The Metabolic Alienation - Addressing Soil Fertility Problem from an Ecological Viewpoint

 “….man is a mere borrower from the earth, and that when he does not pay his debt, she does as do all other creditors, that is, she expels him from his holding”

                                                                        Henry Carey, U.S. Political Economist (1793-1879)

Introduction

Degradation of soil fertility is one of the major problems in Indian agriculture. After about six decades of Green Revolution (GR) nearly two third of Indian agricultural field are either sick or degraded1. Secondary or micro- nutrient deficiency, decreasing organic carbon content, declination of water table and its quality of water bring such a debacle in soil fertility. It is not a unique problem in Indian agriculture, such type of soil fertility problem occur in many other parts of the World. According to Sillanpaa (1990) about 40% of agriculturally important soils especially in developing countries are deficient with one or more micronutrients2.The micro-nutrient deficiency degrades the soil fertility to a great extent.   Scientists generally address this problem as a mere technical problem and recommend application of micro-nutrient fertilizer (i.e. inorganic salts)3 or introduction of Genetically Modified crops which are more efficient to absorb nutrient from soil4. But we think that the main cause of this problem is more deep-rooted. The human socio-economic and political activities which break the bio-geo-chemical cycle of the nutrients is the actual source of the crisis and without addressing it, we can’t make any sustainable solution for this problem. Here we have tried to explain, how this impoverishment of soil is related to the modern model of development, which started since the time of Industrial Revolution, and which causes the exodus of poor people from village to the slums of mega cities. Finally we have tried to find out a sustainable solution for it.

The Metabolic Rift in Food Production System

Plant receives several elements like potassium (K) magnesium (Mg) molybdenum (Mo) zinc (Zn) etc. from the soil, and needless to say that the same is true for the crops also. Animals take plant as food and in this way those elements are transferred from plant to animal body; and in the same way from herbivorous to carnivorous animal. Those nutrient elements perform several vital roles in physiology. Through the decomposition of plant or animal dead body or excreta these element come back into the soil again. Several bacteria and other organisms play a crucial role in this complex process of recycling.

If agricultural products are consumed at a place near by the site of production then the nutrient absorbed by it from the soil may return through the complex process of recycling mentioned above. But if it is consumed at a place geographically distant from its site of production, the nutrient contained in it can never come back to the production field through the priceless natural process. Thus the fertility of soil becomes undone. This we may call a metabolic rift.

Appearance of Metabolic Rift: The time of Industrial Revolution

After the Industrial Revolution urban population increased in west Europe and North America. In England, during 1780 -1813, the capitalist manufacturer displaced the small master-workman and domestic craftsman. As in agriculture, land was thrown together in large holdings at the expense of small occupiers. The extermination of open-field farms reduced numbers of small occupiers to the rank of hired wage-earners; the appropriation of commons land deprived many cottagers, not only of free fuel, but of the means of supplementing wages by the profits of their live-stock, their poultry, and their geese. A great population, standing on the verge of famine, and beginning to gather in industrial centers, cried aloud for food5. These pauperized and uprooted rural populations form the wage laborer for the industries. The rapid growth of manufacturing cities created a new demand for bread and meat. To meet the demand an effort to intensify agricultural production started. Some authors describe this as 2nd agricultural revolution6. To maintain soil

fertility huge amount of fertilizer application started. Import of fertilizer increased several times.   The first cargo of Peruvian guano was consigned to a Liverpool merchant in 1835; but in 1841 it was still so little known that only 1,700 tons were imported; six years later (1847) the importation amounted to 220,000 tons. Bones were beginning to be extensively used. Their import value rose from £14,395 in 1823 to £254,600 in 18375. European farmers in this period, even raided the Napoleonic battlefield" of Waterloo and Austerlitz and reportedly dug up catacombs. So desperate were they for bones to spread over their fields. When such frantic method was being practiced to maintain soil fertility, the monstrous amount of human and animal excreta in big cities was creating pollution. Anderson, the famous English agronomist of that time, contended that the growing division between town and country had led to the loss of natural sources of fertilizer. He wrote, "Every person who has but heard of agriculture, knows that animal manure, when applied to the soil, tends to add to its fertility; of course he must be sensible that every circumstance that tends to deprive the soil of that manure ought to be

accounted an uneconomical waste highly deserving of blame." Anderson realized that the judicious application of animal and human excreta can maintain the fertility of   "soil for ever after, without the addition of any extraneous manures." In London the enormous waste, the natural source of fertility, "which is daily carried to the Thames, in its passage to which it

subjects the people in the lower part of the city to the most offensive effluvia," 7 indicated how wide the metabolic rift was.

