RT Vol. 8, No. 2 Strengthening the system

7/31/2019 RT Vol. 8, No. 2 Strengthening the system

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18 Rice TodayApril-June 2009

In the early 1990s, thenorthwestern Indian state ofHaryanaone of the countrysmost agriculturally productive

faced a crisis. A weed,Philaris minor, hadevolved resistance toall commonly availableherbicides. Thiswas particularly

StrengthenIng

For 15 ars, Ric-Wa Consoriu of Indo-Gangic Plains as bn working

o lp Sou Asian farrs rduc ir coss, incras ir producivi, and lp

nvironn

alarming becausePhilariswascausing havoc across the rice-wheatbelt, responsible for the vast majorityof the states wheat productionand employment. In the 1993-94season, wheat yields crashed. Theonly solution seemed to be newerbut more expensive herbicides.

Haryanas farmers andagricultural experts

were desperate.In an attempt toreduce farmers costsand make the newherbicides affordable,

R.K. Malik andhis colleagues

at HaryanaAgriculturalUniversityin Hissarconvinced afew farmers touse a simple

tractor-pulled

planting machinethat allowed wheatto be sowed withoutrst tilling the landfollowing the rice

harvest. The usualpractice was to till

the land six to eight times beforeplanting rice. Although zero-tillagewheat would undoubtedly save laborcosts, previous efforts to test themethod had failed to gain traction.This time around, however, thingswould turn out rather differently.

To Prof. Maliks happy surprise,not only did zero tillage cut costs, italso solved thePhilaris problemtheweed seeds inhabited the upper5 centimeters of the soil; any sortof tillage resulted in substantialPhilaris emergence. Better still,it saved farmers 2 weeks after therice harvest, allowing wheat tobe planted at the optimal time inearly November. When farmersspend time tilling the land afterharvesting rice, wheat planting tendsto occur later than is ideal, withthe attendant lower temperaturesleading to a yield penalty of around50 kilograms per hectare for everyday that planting is delayed.

Although zero tillage wasnt apart of the management strategy forPhilaris, recalls Prof. Malik, themagnitude of the problem meant thatfarmers were desperate, and thereforevery open to new technologies.

Prof. Malik says that thisatmosphere converged with theestablishment in 1994 of theRice-Wheat Consortium (RWC),currently led by the International

t h e S y S t e m

Jadp Sh Dh s a Happ Sd bhd aa. Pjab Sas fs a s hs ha p h a Happ Sd, h has pdd v, v b sd aa.

Story and photos by Adam Barclay


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For more ha 15 as, as r.K. mak hasadvad z- ha h -ha Haaa Sa.

More than 3.1 billion people living

in South Asia and Chinaalmosthal o humanitydepend on rice and

wheat production or ood. In a rice-wheat

system, armers grow at least one rice

and one wheat crop on the same piece o

land each year. In South Asia, the rice-

wheat region occupies nearly 13.5 million

hectares across the Indo-Gangetic Plains o

Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. This

region alone is home to 1.2 billion people,

nearly 40% o whom live in extreme

poverty. Rice and wheat account or 90%

o the regions total cereal production and,

with the population growing at more than

2% annually, there are more than 20 million

additional mouths to eed each year.

Over the past 30 years, the rice-

wheat system has emerged as the regions

major production system, accounting

or more than 30% o the total rice area

and 40% o the total wheat area, and

producing nearly one-third o the regions

rice and more than hal o its wheat.

During the Green Revolution era,

production increases resulted rom

expansion in both rice-wheat area and

productivity. Now, however, with little

additional land available, uture demand

growth will have to be met mainly through

increases in yield. Further, the average 2%

per year rice and wheat yield increases

seen rom 1970 to 1990 have dropped

o with a combination o environmental

actorssuch as declining soil health and

access to irrigationand reduced support

or public agricultural research causing

yields to stagnate over the past 2 decades.

