Sow the Seeds of Change: Regenerative Agriculture for a Brighter Tomorrow

For millennia, Indian agriculture was not merely a means of food production; it was a deeply integrated, socio-ecological system refined over generations. Its core principles were sustainability, diversity, and self-reliance.

Key Features

Diverse Cropping Systems:

1. Mixed Cropping and Inter-cropping, in which farmers grew multiple crops (cereals, pulses, oilseeds) simultaneously on the same land. A classic example is the Maize-Bean-Squash combination or Sorghum (Jowar) with Pigeon Pea (Arhar). This practice reduced pest outbreaks, improved soil fertility through nitrogen fixation, and provided a balanced diet.

2. Crop Rotation: Different crops were planted in a sequential season-to-season pattern to break pest and disease cycles and manage soil nutrient levels. A common cycle was a cereal crop followed by a legume.

Water Management:

Well designed and engineered water systems included sophisticated, decentralized systems that harvested and conserved monsoon rains.

1. Tanks were large, human-made reservoirs, often built and maintained by local communities or rulers.

2. Canals and Ahars-Pynes channeled water from rivers.

3. Step-wells, called Baolis, and Kuhls in the Himalayas were gravity-based irrigation channels.

4. Zabo, in Nagaland, was an integrated system combining forestry, agriculture, and animal care.

Soil Fertility Management:

1. The use of farmyard manure (compost from cow dung and other livestock waste) was universal.

2. Green Manure refers to growing and plowing specific plants like Sesbania or Glyricidia into the soil.

3. Nitrogen Fixation: The widespread cultivation of pulses and legumes naturally replenished soil nitrogen.

4. Panchagavya was a traditional concoction made from five cow products (milk, curd, ghee, dung, and urine) used as a fertilizer and pesticide.

Pest and Weed Management:

1. Botanical pesticides were derived from Neem (Azadirachta indica), Karanja (Pongamia pinnata), and tobacco.

2. Weeds were managed manually and often used as fodder or mulch.

Seed Sovereignty:

Farmers saved, selected, and exchanged their own seeds from year to year. This ensured a vast diversity of locally adapted seed varieties that were resilient to local pests, diseases, and climatic conditions. Seeds were a common heritage, not a commodity.

The Socio-Economic Fabric:

This agricultural system was embedded in a village-based economy (jajmani system) with complex inter-dependencies between farmers, artisans, and laborers. The primary goal was subsistence and risk mitigation, not profit maximization. The village was largely self-sufficient.

The First Interruption: The British East India Company (c. 1757-1947)

The British colonial intervention was not an “improvement” but a fundamental restructuring of Indian agriculture to serve the industrial and commercial interests of Britain. This was a violent and systematic disruption.

The British created a new class of landlords (Zamindars) who were tasked with collecting land revenue for the Company. Farmers who had owned their land for generations were reduced to tenants. The focus shifted from subsistence farming to cash crop production to meet fixed, often exorbitant, revenue demands.

Vast tracts of fertile land were forcibly converted to grow cash crops like indigo, cotton, and opium for export. This diverted land and resources away from food grains, making local populations vulnerable to food shortages.

The Second Interruption: American Corporations and the Green Revolution (c. 1960s-1970s)

After the 1947 independence, India faced severe food shortages. To achieve food self-sufficiency, the government, with funding from international agencies, adopted a new agricultural strategy modeled on the U.S. system. This “Green Revolution” was heavily promoted by American agro-chemical corporations and foundations who found a massive new market for their products.

The Green Revolution succeeded in its primary goal of increasing cereal grain production and averting famine. However, it came at a tremendous cost:

1. Ecological damage: Soil degradation, water pollution, loss of biodiversity, and pesticide-resistant pests. Some people believe that these problems are exacerbated by the use of GMO seeds and the chemicals that they require.

2. Economic chaos: Soaring input costs, deep farmer indebtedness, and a crisis of agrarian suicides.

3. Social effects: Increased inequality, as the benefits accrued mainly to large landowners with access to capital and irrigation.

4. Loss of Biodiversity: Thousands of indigenous landraces of millets, pulses, and coarse grains were lost forever as seeds from foreign countries were introduced widely. The diet became less diverse, and the cropping system became ecologically brittle.