 

In the year 1842, Lawes invented soluble phosphate or super phosphate which is absorbable to plant. Super phosphate factory was established in 1843 and its massive application in agricultural field started, brought good result. But this chemical fertilizer fail to maintain soil fertility for a considerable time, because super phosphate can only supply phosphorus to soil and plant absorb more than 15 elements from soil to run its physiological processes. If there is deficiency of any one of these nutrient in the soil it has ill effect on plant physiology, no matter whether other elements are sufficiently present or not. In 1913 Haber invented technique applicable for production of nitrogenous fertilizer, and huge production of nitrogenous fertilizer started. But for the reason mentioned above nitrogenous fertilizer also fail to keep soil fertility for considerable time.

In North America, the problem of metabolic rift was realized by the concerned persons, two of them were Henry Carey and Jestus Von Leibig. The former one was a Political Economist and the later was a great soil chemist of his era. Henry Carey clearly mentioned that,”…from the produce of an acre of wheat sent abroad to be exchanged, nothing goes back upon the land”8. He gave some concrete examples about the impoverishment of the soil.

” The farmer of New York raises wheat, which exhausts the land. That wheat he sells, and both grain and straw are lost. The average yield per acre, originally twenty bushels, falls one-third.

The Kentuckian exhausts his land with hemp, and then wastes his manure on the road, in carrying it to market.

Virginia is exhausted by tobacco, and men desert their homes to seek in the west new lands, to be again exhausted; and thus are labour and manure wasted, while the great machine (the soil) deteriorates, because men cannot come to take from it the vast supplies of food with which it is charged.”8

In the newly added “Introduction,” of   The seventh edition of Agricultural Chemistry  Liebig warns: “Each land” will inevitably become “poorer not only by continuously exporting its crops, but also by uselessly wasting the products of metabolism (Stoffwechsel) that accumulate in large cities.”9

The population growth in towns, the result of industrialization, increases demands for agricultural products (mainly food and raw materials for cloth) from the country; but the mineral substances contained in them do not return to the original soil. Farmers also make every effort to sell as much as they can in order to maximize profits, so they even end up selling bones and straw, which should be used for maintaining the fertility of their own lands.

 

The Contemporary Scenario

Over the past 50 years the rate of urbanization have been augmented many folds. Urban population has increased by 20 to 30 per cent in most parts of the world. The trends indicates that world urban populations will increase by the equivalent of 33 new cities of 2 million people per year for 30 years, or by 6 megacities per year, for the next 30 years.10

In the year 2003 there were 19 megacities populations of over 10 million. Eight per cent of the

world’s urban population lived in these very large cities, while over 50 per cent lived in cities

under 500,000 people. Some megacities grow very large (Dhaka, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Delhi and Mexico City have population of about 20 million); but none are projected to exceed the current size of Tokyo. 10

 

It is estimated that during the year 2020-2025, the global increment to urban population will supersede the increment to total population. ( See Fig.-1)

While the urban development focus on the teeming megacities has been very pronounced,

with extensive research and many large-scale improvement projects, the major population

growth is now in medium cities of 1 to 5 million people, and in smaller cities of under 500,000

people, which still have half of the world’s population growth. Although these smaller cities do

not have the vast areas of social exclusion, informality and unhealthy living conditions of the largest cities, they do have less in the way of urban facilities and development than larger cities,

and this contributes to slum incidences that may exceed those of larger cities. 10

 

Rural–urban migration

The high rate of urbanization that is now occurring throughout the developing world parallels that occurred in England and some other European countries during their industrial revolutions in the 18th and 19th centuries. What is different now is that urbanization is not being

accompanied with adequate economic growth in many developing countries.

