Agriculture is the most excellent form of progression as it transforms earth, and even manure, into life, conferring upon its cultivator the additional reward of health and nutrition. India is agricultural land and we Indians are blessed to be born on this bountiful site. To honor the commitment of our Indian farmers or as we respectfully refer to them — Kisans and the history of their foundation, every year on 23rd December, India celebrates “Kisan Divas” i.e. National Farmers Day after our former honorable Prime Minister, Shri Choudhary Charan Singh who was a great farmer’s leader and started his journey as a farmer before acquiring a seat at the Parliament. His relentless efforts towards agriculture and its policies to improve the lives of Indian farmers have left a mark in the chronicles of Indian Agriculture.
Indian Agricultural Industry had a Gross Value of estimated Rs. 19.48 lakh crore (US$ 276.37 billion) in FY20 and is majorly divided among Food Crops/Cereals, Fruits, and Vegetables that are even exported to other regions across the globe. Its notable contribution to world trade with immense potential of value addition to the Indian Economy has made the Indian food and grocery market as sixth-largest in the world, with retail contributing 70% of the sales and food processing industry being ranked fifth in terms of production, consumption, export and expected growth.
Types of Farming practiced in India
Natural Farming: Natural Farming is a conventional way of farming based on a diversified farming system that blends crops, trees, and livestock with functional biodiversity, a cost-effective method generating revenue and livelihood to millions of Indian farmers. The motive is to reduce the dependency on purchased inputs and employ traditional indigenous practices like biomass mulching, on-farm biomass recycling, cow dung-urine formulations, and periodic soil purification and principally includes produce like rice, barley, daikon, or citrus in biodiverse agricultural ecosystems.
‘Zero-budget Natural Farming’ is now being introduced using the principle of ‘Jeevamrutha’, a mixture of Fresh desi cow dung; Aged desi cow urine; Jaggery; Pulse flour; Water, and Soil. The only difference between organic farming and natural farming is the use of organic fertilizers and manures like compost, vermicompost, cow dung manure in the former whereas no chemicals or organic fertilizers are added to the soil in natural farming, no matter how organic they are. The Indian farming market reached a value of INR 20,336 Billion in 2020, Yet one can observe that the demand for organic farming has also been rising, why?
Organic Farming: Organic farming is an agricultural method that employs fertilizers of organic nature such as compost manure, green manure, and bone meal and emphasizes techniques such as crop rotation and companion planting. It focuses on methods such as Soil management, genetic modification, livestock and crop diversity and its produce has a high nutritional and biological value. It contains no residues of pesticides, heavy metals, or hormones; hence its demand is also rising due to the higher organoleptic properties like color, fragrance, and taste; longer shelf life, the limited amount of energy required for processing, higher Environmental enhancement, and protection and greater diversity to enterprises implying higher economies of scale as compared to natural farming.
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