Indian State Bans All Pesticides. Wildlife, Crop Yields and Tourism Flourish
Governments around the world are looking to the Indian state of Sikkim to see if going organic is viable.
So far all signs are pointing to yes.
The state banned the import of all pesticides, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers and GMOs in 2003, becoming the world’s first fully certified organic state in 2016.
At first farmers struggled with the transition, with steep declines in crop yields, but the government promised things would get better in the long run and to compensate for their losses in the short-term.
A decade and a half later, “the cloud-wreathed state is starting to see the dividends” of its investment, The Washington Post reports.
Within three years their harvest returned to what it used to be, says the farmer in the BBC News report below:
And now the yield for most crops is actually higher than it was during the days of conventional farming, according to a report by the Center for Research on Globalization.
Fruit yields are up five percent, and the state’s cash crop cardamon has increased a whopping 23 percent.
That’s in part thanks to rebounding pollinator populations. Since pesticides have disappeared, wildlife of all sorts are reportedly returning.
The region boasts 500 species of butterflies, 4,500 types of flowering plants, and rare wildlife like the red panda, Himalayan bear, snow leopards and yaks.
Tourism is also on the rise, increasing 70 percent since the state went all organic. Tourists travel from far and wide to see the natural beauty and bounty of the ancient kingdom of Sikkim, which became an Indian state in 1975.
Anyone caught using pesticides in Sikkim could be fined $1400 or spend three years in prison.
Why does the government take organic agriculture so seriously?
To “keep the good health of the soil, provide quality food to the people, provide chemical-free air and water to the people, and also to conserve the rich biodiversity of the state,” Sikkim’s agriculture secretary says in the video above.
The densely populated country of India has had to learn the hard way what industrial agriculture does to the rivers, soil, air quality and general health of its people.
The government of Sikkim wants to try another way.
The government of India plans to replicate the organic model in Sikkim in other parts of the country, according to the BBC report.
See more here returntonow.net
Editor’s note: this article was originally published in January 2020
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Chris*
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I hope it goes well for them. Unfortunately the Sri Lankans have been left starving and in chaos by following green ideals.
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Charles Higley
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It is simply impossible to grow crops that pull nutrients out of the soil to have successively good or even better yields over time. Somehow the nutrients have to be replaced to keep up the yields. They are doing something that is not being admitted to fix this problem. Organic farming has serious limitations unless they are doing something. However, they are only addressing some specialty crops.
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MattH
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To add weight to Charles’ comment the reports are by The Washington Post and the BBC, a couple of social engineering instruments.
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Howdy
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Perhaps this has something to do with the success:
https://www.mdbiocoals.com/blog-detail.php?id=Nw==
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MattH
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Hi Howdy.
A shift from subsistence farming to commercial farming. Early days.
There will be lessons, for and against some individual strategies.
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Charles, MattH and PSI Readers,,
I too agree with MattH about his comment about what Charles wrote. However, I was disappointed that MattH did not Google, as is his custom, “Cardamom”. “Fruit yields are up five percent, and the state’s cash crop cardamon has increased a whopping 23 percent.”
“Description: Cardamom, Elletaria cardamomum, is an herbaceous perennial in the family Zingiberaceae grown for its fruits which are used as a spice. Cardamom is a clumping plant with between 10 and 20 leafy shoots arising from the rhizome. The shoots are actually pseudostems composed of overlapping leaf sheaths. There are several additional flowering shoots. The leaves are lanceolate and dark green in color. The plant produces flowers on a long drooping pannicle and a capsule-like fruit which is triangular in cross section and initially pale green or yellow in color but dries to brown. The fruit contains 15–20 small aromatic seeds. Cardamom can reach a height of 5 m (16.4 ft) and has an economic lifespan of 10-15 years. Cardamom may also be referred to as green cardamom, black cardamom, brown cardamom, red cardamom or white cardamom and originates from southern India and Sri Lanka. Uses: The cardamom fruit or seeds are used dried as a culinary spice. The seeds are used whole or ground. Cardamom may also be used as a flavoring in drinks, baked goods and confection.” (https://plantvillage.psu.edu/topics/cardamom/infos)
If you watch the video, you can see the farmers of Sikkim hand picking the “fruit” of Cardamom which contains “15–20 small aromatic seeds”. Hence, you can see very little of the soil nutrients of this big plant, “Cardamom can reach a height of 5 m (16.4 ft)”, are actually being removed from the soil each harvest.
Hence, it seems that the government of Sikkim has found a market “Tourism is also on the rise, increasing 70 percent since the state went all organic.” to increase the standard of living of Sikkim’s citizens (farmers) who return to their natural fields during the harvest season to pick the fruit of the cardamom plant which might become a weed if the farmers want to grow actual food for their families to eat.
I have been a farmer in South Dakota and know that there is an annual mustard plant which can be grown to produce the tiny mustard seeds which some put on their “hot dogs” But this same mustard plant is a weed in oat fields grown to produce oat meal which some eat for breakfast. And I have hand picked, as a youth, mustard plants from our flax (a cash crop with a large market: linseed oil) fields until a herbicide, which killed the mustard plant but did not kill the flax plants, was synthesized by chemists.
If one has never been a farmer, something you might consider.
Have a good day, Jerry
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Hans
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Crop prices will rise sharply and land usage will increase
massively. Net Zero, Mark II. The Death Cult strikes again.
Center for Research on Globalization. <——– a collaboration
between Gates and Soros?
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