This was presented in the Webinar on Covid-19 & Beyond: Existing Envioromental Challenges and Eco Friendly Agriculture organized by Vishwa Yuvak Kendra, New Delhi in collaboration with  Gramium, Tamil Nadu on 14th August 2020. It provides an overview of the status of Agriculture in India and gives the steps involved in developing Sustainable Agriculture for developing more sustainable and productive agricultural systems.

1. Developing more Sustainable and Productive
Agricultural Systems: means and ways
Dr. J. Diraviam
Senior Scientist and Head, ICAR Krishi Vigyan Kendra
Pulutheri Village, R.T. Malai(PO),Kulithalai(TK), Karur(DT) - 621 313.
Mobile: 9488967675 Email: jdiraviam1@gmail.com;
Website: www.skvkk.org; FB: Icar KVK Karur
Presented in the Webinar on Covid-19 & Beyond: Existing
Envioromental Challenges and Eco Friendly Agriculture organized by
Vishwa Yuvak Kendra, New Delhi in collaboration with Gramium, Tamil
Nadu on 14th August 2020

2. “The world has enough for
everyone's need, but not
enough for everyone's greed.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

3. Current Status of Agriculture in India
• The agriculture sector employs nearly half of
the workforce in the country. However, it
contributes to 17.5% of the GDP (at current
prices in 2015-16).
• India is among the top producers of wheat,
rice, pulses, sugarcane and cotton.
• Highest producer of milk and second highest
producer of fruits and vegetables.
• Despite high levels of production in the
country, 15% of the population continues to be
under-nourished, as per 2014 estimates.

4. Productivity in major countries
(tonne/ha)

5. India - Agricultural production
(million tonnes)

7. Reasons for problems in
Agriculture

8. All India Summer Monsoon

9. Irrigation
• Area under irrigation - 51% of food grains.
• Irrigation currently consumes about 84% of the
total available water in the country.
• 65% irrigation from tube wells and wells

10. Groundwater and irrigation
• Overuse of ground water sources in intensive
water consuming crops - rice.
• Over exploitation of groundwater units -
Haryana and Rajasthan, 40%-75%; in Punjab,
75%-90%.
• Major irrigation in flood irrigation.
• India uses 2-3 times as much water to
produce one tonne of grain as countries such
as China, Brazil and the United States.
Leading to decline in the water table as well
as the quality of water

11. Quality of soil
• Indian soil consists of primary nutrients such as
nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, secondary
nutrients such as sulphur, calcium and magnesium,
and micro-nutrients such as zinc, iron, and
manganese.
• Increasing food production also led to imbalance of
nutrients in the soil and overall depletion of soil health.
The Ministry of Agriculture has noted that the quality of
Indian soil is deteriorating.
• About 5.3 billion tonnes of soil gets eroded annually,
at a rate of about 16.4 tonne/hectare.

12. Imbalance in use of fertilizers
• Urea is used more than other fertilizers.
• Recommended ratio of use of the NPK fertilizers is
4:2:1, this ratio in India is currently at 6.7:2.4:1.
• Overuse of urea is especially observed in the states of
Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
Consumption of
fertilizers
(lakh tonnes)

13. Pesticides consumption and issues
• Use of low-quality pesticides
• Lack of awareness about pesticide use.
• Use of pesticides without proper guidelines has
led to an increase in pesticide residue being
found in food products.
2010 -11 2014 - 15
Pesticides consumption 55,540 57,353
Import of pesticides 53,996 77,376

14. Weather Impacts on Agriculture
• Rainfall drives water availability and
determines Sowing time (rainfed crops)
• Temperature drives crop growth, duration;
influences milk production in animals and
spawning in fish
• Temperature, RH influence pest and
diseases incidence on crops, livestock and
poultry
• Radiation influences the photosynthetic
productivity
• Wet & dry spells cause significant impact on
standing crops, physiology, loss of economic
products (eg. fruit drop)
• Extreme events (eg. high rainfall/floods/heat
wave/cold wave/cyclone /hail/frost) cause
enormous losses of standing crops, live stock

15. Impact of climate change on crops
FAO, 2017

16. Ways and means for developing
more Sustainable and
Productive Agricultural Systems

17. Sustainable Agriculture
Sustainable agriculture systems are
designed to:
• Take maximum advantage of existing soil
nutrient and water cycles, energy flows,
and soil organisms for food production.
• Aim to produce food that is nutritious,
without being contaminated with products
that might harm human health.

