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An overview of organic agriculture: A potential strategy for climate change mitigation

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Indian agriculture has changed considerably in the past several decades. Since post green revolution era, Indian farming basically shifted from the conventional farming system to towards the mechanized farming system and relies heavily on agricultural inputs such as chemical fertilizers, pesticides, heavy farm machineries and irrigation, which are dependent on fossil fuels. Large scale use of these inputs also contributed in emission of greenhouse gases which are mainly responsible for global warming and consequently climate change. Agriculture plays a unique role in the climate change mitigation because of its potential to lower greenhouse gases emissions through carbon sequestration. Organic agriculture is being considered as one of the appropriate farming systems that could serve the twin objectives of climate change mitigation and adaptation. Compared to conventional agriculture, organic agriculture is considered to be more energy efficient and effective both in reducing green house gases emission mainly due to the less use of chemical fertilizers and fossil fuel and enhancing the soil organic carbon. Promotion and adaptation of organic farming in developing country like India can serve as mitigation strategy of climate change.
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Journal of Applied and Natural Science 6 (2): 872 - 879 (2014)
An overview of organic agriculture: A potential strategy for climate change
mitigation
G. T. Patle*, K. K. Badyopadhyay
1
and Mukesh Kumar
2
Department of Soil and Water Engineering,
College of Agricultural Engineering and Post Harvest Technology,
Gangtok -737135, INDIA
1
Division of Agricultural Physics, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi - 110012, INDIA
2
Water Technology Centre, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi - 110012, INDIA
*Corresponding author. E-mail: gtpatle77@gmail.com
Received: May 23, 2014; Revised received: August 18, 2014 ; Accepted: October 18, 2014
Abstract Indian agriculture has changed considerably in the past several decades. Since post green revolution era,
Indian farming basically shifted from the conventional farming system to towards the mechanized farming system
and relies heavily on agricultural inputs such as chemical fertilizers, pesticides, heavy farm machineries and irrigation,
which are dependent on fossil fuels. Large scale use of these inputs also contributed in emission of greenhouse
gases which are mainly responsible for global warming and consequently climate change. Agriculture plays a unique
role in the climate change mitigation because of its potential to lower greenhouse gases emissions through carbon
sequestration. Organic agriculture is being considered as one of the appropriate farming systems that could serve
the twin objectives of climate change mitigation and adaptation. Compared to conventional agriculture, organic agriculture
is considered to be more energy efficient and effective both in reducing green house gases emission mainly due to
the less use of chemical fertilizers and fossil fuel and enhancing the soil organic carbon. Promotion and adaptation
of organic farming in developing country like India can serve as mitigation strategy of climate change.
Keywords: Climate change, GHG, INCCA, Mitigation, Organic agriculture
INTRODUCTION
Global agricultural food production system is
principally climate driven. Climate change, its impacts
and vulnerabilities on agriculture and associated sector
is a matter of big concern in the current era (Goyal,
2004; Kumar et al., 2004; Mimi and Jamous, 2010;
Verge et al., 2007; Wani et al., 2013). Although
climate change is a natural phenomenon but worldwide
studies on climate change and its consequences have
put the evidences of unfavorable effect of climate
change on agriculture and allied sectors (Garg et al.,
2001; Kumar and Parikh, 2001; Aggarwal, 2003; Mall
et al., 2006; Patle et al., 2013a). It is reported that
agriculture contributes about 13.5% to 30% of all
global emissions of greenhouse gases (Foereid et al.,
2008). It is now accepted that anthropogenic activities
are responsible for increased concentration of
greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere and is the
major causes of global warming (IPCC, 2001).
Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC)
clearly reported that global mean surface air temperature
would increase by 1.1 to 6.4 °C by 2100 under different
emission scenarios (IPCC, 2007a). Similarly, Indian
network on climate change assessment has also
reported an all-round warming (1.7°C to 2.0°C) and
increase in rainfall (3% to 7%) over the Indian
ISSN : 0974-9411 (Print), 2231-5209 (Online) All Rights Reserved © Applied and Natural Science Foundation www.ansfoundation.org
subcontinent by the 2030s (INCCA, 2010). Krishna
Kumar et al. (2011) also projected to rise in mean air
temperature and rainfall by 2080s in the India. In
developing countries like India, climate change and its
probable impact on agriculture pay a special attention
because agriculture play a vital role in the country’s
economy. Agriculture accounts for the 14% of the
nation’s GDP and 11% of its exports and about half of
the population still relies on agriculture as its principal
source of income. Similarly, agriculture is a source of
raw material for a large number of industries (MOA,
2012).