The main features of present-day urbanization have been determined by:

 

  1. political factors: instability, civil war and repression;
  2. economic, environmental and social factors:

environmental degradation and declining productivity of cropland; low rural incomes from agriculture; lack of new lands for farming; move to export rather than subsistence farming; enclosure and consolidation of farm holdings; limited off-farm employment;

 

Indian Perspective:

India is not an exception. The rate of urbanization and slum dwelling population is increasing in India ( See Fig.2). But in India the cause of rural urban migration is mainly rooted in economic, environmental and social factors. Here we shall discuss the economic, environmental and social factors in the background of two dissimilar areas of India, namely Punjab and Bundelkhand.  Punjab is a prosperous state of India, advanced in agriculture and it was the centre of the Green Revolution (GR). On the other hand Bundelkhand is a backward area, suffering from femine. The Bundelkhand region – approximately an area of 70,000 square kilometers with 21 million people comprising 6 districts of Madhya Pradesh (MP) and 7 districts of Uttar Pradesh (UP). The 13 districts of Bundelkhand feature in the Planning Commission of India’s 200 most backward districts list.

 

Punjab:

Punjab was the main centre of G R in India. G R was a technological package for increasing grain production by monoculture of High Yielding Varieties (HYVs) with intense application of water, agrochemicals and machineries.

 

The Punjab state comprising only 1.54 per cent of the total geographical area of country now contributes 13-14 per cent towards the total food grain production of the country. State has earned a name of granary of India through contributing 35-40 per cent of rice and 40 to 75 per cent of wheat to the central pool in the past two decades. But this achievement was not continued. Green Revolution sustained till the eighties, after which the agricultural production in Punjab showed the signs of stagnation. In nineties, the exalting cost of cultivation of major crops further aggravated the situation through squeezing the profitability of agriculture adversely affecting the socio-economic condition of farmers in the state. Thus, the agriculture in state has reached a plateau making it very hard to make further progress under available technologies and natural resource base. Its relative contribution in central pool of food grains both for wheat and paddy has also been declining during last few years.

 

The state cropping pattern dominated by wheat-rice rotation is causing a serious damage to the state’s natural resource base. Though rice was not a staple food for local people, they depended mainly on wheat and pulses, still Green Revolution encouraged rice cultivation in Punjab. The state government had appointed a committee under the chairmanship of Professor S.S. Jhol, an agronomist, to look into this problem of the agrarian sector in the year 1985. In the report submitted in 1986, the Jhol Committee expressed concern about stagnating productivity levels and deteriorating environment due to the cropping pattern dominated by paddy-wheat rotation11.

 

In Punjab higher and higher doses of major nutrients, especially nitrogen, have to be applied for sustaining adequate production levels. In state the use of fertilizer (nutrients) increased from 37 kg/ha in 1970-71 to 243 kg/ha in 2010-1112.

 

Low fertility status obviously implies that the amount of plant nutrient that the soil itself is capable of making available to the growing crop is far less than that needed for getting high yields. The most of state soils test low to medium in available nitrogen and available phosphorus. The soils in general are medium to high in available potassium. Micronutrient deficiencies in large areas have also been noticed adversely affecting crop yield. The soils contain sufficient calcium and magnesium. However, their deficiencies can be observed in local pockets supporting sodic soils. Recently sulphur deficiency has been recorded in some soils, especially in coarse-textured soils, receiving high-analysis fertilizers. In recent years, widespread deficiency of one or more micronutrients has been observed, resulting in significant decrease in crop yield especially of high yielding varieties. Deficiency of zinc is of widespread occurrence, particularly in the central and south-western districts. Deficiencies of iron and manganese have been observed in coarse textured soils recently brought under rice-wheat cropping system12.

 

In Punjab about 98 per cent of the net sown area is irrigated. In many areas, excessive exploitation has pushed the groundwater table below the critical depth of 10 meters. The water table in the central districts of Punjab has been going down whereas in south western parts it is going up resulting into the problem of water logging. During 2010, out of 138 blocks of state 110 blocks are over exploited where exploitation is more than 100 per cent of annual net recharge of water, 2 blocks are in critical category (exploitation above 85 per cent) and 3 blocks falls in semi critical-category (exploitation of 65-85 percent). Thus there were only 23 blocks which were considered safe. In other words ground water in 80 per cent of the total geographical area of state has been over exploited, with another 4 per cent in critical or semi-critical category12.