18. Components of SA
Sustainable agriculture systems rely on
• crop rotations,
• crop residues,
• animal manures,
• legumes,
• green manures,
• off-farm organic wastes,
• appropriate mechanical cultivation,
• mineral bearing rocks to maximize soil biological
activity, maintain soil fertility and productivity.
• Natural, biological, and cultural controls are
used to manage pests, weeds and diseases.

19. Basic Elements of Sustainable Agriculture
Grounded in four well-established economic development
principles and a fifth, concern for the community:
• Input Optimization: Maximize on-farm resources. Internally
derived inputs, such as family labor, intensive grazing systems,
recycled nutrients, legume nitrogen, crop rotations, use of
renewable solar energy, improved management of pests, soils
and woodlands are a few examples of substituted resources.
• Diversification: Diverse cropping and livestock systems.
Diversification can lead to more stable farm income by lowering
economic risk from climate, pests, and fluctuating agriculture
markets. This helps to keep farmers on the land and helps
buffer the local economy from the shock of a dramatic decline
in a single commodity/industry.

20. Basic Elements of Sustainable Agriculture
• Conservation of Natural Capital: Loss of natural resources,
eventually affects yield, farm profitability, and sustainability. In
sustainable agriculture, economic value is created by
maintaining the productivity of land and water resources while
enhancing human health and the environment.
• Capturing Value-Added: Have to develop ways of retaining a
higher percentage of value-added on the farm. Value-added
strategies will require the formation of a coop of local farmers
and a collaborative relationship with the local community.
• Community: If we are to support sustainable agriculture, we
must recognize the rural/urban interconnection, the conflicts
and tremendous opportunities..Recognition of the role farming
has played in stabilizing our community is critical. In other
words, we must rekindle a sense of caring about the welfare of
rural and urban communities to survive.

21. Steps to a Sustainable Agriculture
• The agro-ecosystem is made up of many
interacting components with multiple goals.
Assessing soil quality may help managers
identify practices that could be adapted to
become more sustainable.
Soil quality is one aspect of sustainable agro-
ecosystem management.

22. Conserve and Create Healthy Soil
• Stop soil erosion by terracing, strip
cropping, repairing gullies
• Add organic matter to soil (with "green
manure" cover crops, compost, manures,
crop residues, organic fertilizers)
• Conservation tillage
• Plant wind breaks
• Rotatecash crops with hay, pasture, or
cover crops

23. Conservation Technology
Zero tillage maize and
sorghum after rice
Resource conservation tillage practices like zero tillage can
minimize the delay in sowing which improve the crop yield
and the profitability by reducing the land preparation cost.

25. Conserve Water and Protect Its Quality
• Stop soil erosion in field and pasture
• Reduce use of chemicals
• Establish conservation buffer areas
• Grow crops adapted to rainfall received
• Use efficient irrigation methods

26. Strategies to improve WUE
WUE
Précised
Irrigation
Modernizati
on of canals
Moisture
conservation
technology
Less water
consuming
technology
Agronomic
Practices
Mulching
Crop
diversificati
on
Drip
Sprinkler
AWD
MSRI
Aerobic Rice
In situ
Ex situ
Lining
Rehabilitation
Organic
Inorganic
Horizontal
Vertical
Weed Management
Wind breaks

27. Alternate wetting and drying - in puddled rice on farmers fields
Saving of irrigation water:39%
Water productivity increased from 4.3% to 5.3%

28. Alternate
crops to
RICE

31. Ex-situ water conservation
Check dam
Farm Pond
Khadin

33. Supplemental irrigation
through raingun

34. Furrow BBF
Flooding
Surface irrigation (Gravity):
 Wild flooding
 Flooding
 Boarder strip
 Check basin
 Basin
 Furrow Irrigation
-Alternate furrow
-Skip furrow
Micro-irrigation (Pressurized) :
 Drip
-Surface and sub-surface drip
 Sprinkler
 Rain gun
Methods of Irrigation
Rain gun
Check basin
Border strip
Ring basin

35. EFFICIENCY OF DIFFERENT IRRIGATION METHODS

36. Irrigation scheduling with sensors

37. Irrigation in Maize
Furrow Alternate Furrow
SprinklerDrip

38. Irrigation in Groundnut
Border strip Sprinkler

39. SURFACE DRIP SUB SURFACE DRIP

40. Micro Irrigation
To irrigate and fertigate the plant instead of soil

41. Manage Organic Wastes and Farm Chemicals So They Don't Pollute
• Test soil and applying manures and litters only when
needed
• Compost dead birds and litters
• Store litter piles out of the rain
• Raise pastured or free-range poultry
Farm chemicals and trash:
• Look for alternatives to chemicals
• Use the least amount necessary
• Buy the least toxic chemical
• Recycle
• Dispose according to label instructions

