Proofing small farmers from weather vagaries is critical to climate adaptation
Representative photo: IStock August 2023 was the driest month ever recorded in India since 1901, the year the India Meteorological Department (IMD) started collating data. The month witnessed an almost 36 per cent deficit from a normal August.
While some recovery was expected in September, the monsoon season was below normal overall, which isn’t good for agriculture.
As of September 21, the country saw an overall deficit of seven per cent, with 36 per cent of the districts having received either deficient (20-59 per cent less rainfall than normal) or large deficient (above 59 per cent less rainfall than normal) rains, according to data from the IMD.
Production losses from erratic rains have been reported all over the country for the last few years. Losses to 0.25 per cent of the GDP are estimated to have been incurred from crop damages due to extreme weather events. Both production and nutrition losses are projected, meaning aggravated issues of food and nutrition security at the outset beyond the impacts on the economy at large.
Tremors of India’s current rice export ban have been felt across the world. With food inflation already on the higher side, more export restrictions may be in store. But most importantly, such moves impact the poor and poorest.
As extreme weather events become normal, they are a reality that our farmers must reconcile. Almost half of the agriculture in the country is rainfed, and almost 86 per cent of the farmers are small and marginal, with land holdings of less than two hectares.
Therefore, the most pressing concern is proofing small holding agriculture from weather uncertainties to adapt to the emerging climate scenario.
In his independence address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi delineated “being proud of our legacy” as one of the five pledges for Indians in their quest to be a developed nation by 2047.
So, the obvious question in the context of agriculture goes beyond the Green Revolution and successes in making India self-reliant: What is the legacy that can possibly be the locus of climate-resilient small-holder agriculture of India@100?
Everybody knows MS Swaminathan, but only a few have heard the name RH Richharia, one of the foremost rice experts in India. His most celebrated work was the accession and documentation of 19,000 rice cultivars in India.
He estimated there could be almost a lakh cultivars grown by farmers across the country. India is regarded by some as the place of origin of rice. Richharia argued that many varieties reflect careful selection and maintenance over thousands of years. Some are unique to climate and local ecological contexts, mostly adapted to combat hazards like drought and flood, as well as to meet food, nutrition and income requirements.
Some even have yields comparable to the high-yielding varieties. The rich cultivated diversity synthesised over centuries of experimentation is the legacy of the traditional wisdom of our small farmers. Can this diversity and knowledge of the small and poor farmers be the lever for climate-resilient strategies and action plans (not restricted to rice alone)? Something that Richharia advocated for.
Farmers in Assam and West Bengal adopt the system of mixing early-maturing rice varieties (called ahu) with late-maturing varieties (called bao).
Mixed in equal proportions, the system offers protection against total crop loss from the most frequent floods. The portfolio of two varieties diversifies risk from the natural disaster and assures higher production than cultivating either of the varieties alone.
Similarly, Udo in Tamil Nadu and Koottumundkan in Kerela are rice systems where autumn and winter varieties are mixed in a ratio of three to one. Farmers in tribal hinterlands of Central India have their own ‘mixed-varietal cropping systems’ — as they are technically called.
Again, a key feature of these are varieties requiring minimum water, short duration grown with medium to longer duration ones: Different place, different mix but same strategy for same goals; a crop portfolio assuring maximum risk dispersion and maximising food, nutrition and cashflows over a longer period. Can these practices inform risk-hedging considerations of protecting crops against uncertain weather events?
Baranaja or Barahnaja literally translates to twelve grains. Prevalent in the hilly regions of Garhwal, Baranaja is the traditional mixed cropping system in which twelve or more crops are grown together. This system employs a synergetic culture of cereals, pulses, oilseeds, vegetables and fibre crops.
Sometimes, combinations of finger millet, amaranth, buckwheat, sorghum, maize, kidney bean, horse gram, black gram, rice bean, pigeon pea, cowpea, perilla, sesame, cleome, hemp, cucumber etc are also cultivated.
The system has evolved over the ages in response to the hilly conditions and the climate variabilities. It is a companion planting system with a community of crops growing in harmony with each other.
Cereal roots hold the soil and stems support creepers who reciprocate by fixing nitrogen to the soil. It is a space-time management system of the small land parcel assuring food and nutrition across different times of the year.
The system provides maximum output with minimum inputs, nourishing people and nurturing the earth simultaneously. Can the system that minimises climate risk by reinforcing ecological strengths be the new direction for sustainable agriculture?
And there are more. The concurrent themes are best-fit for small-holders, conservation of rich agricultural biodiversity, climate risk dispersion, and maximum return on investment — food, nutrition and ecology.
The Koraput traditional agriculture system and the Kuttanad Wetland Agriculture System find a place among the Globally Important Heritage Agricultural System. There definitely is a case for leveraging the agricultural heritage for future-proofing agriculture.
It took time, but millets are now mainstreamed as a nutrition and lifestyle choice. India’s G20 presidency underscored this bio-cultural heritage as the sustainable food option for solving hunger and malnutrition.
It is an opportune time for traditional seeds, biodiverse cropping systems and associated traditional knowledge to be the mainstay for climate-resilient agriculture policies and strategies.
Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth
Dharmendra is co-founder and chief knowledge officer of Sambodhi Research and Communications, a social impact advisory.
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