Crop diversification for livelihood security and resilience to climate variability Climate Vulnerability Existing practice Resil...
Crop diversification
for livelihood security and resilience to climate variability
- Climate Vulnerability
- Existing practice
- Resilient Practice / technology
- Impact of crop diversification
- Scale of demonstration
- Scope for Upscaling
Drought/heat
wave, frost/cold wave and floods
In scarce
rainfall zones of India, practice of sole cropping is predominant but is risky
and often results in low yields or sometimes even in crop failure due to
erratic monsoon rainfall and skewed distribution. In such areas intercropping
is a feasible option to minimize risk in crop production, ensure reasonable
returns at least from the intercrop and also improve soil fertility with a
legume intercrop. Cotton, soybean, pigeonpea and millets are the major crops in
the scarce rainfall zones. Intercropping of these crops is more profitable and
is a key drought coping strategy.
Pigeonpea,
cotton, sunflower and sorghum are the main crops cultivated in NICRA village in
Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh which are affected due to late onset of
monsoon followed by dry spell at critical crop growth stages. Intercropping of
Setaria (foxtail millet, SIA-3085 variety) with pigeonpea (5:1 ratio) sown in
July showed that the intercropping system was more profitable with highest
benefit cost ratio in all the 3 years despite prolonged dry spell of up to 25
days in 2012. Intercropping of soybean + pigeonpea (4:2), pearlmillet +
pigeonpea (3:3), pigeonpea + green gram (1:2) and cotton + green gram (1:1)
performed significantly better than their sole crops at Aurangabad,
Maharashtra. Similarly, demonstrations on crop diversification by inclusion of
HYVs of black gram, sesamum, gobhi sarson, gram, lentil, toria and okra were
conducted in Said-Sohal village in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir.
Farmers
in Yagantepalli village, Kurnool district took up sole and intercrops of
Setaria and pigeonpea for 3 years in this predominantly rainfed village (70%).
Performance of the intercropping system of Setaria + pigeonpea (5:1) gave the
highest benefit cost ratio ranging from 1.7 to 3.1 compared to the sole crops
of Setaria and pigeonpea (1.5 to 2.6). At Shektha village, Aurangabad,
Maharashtra farmers realized the advantage of higher net incomes with
intercropping of the main crops such as cotton, pearlmillet, pigeonpea and soybean
ranging from Rs.9216 to Rs.12330/ha.
In Kathua
district of Jammu & Kashmir, results of demonstrations on high yielding
varieties (HYVs) of maize showed 81.4% increase over traditional cultivar.
Demonstrations on crop diversification by inclusion of HYVs of black gram,
sesamum, gobhi sarson, gram, lentil, toria and okra resulted in a yield
increase to the tune of 62.5, 62.8, 51.3, 96.8, 76.5, 88.4 and 38.1%,
respectively over traditionally grown varieties. In maize + cowpea
intercropping, due to synergy existing between two intercrops, an yield
enhancement of 75.3% in maize and 2.3% in cowpea was observed over the
traditional system with a net return of Rs. 24200/ha in maize and Rs. 32400/ha
in cowpea. Net return in case of cowpea was more because, no additional input
other than seed was applied to the cowpea crop.
Scale of demonstration
Inter
cropping was demonstrated in 2654 ha covering 2033 farmers in Kathua (Jammu
& Kashmir); Hamirpur, Chamba (Himachal Pradesh); Ropar (Punjab); Saran,
Jehanabad, Supaul (Bihar); Sonitpur, Dhubri (Assam); Sonepur, Kendrapara
(Odisha); Dantewada, Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh); Gondia, Amravati, Aurangabad
(Maharashtra); Kushinagar, Chitrakoot (Uttar Pradesh); Kutch, Valsad (Gujrat);
Satna, Datia (Madya Pradesh); Nalgonda, Anantapur (Andhra Pradesh); Davangere
(Karnataka) and Nammakal (Tamil Nadu) with an yield advantage ranging from 10.5
to 85.2% and benefit cost ratio of 1.3 to 4.2 compared to farmers’ practice.
●Introduction of drought tolerant variety of bottle gourd in rainfed condition:
Gondia
Rice is a major crop grown during kharif in Katangtola and Chandanitola villages in Gondia district. Farmers incur facing high cost of production and low remuneration from rice cultivation. Hence, drought tolerant variety (Warad) of bottle gourd crop was introduced as an alternate crop to rice along with micro- irrigation system. The crop was sown in the first week of June 2012 in 0.35 ha and the net income was Rs. 33,500 by cultivation of bottle gourd whereas with rice crop it was only Rs. 7,500/ha. Most of the farmers from nearby villages visited the demonstration plot and eight farmers came forward and started cultivating vegetable crops by using drip irrigation by availing subsidy from the state department of agriculture, Maharashtra.
Scope for Upscaling
Crop
diversification including intercropping of rainfed crops is an important risk
minimizing strategy for drought proofing in the scarce rainfall zones and paddy
growing areas. In contingency situations such as delay in onset of monsoon,
adoption of intercropping for delayed plantings can be remunerative instead of
sole cropping. However, availability and access to farm implements for taking
up the intercropping systems is to be ensured for wider adoption. In this
context, village level custom hiring service centers for making available farm
implements can help increase the adoption by small and marginal farmers in the
states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya,
Tripura, Jammu & Kashmir.
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