 

The pest problem accentuated with the introduction of high yielding varieties of crops, intensive use of inputs and development of new cropping patterns. Crops like cotton, sugarcane, paddy, oilseeds and vegetables have shown greater reliance on pesticides. Problem of weeds also increased with increase in cropping intensity and fertilizer use particularly in irrigated areas like Punjab. Punjab farmers had used weedicides effectively in weed management of field crops particularly in crops like wheat, paddy, potato, etc. This resulted into tremendous increase in demand of pesticides and weedicides over time12.

The pesticide related health problem is now a major problem in Punjab. The cancer train incident divulge the ugly face of pesticide poisoning in the state. The passenger train to Bikaner at 9.15 pm, from Abohar to Jodhpur is called the 'Cancer Train', a name it earned over the last decade as it has daily ferried people (70-100) with cancer from Bathinda to Bikaner for cheap treatment of the deadly disease. The cancer-affected on this train are small farmers from the southern districts of Punjab: Bathinda, Faridkot, Moga, Muktsar, Ferozepur, Sangrur and Mansa. Known together as the Malwa region, farmers and families here are grappling with cancer and health problems that have crept into their homes through the backdoor as the farmers of India's grain bowl fed the nation. The cause of this cancer epidemic is the agricultural chemical, the pesticide and the fertilizer13.

The above mentioned facts are sufficient to represent the jeopardized agro ecological condition of Punjab for which the farmers are suffering. But this is not the only cause of their misery. The market of the agricultural commodities is dominated by touts and brokers. Recently global capital has entered this market. Due to the unholy nexus of the touts and government officials, often the farmers, not only small and marginal but also medium and large, fail to sale their product in fair price. Surinder S. Jodhka, in his article under the title of “The Decline of Agriculture” put a representative example of such unholy nexus in Punjab. In the year 2000, there had a bumper crop of paddy. But the procurement agencies refuse to purchase

the grain at the minimum support price (MSP) declared by the central government, on the

plea that the grains was of inferior qualities. The FCI chief went to the extent of saying that

as much as 80 per cent of the Punjab paddy was spoilt, a claim that had no scientific basis.

The private traders and rice millers were quite willing to buy the same paddy, but at a price much lower than the official support price11.

 

Surinder S. Jodhka points out that due to these stagnating productivity and market fluctuation the younger generation of rural Punjabis are losing their interest towards agriculture.

 

TABLE-1

Perceptions of Desirability/Likelihood of Next Generation Doing Farming (Only Non-

Dalit Rural Respondents)

Total Number

Surveyed

Preferred

Not-Preferred

Not Applicable/No Response

1008(100)

121(12.0)

635(63.00)

252(25.00)

Source: Surinder S. Jodhka, The Decline of Agriculture. Reforming Indian Agriculture.Edited By S.K.Bhoumik. SAGE.

 

 

 

TABLE-2

Perception of Rural Non-Dalit on the Future Economic Status of Farming Community

in Punjab

 

Total Number Surveyed

Certainly Better

Same as Now

Worse

Much Worse

No Response

1009(100)

88(8.72)

185(19.65)

28(2.77)

487(48.27)

221(21.90)

Source: Surinder S. Jodhka, The Decline of Agriculture. Reforming Indian Agriculture.Edited By S.K.Bhoumik. SAGE.

 

Bundelkhand:

Bundelkhand is suffering from severe drought since 2003. It has let loose a harsh livelihood crisis. The drought impacted 16 million people; 40 percent farms not being sown brings down food production by 30 percent while 70 percent of ponds and tanks dried up. Drinking water problem became acute. Around 40 percent of the region’s population compelled to migrate out.

 

But historically Bundelkhand was not such severe drought prone area. Frequency of drought in Bundelkhand is increasing. From Government records it is found that Bundelkhand used to have one drought in 16 years during the 18th and 19th centuries. From 1968 to 1992, the region saw a drought in every five years; and in the 21st century the region has already suffered seven years of drought.