The challenges are to produce

more ood at less cost and to improvewater productivity. Farmers need

alternatives to help them conserve

energy and water resources, reduce

greenhouse gas emissions, and improve

the quality o lie or arm amilies. To

address these challenges, the Rice-Wheat

Consortium (RWC) or the Indo-Gangetic

Plains was established in 1994 by the

Consultative Group on International

Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

The consortium brings together

the national agricultural systems oBangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan

(with China as an associate member);

CGIAR-supported centers, including

the International Rice Research Institute

(IRRI), the International Maize and

Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT),

the International Water Management

Institute, the International Crops Research

Institute or the Semi-Arid Tropics,

the International Potato Center, and

the International Livestock Research

Institute; the Asian Vegetable Research

and Development Center; and several

advanced research institutes, including

Cornell University, CABI, the International

Agricultural Centre Wageningen, and

Rothamsted Research. Currently, IRRI

serves as the convening center.

The RWCs key roles are as

an innovator and supplier o new

knowledge or the rice-wheat system,

a clearinghouse or new approaches

and technologies, and acilitator and

catalyst o research or development.

The development and dissemination

o resource-conserving technologies are

a key goal or the consortium. By the end

o 2007, around 0.5 million armers used

such technologies on 4 million hectares

o agricultural land: zero till, reduced till,

surace seeding, and bed planting o whea

(1.94 million hectares); direct-seeded rice

(0.19 million hectares); laser land leveling

(0.07 million hectares); crop diversifcation

(1.80 million hectares); the lea color chart

(0.06 million hectares); and unpuddled

transplanted rice (0.01 million hectares).

The urther development o therice-wheat system received a boost in

early 2009 with the announcement o

a major new project named the Cereal

Systems Initiative or South Asia (CSISA).

With unding rom the Bill & Melinda

Gates Foundation and the United States

Agency or International Development, the

initiative will be led by IRRI in partnership

with CIMMYT and the International

Food Policy Research Institute.

Feeding half the worldWhat is the Rice-Wheat Consortium and why is it important?

Rice Research Institute (IRRI) butled then by the International Maizeand Wheat Improvement Center(CIMMYT) under soil scientist PeterHobbs, now at Cornell University.With farmers open to change and theRWC bringing together researchers,policymakers, and the privatesector, momentum built quickly.

The process of doing researchchanged, says Prof. Malik. Wewent straight to farmers eldsand started to make farmers ourpartners. The RWC provided uswith four zero-ti llage machines,which we immediately used toplant trial wheat crops in fourvillages in different districts.

We werent even sure if thecrop would grow, he added. Wevisited some of the elds, about 70kilometers away, every day. Our rstobservation was that not only did thecrop emerge, but it emerged at least

2 days earlier than with conventionalpractice. With those four machines,we planted about 6 hectares, all ofwhich performed wonderfully.

In the 1994-95 season, despitemuch initial resistance from farmers,Haryana Agricultural University, withthe support of the RWC, expandedthe zero-tillage trials to around 25hectares throughout the rice-wheatarea of Haryana.

Rice TodayApril-June 2009 19


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AgriculturAl engineer Had Sh Sdh, h a a-aHapp Sd, sas ha as s b a a s-svhs h a ahv h pdv as qd dad.

A FArmer sps a sd d a a ca SSa rsah is fd da ob2005 a h s hadqas Kaa,Haaa.

There was a huge gain inproductivity, says Prof. Malik. Atthe height of thePhilaris problem,farmers would harvest 1.5, 1.6,maximum 2 tons per hectare.With zero tillage, they wereharvesting 4.5 tons or more.

The technology provided

additional opportunities for income,too. After the second year, somefarmers bought machines and, aswell as sowing their own elds, hiredthe machines out to their neighbors,a practice known as custom hiring.

Support for zero tillagegrew among farmers as well aspolicymakers, with the stategovernment in 1998-99 offeringa 50% subsidy to farmers to buytheir own machines. Commercialopportunities for the private sector

were boosted accordinglywhensubsidies were introduced, therewere only two manufacturers ofzero-tillage machines. By 2003-04, this number had reached70 across Haryana and theneighboring state of Punjab, andin 2007-08 was close to 100.

