5-Learning Experiences vis-a-vis CASI
Transcript
Friends, today as part of this MOOC course, I would like to share my experience with you all. I remember in 1998, the National Agricultural Technology Project was being run by ICAR and a project was formulated in resource conservation technology. The objective of the project was resource conservation in technology for accelerated growth in agriculture. Nine centers were included in this project including Punjab and Haryana. One of the center’s was the western Uttar Pradesh centre of project directorate for cropping systems research where I was working at that time. Not many scientists were keen on taking up this project and also the director of the centre was not very fond of me so he handed over this project to me.
I read the details of this project and attended the preliminary meeting of this project. I had studied in BSc. Ag about zero tillage technology but I was not much aware about its application. So when we used to go to farmers then they would come to us in large groups of 50 to 60 people. They would laugh among themselves when we would talk about zero tillage technology and that we wanted to sow wheat without tilling. It would appear that they had never heard anything like this before. Also in western Uttar Pradesh it has been a tradition that as a farmer gets up in the morning, they go to their tractor and till their farm. In such an environment, we practically had to request them to come forward and adopt zero tillage and also guarantee compensation for any losses incurred in the process.
Still only few farmers came forward reluctantly and some of them would plough their fields when we were not present and would lie about doing zero tillage. But they had indeed reduced the amount of times they till their farm. Earlier they would till their farms 7 to 8 times but now they do it only 1 or 2 times. In the first one or two years, farmers watched the results of demonstrations that were organized on zero tillage and luckily during this time, there was good rain. Along with rain there were also winds which lodged down wheat that were planted on tilled soil while the zero tillage wheat stood strong. Farmers also noticed that this technology has less growth of weed.
The first year, we were not able to convince farmers about zero tillage but from the second year, they themselves would come to us and say that I have done zero tillage farming in my field and also that it requires only two hours to irrigate farm as compared to the traditional way where it would take nearly 3 hours to irrigate the entire farm. So all these things slowly started getting popular among farmers and by the second and third year, we had to face less problems.
When work on Zero tillage technology started, it was not meant only for western Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana. It was also understood that zero tillage would have a significant contribution in Bihar as it could reduce the time between rice harvest and wheat sowing. It could bring forward wheat sowing by 10 to 15 days depending on the situation of moisture in the soil. In Bihar there was acceptance of zero tillage technology when it was first introduced as they could do early sowing of wheat.
In Bihar, we know that wheat always dries rather than maturing and this is the reason why wheat production is lower in Bihar when compared to other states. Zero tillage was introduced in Bihar with the objective of sowing wheat crops early. So the motive of farmers in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana was different from the farmers in Bihar as over there farmers were looking at minimum tiling cost and irrigation and less weed growth with almost similar yield. So farmers understood that they could reduce their cost of cultivation by 3000 to 4000 rupees per hectare with slight or similar production levels resulting in higher profits. In Bihar, farmers understood that they could sow wheat at the appropriate time and thus avoid terminal heat.
The second phase of National Agricultural Technology Project (NATP) was sanctioned by the world bank after the then director general of ICAR made a statement about the project in a meeting with the world bank team. He said that with zero tillage technology, we were able to provide benefits to farmers equivalent to the total outlay of NATP. This was a very convincing point and the second phase of the project was sanctioned without any further discussions.
I have been working in Bihar on zero tillage and have noticed that though zero tillage has been accepted in Bihar by farmers but its farming has not expanded in a similar proportion. We tried to look for answers and found that the biggest problem that we are facing is the availability of machines. In Bihar, around 90% farmers are small and marginal farmers who do not have the capacity to buy a zero tillage machine and use it in their own farm. It is not profitable for them to use the machine just on their own farm as the machine requires an investment of about 50,000.
In its early phase, a group tried to stop the expansion of zero tillage as a lot of tractor owners’ main source of income was the tilling of fields and they would practice tilling 5 to 6 times in a field. So this group started a negative campaign against zero tillage in the early phases. But farmers are very smart and intelligent and they can do all the calculations and realize that this zero tillage is very beneficial and has a lot of scope in the future.
There was also the problem of repairing this machine if it stopped working. We did not have the expertise to repair these machines. The agriculture university had the knowledge to repair the machines but it was not possible to go everywhere and provide repairs. So we started a training program under skill development where we train the local youth on how to overcome the common problems that one has to face while using these machines. We have also requested manufacturers to keep stock of certain machine parts that are more prone to break down. So to an extent we have been able to find solutions to these problems.
The motto of “Jal, Jeevan aur Haryali” provided by our chief minister is getting popular among our farmers. We all agree that if there is water, then there will be life and greenery. We know that zero tillage technology requires less amount of water. The government has also appreciated the benefits of zero tillage technology and they are now providing subsidies of around 80 to 85% on machines and equipment for farm mechanization. Farmers are able to benefit from these schemes and the government is also trying to make available all machines in each cluster. Some machines are big and they are also made available so that farmers can use it. Our university is working on this initiative and the Bihar government is also supporting us in this endeavor. Compared to when we started working on Zero tillage, the number of problems that are reported to agriculture universities and other such organizations have definitely reduced.
