Odeals and dilemmas dominate the life of Indian farmers. They have immense capacity to endure hardships natural or man-made. Their farming wisdom remains unchallenged despite technological advancements. The Green Revolution was the finest outcome of their vigorous performance even during crises but the frequent policy changes have always affected their performance. Inconsistent policies create dilemmas, which sometimes prove disastrous.

Now, the farmers are being persuaded to switch over to the age-old organic farming and thus phase out the consumption of chemical fertilisers. It is again a policy-driven dilemma. No doubt that organic food is the best for human health but it is not so easy for the performance-oriented farm sector to revive a conventional practice until it becomes sensitive to the ecological crises ahead. Organic farming is still in practice in many parts of the country. The farming community had been using bio-fertilisers until asked to use chemical fertilisers. Repeated warnings about the harmful use of chemical fertilisers were grossly ignored in the euphoria of the Green Revolution. The incessant use of chemicals eroded the soil fertility and polluted the ground water reserve. The agriculture productivity remains constant despite use of chemical fertilisers. This question is haunting the farming community. Ironically, the advocacies for organic farming come from the Union, States and expert organisations when the fertiliser industry has started growing faster, the consumption of chemical fertilisers per hectare has increased from less than one kg in 1951-52 to 95 kg at present. The fertiliser industry started in the second half of the first decade of the 20th century with single sugar phosphate in Ranipet near Chennai and now has achieved phenomenal growth. India is fast emerging as one of the largest fertiliser producers with 66 large-size plants. Though, increase in fertiliser consumption has significantly contributed to the sustainable production of foodgrains, many health problems have surfaced in the last three decades. The NPK consumption has also increased from 0.7 lakh to 167 lakh million tonnes since 1951-52. The point is that the fertiliser industry will have to overhaul its infrastructure set-up to meet the demand of bio-fertilisers. Secondly, the practice of organic farming would hit the sale of chemical fertilisers and lead to conflicts between promoters of bio farming and chemical fertiliser manufacturers. Over 900 villages in Madhya Pradesh have been identified to promote bio farming and organic farming is the major component of the State’s proposed Agriculture Policy.

Organic farming should be used as a befitting environment-friendly mechanism to check further degradation of the environment. The constant use of pesticides not only pollutes the basic formative components of ecology but also the human and cattle health. For instance, spraying of Endosulphan used on cashew crops in Kasaragod district in Kerala caused mental disorders among the local communities. The fertiliser industry consumes harmful raw materials like rock phosphate, gypsum, sulphur and naphtha to produce nitrogenous, phosphatic and mixed fertilisers. The toxic wastes--solid or liquid--concentrate in soil and gradually distil into the ground water. This phenomenon goes on for years unnoticed and often ignored by the profit maniac industries. The dire effects on future generations could be well imagined.

The farming community should be aware of the imminent environmental hazards caused by the use of chemical fertilisers. The Tames and Lee rivers in the U. S. A. are eye-opening examples of water pollution by the excessive inflow of nitrate. Some parts of Haryana and Punjab have reported dangerous levels of nitrate in water due to use of chemical fertilisers. According to a study, the ground water pollution by nitrates is menacingly higher in some parts of the Indian-Gangetic zone, which is extensively exposed to inorganic farming. The Indian Council of Agriculture Research informs that productivity in Punjab and Haryana is coming down fast and vegetables grown in some parts of India contain heavy metals like cadmium, copper, lead and other toxic elements which cause blood pressure and kidney trouble.

India offers tremendous scope for bio-farming as it has local market potential for organic products. Absence of local markets for organic products in many of the Asian countries brightens India’s chances for exporting organic food. Why organic farming? The answer is simple. Every year 5.33 million tonnes of soil erodes in India and with it 53.3 lakh tonnes of NPK flows away. The three major components of bio-farming are integrated plant protection, integrated pest control and soil and water management. A task force on organic farming set up by the Government of India defines bio-farming as a holistic production management system, which promotes an agro eco-system of health including bio-diversity, biological activity. The Germans promoted the use of NPK but France and other countries frustrated the idea. During English rule, Sir Albert Haward taught farmers chemical farming in 1931. The beginning of systematic bio-farming is a recent phenomenon. Evolution of the concept of farming has been best illustrated in Kautilya’s Arthashastra, Panini’s Astadhyayi, Patanjali’s Mahabhashya and Varahamihira’s Brihat Samhita. The sage Parasara in Krishi Parashara in the 10th century stated that the "life of farmers is solely dependent upon the microbes present in the soil." Kautilya preached that a king must learn agriculture.