Climate change may affect adversely the crop production
system, water availability and can induce the food
security problems for millions of peoples in the future
(Sinha et al., 1998). In India, agriculture contributes
about 17.6% of the country’s total GHGs emission
(INCCA, 2010). An intensive agricultural practice
during the post green revolution era without caring for
the environment has supposedly played a major role
towards enhancement of the greenhouse gases. Due to
increase in demand for food production the farmers
have started growing more than one crop a year
through repeated tillage operations using conventional
agricultural practices (Patle et al., 2013b). Since post
green revolution era, Indian farming basically shifted
from the conventional agricultural practices to towards
873
the mechanized practices and depend greatly on
agricultural input such as chemical fertilizers, pesticides,
irrigation and heavy farm machineries which are
mainly dependent on fossil fuels (West and Marland,
2002, Lal, 2004a, Patle et al., 2013b). Heavy use of
agricultural input and the mechanized farming helps a
lot to increase the food grain production (Aggarwal et
al., 2004; Mall et al., 2006). During the period, food
grain production increased from 50 million tonnes in
1950-51 to 259.32 million tonnes during 2011-12
(MOA, 2012). But the large scale use of these inputs
also contributed in the emission of green house gases
directly or indirectly responsible for global warming
and consequently climate change (Lal, 2004a).
Basically agriculture plays a double role as a source
and sinks for the green house gases (Aggarwal, 2003;
Lal, 2004b; Gattinger et al., 2012). To date, the
agricultural sector has been largely overlooked as both
a source of GHG emissions and a potential tool for
mitigation (Lal, 2004a). Agricultural systems contribute
to carbon emissions through the direct use of fossil
fuels in farm operations, indirect use of embodied
energy in inputs that are energy-intensive to manufacture
(particularly fertilizers) and the cultivation of soils
resulting in loss of soil organic matter. On the other
hand, agriculture builds up carbon in the form of
organic matter in the soil or above-ground in the form
of biomass (Pretty and Ball, 2001). However,
agriculture has a unique role to play in climate change
mitigation because of its potential to lower GHG
emissions through carbon sequestration. Organic
agriculture proved its potential to reduce the GHG
emissions through carbon sequestration and use of less
input (Gattinger et al., 2012). Therefore in the context
of climate change, conversion from conventional
agriculture to organic agriculture is being considered
as one of the appropriate farming system that could
serve the twin objectives of climate change mitigation
and environment protection (Lal, 2004a; FAO, 2011).
Promotion and adaptation of organic farming in
developing country like India can be one of the
effective mitigation strategies of climate change.
Based on the available information, this paper focuses
on the present status and future potential of organic
farming in India for climate change mitigation.
GHGs EMISSION FROM GLOBAL
AGRICULTURE
In general, agriculture sector contribute to the emission
of three major greenhouse gases viz., carbon di oxide
(CO
2
), methane (CH
4
) and nitrous oxide (N
2
O) (West
and Marland, 2002). The global atmospheric
concentration of carbon di-oxide, methane and nitrous
oxide increased from a pre-industrial value of about
280 ppm to 379 ppm, 715 ppb to 1732 ppb and 270
ppb to 319 ppb in 2005 (IPCC, 2007a). Reason behind
the global increase in CO
2
concentrations are mainly
due to use of fossil fuel and land use change, CH
4
concentration is predominantly due to agriculture and
fossil fuel use and N
2
O concentration is primarily due
to agriculture (Lal, 2004a, ). According to IPCC, in
2005, agriculture accounted for 10-12% of total global
anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere. The annual amount of greenhouse gases
emitted by the agricultural sector is estimated at
between 5.1 and 6.1 giga-tonnes CO
2
equivalents in
2005 (IPCC, 2007a). Of these emissions, methane
accounts for 3.3 giga-tonnes equivalents and nitrous
oxide for 2.8 giga-tonnes CO
2
equivalents annually
while net emissions of CO
2
was only 0.04 giga-tonnes
CO
2
equivalents per year. From this, it was observed
that agriculture is the main emitter of nitrous oxides
and methane according to current practice and
knowledge. N
2
O emissions from soils and CH
4
from
enteric fermentation constitute the largest sources,
38% and 32% of total non-CO
2
emissions from
agriculture in 2005, respectively. Biomass burning
(12%), rice production (11%), and manure management
(7%) account for the rest. When considering the total
food chain from the farm to the consumer, emissions
from all the other sectors need to be included. Thus,
the greenhouse gas emissions from all sectors related
to agriculture may potentially sum up to 25-30% of all
GHG emissions.
