J&K at Crossroads on Farming Reforms!
For decades, the Green Revolution was celebrated as the answer to India’s hunger crisis. It brought higher yields, faster growth, and a sense of agricultural tri-umph. But beneath that triumph, a quiet crisis was brewing. Hazardous chemical pesti-cides and fertilizers slowly poisoned the very land that fed the nation. Soils turned toxic. Water sources got contaminated; Air polluted and farmers, the true feeders of this country, began falling prey to cancer, kidney failure, IBS, Alzheimer’s, and brain tumors.
The most heartbreaking symbol of this crisis is Punjab’s “Cancer Express” — Train No. 14722 — where hundreds of farmers and their family members travel daily from Punjab’s Malwa region to Bikaner just to receive free cancer treatment. Malwa, one of India’s highest agricultural production belts, has long hit the newspapers headlines & linked in public de-bate and several scientific studies to elevated cancer cases, driven by decades of excessive agrochemical use and deeply contaminated groundwater.
Jammu and Kashmir is not far behind. The apple and walnut orchards that are the pride of the valley have endured decades of heavy pesticide and fertilizer use, much of it carried out with outdated equipment and without adequate agriculture workers’ training. The long-term damage to soil health, water quality, and human wellbeing in J&K is real and growing. There is an unprecedented surge in number of cancer, CKD, IBS, Alzimer, brain tumor patients. What makes this even more troubling is that many of these hazardous chemicals were orig-inally introduced and promoted by European countries. Yet those very nations eventually banned or heavily restricted their use, switching to safer alternatives. India including the J&K unfortunately, continued using them long after the dangers were well established and visible on ground.
The time has come for J&K’s government to make a firm decision: reduce the use of hazard-ous agrochemicals in a phased manner and shift back to safer, traditional, and nature-aligned methods of farming like Natural Farming, Zero Budget Natural Farming, Integrated Pest Management System, organic farming, multi layer cropping etc.
Natural Farming is a completely chemical-free approach that relies on local resources such as cow dung, cow urine, and natural mulching. It works with nature rather than against it. Subhash Palekar has worked tirelessly to popularize this model across India, and its suc-cess has been widely recognized. Recently, Prime Minister Narendar Modi also advised In-dian farmers to adopt Natural Farming.
Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) takes this a step further by bringing the farmer’s input cost close to zero. There is no need to purchase expensive fertilizers or pesticides. Every-thing required viz., Jiwamrita, Bijamrita, Acchadana, and Waaphasa is prepared right on the farm using natural ingredients.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM)replaces the blind spraying of chemicals with a smarter strategy. It uses natural predators, resistant crop varieties, and biological controls, resort-ing to minimal and targeted pesticide use only when absolutely necessary.
Multi-Layer Cropping involves growing different crops at different heights within the same field. For example, Papaya at the top, cucurbit vegetables in the middle, and ginger at the bottom. This system mimics a natural forest, uses sunlight more efficiently, and keeps pests under natural control.
Integrated Farming System (IFS) combines crops, livestock, fish, poultry, and even bee-keeping on the same farm. Waste from one element becomes input for another. A single cow, for instance, provides milk, dung for fertilizer, and urine for pest control, all while re-ducing the farmer’s overall cost.
Organic Farming uses natural fertilizers such as compost and green manure, avoids all syn-thetic chemicals, and focuses on long-term soil health. After a certification period of three to five years, the land earns organic status, and everything grown on it is certified free from agrochemicals.
In 2022, the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST) undertook a Rs 27 crore pilot project under the Holistic Agriculture Development Pro-gramme (HADP). Its mission was clearly to reduce the use of hazardous chemical pesti-cides, fertilizers, herbicides, and fungicides in J&K’s orchards, and modernize farming tools and equipment. The project set out to establish ten cluster-based model orchards with high-density plantation and minimal pesticide use, identify and introduce disease-resistant crop varieties, develop smart decision-based systems for pesticide application, set up custom hiring centres for advanced spray machines, and train agri-entrepreneurs in bio-pesticide production. Its most ambitious target was reducing pesticide use in apple or-chards from 20–30 kilograms per hectare down to just 2–3 kilograms — a reduction of over 80 percent.
The progress made under this Rs 27 crore investment must be made public and reviewed by authorities at the highest level. If meaningful success has been achieved, it must be repli-cated at a bigger scale, urgently, with full government funding and without further delays.
The J&K government must move beyond pilot projects and make bold, on-ground commit-ments. Hazardous agrochemicals must be phased out in a structured and time-bound manner. Old, unproductive apple and walnut trees must be replaced at a far faster pace with high-density, disease-resistant varieties. Natural farming, ZBNF, IPM, multi-layer crop-ping, and integrated farming systems must be actively promoted through farmer training, direct subsidies, and consistent on-ground support by KVKs, Universities scientists and Agriculture field officers. Farmers must be equipped with modern mist-forming spray ma-chines that minimize chemical drift and wastage. The health of farmers and the safety of food must be treated as the highest priority. Consumers, too, have a right to buy and con-sume safe food free from chemical residues.
Our grandparents did not need hazardous agrochemicals to grow food. They understood something deeply important that farming is a relationship with nature, not a war against it. In older times, cattle were let loose in agricultural fields for extended periods after harvest. Their manure naturally fertilized the soil, and their grazing cleared crop stubble without burning. Fields were also left inactive for 15 to 30 days between cycles, not out of neglect, but out of wisdom. During that dormancy period, beneficial microbes, fungi, and earth-worms would slow down, recover, and rejuvenate themselves — quietly rebuilding the fertil-ity of the soil for the next season. These were not primitive practices. They were deeply intel-ligent ones.
J&K’s soil, water, air, and people have suffered enough. The answer does not lie in more chemicals. It lies in reducing use of hazardous chemical pesticides and fertilizers in a phased time bound manner and returning to what our grandparents already knew, farming with nature, not against it. Safe soil, clean air, and pure water produce safe food. Safe food means healthy families. And healthy farmers mean a truly prosperous Jammu and Kash-mir.
The author is a retired district officer from the Department of Horticulture Planning and Marketing. He served as a field officer for 30 years, directly in touch with farmers of J&K. Presently, he is associated with We The Humans Forum for Nature and Mankind as its convenor.