Ironically the average rainfall in Bundelkhand area ranges between 750 mm to 1,250 mm. And it rains for around 100 hours a year, comparable to many of the well endowed states in term of rainfall. Moreover there was a safety net of community-managed tanks and other water harvesting structures. There are around 4,000 such traditional structures and most of them are

as old as 1000 years. Even now some people in the region do depend on tanks for irrigation and drinking water. So we have to search the causes of drought somewhere else. The following facts are responsible for Bundelkhand drought.

Deforestation: Historically, dense forests covered almost entire region of Bundelkhand. Till the beginning of the 19th century about 30 percent of the total area of Hamirpura (consist two district at the Uttar Pradesh(UP)  side of Bundelkhand) were covered by dense forest, now in Uttar Pradesh side of Bundelkhand, the forest area is only 7.75 percent. In the Madhya Pradesh   ( MP) side the forest cover is 26.2 percent which was around 40 percent in 1950s. The inter-ministerial central team reported that 64 percent forest in UP and more than 50 percent in MP are

degraded.

Logging and mining are two major reasons for deforestation. Mining of hills for stones used in construction, is a major source of deforestation on hills. Mining at the core of all environmental degradation in the region. Mahoba district of Bundelkhand known for its rampant stone mining. “900-1200 trucks loaded with stones leave this area everyday for Kanpur, Lucknow and elsewhere. And about 15 rigs (an entire trainload) each with 58 bogeys, each bogey containing 60 tonnes leave in the direction of Jhansi every month. That is, roughly, over 50,000 tonnes each

Month. The area was dotted with densely forested hills, but now left with just barren and badly bruised mounds.

Deforestation meant fast soil erosion and silting up of the tanks and wells. Those tanks and wells were the major instruments for rain water harvesting and recharging ground water. They were the main source of irrigation and drinking water. An interesting aspect of current drought in the region is the scarcity of drinking water. Earlier, drinking water never became scarce during drought. The network of traditional water harvesting structures ensured that even in worst rainfall scenario there are structures with water exclusively for drinking purpose14.

Industrialization: The MP government is industrializing the region with water guzzling plants, like steel and captive power plants, cement plants, iron and ferroalloy plants, etc. The government has promised all the industries preferential land and water sources, no doubt this will make situation worse14.

Over Exploitation of Ground Water: Bundelkhand has geological disadvantage – its underground granite layer doesn’t allow plenty groundwater recharge. That is the reason why the area is dense with surface water harvesting structures or shallow dug wells. But as government is encouraging water-intensive crops, this has a direct bearing on the groundwater and thus on drinking water availability. For example, menthe cultivation in few districts has drastically depleted groundwater. It requires watering 18 times within a crop cycle. Mentha is a cash crop. But its impacts on the local ecology, particularly groundwater, are devastating. It requires 50 lakh litre water per acre to produce 30 to 35 litre of mentha oil (average production/acre). That is more than one lakh litres of water needed for one litre of menthe oil. analysis of five years of data shows that it has not fetched much profits for the farmers but fetch drought. If this was not enough, the MP government is now planning for large scale Jatropha and bio-diesel plantation. These are water intensive crops and there are reports of such crops leading to depletion in groundwater.

The condition of other states of India is a collage of Punjab and Bundelkhand. Now we shall discuss the impact of rural-urban migration on soil fertility with special reference to India14.

 

Process of Soil Impoverishment

According to the Census 2001 Indian urban population is 28,53,54,954. In the year 1999-2000 urban people of India monthly consumed average 5.5Kg   rice and 4.4Kg wheat(See Table-3). Potassium(K) contained per gm of rice and wheat are 1.16 mg and 3.86mg respectively(See Table-4), thus per month every urban Indian consumed (5.5x1.16x1000)+(4.4x3.86x1000) = 23364mg Potassium i.e. 23364x12 = 280368 mg say 280.4 gm Potassium per year. So in one year (280.4x285354954)/ (1000x1000) = 80013.5 metric ton Potassium was transferred from Indian agricultural field to cities through rice and wheat only, if we consider all the food items consumed by the urban people the quantity will increase many fold. However this quantity is greater than even the total Potassium fertilizer utilized in the agricultural field of India in the year 1964-65 (i.e. 69300 MT). This amount of potassium will never return to the agricultural field by natural bio-geo-chemical cycle; and as no potassium fertilizer is produced in India, she has to import all the potassium fertilizer from abroad. The fate is same for the other elements absorbed by the crops from the field and exported to the town (See Table 5). This process impoverished

the soil.

