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Reviving the Green Revolution


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The Green Revolution was designed to overcome limitations of food grain production that relied upon increasing the amount of fertile land available for crops as the only means of expanding output. In North India, the positive impact of the ‘revolution’ was largely felt in the states of Punjab, Haryana, and Western Uttar Pradesh. However, as it had its base in new technology, particularly the utilisation of high yielding variety (HYV) seeds, irrigation, chemical fertilisers, pesticides and farm mechanisation, the incremental gains from agriculture productivity have started to stagnate and in many places it is falling. Multiple problems confront agriculture in the region, including over-exploitation of ground water; unreliability of canal irrigation and power supplies; pollution of ground and surface water; water logging and soil salinity; infestation of crops by insect pests; falling nutrient levels in the soil; uncertain and unreliable agricultural markets; crippling debts; spurious chemicals and pesticides; mounting costs of inputs and of production; and land & asset fragmentation. The rice-wheat cropping system prevalent in the region has led to a sharp fall in the water table, deterioration in soil fertility and environmental pollution. There is a need to arrest this decline before it becomes irreversible. As a result, the Government of Punjab set up an advisory committee, under the chairmanship of Dr. S. S. Johl, to suggest suitable agricultural production pattern adjustments, in order to replace substantial area from under wheat and rice with other crops. In the committee’s opinion, meaningful shifts are possible by encouraging farmers to put more area under maize, cotton, oilseeds, pulses, fodder, agro-forestry and sugarcane. The Trust’s strategy aims to facilitate the implementation of the Johl Committee Report on agricultural diversification, for which it collaborated with various departments of the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana and the Agriculture Department of the State Government, in “Reviving the Green Revolution” in Punjab.

Phase I (2002-2005)

The first project with PAU under the initiative, commenced in March 2002. The project had three components: (i) supporting the Department of Agronomy for testing and demonstrating the effectiveness of some alternate cropping systems, vis-ŕ-vis the current rice-wheat cropping system (click here to read more); (ii) supporting the Department of Entomology for testing and demonstrating Integrated Pest Management (IPM) technology for cotton and rice, identifying important cultural practices to conserve and enhance the activity of bio-control agents, including predatory birds, seek naturally occurring bio-agents and develop techniques for their mass multiplication (click here to read more); and (iii) supporting the Department of Plant Breeding for developing high yielding, early maturing, disease and insect/pest resistant varieties of groundnut, in a bid to use them as a substitute for rice in the cropping system (click here to read more). During the ensuing three years, the demonstrations in groundnut and basmati were favourably received by the farmers and they were keen to upscale the areas under them. Cotton farmers too, were convinced about the benefits about IPM and large scale adoption of this technology was observed in the project villages.

Phase II (2005 onwards)

Consequently, a dialogue was initiated with the Government of Punjab (GoP) to take forward these success stories; especially through developing market linkages, plant protection mechanisms and input supply. The focus was on developing an integrated implementation strategy with other agencies involved with the diversification process. To facilitate the process and consolidate gains made during Phase I, the Trust operationalised new projects, from February 2005 onwards, under Phase II. The projects are as follows:

CROP DIVERSIFICATION
In a bid to break away from the prevalent rice-wheat pattern, the Trust has partnered with various departments at the PAU in supporting the following projects, under crop diversification:

Cultivation of Groundnut as an alternate crop
A three year project, with the Department of Plant Breeding to : (a) screen new varied germ plasmas against major diseases, insect pests and developing important vegetative and fruiting traits; (b) develop high yielding, early maturing, disease and insect resistant varieties of groundnut by utilizing identified putative resistant stocks during Phase I; and (c) facilitate the enhancing of the seed production of SG 99 and promoting its adoption in Punjab, as part of the diversification process, through large scale demonstrations, in association with industrial stake holders.

Upscaling and extending cultivation of Basmati and Groundnut
This is a one year project with the Directorate of Extension Education towards developing a cost effective model for up-scaling and extending cultivation of Basmati and Groundnut in Amritsar and Sangrur districts respectively. The objective is to assist the Government of Punjab in implementing the diversification process and reviving the agricultural growth. In this project, improved production technologies for groundnut are being adopted in two villages in Ahmedgarh block of Sangrur district, whereas similar efforts are being put in for Basmati in one village of Amritsar district.

Popularising alternate cropping systems
This is a three year project with the Department of Agronomy which focuses on developing and refining cost effective models to promote and popularise Basmati / Groundnut – Wheat as an alternative to Rice-Wheat cropping systems in eight villages in Amritsar and Sangrur districts of Punjab.

Rice residue management
This is a three year project with the Department of Agronomy focusing on rice-residue management, by encouraging farmers to incorporate rice residue, in place of burning it, which causes environmental pollution resulting into nutrient loss. The programme also: (a) examines the effect of rice residue incorporation on growth and productivity of rice, wheat and Raya; (b) examines the effect of additional Nitrogen on decomposition and rice residue, release of nutrients and on subsequent crops; and (iii) monitors the available nutrient content of soil and their uptake by crops, as influenced by rice residue incorporation.

Controlling hardy weeds
This is a three year project with the Department of Agronomy working out an integrated approach for controlling hardy weeds in maize and groundnut, which are promoted as alternate crops, through conducting experiments at 14 farms in Hoshiarpur (maize) and Sangrur (groundnut) districts, where problems of these target weeds are prevalent.

INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT (IPM) IN COTTON

The Trust is supporting the Department of Entomology for a three year project to further develop, validate and disseminate cotton-IPM technology in different villages in four districts of Punjab, with the aim of reducing insecticide load and increasing production of cotton with less input costs. The Trust is also supporting a two year project with the Directorate of Agriculture (DOA), Government of Punjab, to upscale the dissemination of cotton-IPM technology across the cotton belt in Punjab. A total of 112 villages are being covered across 28 cotton blocks of the state. The Directorate, through its extension wing, is upscaling the cotton-IPM model developed by PAU to new areas.
Click here to read on the Incidence of Mealy Bug on Cotton in Punjab.

MANAGEMENT OF WATER RESOURCES
Expansion of irrigation, mainly in the form of canals and tube wells, has generated two different sets of water resources problems in Punjab: (a) groundwater depletion in central Punjab; and (b) rising water tables and salinity in sub-surface water in southwest Punjab. Against this backdrop, the Trust is supporting the Department of Water Engineering and the Department of Soils, PAU on two different projects, beginning September 2003, each spread over a three year period. Whilst the first project focuses on management of water resources through efficient utilisation of water, through drip irrigation and augmentation of groundwater by artificial recharge through tube wells, the second project focuses on management of water resources, with the objectives of reducing groundwater withdrawal. Yet another three year project with the Department of Agronomy studies the comparative performance of Alternative Cropping Systems to Rice-Wheat in saving water and entails field demonstrations being conducted on less water demanding cropping systems in Jalandhar, Sangrur and Faridkot districts of Punjab respectively.

Being a pioneering agricultural institute in the country, PAU has excellent working relationships with farmer organisations, private sector and the government. This has enabled PAU to play a key role in tackling the problems related to agricultural stagnation.

'Workshop on sustainable use of groundwater held by CASA': Click here to read

Economic Analysis of Rice-Wheat Cropping System and its Alternatives – A Report

Crop Diversification’ – Click here to download an informative booklet published by PAU

Click here for the Punjabi version - Crop Diversification'

Research and Development on Insect Pest Management in Cotton and Rice in Punjab

Development of Improved Varieties of Groundnut for Cultivation in Punjab