WELCOME TO FOUNDATION FOR ORGANIC & RURAL DEVELOPMENT

To feed the growing Indian population in early 1960’s, there was urgent need to increase productivity of food grains, for which besides introduction of new high yielding varieties, external input like chemical fertilizers, insecticides, and pesticides were used indiscriminately. This package of practice gave birth to the so-called “GREEN REVOLUTION”. Of course as a result of this green revolution, India could increase the production manifold i.e. against a food grain production of 50.82 million Tons during 1950-51; it increased to 275.11 Million Tons during 2016-17.

LATEST NEWS

Registration opens for Rural Agriculture Work Experience (RAWE) and training on International Standards for Organic Farming For Next Batch of RAWE/Organic Training Programme, Register immediately.

The level of increase in external input is evident from the fact that against a consumption of 3.05 Lakh MT of NPK during 1959-60, the consumption increased to 25.95 Million Tons during 2016-17. Similarly India used 2353 MT of pesticides during 1955-56, which increased to 52980 MT during 2011-12. It is worth to mention here that due to increase in use of external input, not only the cost of production has gone high but also it has generated some adverse impact on soil, plant and animal health. Moreover, the present level of production is almost stagnated for last 5-6 years. Among the pest control chemicals, insecticides dominate the industry with 65% of consumption, followed by herbicides (16%), fungicides (15%) and others 4%. Cotton and paddy are the major crops where pesticides consumption is 50% and 18% respectively.Despite use of insecticides/pesticides, insect pests on an average cost 25 to 30 percent yield loss in vegetables. Readmore…