TABLE-3

All India Urban Per Capita Average Food Intake ( Kg/30 Days )

Name of the food Item

Year 1987-1988

Year 1999-2000

Rice

5.65

5.50

Wheat

4.57

4.40

Other Grain

0.83

0.40

Total Grain

11.05

10.30

Pulses

1.06

1.0

Milk & Milk Product

4.52

5.6

Edible Oil

0.56

0.70

Meat/Fish/Egg

2.01

2.90

Vegetable/Fruit

11.46

15.20

Sugar/Spices

1.63

1.60

Processed Food

0.80

2.20

Beverage

5.84

6.40

Source: FOOD CONSUMPTION, TRADE REFORMS AND TRADE PATTERNS IN CONTEMPORARY INDIA: HOW DO AUSTRALIA AND NZ FIT IN?

by Srikanta Chatterjee, Allen Rae, Professors, Department of Applied & International Economics Massey University Palmerston North New Zealand, and Ranjan Ray, Professor School of Economics University of Tasmania Hobart Tasmania Australia.

Discussion Paper No. 06.04 – March 2006

 

TABLE-4

Mineral Content in Some Food Article (mg./100gms of food)

Name of the food item

Fe

Ca

K

Mg

Cu

Mn

Mo

Zn

Cr

S

Rice

0.5

18-25

116

91

0.17

0.80

0.068

1.4

0.006

-

Wheat

3.9

38

386

138

0.68

2.29

0.051

2.7

0.012

128

Potato

0.35

6

417

30

0.16

0.13

0.070

0.53

0.007

37

Lentil

-

-

629

80

1.87

1.04

0.171

2.8

0.024

104

Mung

-

-

1150

122

0.39

1.02

0.446

2.08

0.010

214

Source: Prepared from Nutritive Value of Food. Susan E Gebhardt. And Robin G Thomas, U

S Department of Agriculture. Agricultural Research Service Home And Garden

Bulletin Number 72, Nutritive Value of Indian Food. C.Gopalan, ICMR, and Introduction to

Human Nutrition, Second Edition, edited by Michael J Gibney Susan, A Lanham-New, Aedin Cassidy, Hester H Vorster.

 

TABLE-5

 

Nutrient Drainage Through Rice and Wheat in India ( 2000-2001)

Name of the Nutrients

Amount Transferred from Agricultural Field to Town (TON)

Iron

681.77

Calcium

10433.72

Magnesium

3793.52

Copper

134.47

Manganese

495.69

Molybdenum

20.49

Zinc

670.47

 

Application of chemical fertilizer is used to do for checking the impoverishment, but this invites several other problems. Major fertilizer (N P K) can’t supply micronutrients. Thus very soon micronutrient (i.e. Zn, Mo, Cu, Mn, Fe, etc.) deficiencies occur. Due to deficiency of some micronutrient the requirements of some macronutrient increased. For example, if there are deficiencies of Mo and Mn in soil the Nitrogen fixation and rate of Nitrogen absorption falls. To combat the situation now micronutrient fertilizers are recommended. But there is very little difference between the density of micronutrient ideal for production and the density which bring toxic effect. After six decades of green revolution different agricultural field of our country is now suffering from over density of some nutrients and deficiency of others. Due to prolonged application of chemical fertilizer and reduction of application of organic manure, several soil organisms get abolished. Thus entire process of natural recycling is jeopardized. Phosphate fertilizer often contain high amount of cadmium, which brings soil toxicity.   Deficiency of organic matter not only reduces the rate of absorption of different nutrient, but also creates several ecological problems which reduce both quality and quantity of production.

 

 In India average food grain production has decreased from 15Kg to 8Kg, per Kg of fertilizer use over the period from 1975 to 199015

 Decrease in food grain production per kg of fertilizer application over a period of 15 years.

