Transcript

As we discussed yesterday on Conservation Agriculture based Sustainable Intensification, it has three principles and one of them is minimum tillage. What is a definition of minimum tillage? Soil surface should not be disturbed more than 30%. Under 30% of soil disturbance depends upon crop to crop, planting to planting, location and environment. Under minimum tillage, there are two categories: one is zero till or no till which includes surface seeding and other is reduced till which includes strip tillage.

We need to remember that reduced till does not mean reducing the times you till or decrease the number of tillage passes. It is more related with less than 30% of soil disturbance. This is the only qualifying criteria under reduced tillage or else it will be regarded as full tillage because these days there are such implements that does everything in one pass, disturbing equal amount of soil as in 10-15 times tillage or more, like rotavator. So, we are not encouraging its use.

Why do we need zero tillage technology in India? Our Rice-Wheat system is applied around 10- million-hectare land in India. But our rice planting is mainly dependent on rain and later wheat is sown. Since we largely depend on rain, the rice plantation usually gets delayed and again, farmers who sow long-duration rice variety further delay the process. After harvesting rice, wheat needs to be sown and normally it takes 20-25 days for land preparation. Zero till technology was therefore introduces to shorten this period.

Another reason is: because of maximum tillage, farmers’ expenses are increasing. Also, since we are carrying out the same Rice- Wheat system, Phalaris minor in wheat has become a big problem. To get rid of these problems, zero tillage technology was introduced.

Due to this zero-tillage technology, as soon as rice harvests, on the same day we remove the residue and directly sow the wheat. This process saves at least 15-20 days of land preparation and thus, shortens the duration which also increases 15- 20% wheat yield. So, this is the main reason behind the initiation of zero-tillage technology.

With time many improvements have been made to this technology, like happy seeder, zero tillage seed drill, zero-tillage multi-crop planters, strip tillage machine, two-wheel tractor operated zero tillage and strip tillage machines etc. Depending on the location and the type of power required, the zero-tillage technology has been improvised accordingly. So, this is the reason why we need zero-tillage technology.

Now what are the benefits of zero-tillage technology? The first benefit is previously farmers had to till 10-15 times but now the same work is done in one operation. Another benefit is it shortens the planting duration by 15-20 days. Third benefit is it saves minimum 70% of time that farmers used to invest from land preparation till seeding. Thus, saving 70%- 80% of time. It also saves 35l- 45l of diesel per hectare of land. Based on crop system, it reduces 35-40 labor per hectare of land.

It reduces cost of production by INR 6000- INR 10,000 per hectare of land. A farmer can save from INR 4000- INR 5000 per hectare till seeding. It is found that 5%- 10% of irrigation water is saved. Also, the weed problem which was a huge issue in wheat was significantly reduced due to zero-tillage technology. There is a reduction in herbicide consumption as well. It is also found that there is 5%- 10% increase in production. So, farmers net income has increased by 20%- 40%. Farmers’ water productivity which is also referred as per drop- more crop has increased by 10%- 15%.

Now you may be curious to know if this zero-tillage technology can be used in all crops, cropping systems and location. Yes, it can be used everywhere. We have studied that it is suitable for all cropping systems like Rice- Wheat, Rice- Maize, Maize- Wheat, Rice- Pulses, Cereal- Pulses etc. The only thing that we need to keep in mind is that the seeding mechanism should be fitted according to the crop for which we need to modify the machine as per the requirement. Otherwise, this technology can be used for every crop. Besides, this technology can be used in other crops as well like cereals, legumes, oil seeds, even tuber crops and vegetables.

However, to maintain this technology is not possible for some crop rotation or crops, like tuber crop and potatoes and root vegetable crops like radish, carrot etc. This technology can be used for seeding but to harvest these crops one must disturb the soil. This is the only limitation otherwise there is no problem in seeding using this technology. Apart from this, this technology is very location specific. This technology requires proper adjustments according to location, crop, soil type and environment.

Thank you.