INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES Volume 3, No 1, 2012 © Copyright by the authors - Licensee IPA- Under Creative Commons license 3.0 Review article ISSN 0976 – 4402 Received on March 2012 Published on May 2012 209 Organic agriculture: Way towards sustainable development Aher Satish B 1 , Swami Bhaveshananda 1 , Sengupta B 2 1- Environment and Disaster Management, IRDM Faculty Centre, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University, Narendrapur, Kolkata, West Bengal, India – 700103, 2- Former Member Secretary, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India satishbaher@yahoo.com doi:10.6088/ijes.2012030131021 ABSTRACT Organic agriculture has a potential to fulfill the food requirement of the world with sustainable resource utilization. This review illustrates how organic agriculture plays a role towards sustainable utilization of resources in food production as well as development with less pollution and contribution to the green house gases; ultimately climate change. Recent research in the field concluded that organic farming is better equipped to feed us now and well into the ever changing future. As Organic yields match conventional yields, Organic outperforms conventional in years of drought, Organic farming uses 45% less energy and is more efficient, Conventional systems produce 40% more greenhouse gases, Organic farming systems are more profitable than conventional and most important organic farming systems build rather than deplete soil organic matter which supports the soil micro, meso and macro fauna and makes the soil a living body; making it a more sustainable system. Organic agriculture offers a unique combination of environmentally-sound practices with low external inputs while contributing to food availability. To avoid ill effects of the conventional farming system it’s an urgent need to adopt the organic farming practices, it not only improves the health of human community by providing safe food but also has the potential to mitigate climate change mostly claimed on the basis of assumptions concerning the soil carbon sequestration potential of organic management. Organic agriculture is the way towards sustainable development of mankind. Keywords: Organic Agriculture, Sustainable development, conventional agriculture, food security, pollution mitigating potential. 1. Introduction Agriculture sector is vital for the food and nutritional security of the nation. The sector remains the principal source of livelihood for more than 58% of the population though its contribution (14.2%) to the national GDP (Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, 2011). Compared to other countries, India faces a greater challenge, since with only 2.3% share in world’s total land area; it has to ensure food security of its population which is about 17.5% of world population. This leads to excessive pressure on land and fragmentation of land holdings. On the other side the annual consumption of fertilizers in nutrient terms (N, P & K), has increased from 0.7 lakh MT in 1951-52 to 264.86 lakh MT 2009-10, while per hectare consumption of fertilizers, which was less than 1 Kg in 1951-52 has risen to the level of 135.27 Kg (estimated) in 2009-10 (Department Of Fertilizers, 2011). Intensive use of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides has been an important tool in the drive for increased crop production. In fact more fertilizers consumption is a good indication of agricultural