Agro-ecological approaches for sustaining farm based livelihoods

AGRO-ECOLOGICAL APPROACHES FOR SUSTAINING FARM BASED LIVELIHOODS

G. V. Ramanjaneyulu

Agroecology: Several schools of thoughts

• Non Pesticidal Management

• Sustainable Agriculture

• Organic Farming

• Zero-Budget Natural Farming

• Permaculture

• Biodynamic farming

• Cho Global Natural Farming

Aligning with nature• Crops

• Cropping Patterns– Agro-diversity– Crop cycles

• Production practices– Natural products– Natural cycles– Natural processes

utilize all spaceimprove soil resilienceextend growing season

Enhance Diversity

Cropping sequenceMultistory arrangementIntegrating subsystems

Rainwater conservation measures

Conservation of the entire rain water in the field itself

Components include Trench, Conservation furrows, Farm Pond, compost pit , tank silt application. Rs. 48,000 per acre - MGNREGS

Insitu water harvesting

Crop Choices

• Market demand• Soil and growing conditions

Critical Stages of crop growth

• Paddy: tillering stage, flowering, milking• Maize/jowar: flowering, panicle initiation, milking• Groundnut: flowering, prop root stage, pod

formation• Cotton: flowering, boll formation• Soybean/redgram/greengram/blackgram:

flowering, grain formation• Sunflower: bud formation, flowering, grain

formation

Crop duration Water requirement crops

One season (< 4 months

Low Greengram, blackgram, chickpea, kharif groundnut

Medium Jowar, maize, rabi groundnut,

More than one season (6-8 months)

More Cotton, chillies

Year or longer Very high Sugarcane, banana, Mango, Citrus

Critical Stages of crop growth

• Paddy: tillering stage, flowering, milking• Maize/jowar: flowering, panicle initiation, milking• Groundnut: flowering, prop root stage, pod

formation• Cotton: flowering, boll formation• Soybean/redgram/greengram/blackgram:

flowering, grain formation• Sunflower: bud formation, flowering, grain

formation

Crop Choices

• Market demand• Soil and growing conditions

Crop duration Water requirement crops

One season (< 4 months

Low Greengram, blackgram, chickpea, kharif groundnut

Medium Jowar, maize, rabi groundnut,

More than one season (6-8 months)

More Cotton, chillies

Year or longer Very high Sugarcane, banana

Shallow soil Medium deep soil Deep soil

Black soils- Vertisols and associated soilsBlack soils- Vertisols and associated soils

About 3.0 m ha of rainfed cotton soils are either shallow (< 50 cm or medium deep (50-75 cm). Is Bt cotton the solution for these soils?

Hybrid cotton in a deep soil

Hybrid in a shallow soil. Hybrids don’t perform well unless supplemental irrigation is available

Based on soil depth

• Shallow roots (60 cm): ragi, sama, korra, onion, cauliflower, cabbage, potato

• Medium deep roots (90 cm): groundnut, chillies, wheat, tobacco, castor

• Deep roots (120 cm): maize, sugarcane, jowar, bajra, safflower, soybean, tomato, carrot, cucumber

Vidarbha–Rainfall Pattern and Water Requirement of Cotton Moisture availability is extremely critical during boll formation

phaseShort duration

Year Population/ha Yield (kg/ha)

1980 90, 000 300

1990 120,000 900

2000 150,000 1500

2004 180,000 1800

How China made headway using HDPS with varietiesHow China made headway using HDPS with varieties

High Density Plantation in cotton

Straight varieties1.Short duration 140-160 days, 2.Compact plant type3.6-8 bolls per plant with 4.best quality and big bolls5.High density at 250,000 /ha

Seed cotton yield (kg/ha) – Seed cotton yield (kg/ha) – American American cottoncotton

Spacing cm 60x30 45x20 30x 30 45x 13.5 30x20

Population/ha 55000 111000 111000 166000 166000 Mean

Anjali 502 847 853 966 796 793

CNH120MB 1030 976 1139 1250 1289 1137

PKV 081 1200 1714 1418 1921 1967 1644

NISC 50 1056 890 1103 1016 1052 1023

CCH 724 679 843 681 864 835 781

Mean 893 1054 1039 1203 1187

CICR’s Results – 2010-11CICR’s Results – 2010-11

Spacing cm 60 x 15 45 x 13.5 30 x 20 45 x 10 30 x 15

MeanPopulation/ha 111000 166000 166000 222000 222000

AKA-07 1163 1349 1456 1815 1419 1441

CINA-404 1430 1550 1610 2173 1772 1707

PA-255 1259 1595 1349 1625 1226 1411

PA-08 1090 1318 1455 1509 1479 1370

JK-5 1223 1452 1151 1842 1734 1480

Mean 1233 1453 1404 1793 1526

Seed cotton yield (kg/ha) in Seed cotton yield (kg/ha) in G G arboreumarboreum

CINA-404 out yielded others at all planting densities, JK 5 and AKA 7 were more dwarf and compact.

