In the absence of clear regulations, most poultry farms keep chickens in confined areas lacking proper sanitation and mix small doses of antibiotics with the animal feed to prevent disease. Whereas, at Kansal & Kansal Agro Farms, Haryana, the feed is sourced from pesticide-free farms and mixed with herbs, and the chickens are kept in a partially temperature controlled environment.

 
Source: Reducing antimicrobial use in food animals, published in the journal Science
 
If regulatory authorities do not step in, 4,796 tons of antibiotics will be fed to animals reared for food by 2030, up 82%, as per the report published in the journal Science. Animals reared for food were fed 2,633 tons of antibiotics in 2013.
 
However, two basic interventions could change that: A cap on the amount of antibiotics that can be administered to a food animal and a price hike in veterinary antibiotics to dissuade excessive use.
 
These steps could result in India using 61% less antibiotics in food animals. It could also avert the health disaster expected from the widespread malpractice of using antibiotics as growth promoters.
 
“The [expected] hike [in antibiotic use] reflects the growing consumption of meat in India, and in particular, meat from animals administered antibiotics as growth promoters,” said Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CCDEP) and co-author of the study.
 
In rural India, the consumption of mutton, beef, pork and chicken has more than doubled between 2004 and 2011. It has gone up from 0.13 kg per capita per month to 0.27 kg, according to the 61st and 68th rounds of National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data. Urban India has seen a spike from 0.22 kg to 0.39 kg in the same period.
 
Food animals are given small doses of antibiotics mixed with their feed to promote growth and prevent disease. This allows farmers to save on nutrition and hygiene but has serious long term consequences for human health.
 
Why this antibiotic shouldn’t become the poultry farm favourite
 
In Punjab, two-thirds of farmers of poultry–the most commonly consumed meat in India–use antibiotics for growth promotion, according to another recent study by Laxminarayan and others, as IndiaSpend reported in August 2017.
 
Tetracyclines and fluoroquinolones–antibiotics commonly used to treat cholera, malaria, respiratory and urinary tract infections in humans–were found to be the most commonly used antimicrobials.
 
Of all the medicines used in livestock in India, quinolones are projected to see the biggest increase in use, 243% through to 2030, according to the new study.
 

Source: Reducing antimicrobial use in food animals, published in the journal Science
 
“That an antibiotic commonly used in humans is projected to see the biggest increase in animal use is of great concern,” said Laxminarayan. “The use in animals of ciprofloxacin, a valuable oral broad-spectrum antibiotic, should be stopped at the earliest. Such use (of ciprofloxacin) has been discontinued in the US.”
 
The inappropriate use of antimicrobials in food animals has been cited as a leading cause of rising antimicrobial resistance at a 2016 United Nations General Assembly meeting on ways to tackle the problem.
 
In India, the impact of the practice is already visible. Poultry farms in Punjab that participated in the earlier CCDEP study reported high levels of multidrug-resistant bacteria that can easily escape into the environment, said Laxminarayan.
 
“Levels of multidrug-resistance were close to 90% in biological samples obtained from animals on those farms,” he said. “The spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria would mean that many more people could die from common infectious diseases.”
 
Indian food authorities are slow to respond to the threat
 
Antibiotics are freely and cheaply available in India. This is the biggest reason for the reckless use of antimicrobials as growth promoters in poultry farms.
 
How can this be changed?
 
“Agencies with the regulatory authority—such as the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India—should move quickly in this direction to avoid further degradation of antibiotic effectiveness,” said Laxminarayan.
 
In June 2017, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) brought out a draft notification prescribing residual limits for antibiotics, veterinary drugs and pharmacologically active substances in meat, poultry, eggs and milk. This came six years after the authority prescribed antibiotic residual limits for fish and fishery products and honey.
 
“Antimicrobial resistance is an evolving area, we have been studying the implications of the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in food animals in India and are willing to address this concern,” Pawan Kumar Agarwal, CEO of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, told IndiaSpend.
 
“But improving practices is a gradual process,” he said. “Bringing out the draft notification is a first step towards creating a safer food ecosystem.”
 
