1- CASI and its Components
Transcript
Hello friends.
The topic that we are discussing today is on Conservation Agriculture based Sustainable Intensification or Conservation Agriculture. ‘But before we get into the details, I want to take you back hundred years ago to understand its origin.
During 1930 in the United States of America, it was strongly felt that when farmers plow their field massive amount of dust particles were carried out into their cities through dust cyclone/hurricanes which made the lives in the cities extremely discomforting. To resolve this problem, many researches and discussions were carried out. As a result, a conclusion was made that a new farming system without tillage was necessary.
Therefore, CA started in 1930 and it didn’t gain popularity till 1950. Between 1930 to 1950, when CA was applied as a piloted research, it garnered many positive results which quickly lead farmers to adopt CA practices. But from 1950 to 1990, there was very little rise- CA was practiced in only 2-million hectare land. From 1990 to 2015, CA was practices in almost 180- million-hectare land with 10-million hectare annually around the world. The places where CA is practiced the most is Brazil, next is America followed by Australia. In India, we practice CA at 3-million-hectare land in different form.
Now I am going to focus on what is CA.
CA mainly has three principles:
- Minimum soil disturbance (not more than 30% of soil disturbance)
- Soil coverage with organic biomass (to mulch soil with the residue of harvest)
- Crop diversification (to sow different crops using different methods at different times on a rotation in a one-year crop cycle on same piece of land which is also called a crop cycle)
The successful adoption of CA that we mentioned earlier has been in the rainfed areas or the areas where they only harvest one crop in a year. But in South Asia we have a complex farming system because our agriculture is linked with animal farming and fisheries; and also, we follow 2-4 crops in a cycle that include cereals and vegetables and that keeps on changing according to farmers’ demand and requirements. So, it is very complicated to apply all three principles of Conservation Agriculture in South Asian region.
For which we go beyond Conservation Agriculture and discuss about Conservation Agriculture based Sustainable Intensification.
Now I want to address some problems in Indian agriculture. To find the source of problems that we are currently facing in Indian agriculture we must go back in time. In 1960 when Green Revolution started, we were successful in increasing productivity which came with a price. We unleashed a lot of problems which can be arranged in two categories: man-made and nature.
Under man-made problems comes monocropping system in which only one type of crop is sown continuously. Second problem is to adopt new crops and cropping system in new location where not fitted with available resources. The third one is residue burning which is becoming a great problem these days. Fourth one is intensive tillage which is to plow field repeatedly that results in deterioration of the nutrition of soil. And flood irrigation is yet another big problem. So, we have created many more problems.
Another category of problems- natural problems include climate change issues (like flood, cyclones, other variations in climate), abiotic stresses that we are facing these days like drought, flood, salinity, acidity etc. along with biotic stresses like new diseases. And it can get really complicated if we put them together. The impact they have is very devastating- the water level is decreasing; soil health is deteriorating; global warming is increasing; and our produce is getting low.
Now the challenge we face is we need to increase our productivity, sustain it and protect it from climatic stress.
So, what are the solutions to the problems I mentioned earlier? There are many solutions but the best one is the Conservation Agriculture based Sustainable Intensification.
Conservation Agriculture based Sustainable Intensification is broader than Conservation Agriculture and goes beyond. Conservation Agriculture only deals with tillage, residue and crop diversification but the components of Conservation Agriculture based Sustainable Intensification includes Conservation Agriculture practices along with efficient use of external inputs and natural resources. It is economic and viable to farmers, and appropriate to our farming system that addresses our livestock, fish and soil.
This will make our farming system more resilient, save energy for our future generation, create cleaner environment, and bring biodiversity back in our soil and thus in our ecosystem. In addition, it brings more income to the farmers, improve nation’s economic condition, improve our livelihood, increase our food security and we get better nutrition.
As mentioned earlier, there has been positive results from Conservation Agriculture based Sustainable Intensification. In past 20 years from our own farm-trials, we have found:
- 5%- 10% increase in production from crop diversification
- 8%- 17% of irrigation water saved
- 26%- 42% labor saved
- 46%- 62% fuel consumption/ energy saved
- 16%- 56% increase in farmers’ income
- 11%- 16% reduction in CO2 emission
Dear friends, today we talked briefly on Conservation Agriculture based Sustainable Intensification. We will tell you more on related aspects in upcoming course. Thank you very much.
