Need to Transform Agri-Food System

Relevance: GS3 – Agricultural Practices and Policies, Monocropping, Green Revolution, Government Schemes, National Food Security Act 2013, Public Distribution System, Importance of Cropping Pattern, Agriculture, Cropping Patterns in various parts of the country, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Food Corporation of India (FCI), Crop diversification

Why in the news?

• The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report highlights the high hidden costs of global agrifood systems.
• In India, these costs amount to nearly 11% of GDP, leading to poverty, environmental damage, and health issues.
• The report emphasizes the urgency to transform agrifood systems, suggesting multi-cropping as a viable solution.

What is the issue?

• The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report reveals the enormous hidden costs of current global agrifood systems, exceeding $10 trillion.
• In countries like India, these costs account for nearly 11% of GDP, manifesting in higher poverty, environmental damage, and health impacts like undernourishment and unhealthy diets.
• India's agricultural productivity gains over the past 50 years, largely through monocropping and chemical-intensive practices, have led to negative consequences.
• These include loss of seed sovereignty, erosion of Indigenous knowledge, nutritional deficiencies in diets, ecological damage (like excessive groundwater extraction), and increased farmer indebtedness.
• The Indian government's procurement policy heavily favors rice and wheat, leading to a decrease in the cultivation of coarse grains and a rise in water-intensive cash crops like sugarcane and areca nut.
• This trend impacts food security and the production of nutritional crops, exacerbating biodiversity loss and environmental issues.

What is Intensive Agriculture?

• Intensive agriculture, also known as intensive farming, is a type of agriculture characterized by a high level of input and output per unit of agricultural land area.
• It typically involves the use of large amounts of fertilizers, pesticides, and other chemical inputs, as well as extensive use of irrigation and mechanization, to significantly increase crop yields.
• The primary goal is to maximize crop yield or livestock production. This is achieved through the use of high-yield crop varieties, heavy use of chemical fertilizers, and advanced technological inputs.
• Often involves the cultivation of a single crop over a large area for consecutive seasons, known as monoculture.
  • This approach can lead to greater efficiencies in planting and harvesting but reduces biodiversity and can make crops more susceptible to pests and diseases.
• Relies heavily on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides to boost crop growth and control pests and diseases. While this increases crop yields, it can also lead to environmental pollution and can degrade soil quality over time.
• Intensive use of water for irrigation is common to ensure optimal crop growth, especially in areas with insufficient rainfall. This can lead to water scarcity and affect the natural water balance in the region.
• While it can lead to increased production and profits, it often requires significant investment and can lead to economic challenges for small-scale farmers who cannot afford such technologies.

Impacts of Intensive Agriculture

• Negative Environmental Consequences: Intensive agriculture, particularly the monocropping systems and chemical-intensive farming practices adopted during the Green Revolution, have led to adverse ecological consequences. This includes excessive extraction of groundwater and a decrease in biodiversity due to the focus on monocultures of paddy and wheat.
• Impact on Nutritional Diversity: The shift from diverse crop varieties to monoculture plantations has compromised the nutritional needs of households. There's been a decline in the cultivation of nutritionally rich crops like pulses and millets.
• Economic Viability and Farmer Indebtedness: The reliance on seeds and fertilizers from multinational corporations has increased the indebtedness among agrarian households. The average monthly household income of a farming household is low, making agriculture increasingly unviable.
• Procurement Policies and Crop Favoritism: The Indian government's procurement policies favor rice and wheat, leading to a neglect of coarse grains like jowar, bajra, ragi, maize, and barley. This has resulted in a significant reduction in the cultivation of these grains.
• Water-Intensive Cash Crops: Policies favoring certain cash crops like sugarcane and areca nut have exacerbated pressure on water resources and contributed to air and water pollution.
• Impact of Global Trade Relations: International market fluctuations and trade policies have historically influenced local agricultural practices, often to the detriment of local farmers.

Favoured Crops in India and Their Impact

• Rice and Wheat: These two crops constitute more than 70% of India's agricultural production.
• The focus on high-yielding varieties of rice and wheat was a significant aspect of the Green Revolution in India.
• This focus has led to monocropping systems and chemical-intensive farming practices.
• Farmers are incentivized to grow these crops over others like coarse grains (jowar, bajra, ragi, maize, barley).
• This has resulted in a decrease in the cultivation of coarse grains by 20% between 1966-1967 and 2017-2018, while the cultivation area for rice and wheat increased by about 20% and 56%, respectively.
• Sugarcane and Areca Nut: These water-intensive cash crops have also flourished due to favorable policies, such as investments in dams and canal irrigation (beneficial for sugarcane) and free electricity for borewells (favorable for areca nut).
• It has had adverse effects on biodiversity.
• It has also increased pressure on groundwater resources and contributed to air and water pollution.
• Food and Nutritional Security: Despite the production of vast quantities of rice and wheat, small and marginal farmers in India remain among the most food and nutrition insecure. This is ironic, given that they are major contributors to the agricultural sector.
• Global Market Influences: The influence of global market fluctuations, as seen with soy prices and supply gluts, has directly impacted local farmers and agro-companies.
• In the Malwa region, for example, fluctuations in soy prices have eroded incomes for local soy farmers.