42. Manage Pests with Minimal Environmental
Impact Weed Management
Cultural Approaches Biological Approaches
Crop Rotation
Smother crops
Cover crops
Allelopathic plants
Close spacing of plants
Mulching
Multi-species grazing
Rotational grazing
Chemical Approaches
Integrated Pest
Management
Use of narrow spectrum,
least-toxic herbicides
Properly calibrated sprayers

43. Different mulching

45. Insect and Disease Management
• Introduce or enhance existing populations of natural predators,
pathogens, sterile insects, and other biological control agents.
• Traps
• Maintain wild areas or areas planted with species attractive to
beneficial insects
• Selective insecticides or botanical insecticides which are less
toxic
• Trap crops
• Crop rotation (avoid monoculture) Intercropping, strip cropping
• Maintain healthy soil (prevents soil-based diseases)
• Keep plants from becoming stressed

46. WOLF SPIDERS

47. FUNGUS INFECTED BPH
FUNGUS INFECTED BUG
COCCINELLID BEETLES

48. Select Plants and Animals Adapted to the
Environment
• Grow crops and crop varieties well-suited to
local climate
• Match crops to the soil
• Experiment with older, open pollinated varieties
that do well without chemical inputs
• Raise hardy breeds of livestock adapted to
climate
• Raise livestock that gain well on grass and
native forages

49. 49

50. 50

51. Encourage Bio-diversity
• Encourage biodiversity of domesticated
animals, crops, wildlife and native plants,
microbial and aquatic life)
• Leave habitat (field margins, unmowed
strips, pond and stream borders, etc.,) for
wildlife
• Maintain the health of streams and ponds
• Provide wildlife corridors rotate row crops
with hay crops

52. Biodiversity Conservation

53. Conserve Energy Resources
• Reduce number of tillage operations
• Cut use of chemicals and fertilizers
• Develop production methods that reduce
horsepower needs
• Recycle used oil
• Use solar-powered fences and machines
• Use renewable, farm-produced fuels: fuel oils
from oil seed cops, methane from manures
and crop wastes

54. Increase Profitability and Reduce Risk
• Diversify crops and livestock
• Substitute management for off-farm inputs
• Maximize the use of on-farm resources
• Work with, not against, natural cycles
• Keep machinery, equipment and building
costs down
• Add value to crops and livestock
• Try direct marketing. Involve FPOs.

55. Agroforestry
• Involves cultivation of woody perennials and annual crops
• Increasingly practised on degraded land, usually with perennial
legumes.
• Conservation agriculture works well with agroforestry and
several tree crop systems
• Enhanced by improved crop associations, including legumes,
and integration with livestock.
• Alley cropping is one innovation in this area that offers
productivity, economic and environmental benefits to
producers.
• Another example is the use of varying densities of “fertilizer
trees” that enhance biological nitrogen fixation, conserve
moisture and increase production of biomass for use as surface
residues.

56. Khaya + Small onion Melia dubia +
Bhendi
Eucalyptus + Curry leaf Casuarina + Chillies Populus + Varagu
Sissoo + Black gram Casuarina +
Groundnut
Casuarina + Cowpea Melia + Casuarina
Melia + Bottleguard
Ailanthus + Banana Ailanthus + Brinjal

57. 57
Agroforestry Systems

58. 58

59. 59

60. Diversified Agriculture
Low
yielding
food grain
crops
Mixed
cropping /
Inter
cropping
Crop rotation/
Substitution
Sericulture
Aquaculture
Animal
Husbandry
Forestry
Mushroom
cultivation
Horticulture
Floriculture
Olericulture

61. IFS - The best option to improve…
 Productivity &Profitability
 Balanced Food
 Resource recycling
 Money round the year
 On & Off-farm Employment
 Pollution free environment
 Solve fodder & energy crises
 Provides opportunity for agri-based industries
 Improves the standard of living of farmers

62. IFS components
Horticulture
Azolla
Crops
Fishery
VermicompostPoultry
Dairy Animals
Fodder crops
Lowland Integrated Farming Systems
 Net return Rs. 1,00,012 /ha
 Total residue 29,977 kg (Rs. 20,471)
Out come

