Managing Agricultural Resources: Issues and Priorities

7/25/2019 Managing Agricultural Resources: Issues and Priorities

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Managing Agricultural Resources: Issues and Priorities

Parvender Sheoran, Ranjay K. Singh, Ashwani Kumar, M.D. Meena and Randhir Singh

ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal-132001

Indian agriculture contributes to 8% global agricultural gross domestic product to support

18% of world population on only 9% of the worlds arable land, 2.3% geographical area and

.2% fresh water. !ide"spread occurrence of ill effects of green re#olution technologies in all

intensi#ely culti#ated areas is threatening the agricultural sustainability and the national food

security. $he human population of India has increased to 1.22 billion at a growth rate of 1.& per

cent in 2'11 o#er 2''1 and is estimated to increase further to 1.(3 billion by 2'3'. )n the other

hand our national food grain production for the past 3" years is ho#ering around 2&' million

tonnes. * mismatch between the national food grain production and re+uirement has already

crept into the system, which is further widening. $o ensure food security, the a#erage

producti#ity of all food grains needs to be more than doubled to achie#e the estimated 3(

million tonnes of food grains from a maimum net sown area of 1(' m ha by 2'3'.

-resent day agriculture has been eperiencing se#eral challenging situations due to

tremendous pressure directly on the finite resources land and water/ and indirectly to the

society survival. Indiscriminate use of agrochemicals, inevitable dependence

on irrigation, high cropping intensity and inappropriate land uses has led to

contamination of food with harmful chemicals, pollution of ground water,

eutrophication of surface water, degradation of soil quality, damage to

agriculturally benecial microorganisms and deterioration of air quality.

There is increasing damage to the system ecology and there are distinct

possibilities for adverse changes in climate and sea level. $he di#erse ecological

and economic constraints emerging from growing population, increasing food, feed and fodder

needs, natural resource degradation, climate change, slow growth in farm income and new global

trade regulations demand re"orientation of agricultural research programmes.

ontracting and !ragmented land resources

National scenario with respect to farm size is also not very promising

and conducive to desired agricultural growth. -er capita net sown area has declined

below the prescribed threshold limit of 2.' ha of unirrigated land or 1.' ha of irrigated land


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re+uired for a family of fi#e to si members. The average size of the landholding has

declined to 1.1 ha during !!"#1! from .$! ha in 1"%!#%1, while

operational holdings increased from %! million to 11 million. If this trend

continues, the average size of holding in India would be mere !.$ ha in

!$!. &eclining size of landholdings without any alternative income

augmenting opportunity is resulting in fall of farm income, and causing

agrarian distress enforcing sta'eholders having no option but to move to

non#farm activities to augment their incomes.

Shrin"ing water availa#ility

0ise in human population is lined to rise in demand for water, with agriculture being the

maor consumer. $he estimates show that domestic and industrial sector will consume about 1&%

of the water withdrawal by 2'2(, which is nearly 1.( more than the present consumption. In spite

of increasing demand of water for agriculture, the share of agricultural sector in the total water

use may reduce by 1'"12% in 2'2( due to inter"sectoral competition. $his competition would

become more furious not only for the +uantity of water but also for the fresh water +uality. *s

per the estimates, the +uantity of water a#ailable for agriculture would be around ha m,

which is far less than the re+uirement of 13& ha m for irrigation with impro#ed scientific

methods of irrigation. 4uring one decade, the percentage of o#ereploited blocs where ground

water etraction eceeds ground water recharge, rose from to 1(%. )#er"eploitation ofgroundwater in the predominant rice"wheat cropping system has led to a rapid decline by about 1

m, leading to economic and ecological distress.

limate change

(griculture is both the abettor of and su)erer from climate change

through production and release of greenhouse gases *+, methane and

nitrous o-ide and alterations in earth/s land cover. (s per recent I0++ report,

the climate change could spell disaster for India/s agriculture and fresh water

supplies. It is proected that by the end of the 1st century rainfall will

increase by 12#$13, and the mean annual temperature will rise by $ to 45+.

(lthough increase in carbon dio-ide is li'ely to be benecial to several crops,

but associated increase in temperatures, and increased variability of rainfall

would adversely impact food production. The future indications suggest that


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the average crop yield is e-pected to drop by 1! to 6!3 with the increase in

temperature by the end of the current century. 7ome studies from India

conrms the similar trend of agriculture decline by climate change

suggesting wheat production losses of 6 to 2 million tons per 15+

temperature rise during the crop growing period. The temperature rise and

e-tremes of weather along the coasts would cause drastic changes in India/s

hydrological cycle that would threaten water supplies as well as agriculture.

The warming is more pronounced over land areas, with the ma-imum

increase over northern India. The warming is also proected to be relatively

greater in winter and post#monsoon seasons.

Lessons learnt and futuristic strategies

5reen re#olution mainly focused on increasing food production to mae the country self

sufficient in food grains. !e achie#ed the goal but in the process o#er eploited our natural

resources. 6o doubt, there is need to uphold higher production le#el but at the same time steps

should be taen soon to arrest the trend and the ris of irre#ersible damage to the stoc of

dwindling natural resources and their +uality. -roducti#ity needs to be significantly impro#ed by

protecting eisting agricultural land from degradation and reclaiming degraded lands through

appropriate conser#ation strategies. 7urthermore, sustaining agricultural producti#ity to cop up

the burgeoning food re+uirements ha#e to be met with diminishing water a#ailability. It seems tobe uphill tas, thus necessitating its efficient and optimal utiliation.

-riorities in agriculture ha#e changed. -resent agriculture is nowledge dri#en and to

succeed, farmers should be well"#ersed with latest scientific techni+ues. $here is urgent need to

create awareness among the farmers about the problems liely to be aggra#ated in the coming

days so that the future may be ept safe. peedy transfer of technology from laboratory to field

can only be accomplished by facilitating direct interaction between the scientists and farmers.

5eneral awareness and concerted plan of action including di#ersified cropping pattern,

generation of en#ironmental friendly technologies, integrated management of pests, diseases and

weeds, management and recycling of crop residues and agricultural by"products, farm machinery

de#elopment for precision agriculture, technology generation for ground"water recharging,

maintenance of biological assests and stepping up of agricultural growth in coincidence of

resource a#ailability is #ital, thereby maing the agriculture nowledge intensi#e, sustainable


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and profitable one. -ricing water, instead of subsidiing it, can help encourage farmers to sa#e

water and use it more efficiently.

:oncerted efforts are re+uired to respond effecti#ely to assess #ulnerabilities to climate

change and de#elop adaptation and mitigation strategies to enhance resilience in earth and

human systems. 7ocused research on prediction of etreme weather e#ents and mapping of

futuristic trends in agriculture sustainability and management of terminal heat stress through

micro climate modifications is the need of hour.7imple adaptations such as change in

planting dates and development of climate resilient crop varieties could help

in reducing impacts of climate change to some e-tent.

$he challenge before the Indian agriculture, therefore, is to transform current agriculture

practices into more sustainable and climate resilient producti#e systems. 8esearch e)orts so

far have paid dividends, however, under the changing scenario a paradigm

shift in research is inevitable with more focused approach in holistic systems

perspective.

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Managing Agricultural Resources: Issues and Priorities