Where economy of a country is based on agriculture, it should demonstrate more maturity in promoting ethics, essential from the health point view, both physical and economical.

1. Ethics in Agriculture – Issues &
Way Forward
Dr. M S Basu, MD SBSF Consultancy
Formerly Director ICAR (DARE)
Visiting Scientist ICRISAT (CGIAR) &
UNIDO International Consultant on Aflatoxin (Africa)
Independent Consultant to NAIP (Funded by World Bank)
muktisadhan@gmail.com

2. The Genesis of Agriculture
• Started with when someone planted the seed
for the first crop in this Earth – The seed for
civilization was planted.
• Those seeds grew into language, mathematics,
engineering, bio-technology, Bio-informatics…
• And subsequently ethics followed…

3. • Ethics refer to well-founded standards of right
and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to
do, usually in terms of rights, obligations,
benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues.
• Ethics refers to the development of ethical
standards for each players in value chain.
http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/whatisethics.html

4. Ethics – In Agriculture Value Chain
• Ethical factors in agriculture are spread
over from Farm to Fork.
• Dimension of issues are quite vast starting
from technical, environmental, social,
political, economical, behavioral ……

5. Ethics – At Farm Level
• Supply of sub-standard seeds, fertilizers, plant
protection chemical to farmers.
• Closer of irrigation canals in so-called command
areas.
• Frequent power-cuts affecting life-saving irrigation.
• High cost of diesel limiting use of pumps, sprayers,
tractors, etc.

6. Ethics – At Crop Management Level
• Abuse of plant protection chemicals.
• Use of banned, hazardous agro-chemicals.
• More use of chemical fertilizers with
little/no use of organic manure.
• Misuse of micronutrients –application
without diagnosis.

7. Ethics – At Market-yards/ Storage Level
• High initial moisture in grains at the time of
storage causing mold formation.
• Use of hazardous chemicals to keep store-
grain pests away.
• Lack of storage facility affecting quality of
food grains.

8. Ethics - At Processing & Marketing levels
• Polishing/ colouring in cereals and food
legumes.
• Use of additives/ adulterants, more so in
spices/ value added products.
• Use of toxic chemicals to make fresh
fruits and vegetable shining and
preserve fish for longer time.

9. Ethics – In Poultry & Dairy Sectors
• Feed contaminated with aflatoxin affecting food
chain through eggs, milk and milk products.
• Injection of steroids to poultry birds for rapid
increase of body weights, may cause cancer.
• Hormone injection to milch animals to extract
more milk unethically and
• Adulteration/ production of milk synthetically
having adverse impact on health.

10. Ethics – In Organic Farming
• Organic areas expanding fast disproportionate
to the production of certified quality bio inputs.
• Role of organic certification agencies, the
sanctity and credibility in the system.
• Use of bio-pesticides, bio-formulation without
proper labeling, registration and licensing.
• Over pricing without quality certificate.

11. Ethics – In Agricultural Biotechnology
• Incorporation of Bt gene in crops other
than cotton, illegally.
• Marketing of Bt. seeds in mustard,
brinjal, etc. defying govt. regulations.
• Growing threat in biodiversity.
• Likely adverse impact on human health.

12. Ethics – At Policy Level
• Lack of punishable anti-adulteration law.
• Ineffective crop insurance policy, hardly
supporting farmers.
• Irrational offer of price not matching to cost
of production.
• Inoperative minimum support price (MSP)
in most of the cases.

13. Ethics At Policy Level – cont.
• Over emphasis of imports affecting
indigenous production.
• Absence of specific road maps accelerating
exports.
• Inefficient food regulatory system and
monitoring of standards.

14. Serious Social Consequences
• Drinking Water in Bengal Basin Contains High
amounts of Toxins
• Groundwater as well as River water in the western
Bengal basin has high concentrations of pesticides
and toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
(PAH), a study authored by a group of scientists
from IIT, Kharagpur has revealed.

15. Serious Social Consequences – cont.
Significant Findings:
• For the first time in India, a whole region has
recorded the presence of pesticides and PAH
in its natural sources of water and surface
sediments.
• High concentration of arsenic in groundwater
is evident in western Bengal basin.
(Given in map as published by Scientists, IIT-Kharagpur)

17. Way Forward
• Application of Plant Growth Promoting
Microorganism and Plant Growth Regulators in
Agricultural Production.
• Promotion of bio-pesticides and IPM/ ITK in
protecting crops following green route.
• Advances in Plant Biotechnology/Nano-technology
including Nano-fertilizers for human welfare.

18. Way Forward – cont.
• Plant growth promoting mycorrhiza (PGPMs) are groups
of microorganisms in rhizosphere capable of colonizing
the root environment.
• In contrast to PGPMs, plant growth regulators (PGRs)
are that significantly trigger growth.
• A better understanding of interaction of PGPMs and
PGRs and and hormonal cross-talk under stresses are
essential for agricultural production.

19. Need for Code of Ethics In Farming
• There has been an erosion in ethics as evident.
• The erosion in ethics has contributed to loss of
trust, and consumer confidence, and calls for more
regulations.
• A code of ethics might restore confidence and
farming could be viewed a leader in pursuing
higher ethical standard.