System of Crop Intensification – An Experience with SRI Policies and Perspectives

Indian population growth by 2030 is expected to be 1.515 billion surpassing China with the present trend of reduction in arable land created a challenge on the sustainability of food production system. Countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America due to the population pressure and to safeguard the food security have adopted a system of crop intensification among various crops like wheat, finger millet, sugarcane, mustard, soybean and kidney bean. The system of crop intensification along with new technologies could show crop improvement in the growth of yield during the previous decade (2011-12 to 2021-22) in rice-wheat. There is an evident yield gain particularly in SRI cultivation as reported by many researchers. The technologies of SRI advocate intensive use of some inputs combined with organic components making the plant sturdy for better intake of nutrients. Studies on standardization of the techniques for SCI by repeated experimentation are observed as a lacuna by the present study. The recent alternatives like using less quantum and more efficient use of water recommended by dry seeded rice techniques in compression with SCI techniques were not tested with ground reality. The changes perceived with the policies related to irrigation, procurement, price policy and trade policy are examined in the present study. Additional areas brought into irrigation were always converted into rice fields. Due to area expansion and also by the potential yield gains by SCI, the whole enhanced production will reach the market for want of marketing. This excessive supply of rice reported by the balance sheet of rice which resulted in price crash, price volatility etc. Curbing the unnecessary area expansion under single mono cropping by diversifying with crops like millets, pulses and oilseeds. The excessive supply also creates a burden on procurement of grain which necessitates additional storage space public and private and payment burden on Central government as well as agencies like FCI. Instead of MSP as a whole a differential payment approach also can be adopted to reach more farmers and cover volumes of production. Moreover, additional supply may create more exports but the question of virtual water trade arises there resulting in a dilemma to expand exports or not. On the other hand, India being a strong exporter of rice can influence the imports of the exporting counties and flare up the food inflation in the world. All the above discussions favor the controlled and balanced production which may be affected through the SCI i.e., achieve the desirable production through reduced area under rice thereby allocating the remaining areas in cultivation of diversified crops. The experiences of rice can be replicated in other crops also.