Prof (Dr) R.D. Gupta
All over the world, agriculture has arched its limitations to satisfy the needs of the throbbing inhabitants of this planet earth. Although while producing more and more is felt always good yet the price that we pay for getting the more food grains is often extracted from the constantly depleting natural resources. The environment ultimately bears the scars of the man’s extravaganza which is often left unbalanced and dangerously tilted towards peril.
These days, environmentalists and farm scientists are debating on the issue of great concern for the country, whether too much growth in agriculture will eventually prove harmful to the environment and ecology of the country. However , such a controversy for a country like India possesses little significance . It is alright for a country like United States of America, where agricultural growth has arrived at a saturation point, and has started affecting environment adversely , but for a country like ours preservation of environment in itself is as much desirable as growth in agriculture . Therefore, in India both environment and agriculture must go together, and there is no necessity for any kind of conflict on this aspect. As a matter of fact, agriculture and environment are related and intertwined in many aspects. Although agriculture technology has taken many strides in taking agriculture to many new frontiers through Green Revolution.
Though we take a lot from the environment, we never return any of it, rather squandered away all of these elements that have rendered the environment sick. Studies undertaken over the last two- three decades have brought into light many specific cases where environment degradation has led to loss of potential growth in agriculture.
Deforestation: Owing to increased human and livestock population forests are being cleared for cultivating crops to get more food grains and fodder. Cutting of trees vehemently on a large scale is known as deforestation. Deforestation has increased sedimentation that reduces the capacity of irrigation reservoirs. Due to deforestation many wild animals are now coming in villages and are destroying the fields and houses of the villagers / farmers. Deforestation also leads to soil erosion. In many Himalayan soils including those of Indian Himalayas, their top rich soil has already been washed away, causing , thereby ,low crop productivity.
Land Degradation : Of all the processes of land degradation, soil erosion is the most prominent. According to David Pimentel “Soil erosion is the second only to population growth as the biggest environmental problem the world faces” . This could be backed up by the fact that almost 9 out of 10 hectare of degraded land owes its origin to erosion alone as reported by Katyal (2012).
Years of continuous use , rather misuse of chemical fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides, bactericides, weedicides etc; has taken a toll on the environment. There is degradation of land leading to a loss of potential growth in food grains output. One of the negative results of the ” Green Revolution” was the emergence of monoculture crop rotation. Maintenance of monoculture crop rotation i.e; growing of rice and wheat year after year has mined particular type of plant nutrients from soils causing their acute deficiency. Use of nitrogenous fertilizers alone has rendered many soils acidic, especially in those which lie in the sloppy areas. Moreover, their continuous use has become potential source of NO3- contamination in various water bodies and ground water . Not only this, heavy metals ( Cd,Cr,Ni,Pb ) accumulate in soils over a period of time to toxic level due to excessive use of fertilizers in agriculture.
Heavy Metals pollution: Heavy metals in the soils subsequently enter the human food web through plants and they constitute risk to the ecosystem as they tend to bio accumulate and can be altered from one food chain to another. There is a widespread problem around the world where excessive concentration of heavy metals such as Pb, Zn, Ni, Cr, Cu, Mn, Hg and As can be found in the soils. Of these various metals, Cd and As are extremely toxic, Hg,Pb and Ni are moderately lower in toxicity. All these metals, however, have found toxic if are present beyond permissible limits both to human and animals life.
High levels of Cd in human cells or tissues leads to suppression of growth,bone deformation, renal problems and bloodlessness. Accumulation of As leads to liver damage, ulcers and kidney problems. Lethal levels of Hg are not exactly known so far, however, its deposit leads to headache, pain in some body parts, intestinal problems like diarrhoea, blood malfunctioning. Higher levels of Pb can cause anaemia, abdominal pain, damage to nerves, convulsion and hypertension etc. Excessive amounts of Cu and Mn cause uremia ( when blood can not dispose of poisonous matter in it ) and manganism ( chronic Mn poisoning ) in humans, respectively. Symptoms of Zn toxicity consists of vomiting, nausea, dehydration, stomach pains etc.
Nitrate Pollution : Due to increased levels of nitrates in water bodies along with phosphate,result in enormous growth of aquatic filamentous green algae leading to Europhication. Anaerobic conditions are developed in water bodies due to oxygen uptake during night which is not compensated by photosynthesis and also decay dead cells. Such oxygen scarcity condition may result in death of fish during critical periods. Health effects due to high nitrates in water and food uptake of animals and human beings are equally significant. Nitrates as such are not toxic to health and about 85 % of ingested nitrate are rapidly absorbed from gastro intestinal track in normal healthy individuals and absorbed nitrate are excreted by the kidneys. However, if the nitrates are changed into nitrites, which commonly happens, then the toxic effects are uncountable and may create a potential health hazards.
Nearly 60 % of farm sector is dependent on monsoon rains between June to September but 2009 year has witnessed one of the driest spells in eight decades as per the Indian Meteorological Department. According to this department the average monsoon rainfall has been deficient by 25 % in the country for the monsoon period from June 1 to August 5, 2009. The shortfall has been for higher in traditional bread basket states like Punjab and Haryana. The contingency plan for crops and fodder should be brought into operation without delay.
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