63. Ways and means for developing
more Sustainable and
Productive Agricultural Systems
under Climate Change Context

64. Adaptation strategies to climate change
Developing climate-ready crops
Crop diversification
Changing land-use management
Adjusting cropping season
Efficient use of Water resources through
watershed approach
Improving pest management
Developing insurance and forecast systems

65. Examples of Adaptation
• Use of drought, submergence and heat
tolerant cultivars
• Cropping systems that fit into the changed
climate
• Shift in planting dates to escape drought
or heat etc.
• Efficient water management and water
harvesting

66. Examples of Mitigation
• Nitrogen management (products and application
methods) to reduce emission of N2O
• Conservation agriculture practices to reduce CO2
emission from soil
• Modified feeding methods and use of supplement
in live stock to reduce methane emission
• Promoting agro-forestry to sequester carbon from
atmosphere

67. Weather/Climate information useful in
Agriculture
• Procurement of inputs for timely sowing
• To plan cropping systems
• Selection of crop / variety
• Timely sowing / transplanting
• Irrigation scheduling
• Fertilizers application
• Timing of plant protection & reduce
indiscriminate pesticide usage
• Harvesting
• Marketing
• For contingent crop planning

68. Goal - a climate smart village

69. Other models for developing
more Sustainable and
Productive Agricultural Systems

70. Conservation agriculture
• Minimum soil disturbance: Zero tillage is ideal, but the
system may involve controlled tillage in which no more
than 20 to 25% of the soil surface is disturbed.
• Retention of crop residues or other soil surface
cover: Use 30% permanent organic soil cover as the
minimum, but the ideal level of soil cover is site-specific.
• Use of crop rotations: Crop rotation helps reduce build-
up of weeds, pests and diseases. Where farmers do not
have enough land to rotate crops, intercropping can be
used. Legumes are recommended as rotational crops for
their nitrogen-fixing functions.

71. Minimized or zero tillage production methods
Minimized or zero tillage production methods – as
practised in conservation agriculture – have
• significantly improved soil conditions,
• reduced degradation and enhanced productivity in
many parts of the world.
• Most agricultural land continues to be ploughed,
harrowed or hoed before every crop and during crop
growth.
• The aim is to destroy weeds and facilitate water
infiltration and crop establishment. However, recurring
disturbance of topsoil buries soil cover and may
destabilize soil structure. An additional effect is
compaction of the soil, which reduces productivity9.

72. Benefits of Conservation Agriculture
• Stable yields. The water- and soil-conserving
effects of CA help to stabilize yields against
weather extremes. Often, CA increases
average yields in the long term. Drought
buffering. CA increases soil water content by
increasing infiltration and reducing runoff and
evaporation. Increased infiltration improves
water use efficiency and buffers crops against
drought. Mulch cover also buffers the soil
against temperature extremes.

73. • simultaneous achievement of increased
agricultural productivity and enhancement
of natural capital and ecosystem services;
• higher rates of efficiency in the use of key
inputs, including water, nutrients,
pesticides, energy, land and labour;
• use of managed and natural biodiversity to
build system resilience to abiotic, biotic
and economic stresses.
Ecosystem based Agriculture

74. Sustainable intensification for increased
food production
• Use of well adapted, high-yielding varieties with
resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses and
improved nutritional quality;
• Enhanced crop nutrition based on healthy soils,
through crop rotations and judicious use of organic
and inorganic fertilizer;
• Integrated management of pests, diseases and
weeds using appropriate practices, biodiversity and
selective, low risk pesticides when needed;
• Efficient water management, by obtaining “more
crops from fewer drops” while maintaining soil health
and minimizing off-farm externalities.

76. Organic farming + Conservation Agriculture
Organic farming, when practised in combination
with conservation agriculture, can lead to:
• Improved soil health and productivity,
• Increased efficiency in the use of organic matter
and
• Energy savings.
• Organic CA farming serves mainly niche
markets and is practised in parts of Brazil,
Germany and the United States of America, and
by some subsistence farmers in Africa.

77. Way Forward
• In current scenario of digital revolution,
more use of computation of Soil Health
Index, expert systems for farmers to
choose the right crop based on soil health
status needed.
• In the COVID and beyond era, data on
urban returned farmers are needed to tune
them to take up ecological Agriculture.

78. Summary
• Several ways and means are available for
developing a more sustainable and
Productive Agricultural Systems
• Models have to be created at block levels
for every farmer to learn and replicate
• In the Post COVID era, more emphasis is
needed on ecologically sound Agriculture
to sustain the production systems

79. THANK YOU!!!