Eating Oil and Soil – Imminent Collapse of Agriculture in Punjab

(This article was published by The Tribune on 4th Feb 2010.)

History of Agriculture is approximately 10,000 years old. This is when some of our ancestors changed their life style of hunter-gatherer and started crop production that required relatively permanent settlements which subsequently turned into our villages.

Punjab, thanks to its Aab (fresh water resources) and deep fertile soils provided a natural package which helped our past few hundred generations to have a sustainable harvest. They were not educated by famous agricultural universities but somehow most of them sustained by not over exploiting their soil and water resources. They might have to divide their parcel of land to smaller portions to their next generations, but the quality of parcels was maintained. Soil was neither poisoned with artificial fertilizers, chemical insecticides, pesticides nor compacted with heavy tractors and other farm machinery. May be they were simply lucky not to have electric or diesel powered tube-wells capable of sucking the ground water from such depths that it might need next few generations to live without water and give enough time to nature to fill up the ground aquifer again.

Then something changed in the 2nd half of the last century. With the emergence of world industrialization and globalisation Punjab farmers got struck with greatest curse, hailed at the time as ‘Green Revolution’. Farmers were led to believe that their land can produce more and more if they get rid of their bullocks and buy a tractor, not to dirty their hands with cow manure and use bags of Urea instead, not to waste time in sowing a crop for green manure or give a rest to the soil by having a lay year but go for intensive cultivation as suggested by the American educated Agricultural Scientists of Punjab Agricultural University. These advocates of ‘Green Revolution’ also advocated the heavy use of poisonous chemicals, mainly produced by multinational chemical companies who were offering scholarships to scientist prepared to promote their way of thinking. Some of these crops were not suitable to Punjab’s soils and climate and thus required enormous artificial irrigation compelling the farmers to install centrifugal pumps left right and centre, running on cheap subsadised electricity or diesel fuel. Sometimes they were duped to have free electricity in exchange of their votes, which encouraged them to cultivate paddy crop on barren sandy lands. It gave them an illusion of prosperity whilst sucking many of them deeper into financial debt. If my grandfather was ridding a horse, my father rode a motor cycle, I must drive a car and the next generation would obviously like to fly an airplane. To stay in that unwinnable race, inadvertently Punjab farmers were increasing the fossil fuel content in the production chain.

Oil (Fossil Fuels) is simply the solar energy stored as Hydro-Carbon deposits under the crust of earth over a period of millions of years. Human specie was unlucky to be smart enough to pump and burn more than half of it in just over 100 years. No one is denying that we humans are consuming fossil fuels at such a rate that can’t be replaced in few thousand generations time frame. The only difference of opinion between various researchers is whether there is enough left over for 30 years or 50. This 20 year difference is simply because computers don’t know how much Saudi Arabian, Iranian or Russian government is lying about their oil reserves. This is not to suggest that there will be no oil left somewhere deep underground but it is to say that it will not be economical to extract it any more. In other words, it might need to burn 2 drums of diesel to produce 1 drum. Very much like Ethanol production fantasy in the USA where they are burning tenfold quantity of fossil fuels to produce equivalent quantity of Ethanol.

Farmers all over the world, including that of Punjab, have/had a culture of not selling their farm land. They would rather add to their holding if possible and pass it on to the next generation. This is programmed in their genes to make sure their off springs have a better chance of survival and keep the gene pool alive. One should not be surprised to see a large proportion of court cases related to land disputes. Land is valued so high in mind controlled by our genes that one can kill his real brother for the sake of gaining an extra piece of land. What we did in the last 50-60 years was not in line with the rules of nature. We developed a delusion that we can control the forces of nature. Instead of acting as care-taker of land for coming generations, we started to act like Land-Owner.

So where does it lead us? Is there any hope of survival? Fortunately this entire mirage is coming to an end in the near future. The good news is that as much as multi-national companies like to sell their chemicals, fertilizers and machinery to toiling farmers of Punjab, they won’t be able to produce and transport all that without cheap oil either. Fortunately, for some of us, who haven’t been ruined by unserviceable debts, who haven’t sold our farming land to city developers and who haven’t started taking drugs to avoid the harsh reality, there is still a hope to go back to our pre green-revolutionary way of farming based on locally available resources. Rejuvenate our soil by adding organic manure and choosing sustainable cropping pattern not dependant on cheap oil inputs.

Natures’ court is very unforgiving to those who try to be smarter than her but at the same time she may consider an appeal from those who acknowledge their mistake and undertake to correct them. Lets all try to understand the importance of Guru’s following words.

“Pawan Guru, Pani Pita, Mata Dharat Mahat”.