Aamir Khan and Organic Farming - a retrogressive solution?

I saw the blogs and articles go gung-ho about the recent episode of very famous, high TRP generating television show by Actor Aamir Khan - "Satyamev Jayate", on organic farming. In the below starting episode, the impact of the usage of the pesticides on the farming and the product outcomes of the same on the people who consumes clearly depicts and achieved the relevant motive behind this episode. i.e., high TRP

However, the solution offered by this show as usage of the organic farming is really a progressive OR retrogressive is the question which this blog post tries to explore about...

Did you know that there are 67 types of pesticides which are banned all over the world, but are still used by Indian farmers. Everyday through fruits and vegetables, we consume 400-500 % more pesticides than the permissible limit. Aamir Khan highlighted the bad effects of chemical farming during the eighth episode of his television show ‘Satyamev Jayate’. He spoke to doctors, agricultural scientists, farmers and others during the episode.

To increase productivity, farmers have been using pesticides for agricultural purposes from years now. Because of this, the nutrition value of the crop goes down. Now, these pesticides have become a part of our food chain. According to a study by Dr Rashmi Sanghi, even breast milk contains 400-800% more pesticides than the permissible limits.

During the show, many farmers confessed that they do not use these pesticides for the fruits and vegetables they separately grow for their own consumption.

Jurnail Singh a farmer from Jajjal, Punjab claims that access use of pesticides started after the Green Revolution. He said that 45 people from his village have died of cancer in past few years. A train from Bhatinda to Bikaner is called ‘Cancer Train’ by the local people. The number of patients travelling to the cancer hospital in Bikaner is increasing fast.

Rajju Shroff is the managing director and chairman of India’s biggest pesticides company. Aamir was surprised to see his reaction on the show. He said, “People exaggerate about the bad effects of chemical farming to gain publicity. Non-pesticides users have worse health state. If done in limit, pesticides cause no health problems. The productivity will highly suffer if we stop using pesticides and the farmers will commit suicide.” He also said that DDT is completely harmless.

Aamir tried to highlight the benefits of organic farming and alternate ways of killing insects during the show. From many years, agricultural scientist Dr GV Ramanjaneyulu has been working with the farmers in Andhra Pradesh to teach them cheap and safe ways of getting rid of the insects. He said, “Not pests, but pesticides are a bigger problem for the farmers. On an average, a village spends nearly Rs 50 lakh every year on pesticides.”

Aamir Khan also spoke to Pawan Chamling, chief minister of Sikkim on the show. Chamling has banned all pesticides in the state and is promoting organic farming. He aims to make Sikkim an organic state by 2015. It is not possible for all the states to switch to organic farming overnight, but taking some steps to save people’s life is essential now.

Through his show, Aamir urged audiences to opt for organic products. He also said that there should be a regulating body to monitor the usage of pesticides by the farmers.

--Thanks to ibnlive for saving my time in typing the above text which is exactly crux of the program.


Through this program, the clear advice was given not to use pesticides and go for organic farming. However, I am of the opinion that if the farmers follow advice of Mr. Amir Khan in his TV show, not to use pesticides and fertilizers, we are turning the wheel in the other direction. It is a retrogressive step. Why and what is the correct approach?

White rusts and pests were main killers for Mustard but use of improved cultivars apparents helped Rajasthan to give an excellent yield this year. (Source: http://www.drmr.res.in/technologies.html)

Wheat rust, which played havoc some decades ago, is now difficult to find in plains as per this Hindu article (http://www.hindu.com/seta/2003/02/20/stories/2003022000170300.htm)

Though this is a highly technical matter and needs detailed analysis but just to advise farmers not to use pesticides at all is not wise.

One best or better approach in the correct direction is NOT to avoid the pesticides but to use bio-pesticides.  Other viable options could be Early sowing , early maturing crops, use of sanitation, improved cultural practices or use of resistant varieties.

What are the issues with the current pesticide usages as the aforementioned paragraphs indicate.
1) Usage of pesticides when the crop is in the ripening state: The worst part of chemicals is when farmers or middle men use heavy doses of pesticides on crop plants, vegetables so that all vegetables looks so fresh and shiny. Cauliflower is marble white and free from insects. What the middleman or farmers do is to dip the cauliflower in the pesticide solution that is why it appears insect free and marble white. The best advise could be: Do NOT use it at this stage!

2) Use only bio-degradable pesticides which are based on Sulphur, Copper or even organo metallic substances. This would remain on the plant body around 15 days unlike the systemic fungicides which are transported across the plants. This would ensure that there is NO need to spray the systemic fungicides before the vegetable reach the market to look afresh.

3) Unlike pure chemical fertilizers, the organic fertilizers are mainly rely on binding the soil where as the main mineral source for the plants like nitrogen and other Macro/Micro nutrients would be used by the plants to synthesize their food as ionic form.

Hence the correct approach would be to
1) clear education of the organic farming in the right perspective.
2) Education and recommendation of suitable combination of the usual cultural practices in preventing diseases on the field but with the usage of the pesticides in limited and advisable form.

BTW, the TRPs of ‘Satyamev Jayate’ have started dropping as an article says about it. Is this an indication that Indian audiences only prefer entertainment on small screen? Let us dig more in detail in our forthcoming blog post.