GHGs EMISSION FROM INDIAN
AGRICULTURE
India accounts for only about 2.4% of the world’s
geographical area; supports about 17% of the world’s
human population and 15% of the livestock. Agriculture
is the mainstay of 60% of its population (MOA, 2012).
An agriculture sector contributed about 17.6% of total
country’s GHG emissions in 2007 and this figure is
expected to increase further (INCCA, 2010). India is
mostly blamed for higher GHGs emission due to having
large number of livestock and more area under paddy
cultivation (INCCA, 2010). In the year 2007, Indian
agriculture sector emitted 334.41 million tonnes of
CO
2
equivalent, of which 13.7 million tonnes was
methane and 0.15 million tones was nitrous oxide.
Enteric fermentation constituted 63% of the total CO
2
equivalent emissions from this sector, 21% of the
emissions were from the rice cultivation. Crop soils
emitted 13% of the total CO
2
equivalent emission from
the agriculture. Remaining 2.7% of the emissions were
attributed to livestock manure management and burning
of crop residue (Fig. 1). Greenhouse gases attributed to
agriculture by the IPCC and INCCA include emissions
from soils, enteric fermentation, rice production, biomass
burning and manure management. This does not
include the emissions from other indirect sources
under agriculture such as GHG emissions from
land-use changes, use of fossil fuels for mechanization,
transport and agro-chemical and fertilizer production.
Table 1 shows the green house gases produced from
agriculture sector under different emission categories.
G. T. Patle et al.
/ J. Appl. & Nat. Sci. 6 (2): 872 - 879 (2014)
874
PROJECTED IMPACT OF CLIMATE
CHANGE ON AGRICULTURE
As per Intergovernmental panel on climate change
assessment, crop productivity is projected to increase
slightly at mid to high latitudes for local mean
temperature increases of up to 1 to 3°C depending on
the crop, and then decrease beyond that in some
regions. At lower latitudes, especially in seasonally dry
and tropical regions, crop productivity is projected to
decrease for even small local temperature increases
(1 to 2°C), which would increase the risk of hunger
(IPCC, 2007a). Increases in the frequency and severity
of floods and droughts are projected to adversely affect
sustainable agriculture development (IPCC, 2007b).
According to the climate change projections of
INCCA, the mean temperature in India would increase
by 0.1–0.3
o
C in kharif and 0.3–0.7
o
C during rabi
season by 2010 and by 0.4–2.0
o
C during kharif and to
1.1–4.5
o
C in rabi by 2070. Mean rainfall would not
change by 2010 and would increase by upto 10%
during kharif and rabi by 2070. INCCA further
reported that there is an increased possibility of climate
extremes, such as the timing of onset of monsoon,
intensities and frequencies of drought and floods
(Khan et al., 2009). Different studies reported decrease
in the grain yield due to increase in temperature in
India (Rao and Sinha, 1994; Mall et al., 2006). Sinha
and Swaminathan (1991) reported that a 2
o
C increase
in mean air temperature would decrease rice yield by
about 0.75 t/ha in the high yield areas and by about
0.06 t/ha in the low yield coastal regions. Further, a
0.5
o
C increase in winter temperature would reduce
wheat crop duration by seven days and reduce yield by
0.45 ton per hectare. Aggarawal and Sinha (1993)
showed that in North India, a 1
o
C rise in mean temperature
would have no significant effect on wheat yields, while
a 2
o
C increase would reduce yields in most places.
CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION
STRATEGIES FOR AGRICULTURE SECTOR
Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC,
2007b) has suggested following mitigation technologies
and practices which currently commercially available
and useful for the mitigation of climate change impacts
on agriculture sector before 2030s (i.e. average of
period 2021-2050).
Restoration of cultivated peaty soils and degraded
lands.
Improved crop and grazing land management to
increase soil carbon storage.
Improved rice cultivation techniques and livestock and
manure management to reduce methane emission.
Improved nitrogen fertilizer application techniques to
reduce nitrous oxide emissions.
Dedicated energy crops to replace fossil fuel use.
Improved energy efficiency and improvement of crop
yields.
In addition to above IPCC also suggested some of the
adaptation strategies for agriculture sector like adjustment
of planting dates and crop variety, crop relocation,
improved land management e.g. erosion control and
soil protection through tree planting, use of rainwater
harvesting, water storage and conservation techniques,
water-use and irrigation efficiency. Above all strategies
are site and location specific and can be used as per
applicability.
ORGANIC AGRICULTURE WHY?
Sustainable agriculture to meet the country’s food
production requires sustainability of the natural
resources. Natural resources which play an important
role in the crop production system include viz. arable
land, water, soil and biodiversity. These natural
resources are rapidly shrinking due to pressures of
increasing population density, socio-economic pressures,
impact of climatic variability on monsoon (temporal
and spatial variation in rainfall), increase in surface
temperature and increasing phenomenon likes floods
and droughts (Chakraborty, 1998; Sharma, 2001).
Other problem includes rapidly decline of groundwater
levels in the several parts of the country (CGWB,
2009), deteriorating soil health due to over use, soil
erosion and imbalanced use of fertilizers (Pandey and
Singh, 2012). Depleting water resources and the land
degradation are major threat to country’s food
production and environmental security. Therefore,
proper management of natural resources is needed.
Organic agriculture can serve the purpose to ensure
sustainable agriculture due to its holistic approach of
Table 1. Greenhouse gases from agriculture sector under
different emission categories.
(Source: IPCC, 2001; Patle et al., 2013b)
Sector Emission category Gases
produced
Agriculture Enteric fermentation in
livestock, manure management
CO
2
,CH
4
,
N
2
O
Rice cultivation CH
4
Agricultural soils N
2
O
Burning of crop residue CH
4
, N
2
O
Table 2. Growth of area under organic development in India.
NA- Not available (Source: Yadav, 2012)
Years Area in ha under organic certification process
Cultivated
(Organic + in-conversion)
Wild harvest
2003-04 42000 NA
2004-05 76000 NA
2005-06 1,73000 NA
2006-07 5,38000 24,32,500
2007-08 8,65000 24,32,500
2008-09 12,07,000 30,55,000
2009-10 10,85,648 33,96,000
2010-11 7,77,517 36,50,000
G. T. Patle et al.
/ J. Appl. & Nat. Sci. 6 (2): 872 - 879 (2014)
875
organic crop production system and have potential for
meeting food demand, maintaining soil fertility and
increasing soil carbon pool in context of climate
change (Pandey and Singh, 2012). Basically an organic
production system is designed to-
Enhance biological diversity within the whole system
Increase soil biological activity.
Maintain long-term soil fertility.
Recycle wastes of plant and animal origin in order to
return nutrients to the land, thus minimizing the use of
non-renewable resources.
Rely on renewable resources in locally organized
agricultural systems.
Promote the healthy use of soil, water, and air, as well
as minimize all forms of pollution thereto that may
result from agricultural practices (Source: Muller,
2009).
ORGANIC AGRICULTURE AND MITIGATION
OF CLIMATE CHANGE
Organic agriculture is defined as the production system
that sustains the health of soils, ecosystems and people
(IFOAM, 2006). In principle, organic farming
basically depend upon the crop rotations, crop
residues, animal manures, farm organic waste, mineral
grade rock additives and biological system of nutrient
management and pest and disease control. It avoids the
use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, hormones, feed
additives etc. Therefore, organic agriculture is looked
as one of the solutions for climate change mitigation
because it emits much lower levels of greenhouse
gases (GHG), and also effectively sequesters carbon in
the soil (Panwar et al., 2010; IFOAM, 2009). In addition
to this organic agriculture also makes farms and people
more resilient to climate change, mainly due to its
water efficiency, resilience to extreme weather events
and lower risk of complete crop failure.
