Topic: Sustainable intensification could hold the key to boosting farmland productivity Author: Burjis Godrej, Executive Director, Godrej Agrovet Limited

India needs to turn to intensive agriculture but make it sustainable, so that the country’s farmlands can feed its growing population while grappling with the now all-too-common consequences of climate change.

The country, home to 1.4 billion people, is already the world’s most populous nation. But, its population is still growing and expected to peak at 1.7 billion by the early 2060s, according to the United Nations. The growing affluence of its people, meanwhile, is reshaping consumption habits. 

To put it simply — India has more people than it ever has, who are eating better than they ever have and more than they ever have. 

Our farmlands, therefore, have to produce more food than they ever have at a time when the fallout from climate change has made growing that food harder than it has ever been.

Sustainable intensification

The Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s unlocked unprecedented farmland productivity and won India its food security. To keep it, the country needs to make similar strides. Intensive agriculture could just hold the key to unlocking the productivity gains the country needs.

Intensive agriculture is a system of farming that involves coaxing large yields from smaller tracts of land, such as are common in India. It is input-intensive, requiring large amounts of labour (or automation) and resources like water, fertilizers, nutrients and pesticides.

For that reason, it has traditionally had a bad rap. But, with technology-led, modern-day practices, it can be made sustainable, enabling India’s farmers to grow more food without sapping the long-term productivity of their fields.

This is what I like to call sustainable intensification and it is made possible through a combination of tech-informed precision farming, regenerative agriculture where applicable (keeping crop residue, cover cropping and no till), the use of biological inputs, crop diversification, and the planting of more resilient crops.

Resource Responsible

Precision agriculture involves using data to precisely calibrate the timing and amount of inputs a crop requires. 

Sensors in the soil, for instance, or satellite imagery can be used to monitor soil and crop health and weather patterns. 

The power of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning can then be harnessed to run predictive analyses models and make sense of all the data generated. That information can then be used to suggest interventions. 

Inputs can thus be applied at precisely the right time and in the right amounts. Precision agriculture is therefore a resource responsible approach, as opposed to a resource intensive approach in which farmers flood the field with water or douse it with pesticides and fertilizers.

And it has been proven to increase yields.

A global study carried out in 2021, for instance, found that farmers who adopted precision farming practices saw a four percent increase in crop production, a seven percent increase in fertilizer placement efficiency, a six percent reduction in fossil fuel use and a four percent reduction in water use.

Complementary practices

There are other measures farmers can adopt that can go hand-in-hand with precision farming to boost yields sustainably. Adopting more environmentally-friendly sowing practices is one. Take dry-seeded rice for instance. 

Dry seeded rice involves planting rice directly in the field where it will go, without germinating it in a nursery first. With the seed having been sown directly, it avoids the need to transplant the crop in flooded fields. 

Planting dry seeded rice saves cuts down water use by as much as 30 percent as compared to conventional planting methods. Farmers can also turn to biological inputs. Biological inputs boost yields without damaging the soil. 

However, the lack of flooding could mean that weeds arise so eithr labor or automation or sustainable herbicides would need to be used to suppress weed growth.

Companies should look at collaborating with companies to bring environmentally-friendly pesticides to market. These pesticides are essentially pheromone-based, meaning they do not cause any harmful side-effects on the environment. At the same time, their effectiveness is comparable to that of conventional agrochemicals.

Crop diversification is another practice that can intensify agriculture sustainably and reduce the risk of a farmer depending on the yield and price of one crop for his/her income. Taking a resource responsible approach as well as precision agriculture makes it possible. 

Farmers can rotate crops without having to constantly douse their fields with harmful chemical agents. They can also rotate crops as, thanks to precision agriculture, inputs can be precisely applied, ensuring the differing resource needs of differing crops can be met at the same time. 

Intensive agriculture could thus save the day for the Indian farmer. Once seen as environmentally irresponsible, technology and new approaches to farming mean sustainable intensification is not a contradiction but very real. And it’s worth exploring because India’s food security could well depend on it. To sum it up, "Jai Kisan, Jai Vigyaan, Jai Vataavaran!"