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A groundbreaking report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), published earlier this month, has laid bare the staggering hidden costs of our global agri-food systems, surpassing an astonishing $10 trillion. In middle-income countries like India, these costs constitute nearly 11% of the GDP, which manifests as higher poverty, environmental harm, and health-related impacts, including undernourishment and unhealthy dietary patterns. The report blames “unsustainable business-as-usual activities and practices” for these escalating costs, pointing to a need to transform agri-food systems. One way to do so is to shift to multi-cropping systems that have the potential to protect farmers’ well-being, improve nutritional outcomes for our communities, and positively impact ecological health.
What are the impacts of intensive agriculture?
Impressive improvements in agricultural productivity have been achieved in India over the last five decades by mainstreaming mono-cropping systems and chemical-intensive farming practices.
The Green Revolution focused on the marketing of high-yielding varieties of paddy and wheat on agricultural lands, which now constitute more than 70% of India’s agricultural production. The infusion of seeds purchased from multinational corporations and fertilizers undermined seed sovereignty, dismantled Indigenous knowledge systems, and fuelled a shift from diverse crop varieties and staples such as pulses and millets to monoculture plantations. This trend also compromised the nutritional needs of households and resulted in adverse ecological consequences including excessive extraction of groundwater.
This privatisation and deregulation of agricultural inputs also increased indebtedness among agrarian households. In 2013, the debt to asset ratio of a farmer’s household in India was 630% higher than in 1992. Agriculture in India has increasingly become unviable: the average monthly household income of a farming household sits at ?10,816.
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