Indian farming practices: Learning from elsewhere in the world

Strip cropping, as seen in the U.S., is when wheat is grown along with corn and soyabean, in the same farm in an alternative manner

A paper has appeared recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (PNAS) titled: “Integrated farming with intercropping increases food production while reducing environmental footprint” (see: Q. Chai et al., PNAS September 21, 118(38)e2106382118 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2106382118). This work found that (1) “relay planting” enhances yield, (2) within-field rotation or “strip rotation”, allowing strips for planting other plants (such as grass, fruits) besides the major crop was more fruitful, (3) “soil munching,” that is, available means such as crop straw, in addition to the major crop such as wheat or rice, and (4) “no-till” or a reduced tillage, which increases the annual crop yield up by 15.6% to 49.9%, and decreasing the environmental footprint by 17.3%, compared with traditional monoculture cropping. This led to the conclusion that small farm holders can grow more food and have reduced environmental footprint.

How do these factors apply to the small farmers of India? Current statistics reveal that our country has a significant population of small farmers, many owning less than 2 hectares of land. About 70% of its rural households still depend primarily on agriculture for their livelihood, with 82% of farmers being small and marginal. The total production of food-grains in 2017-18 was estimated to be 275 million tons. Some others have pointed out that only 30% of all farmers borrow from formal sources. The farm loan waivers from the state governments have been helpful in this regard, but yet, over 50% struggle to borrow from Shylockian sources.