Letters: The zero tillage solution

This refers to the Surinder Sud's column "Paddy farming: A seeding revolution" (Farm View, November 11). The author does not mention that the scientists at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) are following the zero till agriculture method popularised not only in Brazil but also by some innovative farmers in India. A glaring example is Chandrashekhar Bhadsavle, who has a farm called "Saguna Farm" near the hill station Neral, not far from Mumbai. Bhadsavle has developed a technique called the Saguna Rice Technique, which is a zero till technique and does not use a tractor or animals since there is no ploughing. It is a climate-friendly technique and has been recognised internationally.

I wonder why the scientists at ICAR don't visit the farm and learn from Bhadsavle. I visited his farm in March this year and spent two days learning the technique from him. I have also been to Brazil and seen such technique cover thousands of acres of farm.

Chandrashekhar Ranade Washington DC

Surinder Sud replies: The column to which the reader is referring is not about zero tillage technology for crop farming, which has been known for quite some time and is also being promoted in India in several regions. The column talks about ways to cut down the use of water and labour in paddy cultivation in view of the growing scarcity of both these inputs and also to reduce methane emissions from paddy fields to make them less harmful to the environment.

The column does not claim that the two methods of direct sowing mentioned are absolutely new or revolutionary. These methods have been presented as the significant ones among the available novel methods of paddy cultivation that have been tried out on fields with good results. Of course, individual farmers - like the one mentioned by the reader - may have evolved their own variants of paddy farming that may be better than the methods mentioned in the column.

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