Key Strategies for Enhancing Farmers Income

Introduction:

Enhancing of farmers income is one of the most important agenda of the central and state governments which can lead to the ambitious plan of doubling farmer’s income by 2022. Increase in total farm output can be one of the strategies but not the only strategy for doubling income. It is essential to focus on a planwhich can ensure a right combination of measures that are relevant for different geographical as well as agro-climatic conditions.

Some of the key strategies are discussed below.

Enhancing crop production through yield increase:

Increase in overall yield or productivity from agricultural or horticultural crops and other related farm enter prizes can be the important single important factor that can increase the income of farmers. Since there is very little scope for area expansion (either through increase in nets own area or through increase in cropping intensity), enhancing the overall productivity is the only way available to enhance production. Bridging yield gaps through had option of recommended good crop production practices, planning profitable crop combinations that can maximize aggregate income, and reducing crop losses through integrated crop management (integrated nutrient/pest/disease/weed management) practices are some of the immediate options that can bring in additional income to the farmers.

Efficient use of water resources:

Water resources are the scarcest resources among the natural resources gifted by the nature. The available water resources is not proportional to the size of cultivable land, dependent population, swelling demands from industry, domestic segment for drinking, sanitation and washing, public uses such as parks and gardens, and hospitality industry etc. As per an estimate by 2050 the global agriculture sector needs to produce 60 percent more, while developing countries need to produce 100 percent more. This target can be met only by improving water productivity and putting in place the right policy mix that supports and ensures efficient use of water resources. Ground water management is one of the important aspects in this regard. There is a need for a paradigm shift in water management in rain fed areas by bringing more dry land under protective irrigation support for bridging dry spell sand for improving agricultural and water productivity through new technological water management options. Anidelay system of irrigation should aimat conjunctiveuse of different sources of water in mutually reinforcing manner while giving due importance to demand moderation and making it compatible with resource endowments of the region. Drip and sprinkler irrigation technology options need to be promoted to manage the demand.

Enhancing productivity from dry lands:

Even after harnessing the fullest possible irrigation potential a large amount of land continues under rainfed conditions. As per an estimate these rainfed or dryland areas are home to 43 percent of our population and receive rainfall between 150 mm and 1000 mm per annum. There is a need to popularize various water management interventions in these drylands. The interventions shall include, adopting an efficient watershed management approach specifying and enforcing clearly defined water rights in watershed communities; reducing vulnerability through rain water harvesting and storage; recharging depleted ground water and aquifers; regulation of ground water extraction; enlisting government support for water saving options; enabling stronger collective action for community development in agriculture and resource management, and enhancing the scientific and technological support to watershed programmes such as land resources inventory(LRI)–hydrology-socioeconomic study based watershed planning as done in Sujala-III program in Karnataka.

Popularizing soil test based nutrient management:

Due to unscientific nutrient management approaches followed by the farmers, the soils are increasingly becoming deficient in micronutrients and the NPK balance has skewed towards nitrogen. The wide spread secondary and micronutrient deficiencies have led to deterioration in soil health leading to low fertilizer response and crop yields in rainfed areas. This degrading soil health trend can be reversed through had option of soil test based application of deficient secondary and micronutrients to harness existing productivity potential on a sustainable basis. The national soil health mission has introduced the issue of soil health cards across the country will be able to address this issue. However programs on education the farmers in this regard are needed for promoting smart

nutrient management practices.

Reducing costs through low external input agriculture and farming systems approach:

The cost of cultivation has been increasing thus reducing the overall profits of the farmers. There is a need to focus on lowering the costs without compromising on the output can lead to the increase the net income. It is possible to do so as there is a general tendency on the part of farmers to apply over dose of fertilizers and pesticides, expecting higher yields. Organic farming, low external input, sustainable agriculture, precision farming, etc. are being promoted with a view to reducing Complementary relations that could exist among farm enterprises are rarely exploited as farmers have been increasingly depending on externally purchased input sand preferring single enterprise rather than a mix of different enterprises. In spite of the advantages of farming systems, their adoption by farmers is not high due to limitation of available production technologies, biophysical or geophysical constraints, labor and input market constraints, financial and credit constraints, social norms, inter-temporal trade-offs, policy constraints, and constraints to knowledge or skills.

Promoting diversification:

Diversification can be a major game changer in enhancing farmer’s income. Diversification can be of three types viz. product (high value enterprises), process (precision farming), and time diversification (delinking from seasonality to prevent price crash with bumper crop). Diversification towards high value crops is required to improve both income and resource use efficiency. Similarly, diversification towards livestock, poultry and non-farm activities is considered ideal, especially for small and marginal farmers who do not possess adequate land to generate enough income for the family. Diversification of agriculture offers food and nutrition security, income growth, diversification of sources of income, poverty alleviation, employment generation, judicious use of land and water resources, sustainable agricultural development, and environmental improvement.

