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India remains one of the world’s most agro-diverse countries - a country that grows over 50,000 varieties of rice alone, 1000+ types of mangoes, over 811 horticultural species, various indigenous millets, while also being the centre for spices, pulses, plantation, cash, fiber, and oil crops grown across 20 agro-climate zones nationwide.

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Long, long time ago, around c. 2000 BCE, the West Asian nomads brought Onion, Garlic, Sesame, Coriander, Fenugreek, Mustard, and other plants and settled by the Harappan trade belts. 

Then, the East African, Portuguese, Spanish & Mughal merchants traded Chillies, Cashews, Pineapple, Custard Apple, Sweet Potato, Rubber, Amaranth, Tapioca, Tobacco, Maize, Groundnut, Peanut, Beans, Rajma, Sunflower, Cocoa, among hundreds of other crops and plants with India from the early 1100s through the late 1600s. With British colonisation, India began witnessing a rise in imports of varieties of horticultural plants, pulses, legumes, oilseeds, and cash crops such as Brinjal, Carrot, Radish, Sprouts, Lettuce, Berries, Oats, Beets, Tea, Arabica Coffee, Eucalyptus, etc.

Since Independence, India has welcomed internationally bred varieties of Rice, Wheat, Millet, Mustard, Banana, etc. Y2K and the early years of the 21st Century witnessed the onset of Avocado, Kiwi, Dragon Fruit, Chia, Quinoa, Blueberry, etc., too.

When the crops arrived in India

The crops unarguably found a superior suitability to the weather conditions and the abundance of natural resources, namely water basins, riverbeds, manure, wood, soil fertility, manual labour, etc. But above all, India gave them patronage.

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India has a history of welcoming and accommodating the foreign as one of its own.

Indeed, the plains of the Indo-Gangetic basin were instrumental for the cultivation of wheat and mustard; the temperatures of the Deccan for cotton, the rainfall of the Western Ghats for Cashews, the crop cycles of Rabi & Kharif for pulses, millets and fruits, and the soil fertility of alluvial delta riverbeds for potatoes were exceptionally suited to the said crops. But this could have been largely true for any other South Asian country. In fact, in most cases, there are better contenders for thermal stability, water resource management, precipitation, and terraneous factors than India, which provide more holistic favourable conditions. However, India has always nurtured a decentralised, adaptive culture where novelty is valuable.

Indian market has always been open to new varieties and hybrids. Adoption has effortlessly happened through organic, word-of-mouth marketing for centuries. Foods, especially, would find their way into household meals and conversations through inculcation into cuisines, festivals, traditions, and eventually become an inevitable part of culture and habit. India has been the food bowl of the world for the longest time.

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Freedom created another Dependence

By the 1950s, several European nations, the Americas, and even some East Asian countries had already developed and begun using the earliest forms of chemical or synthetic fertilisers. By comparison, India’s Fertiliser-to-Grain Ratio at the time would have been virtually negligible, with average chemical use under 1 kg/ha, while comparable countries ranged from 50 to over 150 kg/ha.

The heavy chemical approach of the past few decades did more than just saturate the crops. The foundational soil health of India's most fertile belts remains in shackles of decades-old dependency on synthetic fertiliser. In order to undo the damage and farm better, today's forward-thinking cultivators are looking at India through the lens of modern biotechnology farming. Transitioning the agricultural sector from chemical fertiliser dependence towards a bio farming ecosystem requires an overall transformation of culture, education and mindset down to the last farmer.

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Crop protection deserves a similar approach. Organic pesticides and organic pest control are often discussed as though they belong to a single category. In practice, farmers use different approaches depending on the crop, pest, disease pressure and stage of growth. An organic fungicide may address a fungal challenge, while an organic insect repellent may work through another mechanism. Interest in non chemical pesticides reflects this search for alternatives, but performance has to be measured.

India’s agricultural economy is diverse. A fruit farmer may require an organic growth booster at one stage and a different form of plant nutrition later. A vegetable grower may look for an organic plant nutrition programme alongside irrigation and crop protection. A plant growth promoter or bio stimulant can support stages of crop development.

Technology can strengthen this transition. Biotechnology agriculture can study microorganisms, plant responses, nutrient availability and biological interactions with precision. The future of bio farming need not resemble a return to the past. It can combine traditional knowledge with research, measurement and better formulations. Farmers can use data to decide when an input is needed, biology to determine what kind is appropriate, and technology to apply it accurately.

Today the scenario has toppled

When the Green Revolution policies of the 1960s opened the floodgates to the manufacture and sale of synthetic fertilisers in India, it gave way to their reckless, unmoderated application on Indian farmland. It witnessed an aggressive demand and supply in the 90s, when liberalization and globalization rewarded farmers for more and faster yields.

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India’s farmers spent the next 3 decades fulfilling the famish of cash-hungry corporations with quantities, while draining the ecological footprint of their own farmlands. While the world’s supposedly more advanced and modern civilizations have been rallying around organic for everything, India was too slow to catch up. Urea and other synthetic compounds have so deeply seeped into the soils of Indian farmlands that now, prevention is no longer an option. It is way past ‘high time’ for repatriation. 

India’s authentic, organic agrarian practices that largely include the application of diverse organic fertilisers will soon see a resurgence. A much-awaited one. A desperately necessary one. With systems, policy, and cultures changing course towards organic fertilizers and farming practices, the world will turn its heads to India for hope and reconciliation. 

Organic Fertilizer will make India the ‘Food Bowl of the World’; again.