Be Mains Ready

• Briefly explain what conservation agriculture is.
• Mention its potential and future prospect in India.
• Compare it with the traditional and commonly practiced agriculture.
• If possible, validate your arguments with the help of data.

Answer

With the South Asian region’s population expected to rise to 2.4 billion, demand for cereals is expected to grow by about 43 per cent between 2010 and 2050. Resorting to conservation agriculture (CA) would not only increase crop yield, income and reduce the use of natural resources, but would also confer climate change benefits, according to a study by Indian agricultural scientists.

Conservation Agriculture is a farming system that

• maintains a permanent soil cover to assure its protection,
• avoids soil tillage,
• and cultivates a diverse range of plant species to
  
  • improve soil conditions,
  • reduce land degradation and
  • increase water and nutrient use efficiency.

It enhances biodiversity and natural biological processes above and below the ground surface for improved and sustained crop productivity.

Principles of conservation agriculture

• Minimal mechanical soil disturbance
• Permanent organic soil cover
• Diversified crop rotations

Potential and prospects

In India, over the past few years, adoption of zero tillage (ZT) and CA has expanded to cover about 1.5 million hectares.

The CA adoption also offers avenues for much needed diversification through crop intensification, relay cropping of sugarcane, pulses, vegetables etc. as intercrop with wheat and maize and to intensify and diversify the system. The CA based resource conservation technologies (RCTs) also help in integrating crop, livestock, land and water management research in both low- and high-potential environments

Efforts to develop and spread conservation agriculture have been made through the combined efforts of several State Agricultural Universities, ICAR institutes and the Rice-Wheat Consortium for the Indo-Gangetic Plains.

Adoption and spread of wheat has been a success story in North-western parts of India due to

• reduction in cost of production by Rs 2,000 to 3,000 ha- 1 and enhancement of production and productivity (4% – 10%)
• enhancement of soil quality, i.e. soil physical, chemical and biological conditions
• enhancement, in the long term Carbon sequestration and build-up in soil organic matter constitute a practical strategy to mitigate Green House Gas emissions and impart greater resilience to production systems to climate change related aberrations
• reduction of the incidence of weeds, such as Phalaris minor in wheat
• enhancement of water and nutrient use efficiency
• Avoiding crop residue burning reduces loss of nutrients, and environmental pollution, which reduces a serious health hazard.
• providing opportunities for crop diversification and intensification.

Conservation agriculture offers an opportunity for arresting and reversing the downward spiral of resource degradation, cultivation costs and making agriculture more efficient, competitive and sustainable. “Conserving resources – enhancing productivity” has to be the new mission