Chemical fertilizers and pesticides used in agriculture are examples of how environment damaging practices carried out for short time commercial profits always extract a heavy price from society. Green Revolution Farming with promise of bumper food harvests to "feed millions" soon gave way to excessive exploitation of irrigation, propagation of cash crops beyond the capacity of the soil and terrain and domination by big agri-businesses whose only interest in farming was maximization of profits.
This has destroyed large areas of fertile agricultural soil, marginalized thousands of small farmers as costs began outstripping their meagre earnings, poisoned the earth with chemicals from fertilizers and pesticides to levels where toxic chemicals began finding their way into the food chain and bodies of animals and human beings. Many farmers waking up to these dangers are now abandoning chemical fertilizers/pesticides/hybrid seed driven farming for environmentally safe organic or natural farming practices.
Parisar has long advocated sustainable agriculture and organized "Natural Farming Meets". The first Natural Farming seminar was organized by Parisar in Nasik on 14th and 15th of January 1989. More than hundred persons attended from different parts of Maharashtra and participated in discussions for two days. Over the years, with the growing media exposure about toxins in our foods, traces of pesticides in soil, food and water, the organic farming movement has grown deep roots and the practice of natural/organic farming has begun to become profitable for farmers, though not surprisingly, official vision continues to sing praise of green revolution, mechanical farming and genetically engineered crops, that are partly responsible for mounting number of farmers’ suicides caused by failure of these unsustainable methods of farming.
One of the notable endeavours in advocating for sustainable agriculture has been publishing a Marathi translation of Masanobu Fukuoka's classic "The One Straw Revolution". We also feel blessed to have been able to organize a talk by Mr Fukuoka himself in Pune.