With the RWC acting as acatalyst, national and internationalinterest grew among researchorganizations, nongovernmentalorganizations, governments, andthe private sector. More fundingagencies came on boardparticularlythe Asian Development Bank, theAustralian Centre for InternationalAgricultural Research (ACIAR),

the United States Agency forInternational Development, and theUnited Kingdoms Department forInternational Developmentandthe Indian Council for AgriculturalResearch put its weight behindthe initiative. The number of RWCprojects grew rapidly and, according

to R.K. Gupta, former regionalfacilitator of the RWC, a critical massof scientists turned their coordinatedattention to the rice-wheat system.

In Haryana in 2007-08, 0.6million hectares of agricultural landwas planted using zero til lage. Thegure across the rice-wheat regionof the Indo-Gangetic Plains wasalmost 2 million hectares out of atotal of almost 13.5 million hectares.

But it is not only the resultson the land that have beneted

farmers. Prof. Malik says that oneof the most important things tocome out of zero tillage and theaccompanying movement, knownas conservation agriculture, is thechange in the way research is done.

Scientists and policymakers arenow convinced that the participationof farmers in researchthe bottom-up approachis really morefruitful, he says. The managementof site-specic issues has to bedone in a participatory way.

In Punjab, immediatelynorthwest of Haryana, scientists atPunjab Agricultural University (PAU)in Ludhiana are concerned aboutmaintaining the high productivity

enjoyed byfarmers in thisstate, knownas Indiasbreadbasket.Despite relativelypoor soils, Punjab

achieves thecountrys bestrice and wheatyields, but thesehave stagnatedin recent years.

Punjabsoils arecharacteristicallylow in organicmatter, explainssoil scientist

Bijay Singh, so, if we want tosustain high productivity, its very,very important that farmers adopt

resource-conserving technologiesthat can improve soil health.

Development and disseminationof resource-conserving technologiesare a key plank of the RWC. As wellas zero-till wheat, such technologiesinclude a leaf color chart that allowsfarmers to easily determine when andhow much nitrogen fertilizer shouldbe added to their rice crop, and laserland leveling, which promotes bettercrop establishment and reduces wateruse by up to a third. This technology,which should be used once every 3years or so, has been a big success inPunjab, with the number of levelingmachines growing exponentially eachyear: one in 2005, eight in 2006,150 in 2007, and 650 in 2008.

Another key resource-conserving activityperformed incombination with zero tillageisreturning to the soil rice straw leftin the eld after harvest, ratherthan removing or burning it.

When you till, you lose organicmatter, which leads to poor soilhealth, says Prof. Bijay Singh.By avoiding tillage and keepingresidue in the eld, we returnorganic matter to the soil, whichmaintains or improves soil health.

Further, by returning residueto the soil, farmers circumventwhat has become a major problemin the rice-wheat region of India.Despite laws (which are generally


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21Rice TodayApril-June 2009

unenforced) to the contrary, mostfarmers deal with rice straw byburning it, with dire environmental

and health consequences. The air inPunjab and Haryana in November,just before wheat is sown, is thickwith an acrid smoky haze, theresult of tens of thousands ofhectares of burning rice straw.

The problem for Prof. BijaySingh and his PAU colleaguesYadvinder Singh, a fellow soilscientist, and Harminder SinghSidhu, an agricultural engineer,is that by avoiding tillagewhichallows incorporation of rice residueinto the soilfarmers were left withelds full of thick, hardy rice strawthat needed to be removed. Theirchallenge was to enable farmersto sow their wheat while leavingtheir rice residue in the eld.

Early zero-till machines couldntoperate through rice residue,explains Dr. Sidhu. Farmerswanted to adopt the conservationagriculture technologies but hadno option other than to burn.

Enter the Happy Seeder. Throughfunding from ACIAR, the RWC andPunjab Agricultural University haveworked to rene and distribute thismachine, which can sow wheat seedsthrough rice residue into untilledsoil while simultaneously applyingfertilizer. The Happy Seeder wasrst developed in the early 2000sby John Blackwell, professor ofagricultural water technology atCharles Sturt University in Australia,

Around 10 years ago, Indian rice-wheat armer Raj Kumar plantedhis wheat without frst tilling his

soil. His neighbors laughed, telling

him he had wasted his seed.

Then, when they saw my crop,recalls Mr. Kumar, they became

converts to zero tillage themselves.

