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Can Conservation Agriculture Be the Savior of Farm Economy? – a Study in North Bengal A

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Can Conservation Agriculture Be the Savior of Farm Economy? – a Study in North Bengal A ISSN- O : 2349 9400 ; P : 0974 6315 Journal of Crop and Weed, 16(3): 123-128 (2020) http://cwssbckv.org www.cropandweed.com Can conservation agriculture be the savior of farm economy? – A study in North Bengal A. LEPCHA, P. NAG AND *K. K. DAS Department of Agricultural Economics Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya Pundibari-736165, Coochbehar, West Bengal Received : 09.07.2020 ; Revised : 10.11.2020 ; Accepted : 15.11.2020 DOI : https://doi.org/10.22271/09746315.2020.v16.i3.1376 ABSTRACT Northern tract of West Bengal is an economically vibrant region and its economy is mostly dependent on agriculture as the prime occupation. This article attempts to explore agricultural performance over the years in North Bengal culling secondary information on area and productivity of major crops for the period 1980-81 to 2014-15.Overall instability and decline in growth in area and yield of the major crops is observed. However, Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of both area allocation and yield is on the rise for potato and rabi maize indicating their growing importance in the farm economy though, corresponding CAGR of kharif paddy remains almost stagnant. This rather slow growth is attributed to climatic aberration, decline in soil productivity, low/negative farm income, etc. and calls for a be-fitting technology to revamp the economy. The study suggests popularization of conservation agriculture (which has proven its suitability and worth in the region through successful implementation of an Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Australia funded project since 2013- 14) as an effective strategy for improving the livelihood security as well as mitigating ecological degradation. Keywords: Agriculture, CAGR, conservation agriculture and North Bengal Agriculture is the backbone of Indian economy and was 19% in 2018-19 (Economic Review, Government over 70% of rural household depends on Agriculture of West Bengal, 2019). and employs more than 50% of the total workforce Comprising of 8 districts with varied topography, (Census, Government of India, 2011). Agriculture and soil, climate and culture covering three agro- climatic allied sector share 15.87% of country’s Gross Domestic zones viz. (i) Hill Zone, (ii) Terai Zone, (iii) Old- Alluvial Product (Central Statistical Organisation, Government Zone, Northern tract of West Bengal (popularly known of India, 2019). Although its share decreased over the as North Bengal) having geographical area of 21,855 past 50 years, agriculture has remained a fundamental km2 is an economically dormant region and is very much sector due to growth in the population and increase in dominated by agriculture (Fig. 2) due to lack of any the demand for food. Since the initiation of planning in large industry. In terms of its agricultural performance 1951, Indian agriculture has come a long way. Shortage of food grains supplies in 1960’s, was a great ordeal, (i.e., intensity of cropping, yield, profitability, and and due to Green revolution India attained self contribution towards Net District Domestic Product sufficiency in food grains in 1970s. The food grain (NDDP) etc.) the region lacked substantially; but with production has increased from 51 million tonne (Mt) in sustained rise in population, frequent incidence of 1950-51 to 283.37 Mt during 2018-19 (Agricultural climatic aberration (especially, erratic rainfall) and Statistics at a Glance, Government of India, 2018). changing marketing context, the situation worsened further. It is the fact that the resource intensive ways of Located in the eastern side of the country, West agriculture has raised serious sustainability issues in Bengal is an Indian state inhabited by over 91.35 million people as of 2011 (Statistical Abstract, Government of India (Food and Agriculture Organisation, 2007). Many West Bengal, 2015). The state shares 2.7% land of the serious environmental problems are related to country and produces more than 8% of country’s food agriculture like loss of biodiversity, climate change, population. The situation in West Bengal mirrors the pollution to water and soil which is leading to decline country’s dependency on agriculture. Agriculture plays in the production of agricultural produce with threat to a pivotal role in the economy of West Bengal and food security and its detrimental effect on farming. There provides not just food but also raw materials. Percentage is a need to strengthen agriculture in sustainable method share of agriculture (Fig.1) and its allied sector in to with utmost priority in economic, environmental, and Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) in West Bengal human development. J.