Steps Needed to Transform Agri-Food System

• Shifting to Multi-Cropping Systems: Moving away from monoculture and chemical-intensive farming practices towards multi-cropping systems. These systems can protect farmers' well-being, improve nutritional outcomes, and benefit ecological health.
• Rebalancing Crop Favoritism: Policies that currently favor the cultivation of rice and wheat, often neglecting other nutritious and ecologically sustainable crops like pulses, millets, and coarse grains, need to be revised. This would involve adjusting procurement policies and subsidies to support a broader range of crops.
• Promoting Crop Diversification: Introducing diversified multi-cropping systems, rooted in agroecology principles, can revitalise degraded land and soil. These systems include a mix of legumes, pulses, oilseeds, trees, and livestock, improving soil health and supporting biodiversity.
• Economic and Environmental Considerations: The transition should factor in the "hidden costs" of current systems and emphasize the long-term benefits of diversified farming both for the environment and farmer income.
• Gradual Transition for Farmers: A systematic and gradual shift from mono-cultivation to more diverse farming practices. This could start with moving from chemical-intensive practices to non-pesticide management and natural farming, reducing input costs and improving environmental outcomes.
• Value Addition and Income Diversification: Farmers can diversify their income sources by incorporating practices like value addition, livestock, and poultry rearing.
• Implementing Transition Pathways: A proposed pathway includes allocating land for commercial crops, food and fodder production, and environmental services. Over time, the focus can shift more towards food and fodder and integrating tree species and livestock rearing.

What is Crop Diversification?

Crop diversification is an agricultural strategy that involves growing a variety of different crops in the same area or on the same farm. This practice contrasts with monoculture, where only one type of crop is cultivated over a large area.

• Temporal Diversification: This involves planting different crops in the same field, but at different times or seasons. This method, known as crop rotation, helps in breaking pest and disease cycles and managing soil fertility.
• Spatial Diversification: This is achieved by growing different crops in the same field at the same time. It can be done through intercropping (growing two or more crops in proximity) or mixed cropping (growing several crops in the same area without a distinct pattern).
• Diversification through Varieties: This involves planting different varieties of the same crop. This approach can reduce the risk of total crop failure due to disease, pests, or adverse weather conditions, as different varieties may have different levels of resistance and tolerance.
• Structural Diversification: This involves integrating other forms of agricultural activities such as agroforestry (combining agriculture and forestry practices) or integrating crop farming with livestock rearing.

Benefits of Crop Diversification

• Environmental Benefits: Diversified cropping systems contribute to ecological health.
  • They can improve soil health by enhancing soil structure and fertility, facilitating water retention, and reducing erosion.
  • Intercropping with various plants, including legumes, trees, and shrubs, can support biodiversity, provide pest traps, and contribute to nitrogen fixation in the soil.
• Nutritional Outcomes: Diversifying crops leads to a more varied food basket, which can improve the nutritional quality of diets.
  • Crops like millets, legumes, and pulses are nutritionally rich and can be cultivated as alternatives to the dominant rice and wheat crops.
  • This helps in addressing issues like undernourishment and unhealthy dietary patterns.
• Economic Sustainability for Farmers: Diversification can potentially reduce the heavy reliance on chemical inputs, thus lowering farming costs.
  • It can also provide multiple sources of income for farmers through the sale of different types of crops and products.
  • By shifting subsidies to support diversified farming, farmers can be incentivized to preserve natural capital.
• Reduction of Hidden Costs: The current monoculture-based, chemical-intensive farming practices have hidden environmental and health costs.
  • Diversifying crops can help mitigate these costs by promoting more sustainable agricultural practices.
• Improved Resilience: Diversified farming systems are generally more resilient to climate change, pests, and diseases.
  • This is because the diversity of crops can reduce the risk of total crop failure and provide a buffer against market and environmental fluctuations.
• Socioeconomic Benefits: Crop diversification can also play a role in reducing poverty and indebtedness among farming households by providing more stable and diverse income sources.
  • It can also help in revitalizing rural economies through local food production and associated industries.
• Transition Strategies: The transition to diversified farming needs to be systematic and supportive. This includes moving away from chemical-intensive practices to more natural farming methods, integrating livestock and poultry for additional income, and providing farmers with the necessary support and incentives for this transition.

