by Kamal Melvani, General Secretary, Lanka Organic Agriculture Movement
email: neosynth@sltnet.lk
Modern organic agriculture* in Sri Lanka is coming of age now. According to IFOAM & FiBL (2006), there are 15,215 hectares of land under organic management, with a share of total agricultural land of 0.65% and a presence of around 3,300 organic farms.1 While data from the Export Development Board seems only available till 2000, suffice it to say that up to that time, 15 organizations, both private and non government were responsible for exporting 753 metric tons of organic tea, spices, essential oils, cashew, desiccated coconut, dried fruits, vegetables and herbs valued at S.L. Rs. 543 million.2 Most of these organic products are exported to Europe, Japan and Australia. The organic directory published in 2006 states that the number of registered exporters had since risen to 30, non governmental and farmer organizations number 34, the number of certified estates number 20 and there are 177 independent growers who come under the umbrella of the Department of Export Agriculture.3
The backbone of a vital organic agriculture is the Sri Lankan farmer and those organizations and persons who work with him/her. The organic movement in Sri Lanka started in the 1980s where a group of local NGO representatives, planters, scientists and environmental officers had drafted a Memorandum of Association to create a movement named Lanka Organic Agriculture Movement (LOAM). This can be seen as the official starting point for the dissemination of organic agriculture in Sri Lanka. The primary objectives of LOAM are to promote organic agriculture, to establish, improve and maintain standards for organic agriculture and to create awareness of organic products among the people of Sri Lanka. In 2001 LOAM was registered as an official legal body.1
The Movement has matured in the past six years where in principle, its achievements can be evaluated in the manner in which it has influenced Government policy. LOAM was instrumental in establishing the guidelines for certification in 2006 that were presented to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources. In 2007, at the invitation of the Sri Lanka Standards Institute, LOAM played a decisive role in drawing up the Standards for Organic Agriculture in Sri Lanka. LOAM was also a partner to the EU SL Organic Agriculture Project that sought to set up the first National certification company in Sri Lanka. While LOAM members continue to engage in awareness creation and field work on their own accord, the time has come to consolidate their energies in order to face the many challenges ahead. While the Government seems seriously bent on promoting organic agriculture it behoves us at LOAM to set the direction. Looking closely at the issues at hand it seems pertinent to discuss the role that organic agriculture must play in terms of conserving biodiversity, safeguarding water quality and facing up to climate change for instance.
Biodiversity conservation and restoration
Biodiversity provides the foundation of all agriculture.4 The simplification of agro-ecosystems to monoculture production and the removal of non-crop vegetation from the farm unit (e.g. hedgerows, shelter belts and field margins) has contributed to the homogeneity of agricultural landscapes by reducing botanical and structural variation, resulting in both a reduced capacity of agricultural areas to serve as habitat for wild species as well as to effectively internally regulate populations of pests and disease causing organisms which affect crop productivity5,6. This has resulted in a widespread decline in farm species abundance and diversity across many taxonomic groupings, including high rates of wildlife mortality and reduced reproductive success of many species. 7,8,9,10,5,11&12 This loss of biodiversity has also resulted in a reduced capacity of agro-ecosystems to perform many essential ecosystem functions such as purification of water, internal regulation of pests and diseases, carbon sequestration, and degradation of toxic compounds. 13
However, agriculturalists are now aware of the value of the biodiversity "input" for agriculture. The ecological functions of diverse ecosystems (such as balanced predation, pollination, nutrient cycling, degradation of toxic compounds, carbon sequestration) are today recognized to be central to sustainable food production. Moving away from simplified agricultural systems offers opportunities to produce food while enhancing natural landscapes. 14
At the same time, biodiversity in all agro ecosystems should be seen as being comprised of two primary elements: crop biodiversity and systems biodiversity. Crop biodiversity refers to the species present on the farm that will provide direct economic input to the farm. Systems biodiversity is the non crop component of the biodiversity that is required to sustain the agro ecosystem. It is both of these measures that indicate the state of biodiversity in that agro ecosystem. The gain in biodiversity in an agricultural field is directly proportional to a change in the management regime adopted. Therefore the challenge before us is to evolve a system of knowledge that will enable the use of biodiversity data in monitoring and evaluation of organic farming.15 This is important given that the present National Standards for Organic Agriculture in Sri Lanka state that “the presence of biodiversity (soil, surface and aquatic) is an indication of the health of the agro ecosystem.” 16
Over the last century, population, market pressures and the development of new agricultural technologies have encouraged patterns of agricultural development tending towards agricultural intensification (i.e. increasing scales of monoculture production, intensive mechanical tillage, irrigation, and the use of synthetic fertilizer, pest control agents and a restricted diversity of crop and livestock varieties), often leading to natural resources degradation. The majority of the human population increase is expected to take place in the biodiversity-rich developing countries of the tropics like Sri Lanka.14
The Convention on Biological Diversity “encourages the development of technologies and farming practices that not only increase productivity, but also arrest degradation as well as reclaim, rehabilitate, restore and enhance biological diversity and monitor adverse effects on sustainable agricultural diversity. These could include, inter alia, organic farming, integrated pest management, biological control, no-till agriculture, multicropping, intercropping, crop rotation and agricultural forestry” (Decision III/11, 15 e) 17. While several agricultural approaches make sustainability claims, organic agriculture is the only well-defined agricultural management system, including recommended and restricted practices that aim at environmental protection and food production. However, the main challenge in protected areas is to conserve biodiversity while providing the basis for the social and economic development of local residents.14
