Suffering increasingly negative impacts on health and income after regular pesticide use, 530 farmers in 14 villages in the Parvatagiri area of India’s Warangal district have begun to farm organically. The advice to move away from using toxins in food production came from a local NGO called Modern Architects of Rural India (MARI). MARI introduced local farmers to the tried and tested system of ‘non-pesticide management’.
Toxic failure
On average, a farmer cultivating cotton earns between 2,800 and 4,050 rupees per hectare; making it a more attractive proposition than rice. So down the years, farmers who grew rice shifted to cotton, a crop which, when farmed intensively, soaks up ever greater quantities of pesticides. This is due to the fact that as farmers spray the same pesticides year after year, pests mutate slightly, becoming increasingly resistant, thus rendering the pesticides progressively less effective. This meant that ever greater quantities of chemical pesticides were needed to protect a crop.
Pesticides are however very expensive and so farmers must take loans to buy them. Historically pesticide dealers have willingly given credit to farmers, so when crops fail because pests become immune, the debts automatically pile up. Countless Indian farmers have had to sell their farms to avoid being humiliated by the moneylender, others have just committed suicide (see box below for background on specific cases).
Pushing toxins
Warangal district has over 13,000 pesticide retailers selling pesticides worth over 700 million rupees annually. Pesticide salesmen obviously promote this trade, receiving company paid vacations when targets are exceeded.
S. Narasaiah, a sales officer for a pesticide company brushes off criticism saying that nowadays, pesticide companies want to educate the farmer on good practices and proper use of pesticides. But the harsh truth is that farmers solicit free advice from pesticide dealers and salesman on what pesticide to use and in what quantity. This has happened because agricultural extension officers who should be impartially advising villagers are no longer employed in adequate numbers.
Jalapati Rao, a scientist based at the Agriculture Research Station in Warangal says individual farmers are also to blame because they use harmful cocktails of pesticides presuming that this it would be more effective, “most of the pesticides used in Warangal are just not required” he says. Even so, every village has some tragic story to tell of a farmer who died spraying pesticide or committed suicide due to debts caused by buying expensive pesticides.
Natural Solutions
The approach that MARI has taken to address the problem has been to encourage farmers to use non toxic solutions to remove the pest. These include:
using traditional seeds which are more pest-resistant then hybrid seeds
inter-cropping so that pests that attack one crop die when another crop comes up
bio-pesticides (eg.neem)
decoctions (eg.chilli-garlic, tobacco)
a virus that will kill a specific pest
Tukia Modu from Sathya Tanda village in Warangal is one of the farmers who has made the switch to organics. He grows cotton, groundnut, red gram and paddy on five acres. “Earlier, I almost lived with the pesticide sprayer. I am glad I moved back to nature,” he says. Tukia no longer uses any pesticide, now controlling pests using traditional methods. He has started to use clever ideas to remove the problem without resorting to the sledge hammer approach of applying toxic pesticides. These include attracting birds to eat pests by sticking tree branches near his crops so that birds can perch. When they do, they see the pests and eat. He also uses light traps so that insects get attracted to a bright bulb at night. Below the light, is a pail of water mixed with kerosene. The pests fall into the watery grave every night. He also uses pheromone traps where male insects are attracted by the scent of its female species. The next day, Tukia collects the insects and kills them.
Diversity
Farmers are also moving away from cotton to other crops like maize, pigeon pea, green gram and groundnut. It is another simple solution helping farmers rid their fields of pests like the American bollworm that has bored a hole in countless farmer’s finances.
Throughout rural India the extent of poisoning by pesticides is frightening. But while millions of rupees are still being spent on pesticides, there are ever more farmers who are slowly making the transition to organic farming. In some cases, it is because they see the damage it has done to their health and in some cases it is because it is seriously affecting their financial security.
The future
In Warangal, this movement towards non toxic farming is slowly spreading from village to village as farmers see the benefits of organic farming in the small pockets it now exists in. Clearly, it will take time, but change is starting to blow across this great sub-continent. To keep the tempo alive, MARI’s volunteers move from village to village-singing songs motivating farmers to use natural methods to control pests and say goodbye to the increasingly ineffective yet expensive toxins. They know that this journey is going to take a long time. MARI’s secretary, R. Murali feels that a pesticide free village is no dream; it is possible. Farmers just need to be motivated and shown an alternate path.
Modern Architects for Rural India (MARI)
Mr. R.Murali, Director
Behind Ekashila Park
Balasamudram
HANAMKONDA - 506 011
Warangal Dist
Ph. 0870-2571208
The impact of pesticide application on four Indian farmers
1. Vadagam Malliah, a farmer in Perukavedu village in Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh, sits lazily on a furrow watching people go by. He used to be very busy until recently toiling in his farm applying pesticide numerous times a year to his cotton crop. Last year, he had sprayed ten times in the short span of four months in his desperation to drive away the American bollworm. But this year, he has not sprayed once because his health has deteriorated. His eyes burned, he got splitting headaches, he felt weaker by the day, he lost appetite and a feeling of sluggishness had overtaken his life. This was his wake up call. He figured out that it was the pesticides that were doing this to him; he saw numerous farmers like him suffer from the same symptoms. This year, he chose to hire a labourer paying him Rs.60 a day to spray his cotton and chilli farm.
2. Akula Narayana, a farmer from Ragannagudem village in Raiparthy Mandal of Warangal remembers how after sprinkling pesticide powder on his cotton crop, he violently vomited, fell giddy and lost consciousness. That was it. He called a halt to all chemical farming. “Anyway, the pests were not dying even after we used all that poison. So how does it matter? Now, I just let it be. Some of the crop does get destroyed, but it will not kill me,” he says.
3. Kandi Sailu was in his mid forties. He had to sell off three of his seven acres of land to handle some of the debts. But as he grew cotton, he needed more pesticides so he pawned his wife Bhadramma's jewellery and took out loans of Rs. 95,000 from various sources. Ashamed at being unable to repay, he left one morning for his farm and hung himself from a tree. His family now lives in penury.
4. Ask Balamma, is the widow of Kothala Cheralu. Kothala just fell down unconscious on his farm in Konkapaka village after he had been spraying pesticides for five hours. He went into a coma and never recovered. He left behind debts of two hundred thousand rupees. His widow has managed to pay off one hundred thousand rupees by selling three of the five acres of land the family owned. She struggles from day to day in her one room house trying to keep the kitchen fire burning. Her son does not want to farm any longer and is trying to find paid employment.