He estimated that it would take another 90 to 120 days for the regulation to be introduced.
 
Antibiotics used to cut costs on sanitation, diet
 
By specifying the limits of permissible antibiotic residue in food animals, the FSSAI regulation, when it is framed, will indirectly make it unlawful to use the drugs beyond a certain limit.
 
The new study proposes clearly capping the use of antibiotics in food animals to a specified limit and increasing the prices of veterinary antibiotics to dissuade use.
 
Both these moves are critical, said Laxminarayan, “because animal feed is practically being used as an industrial input, to avoid the costs that farmers would incur to raise the animals in hygienic conditions on a healthy diet”.
 
In the 18 farms that Laxminarayan’s team visited during the first study, it was found that large flocks, more than 50,000 birds, were kept in confined areas lacking proper sanitation.
 
Organic nurturing results in higher costs, price
 
To understand why poultry farmers use antibiotics as cheap and easily accessible growth boosters, consider the case of an agro enterprise that has adopted organic practices.
 
At Kansal & Kansal Agro Farms in Haryana, chicken feed is sourced only from pesticide-free farms and then mixed with herbs. The chickens are kept in a partially temperature controlled environment. The farm also invests in research to improve farming practices.
 
These practices keep the animals healthy but also result in higher production costs to “about double the cost of farms using antibiotics”, said Mohan Lal Kansal, founder and director of the farm and a former professor of animal science at the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana.
 
How to cut antibiotic misuse by more than half
 
High-income countries with highly productive livestock sectors—such as Denmark, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands—use antibiotics sparingly. The limit is less than 50 milligrams of antibiotics per population corrective unit (mg/PCU), a measurement unit developed by the European Medicines Agency to monitor antibiotic use and sales across Europe.
 
The new study suggests capping the use of antibiotics in farm animals at 50 mg/PCU globally. If India were to adopt this limit, antibiotic use in food animals in the country would decline by 15%, or 736 tons through to 2030.
 
A second regulatory recommendation–a 50% user fee on the price of veterinary antibiotics–would reduce antibiotic use in food animals in India by 46%, or 2,185 tons by 2030.
 
If both of these regulations were introduced, the use of antibiotics in food animals in India would reduce by 61%.
 
Limiting meat intake may not help
 
Limiting meat intake to the equivalent of one fast-food burger, roughly 40 grams per person per day globally—or 14.6 kg per person per annum—is the third intervention proposed by the new study.
 
Globally, limited meat intake could help reduce the global consumption of antibiotics for food animals by 66%. However, this intervention is not needed in India, where the per capita consumption of meat is below 5 kg per capita per annum.
 
For comparison, the per capita annual consumption of meat in China is 50 kg, well above the recommended 14.6 kg.
 
Although a higher consumption of animal proteins is considered useful in protein deprived populations, increasing meat consumption beyond this daily recommended allowance of 40 grams has no health advantages, said Laxminarayan.
 
“On the contrary, it imposes a cost on the environment as well as on antibiotic effectiveness,” he said.
 

Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
 
The need for greater consumer and farmer awareness
 
One reason why many European nations adopted ethical and organic practices in its animal products industry is the high level of consumer awareness in its markets. In India, consumers of animal products have yet to become demanding.
 
When Kansal started out in business, he travelled to Hyderabad and Bengaluru to talk about his decision to adhere to organic poultry farming. He found southern consumers more understanding of the impact of antibiotics misuse and the benefits of organic product, he said.
 
“Customers in the south were willing to pay double the price of an ordinary egg for an organic egg, plus 40% more to cover the cost of transportation,” he said. “Less aware consumers are usually more price conscious and that fuels the use of antibiotics in food.”
 
Low farmer awareness is also a concern.
 
In the absence of regulation, most of the poultry feed available in the market is medicated. But the majority of poultry farmers in Punjab that Laxminarayan’s team surveyed said they didn’t know this.
 
(Bahri is a freelance writer and editor based in Mount Abu, Rajasthan.)

