Increase in India’s agricultural exports (especially tea and sugar) has contributed to India’s economic growth. India’s agricultural exports are projected to grow from $8.7 billion in 2004-2005 to $53.1 billion in 2022-2023, driven by increased revenue, foreign exchange and economic growth.
What does Sustainability in Agriculture Mean
- Economic Sustainability: While exports are economically beneficial, sustainability goes beyond profitability. It involves maintaining long-term productivity without depleting resources.
- Ecological Sustainability: Protecting natural ecosystems, minimising chemical use, and managing water resources effectively are crucial to ensuring that agricultural systems do not harm the environment.
- Social Sustainability: Addressing issues such as labour rights, fair wages, and safe working conditions is essential for creating equitable and sustainable agricultural systems.
- The Lifecycle Approach: Sustainability must be considered throughout the entire lifecycle of a commodity, from pre-sowing to post-harvest stages, not just during production.
How do the Tea and Sugar Industries Impact Sustainability?
Tea
- Export Growth: India is the world’s fourth-largest tea exporter, with exports valued at USD 793.78 million in 2022-2023, primarily to destinations like the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Iran, United States, and United Kingdom.
- Sustainability Concerns in Tea Production:
- Human-Wildlife Conflicts: 70% of tea plantations are near forests, resulting in frequent conflicts with wildlife, such as elephants, causing damage to crops and plantations.
- Chemical Use: The widespread use of synthetic pesticides in tea cultivation, including harmful chemicals like Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and Endosulfan, poses health risks and increases chemical residue in the final product.
- Labour Issues: With women constituting over half of tea plantation workers, low wages, hazardous working conditions, and inadequate enforcement of labour laws remain significant challenges.
- The Plantations Labour Act, 1951, mandates worker safety, but its provisions are rarely fully enforced.
Sugar
- Export Growth: India, the world’s second-largest sugar producer, accounts for about 20% of global production.
- Sugar exports grew from USD 1,177 million in FY 2013-14 to USD 4,600 million in FY 2021-22, marking a 64.90% increase. It exports to 121 countries.
- Economic Impact: Employs about 50 million farmers and an additional 500,000 workers in sugar factories. The industry has an annual turnover of approximately Rs 1 lakh crore, according to NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India).
Sustainability Concerns in Sugar Industry
- Water Management: Sugarcane, requiring 1,500 to 2,000 litres of water per kg of sugar, strains India’s water resources. Despite covering 25% of the cropped area, sugarcane and paddy consume 60% of irrigation water, limiting availability for other crops.
- Impact on Biodiversity: Expansive sugarcane cultivation in Karnataka and Maharashtra has replaced grasslands and savannahs, causing biodiversity loss and disrupting wildlife habitats.
- Labour and Working Conditions: Sugar industry workers, often trapped in debt cycles, face long working hours in harsh conditions. Rising temperatures further exacerbate their physical and mental well-being.
What Needs to Be Done to Address Sustainability Challenges
- Sustainability in Tea Industry: Use climate-resilient tea varieties and implement agroforestry practices to mitigate climate risks.
- Ensure farmers receive a fair share of profits through direct market access and premiums for certified products.
- Improved practices to manage human-wildlife interactions around plantations. And stricter monitoring of maximum residue limits for safer tea production is needed.
- Integrate sustainable farming techniques such as precision agriculture, agroforestry, and integrated pest management (IPM) to improve yield and minimise environmental harm.
- Sustainability in Sugar Industry: Transitioning to sustainable irrigation methods like drip irrigation to conserve water.
- Adopting drip irrigation can reduce water usage by 40–50%, making cultivation more resource-efficient.
- Using sugarcane by-products like bagasse (for bioenergy), vinasse (as fertilizer), and cane trash (for biomass or animal feed) reduces waste and improves resource efficiency, thereby promoting a circular economy.
- Sugar mills can transition to biorefineries, where waste products are used for energy generation, making the industry more self-sufficient and reducing reliance on non-renewable energy sources.
- Ensuring better working conditions, fair wages, access to healthcare, education, and social safety nets for farm labourers and mill workers.