Mandip Singh is a young farmer in the cotton belt of Bathinda-Mansa districts in Punjab. For several years now, he has been experimenting with all the latest hybrid seeds of cotton that appear in the market. He has tried all kinds of chemical pesticides and cocktails and yet the crop continues to fail him. “Such has been my frustration with farming that sometimes I feel like killing myself.” 

He is not the only cotton farmer bearing the brunt of chemically intensive agriculture. In a desperate effort to remain ahead in the race to increase crop productivity and thereby increase farm income, hundreds of thousands of cotton farmers and for that matter millions of farmers who cultivate other crops too have been virtually pushed into a death trap. What farmers don’t realise is that they are being driven deeper and deeper into a corner from which it is simply not possible to emerge unscathed. 

In many ways this deadly trap that the Indian farmer finds himself in is even worse than the seven rings of chakravyuh that the legendary warrior Abhimanyu faced in the epic battle of Mahabharata. We all know that Abhimanyu only knew how to break through the seven rings of chakravyuah. Once inside, he was trapped. He didn’t know how to get out of the chakravyuah and died fighting valiantly. The fate of the Indian farmer is no better. 

Like Abhimanyu, farmers too don’t know how to get out of the chakravyuh. They feel destined and accept it as a fait accompli.   

It all begins with the allurement of a higher income and invariably to enhance your income you have to adopt a technological product. Agricultural scientists state farm extension machinery and the banking system helps these companies in marketing their products and it is always in the name of increasing crop productivity.

The banking system so designs its credit programmes that farmers are left with no alternative but to buy these technologies. Whether it is the crossbred cows or tractors, bank loan is tied up with a technological product. 
As a result, over the years intensive farming practices have pushed farmers deeper into debt. They buy the improved farming technology much of which is actually not required. The cost of production goes up whereas the output price remains static. Consequently, high-chemical input based technology has already played havoc with soil health and ultimately, led to the lands gasping for breath, with the water-guzzling crops (hybrids and Bt cotton) sucking the groundwater aquifer dry. With the failure of the markets to rescue the farmers from a collapse of the farming systems, the tragedy is that the human cost is entirely being borne by the farmers.
If you are a farmer in the Green Revolution belt of Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, the chances are that you are applying double the quantity of chemical fertilisers to ensure that you have a wheat harvest that you got ten years ago.

The reason is simple. Your land has lost the ability to produce a normal crop of wheat without the application of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. With the organic matter in the Punjab soils touching almost zero, the only possibility to raise crops is by applying chemical fertilisers.

Take pesticides. Despite the massive pesticides sprays all these years, the number of harmful insect pests have not decreased but multiplied. Minor insects have now become major pests. The dastardly attack of mealy bug, a minor pest till a few years ago, on cotton in Punjab this year, tells how the insect equilibrium has been gravely disturbed.   
Is there a way out from the deadly clutches of the farming chakravyuh? 

Yes, there is. People from all walks of life are gradually seeing the destruction wrought by the Green Revolution technology. With human health risks becoming more pronounced, environment getting choked, and with global warming emerging on top of the political agenda, modern agriculture is increasingly under attack. And rightly so. 
However, a silent revolution is sweeping through the country. Large numbers of farmers in different parts of the country are slowly but steadily shifting to natural farming systems.

From the food bowl of Punjab to the Kaveri river basin delta in Tamil Nadu, hundreds of thousands of farmers are have abandoned intensive farming systems. Fed up with the advice of agricultural universities, farmers are now looking up to a few civil society organisations and individuals advocating sustainable farming practices. 

Industrial farming is fast losing its sheen. It is time the Planning Commission and the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) accepts the ground realities and shifts the focus to sustainable farming.

Natural farming — farming without chemicals and genetically modified crops — is an idea whose time has come. There is no other way to stop the suicidal death dance that is sweeping the farm sector.

Indian farmers need to emerge out of the shackles of the chakravyuh. The sooner they do it the better it is.