Tree of heaven

A YOUNG bearing coconut tree reminds me of a woman in the full glory of her youth. In the dry plains, water-starved palms sometimes resemble rickety children with disproportionate bellies. I have some such trees on the farm, the result of not tending and leaving them in the care of many a "caretaker". Villagers told me the best way to make a barren tree bear fruit was to drive a nail into the tree on a dark, moonless night or to spit at it in the early mornings. I did no such thing and with a little bit of care, these trees started smiling.

There are many theories regarding the origin of the coconut and each has its proponents. For some, it is South America, the Pacific Islands for some others. Malaysia, we are now told has a greater claim to fame as the home of the original coconut. Most Indians tend to take it for granted that the coconut is of Indian origin because of the very early references to it in Indian literature. The coconut has been accorded a distinct place in Indian culture as the "tree of heaven", a kalpavriksha.

As a native of the coast, coconut thrives on the nutrients washed down from inland towards the sea and the minerals washed ashore from the belly of the sea. In its original habitat, it does not require any watering or the chemical industry's great contribution to plant growth, the "NPK" (nitrogen, phosphorous and potash). Though a native of the coast, it adapts itself easily to diverse climatic conditions and survives even the concrete prisons of city home gardens, provided it is given enough water. It is popular as a stable economic crop among the farmers hundreds of miles inland from its original home.

The coconut loves water to the extent that it can even survive water logged conditions for a period of time. In the dry plains during summer, it requires adequate moisture in the soil to be healthy and productive. Mango is a fruit crop better suited to dry land agriculture, so too papaya, guava, cashew, custard apple, pomegranate just as ragi, jowar, sesame, groundnut, oilseed crops and legumes are better suited to dry lands rather than sugarcane and rice. The trend among farmers however, is to make crops water dependent once they have access to groundwater and the means of pumping it from lower and lower depths. They are encouraged by officialdom to "exploit the full potential" of groundwater resources without the necessary precautions regarding the over exploitation of groundwater and its long term consequences.

The Horticulture department of Karnataka has been busying itself organising "horticulture weeks" in many districts of the State. One such week was held in Gulbarga district. The officials and politicians made statements on the occasion about the need to encourage horticulture in the district. The District commissioner was, however, reported as saying, "although the soil quality in the district is conducive to growing traditional crops, the availability of water provided an opportunity for farmers to take up horticulture." The government efforts to encourage horticulture in dry districts is laudable, considering the need to provide variety in the diet of the people of the region and improve their economic status, as well as the long term beneficial impact this scheme can have on the environment if properly implemented.

Gulbarga is not Chirapunji, we all know. If water conservation measures are not integrated into such schemes along with a judicious choice of crops to grow fruits such as sitaphal, ramphal, pomegranate, papaya, cashew and mango, the horticulture department would be basically encouraging the farmers to plunder the groundwater resources. As reported, if the department went ahead with its plans of distributing 15,000 coconut saplings (along with 60,000 other fruit saplings) very soon "waste land regeneration week" will have to be organised by the department. As I write this column, coconut prices have crashed, the result of the Central government's policy of importing coconut oil and coconut products, all in the name of providing more choices to the urban consumer. The government cannot even ensure a fair price for the existing producers of coconut or a support price scheme like the Kerala government announced. With problems of storage, they are at the mercy of middlemen. So much for the government's commitment to rescuing farmers from the clutches of middlemen. It is "captains of industry" and traders who influence national agricultural policies for the benefit of industry, constantly leaving farmers in the lurch.

Coconut and banana are both water loving plants. Banana for example, can be grown with the minimum of water if soil and water conservation methods are adopted systematically. It has great soil improving qualities, provides excellent mulch and food for the earthworms. It is the green revolution mindset of the officials that has over the years been responsible for making farmers think of profit only in terms of cash in hand and not soil fertility. This is particularly true of banana growers who are advised to cut all the young suckers except the one that bears fruit. This practice is believed to positively influence the quality and quantity of fruits resulting in greater profits. The non-bearing additional suckers are destroyed sometimes by pouring kerosene on the young shoots but if allowed to grow they can be harvested for making compost (which increases water retention capacity of the soil). Is not money saved on fertilizers, money earned?

