Bihar PCS by KarmayogiIAS
Sustainable Agriculture for the Economy’s Sake
Agriculture sector did well even amidst the pandemic:
• During the economic downturn of the past year, agriculture’s performance was a saving
grace.
• When the economy shrank by 24.4% by June 2020, agriculture grew 3.4%.
• By Q3, against barebones economic recovery (0.4%), agriculture grew 3.9%.
But growth cannot be taken for granted:
• Despite strong growth during pandemic, continued growth of agriculture sector cannot be
taken for granted.
• For example, the spread of Covid to rural areas could further dampen prospects.
Agriculture growth is stressed due to many factors
• The sector is troubled by various issues like erratic monsoons, groundwater stress, soil
degradation, and unmet nutrition.
Monsoon dependency:
• Indian agriculture’s fortunes periodically swing depending on monsoons.
• With 60% of net sown area being rain fed, good monsoons matter critically.
• When rains fail, pressures mount on small and marginal farmers.
Groundwater stress:
• Overexploitation of groundwater due to limited surface irrigation:
India has an estimated 1,123 billion cubic metres (BCM) of usable water resources.
Of this, 690 BCM is surface water. India’s reservoir capacity for surface water
resources is only 258 BCM.
With limited access to surface irrigation for most farmers, they pump groundwater,
enabled by low/zero electricity costs.
As a result, India has become a groundwater economy, using more than China and the
US combined.
Overexploitation of this critical resource gravely threatens agricultural output.
• Water-inefficient agriculture in India:
Farming in India is notoriously water-inefficient.
Consumption can range from 2,719 cubic metres per hectare (m3/ha) for oilseeds to
4,581 m3/ha for rice to 8,957 m3/ha for sugarcane.
• Need shift towards low water-intensive crops and improved water use
efficiency:
To reduce water footprint and improve nutritious diets, farmer incentives and dietary
preferences must shift towards coarse cereals (jowar, bajra, ragi).
Even for water guzzling crops, there is huge potential to improve water efficiency
without compromising output or food security.
▪ For paddy, for instance, shifting farming practices to the most efficient ones
could reduce water use by 25% in Maharashtra and 73% in Andhra Pradesh.
▪ Overall, 20-47% of irrigation water could be saved between 2030 and 2050—
and reallocated to other sectors— if farmers adopted water-saving irrigation
practices.
• Economy wide, there is a massive cost of not improving agricultural water efficiency and not
reallocating the savings to more productive sectors.
For instance, savings of just 1 BCM in agriculture could provide water to 4.2 million
urban households annually.
Soil degradation:
• Farming is not just about water but seeds and soil as well.
• Intensive fertiliser use has driven the Green Revolution. This kharif season fertiliser demand
will rise to 35 MT.
• But there are limits beyond which application of (chemical) inputs yields diminishing
returns.
Sustainable agriculture adaptation needs to be increased:
• There are substitutes for input-intensive farming, that need to be mainstreamed.
• Only a few sustainable agriculture practices have scaled to more than 5% of the net sown
area. There are crop rotation, agroforestry, rainwater harvesting, mulching, and precision
agriculture.
Crop rotation covers 30 million hectares (Mha) and agroforestry about 25 Mha.
• Although India has the largest number of farmers practising natural farming (800,000), they
account for only 0.7% of farmers.
• Organic farming covers just 2% of net sown area.
What holds back sustainable agriculture?
• Low expenditure pushing it:
The governments are not spending enough to push sustainable agriculture.
For instance, the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture gets only 0.8% of the
agriculture ministry’s budget (even smaller if INR 71,309 crore for fertiliser subsidies
were counted).
• Lack of innovative efforts to bring change:
We do not experiment enough with alternative water pricing strategies and
restructured input subsidies to increase efficiency.
We must test the macroeconomic benefits, at a basin or sub-basin level, of
reallocating water to more productive sectors without dropping farm output.
• Low quality information on benefits:
We need more studies not only on yield and incomes but also potential benefits for
biodiversity, public health (from reduced fertiliser use) and gender dynamics.
• Not enough marketing of benefits:
Sustainably-farmed produce could command a premium in markets.
Government support should account for total farm productivity (including ecosystem
services).
• Low awareness:
We do not disseminate enough information on better farm practices and their
outcomes.
Such information should be made readily available on integrated data platforms.
We must educate farmers and consumers about the nutritional and environmental
value in sustainable agriculture.
Conclusion:
• The general trend in agriculture has been of slow growth, at half (or less) than the economy’s
average.
• The pandemic has taught us that we must use good times to prepare for the bad.
• While cheering agriculture’s relatively better performance in a year of economic contraction,
India must also act to reduce its farm sector’s vulnerabilities to critical resources.
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