Article on agro-biodiversity

Agro-biodiversity : role and relevance in agriculture

written in Kannada by Sham Kashyap
Senior Research Associate, ATREE

translated into English by Ms Kalpana Prasanna
Executive Assistant to the Director, ATREE

Biodiversity is an extensively used term in almost all fields related to development. Biodiversity refers to the diverse life forms present in a given area. Biodiversity is essential to maintain the natural balance in the environment. It is a tragedy that the diversity of fauna and flora is decreasing on a global level. In order to protect and nurture the depleting biodiversity, we have various organizations running programmes like CBD by United Nations and treaties like WTO.

Agro-biodiversity is biodiversity limited to agricultural area / field. This includes the crops such as paddy, raagi, jowar and their types, plants and trees that grow in weed-infested areas, greens, cattle, poultry, livestock and their varieties, insects and reptiles found in agricultural land and microscopic organisms found in agricultural land.

Agriculture is a human-driven activity. It has been created to cater to the economic, social, cultural needs of humans; as a result it is almost impossible in most of the situations to protect the natural biodiversity in agricultural areas. It is also a fact that humans cannot control nature. Agriculture is a special profession in the sense that it has to balance between human needs and protect the natural biodiversity in the farm.

Hence, it is essential for agriculture to complement nature rather than compete with it. Humans have learnt this art of co-existence since ancient times through trial and error method. Human beings have put in efforts to understand the unique features of a given region and adapted to agricultural practices to ensure protection of nature and fulfill their needs as well without going on at loggerheads with nature/environment. This traditional knowledge has become the favourite topic for environmentalists and sustainable agriculturists.

However, in recent times, there is an accusation that modern technology which came in along with Green Revolution has upset the natural balance. For example, let us look at the insecticides used. Apart from the pests affecting crops, animals die due to the toxic effects of insecticides. Similarly, the birds and bees too have been decreasing in number. This leads to problems of pollination and, retaining a balance in nature become difficult. There are challenges of social and economic nature which one is faced with while trying to continue the traditional methods.

It is helpful to the agriculturist to protect the biodiversity when examined from this perspective. There have been several scientific studies done on the benefits of conservation of biodiversity; the economic advantage of it and, sustainability of diversity from nature’s perspective. However, it is difficult to indicate with certainity the amount of benefit for human vis-à-vis amount of biodiversity. It is not possible to have comprehensive information encompassing in-depth analysis of presence of various life forms and their complete impact on human life.

When one were to observe the diversity at state level, Karnataka has had plenty of crop diversity right from the start. We cannot grow crops of Kodagu in Mysore. It is difficult to grow crops that are acclimatized to growing in Mysore and trying to growing them at Chitradrurga or Dharwad. The crops found there are not found at Gulbarga.

There are multiple crops on a regional basis in Karnataka with diversity of animal life seen in accordance with the sub-categories of crop. The extremities of weather are responsible for this crop diversity in Karnataka. It is essential to note that the benefits of diversity depend upon the diversity available in a particular land. There are very few studies done which reveal the average diversity found in a farmer’s land in Karnataka. Hence, it becomes difficult to estimate the average benefit experienced by each farmer due to diversity in crops.

Given below are some broad economic, social and natural benefits of protecting agricultural biodiversity:

a) When there is multiple cropping with diversity even if one crop fails, the farmer does not experience heavy loss.
b) If one crop is attacked by pests, the chances of it spreading immediately is lessened due to diversity of crops. Along with this, if there are a variety of bacteria and insects in the land, the spread of pests is controlled.
c) The diversity of the crops must be in line with the environment and weather conditions of a given place. This lessens the impact of natural catastrophes on the land. It also helps to minimize the loss of fertility.
d) Studies done by some NGOs like Deccan Development Society and Medhak Andhra have revealed that traditional methods of conserving agro-biodiversity helps small landholders to have food security without loans and also helps them retain their rights over small/scattered property and get social justice.
e) Agro-biodiversity caters to other needs of the farmer such as fodder along with harvested crop, manure, greens etc.

While the above benefits have been proven by research, the quantum benefits of agro-biodiversity depend upon the practical application.

There are two popular method of conserving biodiversity in the context of agriculture:
a) Traditional (method) biodiversity based on local/traditional/general knowledge. The important aspect under this method is to make use of traditional/local methods/grains to protect and develop locally-suited biodiversity.
b) Protecting biodiversity along with giving more importance to high-yielding, economically beneficial varieties - Here, there is less focus on grains like raagi, jowar and navane which aren’t profitable crops. Commercial crops based on market demand are catered to. They are conserved and attempts to bring about diversity in their produce are made.

This interpretation is used mainly by Government organsiations, industrialists, and management experts. Their stand is that this type of diversity is more profitable for agriculture. Farmers with huge land-holdings, who grow commercial and fruit crops have adopted this method. There is a lot of encouragement for this in Karnataka.

Sometimes biodiversity also leads to loss

a) The maximum income obtained by a single farmer certainly gets reduced by biodiversity. For eg, let us look at Vanilla crop assuming it is the highest profitable crop. If a person has 2 acres land, and plants vanilla in 1 acre and vegetables in the balance 1 acre, there would be a variety of 3-4 crops in a given season. It works out profitable if the harvest is good. If Vanilla were to be grown in the entire 2 acres, it would work out certainly more profitable. However, in the event of crop failure, the farmer growing exclusively vanilla crop will suffer from massive loss. The farmer growing both vanilla and other crops/vegetables can make up for the loss of one crop in another.

b) The benefits that we get from biodiversity depends upon our understanding and implementation of the same. This means the idea/regional experiences with biodiversity come into play. For eg., let us look at Vanilla again. It is definitely not a local crop as far as Karnataka is concerned. If one has this in their land alongwith other crops, the agri-biodiveristy of one’s land certainly gets increased. However, it is not possible to state whether this conserves the balance of nature or if all benefits of biodiversity can be obtained (for eg. variety /diversity in food).

c) Not all animals, plants (even if they are part of nature) are beneficial to agriculture. For eg. if there are 5 types of weeds and insects on the farm, no doubt diversity exists, but it will also destroy the crop harvest.

In conclusion it can be said that apart from the economic and social challenges of agriculture, the impact of agriculture on environment has become a major challenge today. The biodiversity present in agriculture contains the answer to the two issues to some extent. However, research is required on the appropriate use of biodiversity to ensure maximum benefit is obtained. A holistic approach which combines both the local traditional knowledge with modern technology is required.

Translated into English by Ms Kalpana Prasanna, Executive Assistant to the Director, ATREE

The article was originally written in Kannada by Sham Kashyap and published in a Kannada weekly called Vikranta Karnataka.

Sham works as a Senior Research Associate with the Ashoka Trust for Ecology and Environment. His work deals with exploring relationships between land use patterns, government policies and sustainable development.