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Scientific progress implies gaining a better understanding of nature to ensure that the needs of human beings and all other forms of life are met on a sustainable basis, without excessively disturbing (and certainly not destroying) the life-nurturing conditions of nature and her many kinds of habitats. This is achieved by improving understanding of how the various aspects of nature exist, work and interact with each other.

If the path of scientific progress is defined in this way then it is very clear that humankind is not following this path. In recent years human beings have ruthlessly destroyed nature. There is need for wider acceptance of this failure so that grave mistakes of the past can be admitted and we can embark on true scientific progress.

For example the foremost step in a scientific study of a river system is to form comprehensive understanding of what important environmental role the river and its tributaries perform in maintaining the balance of nature and how fish and other forms of life flourish in these rivers and their immediate surroundings. This should of course include an understanding of how various human settlements around rivers obtain various life and livelihood benefits from rivers.

On the basis of this understanding, scientific progress consists of ensuring that the life and livelihood of human beings continue to benefit from river flows on a sustainable basis without harming the natural and environmental functions of river systems and without threatening fish and other forms of life flourishing in and near rivers.

All issues relating to river systems whether sand mining, dams and barrages, irrigation, hydel power, flood-control navigation etc. have to be taken up on this understanding and only then can we say that scientific progress is taking place.

But what is taking place is not at all scientific. Although highly qualified engineers and geologists may be involved, what is essentially taking place in most places is a reckless violation of scientific study and progress. Quite often big business interests take decisions which are most lucrative for them, and then somehow a cover is provided for this with cooked up ‘scientific’ studies.

Such is the experience of not only river systems but also most other areas and contexts. In the case of agriculture, perhaps the most important aspect in a scientific study of sustainable agriculture is to understand how nature works to maintain soil fertility. This is described here in the words of Sailendra Ghosh, a writer who repeatedly emphasised the need for organic agriculture.

He wrote, “Let&’s first take a look at the bounties of nature in an undisrupted system. Firstly nature has made ample provisions for the supply of nitrogen through the root system in a variety of ways. Rains wash down the nitrogen generated by thunder. Bacteria in the nodules of leguminous plants capture nitrogen from the atmosphere and fix it into the soil. So do some ferns, some forms of algae and some genera of free living bacteria. Various genera have been endowed with this quality so that this operation could continue under differing conditions. Probably the most important source of supply of nitrogen as also of other nutrients is the decomposition of animal and plant wastes. This is done by decomposer bacteria and fungi.”

Animals eliminate excess organic phosphorus by excreting phosphorous salts in urine. Also present are phosphatising bacteria, Sailen Ghosh says, to convert phosphorus into stable forms of phosphate salts which remain bound with soil. At the beginning of rains, the mineralisation of organic matter releases phosphates for uptake by the plants.

Further Ghosh writes, “for the supply of all other macro and micronutrients as also of vitamin and plant growth promoting substances, there are elaborate arrangements in natural soil systems. The soil abounds in countless forms of micro organisms – bacteria, fungi, viruses, protozoa, yeasts, algae etc. to perform different but interrelated functions. Each produces different kinds of enzymes by which all stand to benefit.”

To enable this beautiful but complex natural system to carry out its work of maintaining land fertility we should protect forest cover in and around agricultural fields, we should return organic waste to soil and we should choose carefully mixed cropping and rotation systems.

When all these time-honoured practices of maintaining soil fertility are neglected, soil fertility is impeded. The solution lies in correcting these mistakes, not in applying chemical fertilizers because chemicals disturb and disrupt the natural process in numerous ways, For example chemical farming kills earthworms, whom Charles Darwin called “the builders of civilisations” and who play an invaluable role in protecting and maintaining the fertility of land.

However organic farming should not be equated just with ‘non-chemicalisation’ as, in the words of Ghosh, “Organic farming means farming in the spirit of organic relationship. When you say this, it opens up a whole vista. In nature, organic relationship is a pervasive phenomenon. Everything is connected with everything else…. Since organic farming means placing farming on integral relationships, we have to know the relationship between the soil, water and plants, between soil, soil microbes and waste products, between the vegetable kingdom and the animal kingdom, of which the apex animal is the human being, between agriculture and forestry. between soil, water and atmosphere etc. It is the totality of these relationships that is the bedrock of organic farming.”

This is the scientific approach, but motivated interests intervene in policy making so that only those policies which favour chemical fertilisers are promoted.

Leading economist Ashok Rudra noted, “The policy of the Government of India with respect to soil nutrients since the beginning of the sixties has been one of vast and continuous expansion of the use of chemical fertiliser by all possible means. All the policy instruments in the hands of the government, such as import control, industrial licensing policy, fiscal policy, price control policy etc. have been applied in a concerted manner so as to achieve that aim.” Further he said, “There has however been no noticeable effort whatsoever for the maximum mobilisation of organic manurial resources.”

Even the government&’s own economic survey admitted, “The easy availability of chemical fertilisers has tended to reduce the attention which farmers, agricultural scientists and administrators must continue to devote to organic manures and plant materials.”

The green revolution phase has generally involved the spread of intensive monocultures, but this is harmful for the long-term fertility of land. As the World Resources Report (WRR) says : “Soils under intensive monoculture tend to lose organic matter and their ability to retain moisture thus becoming more susceptible to erosion and ultimately losing their fertility and productivity.” Spread of intensive monoculture generally involves a higher reliance on chemical pesticides. A very small part of the pesticide applied on a field – less than 0.1 per cent in many insecticides – actually reaches its target organism. The rest plays the role of polluting the land and water poisoning birds and other forms of life. As WRR says, “wholesale elimination of helpful soil dwelling insects and micro organisms that build soil and plant nutrition sometimes occurs, essentially sterilising the soil.”

The World Resources Report has stated clearly that in the 50 years since pesticide use became widespread, the percentage of crop loss from pest damage has not measurably declined. Insects, weeds and plant diseases still claim 30 to 35 per cent of total crop production – about the same percentage estimated for the pre-chemical age. Today more than 500 insect and mite species are immune to one or more insecticides, 113 weeds are resistant to one or more herbicides and 150 plant pathogens are resistant to fungicides.

Such evidence reveals how in most crucial issues relating to agriculture the scientific approach has been abandoned to yield place to highly unscientific approach under the impact of motivated interests.

Such examples can no doubt be multiplied, but the essence of the argument is to emphasise that in most policy-related issues impacting millions of people, the scientific approach is being sacrificed on the altar of commerce and greed.

The writer is a free-lance journalist who has been involved with several social initiatives and movements.