Stop feeding your children poison

Rakesh, from Aurangabad in Haryana, is an organic farmer. He gets up at 5 every morning and leaves for the fields on foot after having his kaleu (breakfast). What follows next is rigorous labour work for the whole day with just a short lunch break in between. It is even difficult to imagine the situation when there are power cuts in his village. There is power for a total of only 6 hours every day. In this freezing cold, he has to water his crop from 12 at midnight to 6 in the morning as power cuts are distributed between days and nights through the week.

A farmer has no routine. He has no fixed working hours. There are days when he has to be on the field for 18 hours in a stretch. He does this all thinking that he is growing to feed his family, but what he does not realise is that he is saving a lot of families from consuming poison.

The world turns to organic

The world is turning away from pesticides and hybrids. But India is making a slow turn back from the route it took to feed its growing population in the 1960's. There are many farmers taking initiatives in organic farming for the sake of health and environment but the government too needs to come forward to support them in this cause more effectively.

India in the 1960s

India made a huge transition in the way it was feeding its population in the 1960s-70s when came the 'Third Agricultural Revolution' in the name of 'Green Revolution'. New technologies associated with chemical fertilisers and pesticides were introduced to increase agricultural production. This was done superseding the traditional farming methods that had been in practice since ages in the country.

Poison in the name of food

With time, the world realised that on one hand, excessive use of these fertilisers and pesticides improved the agricultural produce but on the other, it started impacting the health of people all over the globe in a fatalistic manner. Consuming these products became equivalent to consuming poison. This was not the journey that was decided to be taken upon.

Slow turn back to organic

The world has already started to stop the use of pesticides and fertilisers in farming. The global organic area is continuing to grow. Over 71.5 million hectares of farmland are organic around the world. The global organic market has already passed the 100 billion US dollar mark. But India is still to make a solid move in this direction and is still in a nascent stage.

Organic Farming

Organic farming is a production system which largely excludes or avoids the use of fertilisers, pesticides and growth regulators. It relies mainly on organic sources to maintain soil health, supply plant nutrients, and minimise insects, weeds and other pests. It is based on production standards which are environmentally supportive, and are socially, economically and ecologically sustainable. It promises to safeguard biodiversity.

GoPlow Farms an initiative in this direction

With the introduction of new scientific methods, we are capable of learning how organic will re-emerge in India. GoPlow Farms is committed to easing the access of chemical-free veggies for the consumers. As per their ideology, veggies that are cut and make their way to the food plate should be natural with no unwanted health-related ramifications. They aim to do their bit for water and soil conservation and with no middle-man insight and also maintain an increased income (cash flow) of the farmer.