The state of Andhra Pradesh in India may be famous for its stunning emerald-green slopes covered in lush vegetation. Over the past few decades, however, the region has lost 30 to 40 per cent of its original forest cover, according to Dinesh Kumar, a local government official.
“Intensive agricultural expansion has been one of the major drivers of deforestation and habitat loss in Andhra Pradesh,” says Kavita Sharma, a Task Manager with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Global Environment Facility (GEF) Biodiversity and Land Degradation Unit. “This has led to poor soils, loss of agroecological biodiversity, and lower groundwater tables.” As the quality of soil deteriorated, many small farming communities have been struggling to cultivate their crops.
To counter these worrying trends, in 2004 the state government launched a programme on Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture, which evolved into the Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming initiative (APCNF) in 2014. Building upon this initiative, UNEP and GEF with support from the Indian Government, are implementing a project that combines traditional knowledge with science to restore ecosystems, diversify crops, and improve soil health.
“We started creating a better deal for the farmers. Then we moved forward, thinking it was a better deal for consumers, and the improvements to the soil and water kicked in,” says Vijay Kumar, the Executive Vice Chairman of Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS), the not-for-profit company behind AFCNF.
For years, small-scale farmers in the region have seen their crops dwindle because of deteriorating soil health. Many communities rely on chemical fertilizers to maintain their crop yields. But those fertilizers further damage the soil, requiring even greater inputs to produce any crops, trapping farmers in a vicious cycle.
“The costs have been increasing every year. And the risk of crop failure is also increasing,” Kumar explains. “Consumers feel the consequences too, because the food they’re eating has a lot of chemical residues, and nutritional integrity of the food has declined.”
The situation has been made worse by erratic rainfall and rapidly declining biodiversity; pollinators like bees, butterflies, birds and bats are crucial for agriculture, enabling reproduction for about 75 per cent of flowering crops.
One of the main culprits behind this worsening crisis is monocropping, which involves growing a single crop over a large area repeatedly. Expanding monoculture farming often requires destroying diverse landscapes and replacing them with uniform fields.
“This conventional approach to agriculture is an enemy of biodiversity,” Kumar says. “By pursuing monocropping, you’re also encouraging soil erosion, water runoff and leaching of nutrients.”
