India was transformed after the green revolution, agriculture in. While this form of agriculture increased the yield of some crops to a great extent, it also gave rise to many more serious issues. The most talked about is the impact of conventional agriculture on the degradation of the ecosystem. In the study, Green Revolution in India: Environmental Degradation and Impact on Livestock 1, the authors show how soil fertility has decreased; toxic elements have entered the food chain from chemical residue applied in the crop field; and we have lost our crop diversity due to the cultivation of only three to four major crops. It was only around 25 years after the green revolution, that the idea of sustainability entered the discourse of development. Organic farming meant protecting soil fertility; maintaining the level of organic matter in soils; providing nutrients through microbial action instead of chemicals; using legumes to fulfil the nitrogen requirements of the soil; recycling organic matter such as crop residues and manures; managing diseases, pests, and weeds with natural predators; and maintaining diversity, among other things. Today, India is home to an estimated 30 percent of all organic producers in the world. Most of them are small-holder and marginal farmers and have been subjected to some form of deskilling as a result of the green revolution. The conceptualisation of organic or natural farming is based on environmental sustainability. Nevertheless, it may continue to promote deskilling if it is promoted or structured in the same way that conventional agriculture has been promoted or structured. Today, in organic farming, we are seeing agencies—government and non-government—prescribe standard products and processes that farmers are expected to follow. Here, the products may be different than in conventional agriculture, but the process is the same. It does not help farmers re-articulate their understanding of nature. Nor does it enable them to use their wisdom to shape farm practices with both traditional and modern technologies, based on their own experiments and experience.
Organic farming may continue to promote deskilling if it is structured in the same way as conventional agriculture.