It's high time that the government starts looking into models and mechanisms through which it can support ecological farming,' he said.

In their report, Subsidising Food Crisis, which was launched this July 1, it is said that intensive agriculture, with high use of synthetic fertilisers and chemical pesticides, was introduced in India in the 1960s as part of the Green Revolution.

'As a result, synthetic fertilisers' consumption increased from a mere 0.07 million tonnes in 1950-51 to a staggering 23.15 million tonnes in the year 2008-09. This contributed to the growth of food production in the country, but nearly five decades down the line, indiscriminate use of these synthetics has degraded the natural resource base, especially the soil,' the report said.

'As a consequence, food production is no longer increasing and is now affected by diminishing returns and falling dividends in agriculture intensive areas,' it added.

'What we are demanding, therefore, is that the government should look at an alternative subsidy system that promotes ecological farming and focus the money allocated for chemical fertilisers in the same direction,' Gopikrishna said.

'But now that our voices could not be heard by the parliamentarians (because of detention), we will initiate a consultation process across the country involving farmers and other stakeholders to bring this issue to the centre stage,' he added.