*Email: Crop [email protected] Weed, 16(3) 123 Conservation agriculture vis-à-vis farm economy Fig.1: Share of Primary, secondary, and tertiary Fig. 2:Agriculture work force (% to total workforce) sector towards GSDP in West Bengal in North Bengal over the decade (2017-18) Sustainable methods and conservation strategies are Argentina, Southern Brazil, and Paraguay (Friedrich et need of the hour reforming less harmful agricultural al., 2012). Kassam et al., 2018 accounted that globally practices. New technologies with less environmental CA is being practiced on about 180 M ha (Fig. 3) and impact, better policies relating to water, energy, soil and countries like United States of America (USA), Brazil, land management, and concerned guidance and Argentina, Canada, and Australia are the major CA regulations from the government are some of the ways practicing countries. They further reported that South of curbing the existing scenario of agriculture. America with largest area under conservation agriculture Conservation Agriculture (CA) is a concept for resource (69.90 Mha) shares 38.7 % of total global area under saving agricultural crop production that strives to conservation agriculture followed by North America achieve acceptable profits together with high and (63.18 M ha, 35.0%). In Asia, a large share (10.76 %) sustained production levels while concurrently of the conservation agriculture is confined in India, and conserving the environment (Food and Agriculture that is in the Indo- Gangetic plain. The area under zero Organisation, 2007). Arrange of practice have been tillage in Indo-Gangetic plains of India was estimated developed and promoted among the farmers under the to be 1.90 million ha in 2005, which increased to 2.5 banner of Conservation Agriculture to mitigate the million ha in 2007 (Kasam et al., 2009). problem of food security, farm profitability and land The present study is undertaken to explore the actual degradation (Kassam et al., 2018). scenario in North Bengal agriculture and to search for the 'rationale' of Conservation Agriculture as a strategy to way forward. MATERIALS AND METHODS For exploring agricultural performance in North Area (Mha) Area Bengal, the study relied mostly on secondary data, which are collected from various issues of Statistical Abstracts (Bureau of Applied Economics and Statistics, 1973-74 1983-84 1996-97 2003-04 2008-09 2013-14 2014-15 1999-2000 Government of West Bengal), Economic Review, Year Government of West Bengal, District Statistical Handbook (Bureau of Applied Economics and Statistics, Fig. 3: CA adoption across the globe Government of West Bengal) of respective district and When the dustbowls devastated wide areas of the through internet browsing. Data were collected for major mid-west United States, tillage as a soil management crops of West Bengal and as well as for North Bengal, was first questioned in the 1930 (Kassam et al., 2009). as these crops are relatively important and their acreage In the early 1970s as the result of uncontrollable erosion allocation (corresponding to Net Cropped Area) is high problems in the southern states, no-tillage reached in the region. The data regarding area, production and Brazil, where farmers together with scientists yield of major crops in West Bengal and North Bengal transformed the technology into the system which today are collected for last 35 years i.e. from 1980 to 2014- is called CA. In the early 1990s, the spread of CA 15. For understanding the growth differential hastened which revolutionized farming systems in (Compound Annual Growth Rate) for crop acreage and J. Crop and Weed, 16(3) 124 Lepcha et al. yield, the whole period (1980-81 to 2014-15) of study acreage allocation under each crop exhibits that North is divided into two sub-periods i.e. Period 1 (1980 to Bengal contributes a major share in wheat (38%), maize 1999-2000), Period 2 (2000-01 to 2014-15). As most (85%) and jute (35%) crop acreage of the state but only of the data is showing exponential trend (scatter one-sixth that of total pulses. In other crops the acreage diagram), the time series equation of y = aebt[y= share hovers around 25% (which is similar to that of dependant variable i.e., area, productivity etc., a= the GCA coverage). intercept; b = regression coefficient; t = time variable) Historically, the region lags in crop yield scenario has been fitted (Boyce, 1987). Also, respective higher too. A close look towards the figure postulates that yield 2 values of adjusted R (in most of the cases) justifies the of almost all the crops is traditionally lower than the selection of this trend equation (Das, 2016; state average. As for example, kharif paddy (the principal Chattopadhyay and Das, 2000). Since the model is crop) yield in North Bengal was consistently lower than multiplicative, the function is transformed into additive the state average by about 4-15 % since 1980-81. Similar model by simple logarithmic (natural log, e) is the case for other major crops. Coupled with this, transformation as below: erratic selling price of crop output resulted, gradual ln y = ln a + t ln b decline in the gross return. Not only that, the yield gap Pattern and extent of growth in desired outputs (i.e., (in between state and the region) remains around 0.1 t -1 crop acreage, crop yield) is obtained by calculating ha almost in all the crops and widens further in some Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) and is crops like pulses, wheat etc.
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