It is believed that shifting from conventional crop
production systems to organic crop production systems
would significantly lower the emission of greenhouse
gases because organic production systems produce
smaller amount GHG emissions than conventional
industrial farming systems (Meredith, 2008; Mullar,
2009; Pandey and Singh, 2012). Global adoption of
organic agriculture has the potential to sequester up to
the equivalent of 32% of all current man-made GHG
emissions (Jordan et al., 2009). FAO also stated that
organic systems contribute less to GHG emissions due
to use of lower energy inputs and sequesters more
carbon in the biomass than conventional systems
(Ziesemer, 2007). Eyhorn et al. (2007) reported that
organic farming is a low-risk farming strategy with
reduced input costs, therefore, lower risks with partial
or total crop failure due to extreme weather events or
changed conditions in the wake of climate change and
variability. Aher et al. (2012) reported that organic
yields match with the conventional yields and organic
farming uses 45% less energy and is more efficient
than the conventional farming systems.
GLOBAL STATUS OF ORGANIC
AGRICULTURE
Globally total area under organic agriculture constitutes
80 million hectares. Out of which 37 million
hectares represent organic agricultural land including
in conversion areas which shares 0.9% of the world’s
total agricultural land. Non agricultural organic area
constitutes 43 million ha (i.e. area under wild collection,
aquaculture, forests and grazing areas). Area under the
organic agriculture increased from 11 million hectares
in 1999 to 37 million hectares in 2010 (IFOAM, 2012).
Globally, Oceania shares the highest area of organic
land (12.1 mha) followed by the Europe (10 mha),
Latin America (8.4 million ha), Asia (7.5%), Northern
America (7.2%) and Africa having 2.9% area under
organic agriculture (Fig. 2). Country wise area under
organic agricultural land is highest in Australia
(12.0 mha), followed by the Argentina (4.18 mha),
United states (1.95 mha), Brazil (1.77 mha), Spain
(1.46 mha), China (1.39 mha), Italy (1.11 mha),
Germany (0.99 mha) and India consists 0.78 million
hectares (IFOAM, 2012). According to the IFOAM
(2012) statistics, there are 1.6 millions of organic
producers and among which 34% are in Africa
followed by Asia (29%) and 18% in Europe. Among
the countries, India have largest producer of organic
commodities (4,00,551 millions) followed by the
Uganda (1,88,625millions) and Mexico (1,28,862
millions). In 2010, the global sales of organic food and
drink reached to 59 billion US dollar which was 3 fold
more as in the year 2000.
STATUS OF ORGANIC AGRICULTURE IN
INDIA
India having the total geographical area of 328.73
million hectares consists 142.02 million ha net sown
area and 63.26 million hectares net irrigated area.
Organic farming is a state of art in India and is being
followed by the farmers from the ancient times and the
crop production system was mostly organically
Table 3. Criteria of labeling for organic product according to the year of production.
(Source: Maity and Tripathi, 2004)
Crops Year wise label
First year Second year Third year Fourth year
Annual No label In conversion to organic Agriculture Certified organic Certified organic
Perennial No label In conversion to organic Agriculture In conversion to organic Agriculture Certified organic
G. T. Patle et al.
/ J. Appl. & Nat. Sci. 6 (2): 872 - 879 (2014)
876
managed till the introduction of chemical fertilizers
and pesticides in Indian agriculture (Pandey and Singh,
2012; Wani et al., 2013) It is also known by the
various names viz., Vedic krishi, biodynamic farming,
nature farming, eco-farming, traditional organic
farming and homa farming etc.
In India only 30% of total cultivable area is covered
with fertilizers where irrigation facilities are available
and in the remaining 70% of arable land, which is
mainly rain-fed, negligible amount of fertilizers is
being used and mostly managed by farm yard manures
or compost (Maity and Tripathi, 2004). Area under
organic farming in India increased from 42,000
hectares in 2003-04 to more than 4.43 million ha in
2010-11 (Table 2). The cultivated area under organic
farming accounts to 0.77 million ha while remaining
3.65 million ha was wild forest area (Yadav, 2012).