Skill building of farmers:

Since farming in India has been a hereditary occupation of a family, learning how to farm is nearly always limited to traditional practices passed on through generations. The modern agriculture cannot be practiced without proper skilling and professionalization of the farmers. The farmers need to organize resources, collect and leverage information, take crucial decisions and breathe risks which need skilling of farmers. Farming is increasingly transforming in to a skilled job with agricultural markets evolving in the digital space, consumer preferences chemical use. going global, all entrepreneurial functions demanding technical and managerial skills and value chains becoming sophisticated. Present initiatives in farmers’ training such as farmers’ field schools (FFS), Life Long Learning for Farmers (L3F), Training of Local Resource Persons(TLRP) etc, are limited to a few locations in a few states. There is a need for a unified training system, catering to all types of trainings. Besides, there is a need to have distinct modules in school curriculum that teach about our agricultural traditions and practices.

Addressing the constraints of small-marginal farmers:

Due to continued sub division and fragmentation of land has led to the tiny and uneconomical holdings. The small farmers faces several constraints such as Inability to create economies of scale and scope; Low bargaining power due to small marketable surplus; Scarcity of capital; Limited market access; Lack of knowledge and information; Market imperfections, and poor infrastructure and communications. Therefore, aggregation and collectivization of farmers and their resources through farmers companies can be a wonderful solution to the above constraints.

Changing tastes and economic conditions of people:

The changes in recent trends, tastes and preferences of consumers who are creating higher demand for processed, packaged and branded products that meet the food quality standards. Rise in organized retail chains and online markets are selling agricultural products thus are creating a new retail culture. Small and marginal farmers, given their socio-economic profile, can hardly rise to the expectations arising out of such developments. Without effective organization, the small farmers are likely to face several problems with quality aspects and exploitation at the hands of the intermediaries who are controlling value chains. There is a need to organize them effectively into groups to facilitate better incomes is an important concern. FPOs are promoted on a large scale under central and state government support. Such collectivization of farmers into groups is bound to bring the benefits of scale and scope.

Need for Promoting Use of Plastics in Horticulture

Introduction:

The advances in technological developments have modified so much the course of controlled

environment, horticulture in the production of fruits, vegetables, flowers, and ornamentals due to the

recent widespread use of plastic films and related materials in horticulture production. The plastic films are used extensively for the design and covering of new greenhouses; the covering of old conventional glass-greenhouses; for air-inflated, self-contained, or supported bubble houses; as interior curtains and external barriers to reduce heat loss in the conventional greenhouses; and for the containment of CO2 -enriched atmospheres. The plastic films also are used in the construction of high and low tunnels or covers for many row crops, protective covering of seed beds, and for soil mulches. Plastic tubes, laterals, and drip lines are important components of drip irrigation systems for high-value horticultural crop production. Drip irrigation is often a component with plastic soil mulches, crop rowcovers, and plastic greenhouses. Recent introductions using plastic films include peat modules, bag cultures, rockwool, the nutrient-film technique, and non-variable root environments for fieldgrown tomatoes. Plastic components contribute to the precise control of top and root environments of the crop plants. In many modern greenhouses, all plant growing structures, other than the root media itself are plastic.

Benefits of plastics:

The use of plastics has proved beneficial to promote the judicious utilization of important natural resources like soil, water, sunlight and temperature. Use of plastics in agriculture or ‘Plasticulture’ provides several benefits like;

• Effective control on pest and disease infestations

• Improves the economic efficiency of production

systems

• User friendly maintenance

• Efficient water and energy management

• Reduced temperature fluctuations

• Reduced moisture fluctuations

• Precise irrigation and nutrient applications and

reduced wastage

• Reduction in soil erosion

Use of plasticulture in micro irrigation:

Micro Irrigation One of the major sectors of application of plastics in horticulture is in the area of water management and conservation. The drip or micro irrigation includes emitting water by drippers, microsprinklers, mini-sprinklers, micro-jets, misters, fan jets, micro-sprayers foggers, emitting pipes, micro-tubes and similar other emitting pipes. Micro irrigation Technology can be used both on the surface as well as sub-surface areas which helps in increasing productivity by 30 to 100 percent with 50 to 70 percent saving of water. There is enhanced water use efficiency (WUE). Micro irrigation saves the energy as compared to sprinkler and conventional methods. Sprinkler irrigation enables water to be sprinkled with the help of a network of pipes and sprinklers (nozzles) on the plant foliage. Sprinkler irrigation system has become popular as a method of irrigation, especially under undulating topography, particularly for light textured soils for a variety of horticultural crops. The fertilizer use efficiency can also be enhanced when it is applied through drip irrigation. Increased productivity with saving of 30 to 40 per cent of fertilizer can be achieved through fertigation.

Initially, the central government launched a scheme on use of plastics in agriculture during the 8th plan, duly earmarking 200 crore for drip irrigation. The scheme was continued during the 9th plan under the title "Development of Horticulture" through Plasticulture Applications with an outlay of INR. 375 crore out of which INR. 300 crore was for drip irrigation. During 2003, the central government constituted a Task Force on Micro Irrigation to assess the scope and potential of the technology and to suggest strategies for its promotion in the country. The Task Force gave several recommendations for promoting Micro- irrigation in the country. Based on the recommendations of the Task Force on Micro irrigation several initiatives have been taken up by the central and state governments which has resulted in brining of lot of area under micro irrigation. The plasticulture programme, which started as a subsidy scheme is now a demand driven program in Karnataka and other states like Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. As a result of all these efforts, India has now emerged as one of the leading countries in using micro irrigation technology and plasticulture.

