Modern agriculture practises for INDIA

Introduction:

                          The practise of traditional/conventional farming is yet to be prominently practised in under developed and developing countries including India, the reasons behind this practising are in fact real and exist like poverty, lack of technical know-how about new technologies, illiteracy of farmers their marginal scattered lands discourage them to step back from the new initiatives and the poor risk-taking ability became the greatest obstacle stopping them from being a Business man.  To overcome these challenges many approaches has come forward, but any approach solely cannot meet the requirements, it need to be integrated and must meet rising needs including current modern technologies, and here comes the new term MODERN AGRICULTURE.

         

              Modern agriculture is a new evolutionary practise which includes different farming practises that yield best when performed together, the practises include Precision Farming, Integrated farming, innovative farming (introduction of 3 step farming in horticulture ), organic farming, natural farming, implementing INM practises, implementing IPM & IDM practises in order to control the pest and disease infestation,  Advanced farming like Bio- dynamics, treating agriculture as an agri-business, (by generating efficient market chain and by selling value added produce utilizing on farm grading and standardizing techniques) , using GMO’s (genetically modified crops) etc.,

            All these practises along with modernized farm equipment contribute to best way of farming. But it is not possible for every country to adopt and implement all the practises together at a certain point of time, in a specific area and hence the best suited and mostly economically viable practises are to be chosen.

INDIAN CONTEXT:

             India is a diversified country not only in its culture and traditions but also with different type of topographic climates, rainfall distribution, soil types etc., so the practises to be adopted may vary from place to place. But in general, the following practises may be suggested:

1.     Integrated farming: Integrated farming is a system where different farming activities are brought together and where the output of one farming system becomes the input of another. Practising this system of farming may economically uplift the farmers status, but the farmer must know the best combination of farming that could be integrated, like:

             Fish -cum- duck culture

             Paddy- cum – fish culture (highly practised in Indonesia)

All the best combination cannot contribute their best at all places in each time; for example, Aqua culture + Paddy or Horticulture + Animal husbandry may be best for West Bengal state, but aqua culture or fish farming is not possible in Jharkhand rather Animal husbandry+ bee keeping + horticulture+ compost preparation + bee keeping, can be the best integration.

In this system if one farming activity fails to yield it can be regained through the other one.

2.     Organic Farming: This type of farming is economically viable farming which costs less in its application and eco-friendly in nature. This includes organic manures, liquid formulations, bio-fertilizers, zero-tillage practise, green manuring, green leaf manuring etc, this practise can restore the soil fertility. Some organic composts are NADEP, Vermicompost, speed compost etc, formulations that can be easily prepared are Panchagavya, Shasyagavya, Amritjal, Kunapajala, Sanjivani etc, bio-fertilizers like Azolla, BGA etc, some green manuring plants Dhanicha, sunhemp etc.,

3.     Agriculture with adoption pest and disease control practises: By this heavy crop loss can be restored, since most of the crop loss other than by natural disasters, the crop is lost through these pest and disease attacks, so this practise would automatically control the crop loss.

Different methods of IPM and IDM are cultural, physical, chemical, mechanical (mostly used in pest control), biological and chemical method of control, sometimes antibiotics are used for disease control.

4.     Agriculture as Business: Farming as a business can improve and increase the status of farmer both economically and socially, in this process farmer himself plays different roles like as an entrepreneur, marketing agent etc., this would probably can increase their income.

5.     On farm grading, standardization and generation of market:  The price or value of value added produce would be higher compared to the non – value added, for example, Graded potato (sequentially graded A, B, C potato of similar size and quality arrangement) can generate more income compared to the bulk dispose of produce, so a better price would be gained.

6.     Additional Non- farm activities, commercial agriculture practises: This includes mushroom, lac cultivation, collection and selling of forest resources, bamboo crafts, bee keeping, bee wax coating on fruits, medicinal herbs collection etc; can financially support the farmer.

7.     Other practises: Bio-dynamics, precision farming, innovative farming, hydroponics (soil less cultivation using nutrient solutions), aeroponics and utilization of GMO crops are also best adopted practices in developed countries like America, Germany (specially in Bio-dynamic agriculture) etc, since most of the Indian farmers are small and marginal in nature, this high cost farming cannot be possible in present condition, but this can be encouraged in State Agriculture Universities, research institutes etc. In order to get benefited through these modernised practices.

Conclusion: All these practices when adopted based on need can fulfil the arising requirements of both world population and farmer. Alone farmers or researchers are not solely responsible for the current consequences and it is we who discourages the field of farming and ignore the value of agriculture land, so it’s the responsibility of both farmers to utilize the technology and researchers and extension workers to improve the farm mechanisation through different approaches and make them assess to farmers. Along with the above considerations government support is very essential to push up and uplift them in a systematic way through different programmes, projects, schemes and subsidy. These efforts will ultimately lead to increase the farmers income and the dream of doubling farmers income vision would come true.
                                        Musalamadugu Yasaswini, 7^th sem, ARTD 2015 batch