Among the states, Madhya Pradesh comprise largest
area under organic farming followed by Himachal
Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh,
Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and
Orissa. The area under all most all states increased
from 2007-08 to 2010-11 except in the state of Gujarat.
But area under organic farming increased several fold
in the state of Madhya Pradesh as compared to other
states of the country (Fig. 3).
In case of north east states of India, Mizoram consist
of the highest area under organic farming (38674.62
ha), followed by the Nagaland (29715.28 ha), Manipur
(10871.3 ha), Sikkim (7393.09 ha), Assam (6223.12
ha), Meghalaya (2254.12 ha), Arunachal Pradesh
(1897.27 ha) and 281.06 ha in Tripura (Fig. 4). The
north east region of India is blessed with rich biodiversity,
rich soil organic carbon and has low fertilizer consumption.
These are the major strength for large scale adoption of
organic farming. Yadav (2012) reported that about
18 million hectares of land is available in the north east
(NE), which can be exploited for organic production.
Among crops cotton is the single largest crop accounting
for nearly 40 percent of total organic area followed by
rice, pulses, oilseeds and spices. India is the largest
organic cotton grower in world, and accounts for 50%
share of total world organic cotton production
(Bhattacharyya and Chakraborty, 2005). India has
great potential to grow crops organically and have
emerged as a major supplier of organic products in the
world’s organic market.
PROMOTION OF ORGANIC FARMING IN
INDIA
India is endowed with various types of naturally available
organic form of nutrients in different parts of the country
and it would help for organic cultivation of crops
substantially. Organic farms although yield on an
average 10-15% less than conventional farms, the
lower yields are balanced by lower input costs and
higher margins (Pandey and Singh, 2012). Organic
Fig. 1. CO
2
equivalent emissions from agriculture sector in
million tons. (Source: INCCA, 2010).
Fig. 2. Distribution of organic agricultural land in the world.
Source: IFOAM, 2012)
Fig. 3. State wise agricultural area under organic farming
(Source: www.indiastat.com).
Fig. 4. Area under organic agriculture in north-east states of
India (Source: www.indiastat.com).
G. T. Patle et al.
/ J. Appl. & Nat. Sci. 6 (2): 872 - 879 (2014)
877
farming is being promoted under national project on
organic farming, national horticulture mission
and rashtriya krishi vikas yojana.
States like Uttarakhand, Nagaland, Sikkim and
Mizoram have declared their intention to go 100%
organic. Sikkim has already converted nearly 40 percent
of its total cultivated area under organic and has set
target to convert entire state to organic by 2015. At
present, following six authorized accreditation agencies
are working in India.
APEDA (Agricultural and Processed Food Product
Export Development Authority)
Coffee Board
Spices Board
Tea Board
Coconut Development Board
Cocoa and Cashew nut Board
At country level, Indian organic certification agency
(INDOCERT) is a local organic certification body
which was established in March, 2002. The major
objectives of INDOCERT is to offer a reliable and
affordable organic inspection and certification services
to farmers, processors, input suppliers and traders
(Maity and Tripathi, 2004). Table 3 show the criteria
for labeling of organic product according to the year of
production as follows
POTENTIAL OF ORGANIC AGRICULTURE
FOR CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION
Potential of organic agriculture for climate change
mitigation is based on its capacity of carbon
sequestration, reduction in the energy use and lowering
the greenhouse gases emission.
Enhancing carbon sequestration: Soils are the major
sink for atmospheric CO
2.
Organic farming increases
organic carbon through organic manures, crop cover
and crop rotation and restores it for the longer duration. It
is reported that soil carbon sequestration rates on
arable land can range from 200kg to 2000kg of carbon
per hectare per year above ‘business as usual
conventional agriculture depending on the organic
agriculture soil management practice (IFOAM, 2009).
Global adoption of organic agriculture has the potential to
sequester up to the equivalent of 32% of all current
man-made GHG emissions (Jorden et al., 2009).