Courtesy: India Spend
 

The post How India Can Cut Rampant Antibiotic Misuse In Food Animals appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Madhavan Ramadas, 42, a banana and coconut farmer in district Thrissur, Kerala faced hardship every summer as his home open well would dry up. Across India, barely 3% wells registered a rise in water level exceeding 4 metres in the year ending January 2016. Only 35% of wells showed any rise in water level, indicating the scale of the problem

 
Singh’s well bucked a nationwide trend–across India, barely 3% wells registered a rise in water level exceeding 4 metres in the year ending January 2016, according to this 2016 Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) report. Only 35% of wells showed any rise in water level, which declined in 64% of wells. Average water levels in January 2016 were lower than the average water level between 2006 and 2015.
 

 

Source: Ground Water Scenario in India January 2016, Central Ground Water Board, Ministry of Water ResourcesWell depth in January 2016, as compared to decadal mean of January (2006-15)
 
Behind the trend of falling water levels is India’s 251 cubic kilometer (cu km) annual groundwater extraction rate–equivalent to 26 times the water stored in the Bhakra Dam–making India the world’s biggest consumer of groundwater, according to a 2012 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization report. With annual extraction rates of 112 cu km, China and the US tie at a distant second.
 

Source: Managing Water Under Uncertainty and Risk, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural OrganizationData for 2010. Together, these countries account for 72% of the groundwater extracted annually.
 
Over nine-tenths of groundwater is extracted for irrigation, according to the Ground Water Year Book for 2014-15 released by the CGWB, underscoring India’s dependence on groundwater for irrigation–it provides water for 60% of the irrigated area, as IndiaSpendreported in October 2016. Over the last four decades—when India commissioned roughly halfof its 50 biggest dams—around 84% of the total addition to the net irrigated area has come from groundwater, according to this July 2016 report by a government committee.
 
Just like the rest of India, Singh depended on his well to irrigate his 15 bighas of farmed land. But unlike Singh, major farming states—Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana—are seeing water levels in wells fall instead of rise.
 
A well-recharging project implemented by the Jal Bhagirathi Foundation (JBF), a Jodhpur-based not-for-profit, enabled Singh to switch from growing only castor oil to chillies, vegetables and, of late, Thai apple ber; his income grew by 40% and could increase by 250% if the berries yield the return Singh expects. “Now my well yields the same water flow even in the summer months,” Singh told IndiaSpend over the phone. “Now the water is sweet, earlier it was salty,” he added, referring to the improved quality of water.
 

In 2015, Mahaveer Singh (left), 56, of Thumbo ka Goliya, southwest Rajasthan, saw water levels rise over 4 metres in his well when only 3% wells across India saw such a rise. A rainwater harvesting well recharging project implemented within 2 km of Singh’s 15 bighas of irrigated agricultural land has increased the availability of water in his well as well as improved the quality of water–earlier it was salty, now it is sweet. Switching from growing castor oil to vegetables increased farmer Singh’s income by 40%. With Thai variety apple ber (right), his latest crop, Singh expects to see his income grow 250%.
 
In contrast, the average farmer in Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana faces the prospect of having no groundwater left for irrigation by 2025.
 

Source: Ground Water Year Book for 2014-15, Dynamic Ground Water Resources of IndiaGroundwater development index is a measure of the groundwater consumed to the groundwater recharged through rainfall, canal seepage, return flows from irrigation and recharge from water bodies and conservation structures.
 
Too easily accessible groundwater is being exploited
 
The problem–and the advantage–with groundwater is its decentralised access. A licence is all you need to sink a well on owned land and extract water. Consequently, India has an estimated 30 million groundwater structures, according to the July 2016 government report.
 
In Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana, groundwater abstraction exceeds the rate at which it is being replenished through rainfall, back flows from irrigation and seepage from canals, other water bodies and conservation structures. A licence does not prevent groundwater exploitation, and instead breeds corruption within the system, said Rajendra Singh, a water conservationist from Alwar, in Rajasthan.
 
“We cannot police 30 million groundwater structures through a licence quota-permit raj,” said the July 2016 government report, instead suggesting that groundwater be recognised as a “common pool resource”, which means that it be considered a community resource and not a resource belonging to the owner of the land. The report also suggested that the government promote “community-driven decentralised water management”.
 
