Kesavan P C, Swaminathan M S
M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Third Cross Street, Taramani, Chennai-600 113, India.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2008 Feb 27;363(1492):877-91. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2007.2189.
The green revolution of the 1960s and 1970s which resulted in dramatic yield increases in the developing Asian countries is now showing signs of fatigue in productivity gains. Intensive agriculture practiced without adherence to the scientific principles and ecological aspects has led to loss of soil health, and depletion of freshwater resources and agrobiodiversity. With progressive diversion of arable land for non-agricultural purposes, the challenge of feeding the growing population without, at the same time, annexing more forestland and depleting the rest of life is indeed daunting. Further, even with food availability through production/procurement, millions of marginal farming, fishing and landless rural families have very low or no access to food due to lack of income-generating livelihoods. Approximately 200 million rural women, children and men in India alone fall in this category. Under these circumstances, the evergreen revolution (pro-nature, pro-poor, pro-women and pro-employment/livelihood oriented ecoagriculture) under varied terms are proposed for achieving productivity in perpetuity. In the proposed 'biovillage paradigm', eco-friendly agriculture is promoted along with on- and non-farm eco-enterprises based on sustainable management of natural resources. Concurrently, the modern ICT-based village knowledge centres provide time- and locale-specific, demand-driven information needed for evergreen revolution and ecotechnologies. With a system of 'farm and marine production by masses', the twin goals of ecoagriculture and eco-livelihoods are addressed. The principles, strategies and models of these are briefly discussed in this paper.
20世纪60年代和70年代的绿色革命使亚洲发展中国家的产量大幅提高，如今在生产力提升方面已显现出疲态。在不遵循科学原则和生态因素的情况下实施的集约化农业，已导致土壤健康丧失、淡水资源枯竭以及农业生物多样性减少。随着耕地逐渐被用于非农业目的，在不侵占更多林地和耗尽其他生物资源的同时养活不断增长的人口，这一挑战确实艰巨。此外，即便通过生产/采购有了粮食供应，但由于缺乏创收生计，数百万从事边际农业、渔业的农村家庭以及无地农村家庭获得食物的机会极少或根本没有。仅在印度，就有约2亿农村妇女、儿童和男子属于这一类别。在这种情况下，人们提出了各种形式的常绿革命（以自然、穷人、妇女以及就业/生计为导向的生态农业），以实现永久的生产力。在所提议的“生物村模式”中，在对自然资源进行可持续管理的基础上，推广生态友好型农业以及农场和非农场生态企业。同时，基于现代信息通信技术的乡村知识中心提供常绿革命和生态技术所需的特定时间和地点、需求驱动型信息。通过“大众进行农业和海洋生产”的体系，生态农业和生态生计这两个目标得以实现。本文将简要讨论其原则、战略和模式。
