From high cost to lack of policies, fitting the links for smarter farming

There's some good news from the ground and the labs on sustainable farmer techniques but, the first of a two part series looks at the missing links

A few weeks after Vinod Kumar passed his matric examination, his farmer-father started sending him to the Central Soil Salinity Research Institute in this district, to check on new seed varieties of wheat or rice they could grow.

Kumar continued to visit the institute all through his graduation years because he wanted to farm better. During one such visit in 2012, Kumar, then 26, learnt a team of scientists was looking for farms to set up an experiment. They wished to compare conventional farming with climate-smart agriculture techniques, that would help farmers grow more, increase their income and adapt to climate change.

Kumar volunteered his 40-acre farm, about 20 km away at Anjanthali village. “They will use the best techniques and their money to grow better crops, which will be mine,” Kumar remembers thinking. Over the next three years, researchers ran experiments in a portion of Kumar’s and other farmers’ fields in the district. When Kumar applied some of those techniques on the rest of his farm, he profited about Rs 6,000 more per acre, by reducing input cost and growing more wheat. He also stopped the burning of crop residue, which contributes to smog in the National Capital Region.

What and why

The study was led by Mangi Lal Jat, principal scientist at the Delhi branch of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center or CIMMYT, and funded by The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security or CCAFS — this is a global network of scientists studying agriculture and climate change. The network started promoting climate-smart agriculture in India in 2012.

“This is urgent,” says Arun Khatri-Chhetri, scientist with the South Asia chapter of CCAFS. India’s official Economic Survey of early this year said climate change would lower farmers’ income by 12 per cent annually on an average in the coming years. And, in unirrigated areas, farmers could lose up to 18 per cent of their annual income if they and policies did not adapt to climate change. The Survey urged climate-smart agriculture. CCAFS set up its first climate-smart projects in Haryana and Bihar. The evidence generated over the years led the Haryana government to announce last year that it would promote such agriculture in 250 villages over the next three years. The Bihar government will do so in 100 villages. Both have separately got Rs 250 million from the central government for this. Meanwhile, the governments of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra have also announced they will do climate-smart farming in about 1,000 villages each.

Even so…

However, Kumar’s and other farmers’ experiences show that even the best techniques could fail if not supported by right policies. Results of the study done on Kumar’s farm showed the clubbing smart farming techniques raised the average yield of rice and wheat by six per cent, profitability by 19 per cent and saved water by 22 per cent, in comparison with conventional farming. However, even relatively wealthy farmers like him cannot adopt all the technologies, either because these are expensive or cumbersome or lack policy support.

A technology that fascinated Kumar was Happy Seeder. It deals with the rice crop residue which becomes a headache for farmers every winter in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. They burn about 23 million tonnes of residue every year, for lack of cheap alternatives.

Kumar borrowed Happy Seeder from scientists and put it behind his tractor after harvesting rice. Happy Seeder cuts the standing residue and spreads it with the loose residue on his field, while sowing wheat seeds in a row and adding fertiliser at the same time. “Residue cover maintains moisture and lowers soil temperature by two-three degrees, which protects the crop from extreme heat,” said Hanuman Sahay Jat, scientist at the Central Soil Salinity Research Institute.

Residue cover also saves water by 10-15 per cent, reduces weeds and adds organic carbon in the soil. Happy Seeder alone saved Kumar about Rs 2,500 per acre which he earlier spent on tilling, hiring labour to add fertiliser and to sow wheat seeds. He grew two quintals more wheat per acre, fetching him Rs 3,500 extra. Studies predict climate change will reduce wheat yield in India by six to 23 per cent by 2050.

Kumar, however, couldn’t use Happy Seeder in the latest season. For, the scientists had taken the one he had borrowed from them to other villages for a demonstration. He couldn’t buy one — it costs Rs 160,000. To avoid the fines the government imposes for burning of rice residue, he flooded and then ploughed the field to mix residue in the soil (his neighbours chose to burn), and sowed the wheat seeds the conventional way. He expects the yield to be lower by about two quintals an acre.

Responses

The frustration led him to create a farmers’ society, with 24 others in Anjanthali. They pooled  money to buy equipment, including Happy Seeder, with a 40 per cent government subsidy. The society will rent out Happy Seeder to other farmers for Rs 1,200 an acre.

However, the equipment is not enough for the village. One Happy Seeder covers up to 150 acres in a season. Anjanthali has about 1,800 acres of farm area. “Farmers won’t adopt any technology unless it is affordable,” notes Kumar. That only the government can do, says Mangi Lal Jat of CIMMYT. “Our job is to demonstrate the potential of a technique by generating scientific evidence.”

This July, the central government is launching a crop residue management scheme. In which, it will give 80 per cent subsidy on eight items of equipment, including Happy Seeder, if purchased by societies like Kumar’s, and 50 per cent subsidy if done by individual farmers. 

Not happening

While Kumar’s society might take the subsidy to buy more Happy Seeders, he and other farmers in Haryana and Punjab are shunning a climate-smart technique to grow rice. They are going back to the conventional cultivation method that uses 30 per cent more water, endangering the already receding water table in the state. Why are they doing that? Business Standard will explain in Part-2 of this series.