Department of agriculture and cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, clearly indicates in their “Guidelines on The National Project on Management of Soil Health and Fertility,” in November, 2008 that

  • Greater mining of soil nutrients to the extent of 10 million tons every year depleting soil fertility,
  • Emerging deficiencies of secondary and micronutrients,
  • Decline of water table and its quality of water,
  • Decreasing organiccarbon content, and
  • Overall deterioration in soil health.

As a whole the natural fertility of the soil in India is going to be blemished. Application of chemical fertilizer increased manifold but in comparison production is not increased much. From 1950-51 to 2000-01 fertilizer application per hector increased 181.22 times percentage of irrigated area for food grains increased 2.39 times but yield of food-grains increased 3.11 times16.

In modern agriculture maintenance of soil fertility is still a burning problem. To combat it magnificent researches on soil chemistry were done with the aid of the money of the state; several different types of fertilizers were invented, but problem of declining soil fertility is still remaining. Actually speaking it is not at all a technical problem, in the mode of production where huge quantity of agricultural produce and nutrient contained in it are transferred from the field of production to a distant places, and a large number of people are uprooted from their original habitat and compel to gather in the slums of large metropolis, and therefore maintenance of soil fertility is like that of a long lasting battle.

It is a global problem. The wide-ranging work of Sillanpaa (1990), which not only used soil and plat analysis but field experiments with quite a lot of crops, has given us an appreciation of the extent of these micronutrient deficiencies in agriculturally important soils, especially in developing countries. He found zinc was deficient in half of the major agricultural soil and boron deficient in a third, the deficiency of copper, molybdenum, and manganese were all of small and similar extent (10-15%) and all three together adversely affected a total of about 40% of all soil in study2.

Where Malnutrition Replaces Hunger:  Although the plant species are quite different from each other in their ability to absorb micronutrients from the soil, and the ability can be increased by hybridization or genetic engineering, if soil is deficient with the nutrients, nutrient deficiency must occur in the crops grown in that soil. Naturally if people consume those crops, will suffer from micronutrient deficiencies. In many areas of the world, poor dietary quality and micronutrient deficiency are more wide spread problem than low energy intake17. Micronutrient deficiencies are currently identified as the main contributors to the global burden of disease. More than 2 billion people worldwide suffering from one or more micronutrient deficiencies (WHO 2012). Micronutrient deficiency may occur in human being due to genetic factors, influence of some drug or because of stress. But present epidemic is related with the impoverishment of the soil.

The Metabolic Rift is Widening: Since the time of industrial revolution some thinkers were concerned about the metabolic rift and soil fertility problem. They proposed to utilize town waste as fertilizer for recharging impoverished soil. But now the problem becomes more complicated. In modern commodity fetish metropolises the affluent is a mixture of both organic matter and deadly poisonous chemicals and heavy metals. If it is used directly to the agricultural field we will allow those deadly poisonous elements to enter into the food chain, which will bring another disaster. Organic manure made up from city sewage is often polluted with Pb, Cd, Hg, or other heavy metals. Though city sewage is mainly composed of domestic organic waste but often industrial discharge, food processing waste, and storm run-off from road ways get mixed with it which are the source of heavy metals mainly cadmium. The process used to rend down raw sewage and remove harmful bacteria do not remove heavy metal, but rather tend to concentrate them and the resulting sludge may therefore contain high level of cadmium18. In Japan application of such organic manure and polluted irrigated water in rice field caused severe pollution. In 1980s 9.5% of the paddy field and 7.5% of the orchard, soil was polluted with Cd. bring epidemic of ITAI ITAI disease19.