Mr. Kumar had been introduced to

zero tillage by R.K. Malik, an agronomist at

Haryana Agricultural University working

with the Rice-Wheat Consortium (RWC).

Now, most o Mr. Kumars ellow armers

in his home village o Bainsi, as well as

in many other villages in Rohtak District,

Haryana State, use the zero-till approach.

In the 2008-09 wheat season, Mr.

Kumar planted his entire 24-hectare arm

using zero tillage. Using his zero-till seed-

cum-ertilizer drill, he was able to fnish

planting in the frst week o November,

around 20 days earlier than when he used

to till the land six to ten times prior to

sowing. As a result, the wheat is planted

when temperatures are optimum and his

yields are around 0.5 tons per hectare

higher. Not only that, without the need

to till, his tractor experiences less wear

and tear and he spends

less money on diesel.

Growing zero-till wheat

costs Mr. Kumar 3,750 Indian

rupees (US$75) less per

hectare than when he tilled

and his income is $200250

per hectare higher. The

seed drill itsel cost $600

and he made that money

back through increased

proft in the frst season.

Other armers

in the district have

had similar results,

says Mr. Kumar. The act that more

and more drills keep coming into

the village is a sign o success.

With better incomes, armers

are able to buy more land and better

vehicles, and send their children to goodschools. It also means less drudgery.

My amily eels good because I can

fnish sowing in 1 week and spend more

time with them, says Mr. Kumar. More

income means our standard o living

and overall happiness have gone up.

Mr. Kumar says that the participatory

process ostered by the RWC, in which

armers work much more closely with

scientists, is mutually benefcial. The

armers get access to new technologies

and the scientists get excellent eedback

on their work. In the case o zero tillage,

Mr. Kumar has no doubt that it is the

way o the uture in this region.

To progress, armers in the rice-

wheat system need to adopt zero tillage,

he says. I they dont, theyll be behind.

*Exchange rates are approximate or 14 January 2009

Zero-till hero

rice-wHeAt a rajKa (left) sads hs pad hafd h hba Dsh Ka. usa z- d s hsha sds, raj Kas hs ab qsad pas hs ha a hp a, ad20 das a ha h hsd .

Rice TodayApril-June 2009 21

J.K. lADHA, r-wha cs da.


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who was at that time working atthe Commonwealth Scientic andIndustrial Research Organisation.

Id been asked to think aboutsowing wheat into rice residue,recalls Prof. Blackwell, and therewas no easy answer. Rice has veryheavy yields of straw so any seed drilltends to get blocked. Using disks tocut the straw works for a while butthe disks quickly lose their edge inrice straw because of its high silicacontent. Then the straw hairpinsand is pushed into the seed furrow bythe disk so the seed sits on top of thestraw and doesnt germinate. This iswhy burning is the preferred residuemanagement methodits so simple.

Initially, I thought it wasimpossible but I had a Eureka!moment. All around the world,people manage grasslands withsomething called a forage harvester,which picks up grass and carts it tocattle, or a silage pit, or whatever. SoI thought, why not just use a forageharvester and mount a direct drillbehind it, so the drill is presented

with basically a bare surface.The rst Happy Seeder was built

out of scrap at PAU and, although itworked, it was a large, cumbersomemachine. Over the years, theconcept has been rened to thepoint that the current generationworks well in up to 10 tons ofresidue per hectare. Happy Seedersare now being commercialized inIndia and Pakistan, and there isinterest in China. Prof. Blackwell

notes that only a few hundred havebeen made, but, as more farmersuse them, others are seeing the

results and the rate of adoption isaccelerating. Thats how it has to go;you can tell people how wonderfulit is as much as you like, but theyneed to experience it, he says.

If we can prevent burningin South Asia and Chinawhat amarvelous achievement! adds Prof.Blackwell. The health problemsassociated with burning, both humanand animal, are quite horric.

As with zero-till seed drills,he notes that custom hiring andgovernment assistance will benecessary if the machine is to

be adopted widely: A farmercan afford a match but notnecessarily a Happy Seeder.

According to Dr. Sidhu, thecombination of these technologies willallow farmers to make huge strides.If we laser-level rst, then use aHappy Seeder, the performance is

much betterwe have to superimposethese technologies, he says.