In the past twenty seven years an alternative system of land management has been developed in Sri Lanka where the landscapes of farm gardens have been designed to include a variety of both annual and tree crops that provide a host of utility benefits like food, medicine, timber, fuelwood, fodder, fibre etc. They are also designed to provide whole forest products and services like water yield, carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation and phytoremediation. Of specific relevance is that they generate leaf litter and detritus thus facilitating soil biodiversity and building soil organic matter. This technology called analog forestry has proved to be extremely effective in the restoration of degraded land and has been used in the rehabilitation of watersheds, Tsunami affected lands and ground water that has been contaminated by agrochemicals. Analog forestry is a system of land management that seeks to establish a tree dominated ecosystem analogous in architectural structure and ecological function to the original climax or sub climax vegetation community. Analog forestry moves beyond other current agro forestry practices since it includes an explicit focus on the identification and incorporation of biological diversity. In fact the income generation from these forest gardens has been seen to consistently increase in time; 18 they also reduce the risk from the cultivation of a single or few crops since the products can be harvested all year round. This technology has demonstrated that since all crops in these new forests are grown organically, many species of animals and birds that were once confined to the original forest move in and establish populations. 19
Safeguarding water quality
A Report released in 2001 by the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences states that: “should past dependences of the global environmental impacts of agriculture on human population and consumption continue, 109 hectares of natural ecosystems would be converted to agriculture by 2050. This would be accompanied by 2.4 to 2.7-fold increase in nitrogen and phosphorus-driven eutrophication of terrestrial, freshwater, and near-shore marine ecosystems, and comparable increase in pesticide use. Eutrophication and habitat destruction would cause unprecedented ecosystem simplification, loss of ecosystem services, and species extinctions.20 Already in Sri Lanka we are facing problems of the contamination of our rivers, streams and ground water due to nitrogen based fertilizers and other agrochemicals. The impact on human health has revealed a host of kidney related problems, carcinomas and Methemoglobinemia though more research needs to be done. 21, 22 & 23 The need to influence water policy is therefore critical where organic agriculture must be mooted as the primary land use in watersheds, specifically in the riparian zone.
Climate Change
Agriculture contributes to over 20 percent of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Agricultural intensification has had major detrimental impacts on the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems of the world. The doubling of production during the last 35 years was associated with a 6.9 fold increase in nitrogen fertilization, 3.5 fold increases in phosphorus fertilization and a 1.7 fold increase in irrigated land. Agriculture is also affected by climate change. An increase in global warming will shift cultivation zones polewards, plant growth and production being jeopardized by changes in the distribution of rainfall, the increase of UV-B radiation, and changes in the chemical composition of the atmosphere. In regions with continental climate, soils are subject to desiccation, meaning climate change will aggravate problems of salinity, erosion, and desertification. Extreme climatic events will occur more frequently. Pests and diseases favoured by a warmer climate will continue to proliferate. All these factors will have negative impacts on agricultural yields 24
Two possible courses of action to alleviate climate change are a) limiting the green house gas emissions and b) enhancing the removal or uptake of these gases from the atmosphere to stabilise the pools of sediments, trees and soil organic matter 25
Organic agriculture not only enables ecosystems to better adjust to the effects of climate change but also offers the potential to reduce the emissions of agricultural greenhouse gases. Moreover, mixed farming and the diversity of organic crop rotations protect the fragile soil surface and may even counteract climate change by restoring the organic matter content.26 Managing soils to increase the stocks of carbon stored as soil organic matter can be expected to reduce the rate of increase in atmospheric CO2 and to improve soil quality, thus resulting in additional benefits beyond greenhouse gas reductions.27
Sri Lanka needs to develop better management practices that could increase carbon sinks, energy efficiency improvements and production of energy from crops and residues. This will result in a further mitigation potential, or cumulative carbon storage. Many long-term experiments in the world support the cognition that organic fertilization (animal manure, green manure, catch and cover crops) rebuild soil organic matter. A 20% increase in soil organic matter as a result of organic agriculture would result in an estimated amount of 9 tonnes carbon per ha. There is a considerable potential increase of soil carbon when manure, straw-recycling, minimal tillage, reforestation and energy-saving plant production are combined.24 This research demonstrates the need to focus on the use of paddy straw and encourage farmers to engage in the cultivation of green manure crops in Sri Lanka.
Nitrous oxide emissions not only contribute severely to the greenhouse effect but also to the depletion of stratospheric ozone. Almost 90% of the global atmospheric N2O is formed during the microbial transformation of nitrate (NO3-) and ammonia (NH4+) in soils and water.24 Of significance is the ‘dry farming’ or Nawa Kekulama method of paddy cultivation as promoted by Mr. G.K. Upawansa. This method uses a mixture of neem seed cake and compost to suppress the action of denitrifying bacteria thereby reducing the loss of NO3 and NH4 from paddy ecosystems. 28
Methane emissions: Agriculture is believed to account for roughly two-thirds of the total man-made CH4 mainly from paddy rice fields, burning of biomass and ruminants (enteric fermentation and animal waste treatment). 26 According to Mr. G.K. Upawansa in a paper delivered to the then Minister of Environment in 2005, “under wetland conditions, large quantities of methane are emitted. Since the Nawa Kekulama method requires limited water resources, methane emission is kept at a bare minimum.” 29 This system of rice production has been demonstrated to generate greater profit per acre than that of conventional rice cultivation. It also uses less water for cultivation.
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