 Towards a Sustainable Food Production System

 

 

Before entering in to the topic it will be relevant to say few words about the Mars’s view regarding the problem of soil impoverishment and about the sustainable agriculture, because ultimately we have to build up a new socio economic and political system for developing a true sustainable agriculture. It was expressed in the analysis by Karl Marx that the problem of soil fertility is not mere a technical problem but the problem of a specific mode of production. Jestus Von Leibig the great chemist contemporary to Marx first explained scientifically the process of nutrient absorption by plant from the soil, in his famous book “Organic chemistry in its application to agriculture and physiology” in the year 1840. Marx was deeply familiar with this research work. Leibigs research made an end of old idealist concept regarding soil, that soil has immortal and eternal power. Leibig proved that due to over exploitation soil fertility may be ruined. According to Leibigs law of minimum overall soil fertility is always limited by the nutrient in least abundance. Thus application of one or two nutrient like phosphate or nitrate can’t maintain the fertility. Leibig criticized that Great Britain robs all countries of the condition of fertility. On that basis Marx said in the first volume of Capital “England has indirectly exported the soil of Ireland, without even allowing its cultivators the means for replacing the constituents of the exhausted soil”.

 

In the first volume of Capital Marx clearly stated that “Capitalist production collects the population together in great centers, and causes the urban population to achieve an ever-growing preponderance. This has two results. On the one hand it concentrates the historical motive force of society, on the other hand, it disturbs the metabolic interaction between man and the earth, i.e. it prevents the return to the soil of its constituent elements consumed by man in the form of food and clothing; hence it hinders the operation of the eternal natural condition for the lasting fertility of the soil ….But by destroying the circumstances surrounding that metabolisms …., it compels its systematic restoration as a regulative law of social production, and in a form adequate to the full development of human race ….… [A]ll progress in capitalist agriculture is a progress in the art, not only of robbing the worker, but of robbing the soil; all progress in increasing the fertility of the soil for a given time is a progress toward ruining the more long-lasting sources of that fertility… Capitalist production, therefore, only develops the technique and the degree of combination of the social process of production by simultaneously undermining the original source of all wealth-the soil and the worker.” The Industrial proletariats are not only alienated from means of production but from nature also. This alienation was reflected in Marx’s intellect as metabolic ( in German stoffwechsel ) alienation. If these impassable difference between town and country prevails there is now way to overcome the problem.

In Anti-Duhring Engels said “Abolition of the antithesis between town and country is not merely possible. It has become a direct necessity of industrial production itself, just as it has become a necessity of agricultural production and, besides of public health. The present poisoning of the air and water and land can be put an end to only by the fusion of town and country; and only such fusion will change the situation of masses now languishing in the towns, and enable there excrement to be used for the production of plant instead of for the production of disease.”

In sustainable agriculture crop are produced by maintaining a harmony with the nature. In the present model of development a large number of people live in city. Globalization rapidly increasing the slum dwelling population in the cities of the developing countries. All the food requirements for the city dwellers are coming from the villages, simultaneously different elements which are absorbed from the soil and incorporated in the food stuff come to the city but never come back to the agricultural field by any natural process. This jeopardize the nutrient recycling in agricultural field. To achieve sustainability in food production we must refute the political economic system where hundreds of thousands of people are uprooted from their original habitat in the name of development and compel to gather in the slums of the metropolises. Generally the development projects in the rural areas neglect the demand of the local people, but that demand should be given proper attention. Farmers should be encouraged to make high quality compost and herbal pesticide from local resources. Laboratories for producing beneficial soil flora and fauna (i.e. earth worms beneficial bacteria, fungus, etc.) should be established in every village, and proper network have to be developed to distribute them among the farmers.  Labor intensive agriculture and food processing system should be adopted. All this will increase job prospect for rural people and check the exodus. Conservation of indigenous seed and proper scientific approach to folk knowledge is necessary.

Urban agriculture should be promoted so that a considerable amount of food for the urban people can be grown within the periphery of the cities. In Cuba urban agriculture become an important source of vegetable and other food for urban people. In 2003 over 200,000 workers were employed in urban agriculture sector, 35000 new jobs having been created over the previous year amounting to 22% of all new jobs in the Cuban economy. 20

There general turn to organic agriculture and the renewed use of animal traction power (2400 teams of oxen labor in the city of Havana) has produced the tremendous savings of imported energy and other products derived from petroleum.20

For promoting a true sustainable food production system we have to realize and uphold that demand of the Communist Manifesto “Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country” (Emphasis mine).

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References:

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Koont Sinan, Food Security in Cuba,Analytical Monthly Review,January 2004