To do this, says Dr. YadvinderSingh, We need local championspeople like Jagdeep SinghDhillonto spread the word.

Mr. Dhillon, who grows riceand wheat on 6.5 hectares in KanoiVillage, Sangrur District, Punjab, wasin 2008 the states rst farmer to sowhis entire wheat crop with a HappySeeder. For the previous 7 years, hegrew zero-till wheat but, without

a Happy Seeder, burned his riceresidue. Now, the rice straw remainsas mulch. Not only does he avoid theproblems of burning, but the mulch,by trapping moisture and preventingweed growth, also saves one to twoirrigations per wheat crop and allowsMr. Dhillon to avoid using herbicides.

So impressed was he withthe results of the Happy Seederthat Mr. Dhillon visited his SikhTemple and pledged to never,ever burn rice residue again.

As a member of PAUsprogressive farmers club, an RWC

commerciAl mAnuFActurerS sh as naa A idss, hh aas z- sd ds khs , bh hp ad bf h h s-sv hs. th pa, -db maha Sh (far right) a h hs s rajdp Sh (second from left), ps 50 pp.

recently PlAnteD ha sds hh sa raj Ka's d fd (s Zero-tillhero pa 21).


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23Rice TodayApril-June 2009

initiative, Mr. Dhillon has beenswapping ideas with the researchersthere since the mid-1990s. As such,he is a prime example of the farmerof the future, sorely needed across

the rice-wheat belt. By adoptinga suite of resource-conservingtechnologiesincluding laser landleveling, the leaf color chart for rice,the use of legume crops that act asgreen manures, and a tension meterthat indicates when irrigation isnecessaryMr. Dhillon has achievedimpressive results. In 2008, forexample, as well as recordingexcellent rice yields of 9 tons perhectare, he has reduced the drudgeryand cost of farm work substantially.

Ten years ago, says Mr. Dhillon,I spent all of my time from morning

BeFore PlAnting ha, s -ha as p b h sah d va ad hah sqs. th r-whacs has dvpd aavs, sh as h Happ Sd, haab as kp sd h fds.

J.K. lADHA (center) ad r.K. gpa (second from right), aaa h r-wha cs, sp d-sdd sdb d .

to evening onthe farm. I wasalways busy. Nowthat Im usingresource-savingtechnologies, myproduction is upby 20% to 25%,

and my laborrequirementsand cultivationcosts are down.I have a lot morefree time duringwhich I can helpother farmers.

Before working with the PAU andthe RWC, Mr. Dhillon would hire threeor four laborers to weed, irrigate, andapply fertilizer. Now, he hires oneor two workers (a doubly good thing

with many farm workers movingto the city to work in the industrialsector). By saving water, he savesmoney needed to buy diesel to workthe irrigation pump. The leaf colorchart has enabled him to reduce by20% his fertilizer applications to rice.

Mr. Dhillons improvementshave not only saved him moneybut also helped him improve hisincome. With his spare time andmoney, he has also bought ninebuffaloes and begun a dairy business.He plans to buy his own HappySeeder and laser leveler, which he

will hire out to other farmers.According to J.K. Ladha, RWC

coordinator and IRRI representativefor India, one of the consortiumsgreatest achievements is bringingfarmers into the research process asparticipators, not merely spectatorsor recipients.

The RWC has applied anew model for farm technologydevelopment and dissemination,says Dr. Ladha. We have encouragedfarmers, researchers, and extensionagents to work as teams, withfarmers actively participating intesting, rening, and promotingtechnologies. Now, researchersoften go straight to farmers eldswith promising innovations, ratherthan spending years in testing andrenement on research stations.

With the new Cereal SystemsInitiative for South Asia (seeFeedinghalf the world, page 19), the RWC is setto continue its evolution into a majorforce for agricultural development.

The returns of the RWC farexceed the investment made,says Dr. Ladha. The consortiummust continue to broaden itsscope to embrace the emergingchallenges in South Asia.

Mr. Barclay is a freelance writerbased in Australia and former RiceTodayeditor.

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RT Vol. 8, No. 2 Strengthening the system