Reduction in energy use in agriculture: Organic
agriculture reduces the direct and indirect use of
energy in agriculture. It is reported that organic
farming systems use 20 to 50% less energy compared
to the conventional farming system (Pimentel et al.,
2005; Schader et al., 2011 and Muller et al., 2012). In
the USA, high-input industrialized systems consumed
22-120% more energy than sustainable and organic
systems and achieved similar yields (Pretty and Ball,
2001). Lampkin (2007) reported that the lower energy
use on organic farms is largely because industrial
fertilizers and pesticides are not used, thus avoiding
the energy inputs for their production. Pimentel et al.
(2005) reported that organic no-till practice saved 61%
of fuel/ha compared to conventional no-till corn
production practice and organic tillage farming
practice saved 47% fuel per hectare as compared to the
conventional tillage practice. Pretty and Ball (2001)
compared sustainable and low-input systems of
production with the high-input conventional systems
for both developed and developing countries and
reported that low-input or organic rice in Bangladesh,
China, and Latin America was 15-25 times more
energy efficient than irrigated rice produced in the
USA. They further reported that for each tonne of
cereal or vegetable production from the modernized
high-input systems consumed 3000-10,000 MJ of
energy compared to the 500-1000 MJ for sustainable
farming.
Lower greenhouse gas emissions: Olesen et al.
(2006) reported that organic agriculture emits lower
N
2
O from nitrogen application, due to lower overall
nitrogen input per ha than in conventional agriculture.
Greenhouse gas emissions were calculated to be 48-66
percent lower per hectare in organic farming systems
in Europe and were attributed to no input of chemical
N fertilizers. The FAO also reported that organic
agriculture is likely to emit less nitrous oxide (N
2
O).
According to the IOFOAM report the global adoption
of organic agriculture would deliver additional
emissions reductions of approximately. 0.6 to 0.7 Gt
CO
2
eq through the avoidance of biomass burning
(CH
4
and N
2
O emissions) and the avoidance of 0.41 Gt
CO
2
eq/year emitted from the use of fossil energy
consumption for chemical N fertilizer production.
Inspite of all above merits organic farming have
following limitations.
Yield is less during the initial period of conversion.
High dependency on nutrients derived from livestock.
Non availability of organically treated seeds, availability
of organic manures.
Less awareness about bio pesticides or non availability
during disease attack.
Lack of complete package of practices.
Lack of technical knowledge.
Lack of genuine organic seed and planting material.
SUGGESTIONS FOR STRENGTHEN OF
ORGANIC FARMING IN INDIA
For the large scale adaptation and promotion of
organic farming among the farmers, following points
need to be considered.
Development of basic infrastructures like soil testing
laboratory, integrated pest management (IPM) and
integrated nutrient management (INM) laboratories.
Development of organic research farm for carrying the
various trials.
Establishment of bio-fertilizer production units.
Development of local manurial resources to generate
sufficient organic manure.
Institutionalized capacity building programmes.
G. T. Patle et al.
/ J. Appl. & Nat. Sci. 6 (2): 872 - 879 (2014)
878
Production of inputs locally by adopting different
efficient technologies.
Establishment of supply chain mechanism and marketing
federation for organic produce.
Conclusion
In the context of global warming and climate change,
organic agriculture can be a potential strategy to
mitigate consequences of climate change either by
reducing GHG emissions or by sequestering CO
2
from
the atmosphere in the soil. Although the yield potential
is little less in the initial period of conversion from
conventional agriculture to organic agriculture but this
can be managed by the reduction potential of the
greenhouse gases emissions. Organic agriculture is
potentially capable to serve the twin role of countries’
food security and the environment protection. Even
though the increasing trend in the organic agricultural
area in the country, there is still need for further
improvement, especially in the areas of research,
extension and awareness among personnel directly or
indirectly involved in the organic farming.
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... Compared to conventional farming, organic farming has greater potential in soil carbon sequestration (70,71). This is accomplished by reducing N2O emissions due to reduced nitrogen input, reduced CO2 emissions from farming system inputs, and soil carbon sequestration, which is one of the potential mitigation strategies (72,73). ...
... This is accomplished by reducing N2O emissions due to reduced nitrogen input, reduced CO2 emissions from farming system inputs, and soil carbon sequestration, which is one of the potential mitigation strategies (72,73). The soil carbon sequestration rate ranges from 200 kg to 2000 kg C ha -1 yr -1 , depending on the organic soil management practices that favour sequestering of carbon in the soil ecosystem (71). ...
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