Limitations of Crop Diversification

• Loss of Productivity: Diversification might lead to a reduction in productivity when measured in terms of kilograms per hectare. This is because monocultures are often optimized for maximum yield of a single crop, while diversified systems spread their productivity across multiple crop types.
• Transition Challenges: Shifting from monoculture, especially those reliant on chemical-intensive practices, to diversified cropping systems can be complex and gradual. Farmers need time and support to adjust to new farming practices, such as non-pesticide management and natural farming.
• Economic Concerns: There is a perceived risk of a decline in farmer income with the shift to alternative farming systems, even though the long-term benefits might outweigh these short-term losses.
• Need for Support in Value Addition and Livestock Integration: For successful diversification, farmers may need to incorporate livestock and poultry, and engage in value addition activities. This requires additional skills, resources, and possibly investment.
• Institutional and Market Challenges: There is a need for addressing issues related to local seeds, institutional arrangements for market access, and the labor required in diversified farming.
• Scaling Up and Collaboration Requirements: Effective implementation of diversified cropping at a larger scale requires collaboration among various stakeholders, including institutions, policymakers, and social groups. This is necessary to articulate economic incentives and create supportive policies.
• Environmental Considerations: While beneficial for the environment, the transition to diversified cropping systems might initially face resistance due to established practices favoring monocultures and high-input agriculture.

Transition Strategies for Farmers

• Gradual Shift from Monoculture: Farmers should gradually move away from the mono-cultivation of crops like rice and wheat. This transition needs to be systematic to allow farmers to adjust.
• Reduced Reliance on Chemical Inputs: They should start by moving from chemical-intensive practices to non-pesticide management. Then, gradually adopt natural farming practices to reduce input costs.
• Diversification of Income Sources: Farmers can diversify their income by incorporating livestock and poultry, along with the cultivation of crops. This can include partial experimentation on specific land portions.
• Adopting Multi-Cropping Systems: Implement diversified multi-cropping systems that include a mix of legumes, pulses, oilseeds, trees, shrubs, and livestock. This approach is beneficial for soil health, biodiversity, and ecological balance.
• Allocation Strategy: A visual representation of an ideal diversified farm could include 70% allocated for commercial crops, 20% for food and fodder, and 10% for environmental services. Over time, the fraction for commercial crops could be reduced to 50%.
• Integration of Tree Species and Livestock: Incorporating locally suitable tree species for fruits and fodder, along with livestock rearing, can further improve farm incomes.
• Economic Modelling: Preliminary economic modelling suggests that such pathways can sustain farm incomes and improve ecological outcomes both in the short term (up to three years) and long term (up to 25 years).
• Addressing Challenges: Challenges related to local seeds, market access, labor, and drudgery need to be addressed. This involves institutional arrangements and policy support.
• Collaboration and Support: Scaling up these practices requires collaboration among institutions, policymakers, and social groups. Articulating economic incentives for farmers to shift from high-input monoculture to diversified cropping is essential.
• Policy and Subsidy Redirection: Redirecting subsidies currently accruing to corporations towards paying farmers for sustaining natural capital is suggested. This would incentivize preserving natural resources rather than depleting them.

Conclusion

The transition strategy involves a multi-faceted approach focusing on gradual change, diversification, ecological sustainability, and economic viability. It calls for collaborative efforts and supportive policies to facilitate this transition while ensuring the financial and ecological well-being of farming communities.

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FAQs

MCQs

Question: Among the following, which one is the least water-efficient crop? (UPSC 2021)

(a) Sugarcane

(b) Sunflower

(c) Pearl millet

(d) Red gram

Question: In the context of India, which of the following is/are considered to be of practice(s) of eco-friendly agriculture? (UPSC 2020)

1. Crop diversification
2. Legume intensification
3. Tensiometer use
4. Vertical farming

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1, 2 and 3 only

(b) 3 only

(c) 4 only

(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

Question: With reference to the circumstances in Indian agriculture, the concept of “Conservation Agriculture” assume significance. Which of the following fall under the Conservation Agriculture? (UPSC 2018)

1. Avoiding monoculture practices
2. Adopting minimum tillage
3. Avoiding the cultivation of plantation crops
4. Using crop residues to cover soil surface
5. Adopting spatial and temporal crop sequencing/crop rotations

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1, 3 and 4

(b) 2, 3, 4 and 5

(c) 2, 4 and 5

(d) 1, 2, 3 and 5

Question: What are the significances of a practical approach to sugarcane production known as the ‘Sustainable Sugarcane Initiative’? (UPSC 2014)

1. Seed cost is very low in this compared to the conventional method of cultivation.
2. Drip irrigation can be practiced very effectively in this.
3. There is no application of chemical inorganic fertilizers at all in this.
4. The scope for intercropping is more in this compared to the conventional method of cultivation.

Select the correct answer using the code given below.

(a) 1 and 3 only

(b) 1, 2 and 4 only

(c) 2, 3 and 4 only

(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

Question: In the context of food and nutritional security of India, enhancing the ‘Seed Replacement Rates’ of various crops helps in achieving the food production targets of the future. But what is/are the constraint/constraints in its wider/greater implementation? (UPSC 2014)

1. There is no National Seeds Policy in place.
2. There is no participation of private sector seed companies in the supply of quality seeds of vegetables and planting materials of horticultural crops.
3. There is a demand-supply gap regarding quality seeds in case of low value and high volume crops.

Select the correct answer using the code given below.

(a) 1 and 2

(b) 3 only

(c) 2 and 3

(d) None

Question: Which of the following crops have been predominantly favored in India's agricultural policy post-Green Revolution?

(a) Pulses and Millets

(b) Rice and Wheat

(c) Coarse Grains

(d) Oilseeds