Spacing Genotypes Interaction

CD at

5% 71.1 73.6 164.6

Non-Bt Genotype under HDPS versus Bt hybrid- (Spacing 45x15 cm for variety and 90x60 cm for Bt hybrid)

Yield (q/ha)

Parbhani KhandwaGenotype 2010-11 2011-12 Genotype 2010-11 2011-12

NH-545 12.85 17.03 Vikram 18.47 14.72NH-452 12.21 15.23 Khandwa 2 19.11 15.22PKV-081 12.38 15.40 JK-4 20.14 16.04

Mallika Bt 13.88 — Jai Bt 13.38 —

Akola NandyalPKV-081 17.31 15.87 Narasimha 18.47 18.94NH-615 16.19 16.19 Sivanandi 18.67 20.42NH-630 19.07 16.46 NDLH-1938 25.10 23.55

Bunny Bt 10.28 — Bunny Bt 22.98 19.85

Technology mission on cotton-network -results

23

System of Rice Intensification

• System of Rice Intensification is a cost effective and resource efficient method of cultivation

• Extended to sugarcane, wheat, ragi etc

1. Hilly terrain, Upland

Model 1 : (Paddy+Fish+ Azolla) + (pond+duck+fish) + (Home stead garden) + (Livestock) + (Vermicompost)

Model 2: (Crop Field – Mixed Crop) + (Livestock) + (Composting) + (Backyard vegetable)

Human

Fruit Trees

Homestead Garden

Pond + Hen shade

Cow, Goat

Compost/Vermicompost

Pig Shade

High slope, small amount of land around homestead

SPICES BASED CROPPING SYSTEMS

Upland with Degraded soil and no irrigation

Fruit Trees +Intercropping planted with Roselle, Pigeon Peas & Blackgram during early stage & Yam at late stage +Infiltration ditched and Semi-circular bunds

Mid-lands (rainfed)

Community woodlots for firewood-fodder- other NTFP productions+Improved pastureland with tree canopy+water recharge and water storage pond

Mild Slopes

Mixed food grain + integrated farms + vegetable cultivation +Nitrogen fixing trees/shrubs as hedgerows or living fences +Diamond beds for fruit trees with vegetablesContour line hedgerows + infiltration bunds.

2. Semiarid, undulated terrain

Tuber crops are important strategic crop for dry areas.

Crop Management in Rain-fed areas• Low water consuming crops• Perennials on conservation furrows including green leaf

manure plants.• 7 tiered crop canopy ( 36*36 model ) near farm pond.

Crop Management in Rain-fed areas

• Perennials on conservation furrows including green leaf manure plants.

• Trees all around trench on farm boundary.• Cropping pattern with red gram in between the

conservation furrows in 2:1 and 5:1 with millets and groundnut respectively.

Courtesy: Dr. GNS Reddy, BAIF

Agronomic practices-Water harvesting, conservation and use

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Changing to multiple cropping systems

• Total land area 12 ha• For every 2 ½ acres of land, pits for

rain water harvesting were dug.• Every year, 10 tonnes of biomass

per acre of land is being incorporated in the soil.

• Total trees in the farm are around 3000, among them 2000 are teak plants others include mango, sapota, neem, tamarind, jamun, papaya, sithaphal etc.

• Trees helps in reducing temperature by 3-4 0

• They also help in attracting birds to kill pests and adding bio mass.

Subash Sharma, /Dorli, Yavatml, Maharashtra

Palmira/ date palm

Berry…

Neem, Babool…

Step Pond

Multi-tire pond

Pigeon pea…

Midland (Pond bank Management)

Planted at a time, but harvested in different time span.Mixed cropping of different root depth, different height…

Jowar, Bajra…

Pigeon pea, Guar …

Sesame, Roselle… Ragi,

korra etcBeans…

3. Humid region

Model 1 : (duck-Fish-Azolla-Paddy) + (Homestead Grden) + (Biodigestor with Biogas plant) + (Livestock) + (pond + duckhouse and scaffold over the pond).

Model 2 : banana + Fruit Trees + Creepers + Tuber + Fodder) + (Biodegestor) + (Vegetable + Medicinal Plant + Azolla in home stead) + (Apiculture + Mushroom)

Nutrition Garden : Leafy Vegetable + Vegetable + Spices + Tuber + Herbal + Beans

Enterprise allocationCrop Selected: (2 acre IFS model):

Cereals:(50 percent area) Rice, wheat,Maize

Vegetables(12.5 percent area)Rabi-Tomato, Pea, cabbage,BrinjalSummer: Brinjal,Cowpea, Okra, CucurbitsKharif:Cucurbits

Fodders (12.0% area)Rabi: Berseem, Oat, MaizeSummer:Cow pea, Sudan grass,maizeKharif:Maize, MP chari/sudan gras

Vegetables on field bunds(4%)Rabi:Tomato, Cauliflower/cabbage, BrinjalSummer: cowpea ,Bitter gourd and OkraKharif: Cucurbits

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