For decades, success in agriculture has largely been measured by crop yields. Government policies have encouraged farmers to grow high-yielding crops such as paddy and cotton through assured procurement, mechanisation and the easy availability of agricultural inputs. These measures have benefited farmers by improving their incomes and strengthening the country’s food security.
However, the continuous cultivation of high-yielding crops, coupled with the excessive use of chemical fertilisers, has degraded soil health. Many of these crops also require large quantities of water. In a strong El Niño year marked by severe droughts, this poses a serious threat to agriculture, particularly in rainfed regions. Building agricultural resilience has therefore become increasingly urgent.
Such resilience comes not from depending on a single crop, but from crop diversity, something scientists and policymakers are increasingly recognising. Yet this principle has long been understood and practised in the rainfed regions of Karnataka’s Raichur district through the indigenous mixed-cropping system known as Akkadi.
Under Akkadi, farmers cultivate as many as eight crops in the same field. Main crops such as red gram, sorghum or pearl millet (bajra) are interspersed with other crops, including green gram, cowpea, moth bean, gongura (mesta), castor and field beans.
Crop choices are shaped by generations of knowledge about uncertain rainfall, soil conditions, household food needs and livestock requirements.
Many of these crops require less water than those commonly cultivated in the region today. Mixed cropping also provides vegetative cover that helps retain soil moisture, while the roots of different crops reach varying depths, drawing moisture from different soil layers.
The harvest serves several purposes: household consumption, livestock fodder and sale in the market.
Growing different crops spreads risk across plants with varying growing periods and uses, helping farmers in Raichur’s hot, semi-arid region cope with drought, delayed monsoons and uneven rainfall.
Even if one crop suffers from a dry spell, excessive rainfall or pest attack, others may still produce a harvest, giving households multiple potential sources of food and income.
This resilience is particularly important in a year when Raichur has been formally declared drought-affected.
Today, however, farming in Raichur’s rainfed regions is dominated by monocropping, with cotton, red gram and pearl millet among the main crops. Farmers primarily cultivate these crops because of labour scarcity, ease of cultivation and economies of scale. Most of the produce is grown for sale in the market, with relatively little retained for household consumption or livestock.
Exploratory field observations suggest that only a small proportion of farmers in the region still practise Akkadi.
Hanamesh Nayak, Hire Hanamanth and Goudappa Kateger are among those continuing the practice in Kannal village of Maski taluk in Raichur district.
Goudappa cultivates eight crops on one acre under Akkadi: red gram, pearl millet, green gram, cowpea, field beans, mesta, moth bean and castor.
In an average year, he harvests around 400 kg of bajra, of which he sells 250 kg and retains 150 kg for household consumption. Bajra also produces approximately 2,000 kg of fodder for his livestock.
Similarly, of his 300 kg red gram harvest, Goudappa retains 20 kg for household consumption and sells the remaining 280 kg.
He also harvests around 8 kg of green gram, 17 kg of moth bean, 12 kg of field beans, 5 kg of mesta and 1 kg of castor, all of which he uses for household consumption.
Of the 12 kg of cowpea he harvests, he consumes 5 kg and sells 7 kg. Hanamesh Nayak and Hire Hanamanth use their harvests for similar purposes.
If evaluated only by crop yields or market sales, these farmers might not appear particularly successful. However, the value of mixed cropping extends beyond these measures.
It provides food for household consumption and crop residues for feeding livestock, mulching, composting and maintaining soil health.
This is not to romanticise traditional practices or suggest that they should remain unchanged. Hybrid seeds, external inputs and mechanisation have brought important benefits in many contexts.
Yet the decline of crop diversity and locally adapted practices has consequences for farming systems.
The focus on high-yielding crops has contributed to the disappearance or decline of several indigenous crops and varieties. In Raichur, farmers identify local varieties such as Bogapur Jola (sorghum), 70 Jola, Bagavath Jola and Marasajje (pearl millet) that have been lost.
The decline in the cultivation of minor crops has also reduced sources of household food. Increased dependence on hybrid seed varieties has reduced the availability of farm-saved seeds, while reliance on chemical fertilisers and pesticides has affected soil fertility, pest management and livestock fodder availability.
The decline of indigenous mixed cropping highlights the need to reassess how agricultural success is measured.
A more comprehensive assessment should consider not only yields but also household food security, fodder availability, soil health, income, employment, the ability to manage uncertain rainfall and access to locally adapted seeds.
Agricultural programmes can support crop diversity through several practical measures:
Documenting traditional crop combinations, indigenous varieties and farmers’ knowledge.
Testing local crop varieties alongside improved varieties under different rainfall and soil conditions.
Strengthening local seed banks and community seed-exchange systems.
Developing machinery suited to mixed-cropping systems.
Creating market opportunities for minor millets, pulses, leafy vegetables and traditional crops.
Assessing farm performance through income, household nutrition, soil health, fodder availability and risk management.
Integrating farmers’ observations into climate-adaptation planning.
Indigenous varieties should be conserved not only in gene banks but also in farmers’ fields, where they can continue to be cultivated, assessed and adapted.
Research institutions and development organisations can connect traditional knowledge with scientific innovation, helping farmers choose practices suited to their land, resources and aspirations
Crucially, the Akkadi system should be scientifically evaluated through systematic field assessments.
Research should establish where the practice continues, which crop combinations farmers use, how harvests are divided between household consumption and market sales, and what constraints prevent farmers from maintaining it.
Such evidence would help determine how best to support crop diversity without assuming that one approach will work everywhere.
Keeping these systems viable today requires more than encouraging farmers to grow additional crops.
Markets must reward diverse produce, seeds must remain accessible, suitable mechanisation must be available, and agricultural extension services and public programmes must recognise the needs of rainfed farmers.
In Raichur’s drylands, where uncertain rainfall remains a defining feature of agriculture, crop diversity can be an important source of resilience.
The task is to understand its value, address the constraints farmers face and ensure that agricultural development leaves room for the knowledge and choices that sustain diverse farming systems.
The future of sustainable agriculture may not lie in choosing between tradition and modernity, but in bringing together their strengths.
Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth