Farmer protests & Punjab’s ecological frying pan: Can corporates help?”
- Lessons from West Australia’s wheat belt, and key questions about India.
Amidst the high voltage drama unfolding on Delhi highways, and in cyberspace, the ecological lens remains missing. An innovation from Western Australia’s wheat belt facing similar crisis shows how businesses can help. But in the Indian context, the interests of the unborn remain missing. Who will stand for her?
Udta Punjab: Consequences of Agriculture on Steroids
The ecological case is clear. Status quo agricultural political economy in Punjab must change. Intensive agriculture has led to astounding water table depletion of 55 cms per year. In 1973, only 3% area had water table deeper than 10m. In 2004, that number is 90%. The fall in ground water continues[i]. Meanwhile, canal capacity has shrunk in absolute terms by 23% due to siltation. Consumption of insecticides and pesticides has doubled from 1980 to 2017[ii]. Nitrogen pollution of the soil and air are abound due to overuse of urea with serious effects on soil health and lower yields.
As reported by Down To Earth farmers say: “We put in over 200 kg of urea in our fields this time, but the yields have been far lower than last year. Urea has completely messed up our lives.”[iii]
The infamous “Cancer train” from Bhatinda to Bikaner[iv] is a grim reminder — the soil, water and air catastrophe is not without a human cost. The North Indian smoky skies radiate the doom emanating from the burning fields of Punjab. The policy environment including MSPs, mandis, electricity, irrigation and others, along with private sector interests, have contributed to this disaster.
The West Australian Wheat Belt — facing a similar ecological crisis
Interestingly, the Western Australian Wheat Belt faces challenges that are strikingly similar, nothwithstanding the fact that Indian problems always have a unique tadka.
Growing wheat year after year on the same land and overgrazing have resulted in the clearing of over 80% of the native vegetation in the past 200 years there. Severe soil degradation have resulted in salinity, wind erosion, soil loss and decreased soil fertility. This former biodiversity hotspot has the world’s highest rate of mammal and plant extinction. The area is over-cleared. Migration of young people is lowering its’ already low population. Remaining farmers are trapped in a cycle of debt because dropping land yields force farmers to apply more chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides. But that further degrades the soil and lowers the yield.
Solution: Corporate Participation for Regenerative Agriculture with 20 year horizon
Wide Open Agriculture, is a company that has identified four fold solutions to restore healthy ecosystems. Firstly, innovative farming and horticulture practices convert mono-cropping zones to organic and regenerative farming systems through smart greenhouses with premium vegetables — tomatoes, herbs and bush vegetables. The water flow and nutritional indicators are regulated by climactic sensors.
Secondly, several measures to restore soil and biodiversity: every farm dedicates 30 percent of its land to restoration of the natural zone; together with other restoration partners, the company aims to create biodiversity corridor by connecting two national parks across 450 kilometers by establishing “ecological stepping stones” to form and connect biodiversity zones in the Wheat Belt.
Thirdly, bring new Australians to the area as employees or business partners with potential for high quality employment. Fourth: listing on the Australian Stock Exchange, as a first-in-class regenerative agriculture food and forestry company. This will make it possible to attract equity from retail and institutional investors and scale up from 30,000 to 300,000 hectares under regenerative management in 2025. It will lease land to farmers that have proven their ability to apply regenerative farming practices which repair soil health, capture carbon, protect the waterways and create hiding places for critically endangered mammals and plants. They have also introduced their own brand on the market called”4 Reasons Inspiring Food”.[v]
There are similar examples from South Africa and Southern Spain where participation by Coca Cola, Heineken and local insurers has helped change cropping patterns, restore land, improve water tables and help the companies manage their long term business risks.
Will Corporate Participation due to India’s New Farm Laws help?
The global examples cited are the result of cross sector partnerships based on the “4 Returns-3 Zones-20 years” framework espoused by The European Network for the Advancement of Business and Landscape Education (ENABLE).
It needs businesses with an appetite for “patient returns” over a long term, and a track record of fair play that inspires trust. Will India’s quarterly numbers chasing MNCs or crony Indian corporates measure up? Or will the new farm laws throw us from the ecological fire to the crony corporate frying pan? The process used for formulating and passing the new farm laws might provide a clue.
An Inconvenient Truth
Multi-stakeholder consultations before formulating bills were missing. The Bills were passed in the Rajya Sabha by a voice vote despite opposition MPs asking for a recorded vote. The Bills were neither referred to the concerned department-related parliamentary standing committees, nor were they referred to the select committee for scrutiny and examination.
Can a law made without even the customary stakeholder consultations, lay the ground for innovative cross- sector collaborations? Can it inspire trust when it even takes away access to courts as a recourse, leaving matters in the hands of “gormint saahibs” — reminiscent of another time when our rulers instituted “ease of doing business” for another company. It took us 250 years to recover from those. The statement of the agriculture minister — that there was no need to refer these Bills to select committee of the House because these are small Bills[vi], tells us that we might be in for big trouble.
Future generations will ask us — “when you legislated, and even when you protested, how did our lives not figure on the agenda?” In the absence of an Indian Greta Thunberg, who shall speak for them?
[i] Source: Central Ground Water Board, cited from Naresh, Kumar & Batish, Naresh. (2018). Land Degradation in the Developing World: A Case Study of Land Degradation in Punjab, (PDF) Land Degradation in the Developing World: A Case Study of Land Degradation in Punjab (researchgate.net)
[ii] Source: Department of Agriculture, Government of Punjab
[iii] Source: “Punjab, Haryana and west UP facing severe nitrogen pollution: Down To Earth expose”, Down to Earth Magazine (March 2018), based on a 10-year study called The Indian Nitrogen Assessment, done by a group of scientists referred to as the Indian Nitrogen Group (ING)
[iv] Source: https://www.businessinsider.in/the-shocking-tale-of-indias-cancer-train/articleshow/52690219.cms
[v] Source: “A Business Approach to Sustainable Landscape Restoration”, Erasmus University Rotterdam
[vi] Source: S N Sahu, 21st Sept 2020, The Wire; The Way Farm Bills Passed in Rajya Sabha Shows Decline in Culture of Legislative Scrutiny https://thewire.in/politics/farm-bills-rajya-sabha-legislative-scrutiny