Why should communities manage groundwater?
 
Local stakeholders are best positioned to police the use of water, and they are more likely to do so honestly because their lives depend on its availability.
 
“Community-driven decentralised water management was the norm in India until about 100 years ago, prior to the development of the modern canal-based flood irrigation system and extraction technology,” said Singh, the water conservationist.
 
Wells have also been inextricably entwined in the Indian cultural ethos for being more than a source of water, often with separate wells earmarked for the upper classes and for dalits—a gruesome reality until today.
 
Between 700 and 1900 AD, west India saw the creation of 3,000 wells, so complex that they came to be known as underground water buildings, or popularly, stepwells, according to the book Steps to Water: The Ancient Stepwells of India. Stepwells around Hampi, in Karnataka, in Delhi, and in Haryana also date back to this period. Without more community-driven initiatives to protect wells, this heritage of India might become “a past glory”, said Jos Raphael, director of Mazhapolima, a well-recharging initiative of the District RainWater Harvesting Mission in Thrissur, a district in Kerala.
 
Through his non-governmental organisation Tarun Bharat Sangh, Singh, the water conservationist, has actively promoted community-driven decentralised management of natural resources, including wells around the river Arvari in Rajasthan.
 
“We have created Neer Nari Panchayats to monitor well withdrawals. They don’t allow the water table to fall beyond a certain level, so that even the poorest people who rely on shallow wells are not disadvantaged,” he explained.
 
Harvesting rainwater could recharge India’s wells en masse
 
Mazhapolima, a community-driven project to recharge wells in district Thrissur, Kerala, has made life easier for thousands, including the family of Madhavan Ramadas, 42, a banana and coconut farmer.
 
Ramadas’s family–like 75% of Thrissur’s population–depends on about 4.5 lakh open wells for their water needs. Up until 2008, summers were a nightmare for the Ramadas family.
 
“Water shortages were the norm as our well used to run dry by April,” Ramadas told IndiaSpend over the phone. “Seventy percent of wells in Thrissur would dry up during summer.”
 
In 2008, Ramadas signed up for Mazhapolima, which involved setting up a system to harvest and channel rainwater to recharge his family’s open well. As a result, in 2009, the family had sufficient water to last through April. A year later, the well water lasted until May, and by 2010, summer water shortages were a thing of the past.
 

In Kerala, rooftop rainwater harvesting systems involving a pipe and gutter are being used to to recharge home open wells, under a community-driven project, Mazhapolima, which has increased the utilisable groundwater potential in a sample 7.6 sq km coastal area by 43.35 million litres as well as improved the quality of water.
 
Well-recharging has worked successfully, especially for coastal communities in the district of Thrissur, but hasn’t been as effective for those living in the mountains or in the plains, said Raphael.
 
Mazhapolima has increased the groundwater potential in a coastal area covering 7.6 sq km by 43.35 million litres, as well as improved the quality of water, he added.
 
Singh, the farmer in arid Rajasthan, has also benefited from water harvesting and well-recharging.
 
With the aid of non-governmental organisations and funds raised from the community, the JBF constructed a sand dam—a structure which slows down the flow of water thus increasing the amount that percolates underground—on the dry bed of a nala (stormwater drain), flowing 1.5 km away from Singh’s fields. The dam increased the water level of 103 wells, within a 4 km radius of the dam, according to Kanupriya Harish, executive director of the JBF.
 
The JBF plans to scale the sand dam water harvesting technology—an African invention—to six more districts in Rajasthan, with support from HSBC Bank, Excellent Development, a British not-for-profit, and local communities.
 
“In Thumbo ka Golia, the community contributed 18% of the Rs 17 lakh project cost,” said Harish. “Seeing the success, more communities are asking for help, and (are) ready to pay their share.”
 
(Bahri is a freelance writer and editor based in Mount Abu, Rajasthan.)

Courtesy: India Spend
 

The post India’s Groundwater Crisis: Water Levels Fall In 65% Wells In A Decade appeared first on SabrangIndia.