Effective and Economically Viable Organic Agriculture under Inhana Rational Farming (IRF) Technology – A Potential Alternative to Support India Organic Movement

Summary

Organic farming has been identified as the road map for food sovereignty, economic security, and alleviation of food toxicity. And, with changing climatic patterns it has become more of a necessity for harnessing both mitigation and adaptation potentials. For sustainable agriculture qualitative developments of soil has been prioritized. But it has been a time taking process, moreover; component wise redressal has not provided much relief considering that still now not even 1% of total agricultural production world over is organic. To reach the objective in a time bound manner, besides healthy soil, healthy plant system has become pre-requisite, as also supported by ‘Trophobiosis theory’ of French scientist F. Chabassou (1985) that depicts ‘Healthy Plants’ as the trump card for successful agriculture. There has been need for a method/ practice/ technology which can etch out the scientific road map towards the objective, at the same time should be Safe, Effective, Complete, Convenient and Economical; i.e., the five foundation pillars for ensuring large scale adoptability.
Inhana Rational Farming (IRF) Technology a comprehensive organic package of practice (POP) was developed by Indian Scientist Dr. P. Das Biswas, and has been ensuring sustainable agriculture for more than a decade now. Production of approximately 2.0 million kg certified organic teas annually in a cost- effective manner substantiates its efficacy while recognition of West Jalinga as ‘World’s 1st Carbon Neutral, Organic Tea Garden’ evidences its GHG mitigation and carbon sequestration potentials. FAO-CFC-TBI Project entitled ‘Development, Production and Trade of Organic Tea’ (at Maud Tea Estate, Assam; period: 2008-2013) provided opportunity to test IRF Technology in terms of yield, soil development and economics as compared to all other available organic methods/ POP. Highest yield, speedy soil quality rejuvenation was recorded under IRF Technology at lowest economics and under all growth phases of tea plant viz. mature, young, newly planted and nursery.
The comprehensive process of soil and plant energization i.e. invigorating the native soil microflora as well infusion of deficient energy for plant metabolic functions has ensured the universality of IRF Technology. Projects undertaken in collaboration of State/ Central Agricultural Universities and Krishi Vigyan Kendra in a wide variety of field crops viz. cereals (rain fed and winter paddy, baby corn), pulses (green/ black gram), vegetables (tomato, potato, okra, cauliflower, cabbage, chilli, radish etc.) and exotic vegetables (horse radish, celery, Chinese cabbage, pak choi, broccoli, parsley etc.); have substantiated technological effectiveness. These field trials in diverse ecological regions of West Bengal indicated that yield sustenance/ hike is possible under organic, even from the very first year, and can ensure economic security even without any support price for organic.
To evaluate the status of developments proposed under IRF Technology and standardize various components of crop production, several tools have also been developed viz. Compost Quality Index, Soil Quality/ Development Index, SWOT Study, Crop Pesticide Pollution Index, Pesticide Load on Crop, Soil Pesticide Pollution Index, etc.
The initiatives and experience under IRF Technology indicate that it can be used as a potent weapon for economically viable, large scale and energy efficient organic farming; especially relevant with India’s commitment towards climate change and GHG mitigation and for tapping the growing export potentials.