‘Precision farming’ method one of many scientific boosts to improve agriculture in India

As the strongest pillar on which our ancient societies have found support since time immemorial, agriculture as a profession has had a lasting impact on the economy as well as the quality of life of the common Indian. However, even with the use of novel technology and rapid advancements in the field of research & development, there has been less than expected progress in the agricultural or animal husbandry or fishery sector over the past many decades.

Though the Green Revolution of the 1970s and 1980s did seem to have made a strong impact in terms of increasing the crop yield and boosting agricultural productivity, the technology should have penetrated through to other relatively less well-off states.

As some states that were already better-off saw advancements in the fields of irrigation, pesticides and seed growth, other states that should have also benefited from the same could not. However, the rapid growth in these areas ensured that India became much more self-sufficient as well as avoided a dependency on other countries for large-scale import of food items, to end the famine or starvation either.

In the last 5-6 years, development within the science and technology sector has taken place at a faster pace than usual. Prioritizing the twin sectors, the government of India has resolved multiple challenges related to agriculture.

Emphasizing on nutrition, seed development and nurturing crops as per the environmental conditions, science has aided in improving the yield and productivity massively. At the same time, irrigation projects that were kicked off at a monumental level in late 1970s made a comeback this decade since new ways of going about the same came up.

These methods of irrigation turned out to be much more efficient as well as less tedious, and therefore a large number of irrigation projects that were lying pending for decades were completed. Ensuring water security for farmers as well as protecting crops from diseases, sufficient water supply has also helped farmers substantially.

Interestingly, technology has helped in obtaining real-time information about weather forecasts and predictions pertaining to rain as well. The twin technology of obtaining short-term weather updates as well as long-term monsoon predictability has ensured that farmers are able to decide upon the timing as well as nature of crops that are to be nurtured based on these factors as well.

Though farmers remained largely unrelated to and mostly unconnected with the digital programs that the government of India had been launching over the last decade or so, the last half a decade has substantially improved upon that aspect of the connect between farmers and technology.

A whole new concept in the mix has been the application of information technology in the field of agriculture — a concept called the ‘precision farming’ method. This kind of farming would ensure that remote sensing is used to conduct various operations like finding out the best tillage, application of fertilizers, harvesting methods, irrigation processes, etc. which reduces investment but increases production intensively.

Because of small farm holdings size in India, precision farming has seen limited application in India. However, there is tremendous potential in the same as a way of increasing sustainable agriculture in the country.

Recently, the Indian Council for Agricultural Research developed 35 special quality varieties, which would lead to a substantially higher productivity yield. In fact, these varieties are intended to be biofortified in nature and aimed at seriously tackling challenges of malnutrition and climate change as well.

By simply moving the farmer out of the crop-based income model, farmers now have the added incentive of adding value to their crop productivity cycle through novel ideas.

Many farmers have gone ahead and experimented with many novel ideas, with the cushion comfort of the government of India schemes like fortification of seeds, Kisan Credit Cards, Kisan Soil Card as well as the Kisan Samman Nidhi. These schemes and programs have aided in the efforts of farmers to carefreely experiment with novel methods of bringing about increased crop productivity as well.

Therefore, it has now become necessary to improve varieties of millets and other grains with novel research models, with the purpose that the same crop can be grown in areas where it has not been grown before as well as per the need of the hour. Only with the allied efforts of the farmers and scientists can the new challenges be met with a strong response, with issues like malnutrition and climate change being mitigated in time as well.