The coconut even under drip irrigation is provided four water emitters of four litre capacity as per the recommendation of horticulture departments. If the drip system runs for just four hours, 64 litres of water is provided per tree per day. There are farmers who work their pumps for eight hours continuously, with just a two-hour gap and run it again without giving time for the well to recharge. The drip systems does not automatically ensure water economy.

Water is a scarce resource and one must ask whether crops that we grow and consume are water efficient and sustainable. A time has come to grow crops that can survive with minimum of water and this may mean giving up future expansions of large scale mono culture of certain types of crops that depend heavily on irrigation such as rice, wheat, sugar cane and cotton.

A water alert issued by the Washington based World Watch Institute warns that the emerging demands for water in many countries far outruns the supply. Wars over water use are predicted for the future. Farmers seem to think that they have "inalienable" rights to the use of the water. The farmers near irrigation canals are the most negligent in their use of water which they see as a free resource. Irrigation has enabled farmers with access to such water, to raise two, three crops at the cost of soil fertility. More NPK fertilizers are then pumped into the land to make up for the loss in fertility. Access to drinking water must be treated as a fundamental human right but unless the farmers are charged water levies commensurate with usage, misuse of water by over watering and waste will continue. Backed by self-serving politicians, some of the farmer leaders have become a law unto themselves opposing any move of the government to economise on the use of water and electricity.

Where farmers have no access to irrigation facilities provided by the state, over pumping of ground water has depleted the underground acquifers. Sandra Postel, author of Pillars of Sand: Can the Irrigation Miracle Last?, calculates the annual depletion of aquifers at 160 billion cubic metres or 160 billion tonnes. According to her estimate it take 1,000 tonnes of water to produce one tonne of grain. And 480 million of the world's six billion people are being fed with grain produced with the unsustainable use of water.

The situation in the country is so bad that if the government imposes a ban on over pumping of water, food production will be affected. It is estimated that nearly 40 per cent of our food is grown with over pumped water. Water tables are falling in much of the country and wells are running dry in thousands of villages. The only solution to the problem is to encourage more economic use of water by providing incentives and to erect low cost rain water harvesting structures to recharge the wells.

In dry lands, the first thing a farmer with capital to invest does is to dig a bore well. The next step is to recover that cost in a short period of time by raising a second or even third crop of crops such as cotton, sugarcane and rice, all "water thirsty crops" as Sandra Postel calls them.

Seventy percent of the water consumed worldwide from rivers and underground water resources is used for irrigation. Groundwater depletion has many implications for agriculture especially near big towns and cities where farmers give up farming to take the more lucrative business of mining water for supply to residential areas and for industrial use as is happening in parts of Tamil Nadu. As the Urban Development Authorities spread their tentacles acquiring agricultural lands closer to the cities to provide housing for the expanding city population, there is an actual shrinkage in the lands available for food production. This, if allowed to continue, seriously threatens India's food security. With such emerging dire scenarios it does not help to scream swadeshi from rooftops.

It is said that importing grains is a very clever way of disguising "hydrological poverty". With the shrinkage of productive agricultural lands, there is bound to be greater pressure on the available cultivable lands to produce more. Even if this means adopting environmentally damaging farming practices. People will be fooled into believing the rhetoric of the government that there is need for a greater "consolidation" of holdings. Though by that they do not mean more effective implementation of land reforms as in Taiwan, South Korea or Thailand but a greater role for the agri-business companies for export oriented agriculture. There is always an alternative available to the government-food imports!

The Agriculture and Horticulture departments will need to do more than giving sermons to farmers in the use of NPK fertilizers as if they were salesmen for fertilizer companies and flatter those who take their advise without question as "progressive" farmers. Providing hydrological data especially for arid regions and giving sensible advise to the farmers community to manage their water resources is of utmost importance. Studies have confirmed ground water contamination and diseases in human beings, livestock and plants because of the excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in food production. Efforts must be made to create awareness among farmers that as custodians, it is their duty to protect the soil and water resources, on which their own livelihood and the future of this nation depends. If the government and farmers do not wake up to the changed situation in which agriculture is to be practiced, much as we all like, "the tree of heaven", it cannot be grown depleting the resources of the earth.

PUSHPA SURENDRA

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