Plasticulture for popularizing Fertigation:

Fertigation need to be popularized for intensive and economical crop production, where both water and nutrients are supplied to growing crops through micro irrigation system. Fertigation provides major and micro nutrients directly to the active root zone, thus minimising losses of expensive nutrients, which ultimately helps in improving productivity and quality of farm produce apart from savings in the time and labour. Research studies have shown that fertigation economizes use of fertilizer and water to the tune of 40-60 percent. Farmers are using fertigation in grapes, pomegranate and banana crops in Karnataka and of late are being followed by small and resource poor farmers due to some schemes of Government of Karnataka. Fertigation is ideally suited for hi-tech horticultural production. Though micro irrigation has found widespread use in plantation and horticultural crop production, fertigation is confined to few high value crops.

Plasticulture in promoting protected cultivation:

Optimum growth of plants is governed by the availability and use of soil, water and sunlight. However, climatic variations often tend to have adverse effects on the yield and production of crops. There is a need to focus our efforts on harnessing the natural resources through artificial means for increasing crop productivity. One such technology is protected cultivation or green house cultivation. Greenhouses are framed or inflated structures covered with plastic material or glass in which crops can be grown under partially controlled environment which is large enough to permit normal cultural operation manually. Large greenhouses are usually constructed for export oriented flower production. Greenhouse technology was well adapted in Europe and USA by the end of the nineteenth century. Currently, China and Japan are the leading countries. Other countries where green house technology is being widely used are Netherlands, Israel, Canada, Spain and Egypt besides some Arab countries. Green house technology is currently catching up in India also. Green houses are suitable for growing a variety of vegetables, fruits and flowers. In addition to temperature control, there will be protection from wind, soil warming and in some cases, protection against insects, pest and diseases, thus helping in enhanced maturity of crop, increased yields, improved quality of produce and in some instances it can reduce the use of insecticides and pesticides. The total time for preparation of seedlings and cuttings also gets reduced significantly by the use of green house technology. Greenhouse is also essential for plant propagation through tissue culture. Considering the advantages of greenhouse, there is ample scope for encouraging area under protected cultivation of high value flowers and vegetables out of season, both in the temperate and tropical climate. However, profitability in green house cultivation will depend upon the choice of greenhouse structure, selection of crops and varieties and production technologies adopted. While the conventional greenhouses are simple structures, the hitech greenhouses have facilities for controlling light intensity, temperature, humidity with complete automation of the system. The constraint in adoption of green house is mainly the high investment required on equipments.

Indian horticulture, which was hitherto an individual activity, became corporate driven, which could

sense the potential and scope the modern protected cultivation technology. Refinement in protected

cultivation technology is being carried out in different ICAR institutions, state horticulture and agricultural universities. Different designs of glasshouse and polyhouses are being developed. Besides above-ground greenhouses, underground green houses were also being tried. Polytunnels and poly crop cover has also been tried.

Plasticulture in Mulching:

Plastics are popularly used for mulching in horticultural production. Mulching has been helpful not only in preventing moisture loss through evaporation from the and lowering the temperature, but also in reducing nutrient losses by leaching and weed control where chemical fertilizers and weedicides are used. Mulching also reduces run-off, increase penetration of rainwater, controls erosion, corrects the chemical balance of the soil and reduces damage done by pests and diseases. Soil moisture could be conserved through mulching either with black polyethylene or locally available mulches, growing cover crops or inter-culturing in the orchards to check soil erosion and runoff of rain water.

Plasticulture in promotion of sub-surface drainage system:

Sub-surface drainage is a proven technology in reclaiming saline and water logged land and restoring

the productivity of the land to its full potential. The subsurface drainage is designed to lower the water table to a level, which allows optimum root development and prevents the capillary movement of salts into the root zone. The basic principle of sub-soil drainage is that a set of corrugated/perforated PVC pipes is laid in a systematic order to collect excess from the water logged

soil. The water so collected is led into a collector pipe system, which in turn drains into the main drains. Some of the advantages of sub surface drainage systems are: (a) useful in removing soil salinity and reducing water logging (ii) helps to control run-off and flood waters (iii) It requires less maintenance and long life and most reliable system. This technology needs to be promoted in the areas covered under horticultural crops which are affected by soil salinity and water logging.

Way Forward:

Though the use of plastics in Indian horticulture was late compared to different countries of the world, its promotion should be top on the priority programmes of the both central and state governments. The plasticulture based technologies can help the farmers in better utilization of resources in different geographical locations for production of good quality horticulture produce which can fetch better prices for the farmers. It also opens up avenues in export of quality produce

and processing sectors. The different programmes on use of plastics should be promoted more rigorously. The research institutions need to pay more emphasis on use of plastics in horticulture production.