1- Productivity Benefits of CASI

Transcript

Hello friends. We are now into the fifth week of our course in CASI. This is the first lesson of this week and we would learn about the system benefits of CASI.

We know that CASI increases the benefits of our system in four different ways. These are benefits in system productivity, increase in water productivity, increase in energy productivity and input use efficiency. Also, conservation agriculture is based on three main principles i.e. minimum tillage, crop cover and diversified farming system.

We will first discuss the enhancement of system productivity. There is an increase in system productivity if there is an increase in crop yield of kharif, rabi and zaid season crop compared to the conventional system of growing these crops. So to increase system productivity, we have to increase the productivity of various factors that are important to crop productivity.

Now, soil cover, mulching, crop residue retention and minimum tillage are important requirements in conservation agriculture. These things improve the physical character of the soil and help improve the water holding capacity of the soil which makes sufficient moisture available to crops.

If we talk about the rice-wheat farming system, then if we do DSR under CASI, then we save around 10 to 15 days between the seed to seed period in our rice crop. These 10 to 15-day period is very important for the next wheat crop and as the wheat crop gets more time and our yield also increases.

Now, when we talk about conservation agriculture as system based, we know that we increase our yield by 5 to 10 % when compared to the traditional farming system.

Also, if we improve the water use efficiency of our farming then our system productivity will also improve. In order to increase the use efficiency of water, we have to see that the consumptive use of water is more. To do this, we have to ensure that there is sufficient moisture in the soil.

Also, if we do residue retention in our farm, which is an important part of conservation agriculture then our water holding capacity of soil increases. This improves the water infiltration rate of the soil and reduces the runoff of rainwater and subsequently reduces soil erosion. This means that the top layer of the soil which is the most fertile remains in the farm and this increases our productivity. Usually under CASI, we see the benefits of any activity in the long run.

Now, we will discuss ways to increase nutrients in our farm. Nutrients are more effective in soil where there is sufficient and balanced water or moisture. If there is a lot of water, then the nutrients are washed away with water and this can reduce our fertilizer use efficiency. This is  commonly found in traditional methods of farming. Under CASI, we can use different instruments through which we can manage nutrients and increase the efficiency of nutrients.

Now, we discuss water productivity. As we know by increasing water productivity, we mean less loss of water. We have seen that compared to conventional agriculture, there is about 10 to 15% less loss of water in conservation agriculture and this improves our water productivity by 10 to 15%. Water productivity depends on the residue retention in our farm. With residue retention, we have seen that the water infiltration rate increases and there is a decrease in loss of water through runoff. Also, in conservation agriculture, we use mulch on our farm so there is less evaporation compared to the traditional system of farming. So water productivity is more in conservation agriculture.

Now, we discuss energy productivity. In today’s time, we are more and more exploiting our agriculture resources and products though our population is ever increasing and we have limited quantity of land available for farming. But under CASI, our management practice is such that compared to traditional ways of farming, we minimize the use of agriculture products like herbicide, pesticides, fertilizer or use them in optimal quantities. So our energy requirements are more in the traditional way of farming than under CASI.

When we calculate our energy input, we take into consideration that under traditional farming, we till our farm 5 to 10 times whereas in zero tillage we only till it once. Labour requirement is also more in conventional farming and we depend more on machines in conservation agriculture. In conservation agriculture, we save labour during sowing, harvesting and even during postharvest. As we are saving labour, we require less energy input. But, in traditional agriculture, we see that farmers do a lot of tilling and in the process consume more fuel whereas there is less requirement of fuel in conservation agriculture. In the same way fertilizer is extensively used in traditional farming. For the process of weeding, a lot of labour is used in traditional farming but
under CASI, we prefer the use of herbicide. So overall, we use more quantity of products in traditional farming when compared to conservation agriculture and as a result we spend more energy in traditional farming. On the other hand, in conservation agriculture, we optimally use these products and because of which our input energy is less.

In conservation agriculture, we say that there is 5 to 10% increase in system productivity. So if output energy of both traditional farming system and conservation agriculture is same, then as input energy is required less in conservation agriculture, we can safely say that we produce more energy by investing less energy in conservation agriculture.

Now in terms of input efficiency as we are using many different products in traditional farming, the effectiveness and utilization of these products cannot happen fully. But in conservation agriculture, say if we are using nutrients then there are many techniques and instruments to assist us like leaf color chart or green seeker. If we use all these things, then we prevent ourselves from using more nitrogen. So our input use efficiency and its productivity increases as we are using less amount of nitrogen and our productivity remains the same.

Now, why do we get these productivity benefits? If we talk about the entire CASI system, we notice that there is a 5 to 10 % increase in our yield. There is also 10 to 15% increase in water  productivity, 20 to 40% increase in farm income. The main reason for increase in income and profit is that we are saving around 4000 to 5000 rupees per hectare from not tilling. In a year, we save around 40 to 45 labor man days per hectare. So from all the savings what eventually happens is that we save our cost of cultivation and even if the return is same when compared to the traditional way of farming, we are able to profit more. In other words, our benefit cost ratio increases.

So from CASI, we are able to profit more in every parameter be it productivity or water productivity or energy saving or energy productivity or input efficiency.