of 29 per cent to 91 per cent, depending on the crop grown.

If CMNF programme in Andhra Pradesh can demonstrate such remarkable performance, there is hope from the Dantewada experiment, and also from the National Mission on Natural Farming when extended to one crore farmers in various parts of the country. While a significant expansion in natural farming will reduce biodiversity loss and address health challenges, what is equally important is the role it will play in rejuvenating soil health. This alone will lay the foundations for a sustainable future. Given that India has only 2.4 per cent of world’s land resources but has 18 per cent of the global population to feed, future food security will depend on how well we conserve, protect and build on healthy soils. Already 30 per cent of the soil in India is degraded to varying degrees. As far as soil erosion is concerned, research shows that three per cent of our land surface faces ‘catastrophic erosion’.

While the proposed National Mission will primarily focus on production aspects, which of course is of paramount importance given that the transition towards natural farming is not going to be easy, I still believe that unless appropriate attention is not paid for building an assured marketing system as well as for pricing of naturally farmed products, the National Mission may face a hurdle.

Leaving the prices to markets may not be attractive enough for organic farmers. As the area under natural farming expands, the prevailing higher prices for organic produce that is available in the niche market will gradually come down, leaving hardly any incentive for organic farmers.

It is in this connection that Himachal Pradesh shows a way forward. Besides providing free certification to 1.5 lakh organic growers, the State is providing a higher Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs. 4,000 per quintal for wheat (against an MSP of Rs. 2,275 for the 2024-25 marketing season) and Rs. 3,000 per kg of maize (against an MSP of Rs. 2,300 per quintal). In addition, the State is upgrading the market infrastructure in 10 mandis to streamline the sale of organic produce. Already, about 4,000 quintals of organic maize has been procured from 1,506 farming families.

As far as setting of an alternate supply chain is concerned, Himachal Pradesh has identified processing units that can exclusively cater to organic products. It plans to launch a brand ‘Himbhog’ under which organic flour (atta) will be available to consumers.

Presently, about 1.98 lakh in 35,000 hectares are engaged in natural farming.

It will be much better, if by using the Economics of Ecosystems of Biodiversity (TEEB) approach, the proposed National Mission should work out the pricing of naturally farmed produce.

Already the United National Environment Programme (UNEP) has perfected a natural accounting system where an economic value is ascribed to the ecological costs of production, and the value added to the price a farmer is paid so as to provide a fair price to organic growers.

It is time India takes to the formulation of pricing, as per an ecosystems approach, out from the purview of academic circles, and takes on board the TEEB framework for determining the prices for organic produce. It also must ensure a guaranteed ecosystem price below which no trading takes place.

(The author is a noted food policy analyst and an expert on issues related to the agriculture sector. He writes on food, agriculture and hunger)