Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
soil health, increased salinity, distorted C-to-N ratio largely because of very low
C level (<0.5%), micronutrient deficiency, evolution of herbicide-resistant
Phalaris
minor
along with soil compaction, and sharply depleting underground water reserve
(Abrol and Gupta 1998; Gupta and Abrol 2000)—are totally different. According to
Waddington et al. (2010), nearly half of these yield gaps can be managed by adopting
better production techniques. Bridging the remaining yield gaps will require adopt-
ing measures in the domain of corrective socioeconomics and a conducive policy
environment (Waddington et al. 2010). Gupta (2010) has opined that with appropri-
ate technologies, about 10.7 Tg of additional food can be produced annually from a
28 Mha area covered by rice-wheat, rainfed, mixed production systems in India. An
additional 13.4 Tg of food can be added by targeting “rice fallow” area spread over
11.6 Mha in South Asia. The projected deficit of 755 billion m
3
of water (The 2030
Water Resources Group 2011) by 2030 along with groundwater pollution, soil sali-
nization, impact of climate change on water availability, and gradual decline in pro-
ductivity are some of the major challenges to be faced in the future. Climatic factors
such as diminishing radiation due to increasing smogs in winter, increased minimum
temperature, although not consistent over the years, are also posing greater difficulty
in achieving genetic gain. The productivity gain in the earlier period has also been
attributed to greater resistance to multiple stresses (Tollenaar et al. 1994; Sayre and
Ramos 1997; Cassman 1999; Gupta and Sayre 2007). Very subtle changes in soil
organic chemistry, weather parameters, and production environment make assess-
able impact on agricultural production, individually and many times synergistically
(Cassman and Pingali 1995; Cassman 1999). The subtle changes mentioned previ-
ously are complex forms of land degradation that increasingly limit our capacity to
produce more with the same level of inputs. These only show that soil quality need
to be improved or else additional agri-inputs will be required to offset yield declines
due to decrease in soil quality.
5.3 RAINFALL AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY
NEXUS IN INDO-GANGETIC PLAINS
The farm productivity and annual rainfall of different districts encompassing vari-
ous hubs are plotted in Figure 5.2 using latest data from Chand et al. (2009). The two
variables are plotted against the longitude of the district headquarters in the respec-
tive states. It was observed that agricultural productivity, in spite of low rainfall,
was higher in northwest plains than in the middle Gangetic plains. Low productivity
has been linked to several lows in rainfall, fertilizer use, and irrigated area (Chand
et al. 2009). Data in Figure 5.2 indicate that annual rainfall increases from west to
east (with longitudes). Agricultural productivity, high rainfall, and poverty seem to
be in parallel in districts located between 78.83° and 86.13° north longitudes. Many
of these districts have large tracts of Chaur, Tal, and Diara lands (low-lying lands),
which become flooded during monsoon season and vacate the fields very late for
wheat planting during winter season. There is a need for a paradigm shift in the
approach for early crop establishment, fertilizer application methods, and more area
of rice fallow land under wheat cultivation in winter. Relay and surface seeding tech-
niques can prove helpful under such conditions.
