The benefits of zero tillage as RCT are well established. During last two decades a number of experiments have been carried out in rice based cropping system. Under government schemes the ZT technology has also been demonstrated. But there is no remarkable increase in area under ZT. Why?
For the simple reason , practically very difficult to adopt , especially in agricultural field having field crops or horticultural crops including fruit crops...
After being convinced about the benefits of ZT, farmers need to be adequately equipped, they have to have their fields levelled and may be trained better to cope with the weeds in ZT.
I had seed in Bihar that farmers tend to practice ZT untill they çontinue to get free inputs and machine- services. One the project-aid stops, they stop the ZT practice also.
I think our farmers like to live as traditional cultivators. Our extension workers advocating ZT need to be more serious to pursue with the farmers when adoption of ZT has proven multiple benefits.
Frankly speaking Indian farmers don't dare for new experiment in agriculture. They mostly rely on traditional mode of farming for crop production.
I am working with my colleagues of a KVK in IGP area and having some data on use of ZT in alluvial plains.
A survey was conducted in year 2009 to know the opinion of 100 progressive farmers of 16 blocks of the Deoria district about zero tillage practice in wheat. Survey data indicated that there were only two zero till machines in Deoria district and they were nonfunctional. The area under zero traction was also negligible and the average yield of the farmers was around 30 q/ha.
A second survey was conducted in year 2018-19 (10 years later of previous survey) and found that there were 58 zero till machines, 4 happy seeders machine. The area under zero till has increased to 698 hectares and the average yield of wheat increased from 30 to 50 q/ha using zero till technology.
@Anoop, you are right sir. but there is some prominent benefits in field crops, particularly in rice based cropping system in terms of less cost of cultivation, timeliness and saving of energy.
@ P R Kumar, you correctly mentioned that weed management is an issue in ZT practice. Further, I have also witnessed that after withdrawal of input support from government projects, farmers go back to their age-old practice. At present custom hiring centres are there and ZT seed-cum-ferti drill is available in many places.
@ R P Sharma, great development.
Sagar, I am in agreement with you in totality , but fact remains the fact . ZT has yet not found a due place, despite the well proven benefits. In perennial fruit crop - based productiin system , it becomes doubly difficult to maintain orchard hygiene , with the result, soil borne pathogens occupy a centre stage of problems , unless such issues are addressed through planned research...
Sir,
Timely application of weedicides and irrigation is must in zero till method but 90 % farmers are not take care of such activities. So production is less than the expectation.
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Timely application of weedicides and irrigation is must in zero till method but 90 % farmers are not take care of such activities. So production is less than the expectation and another problem is residue management. Therefore, the area under ZT(zero tiil) is increasing very slowly.
Sir , i think in Odisha particularly the mind set of farmers in traditional method and non availability of zero - till drill are two major obstacles. The direct seeded rice schemes are also not gaining popularization. But Zero tillage in rabi crops may get its popularization after availability of machines and more result demonstrations.
@ Arpita, not only in Odisha but in other states, farmers have their own mindset. Dissemination of improved tech is always a challenge. Presently, we are thinking of smart agriculture. It's a tough time to us to reach out to farmers' field. Thanks for your comments.
@ Kamlesh, weed management in ZT is very important. Interestingly, herbicide use in India is increased during last two decades.
Dilip Kumar Pal Sir
R P Sharma Sir
Sir we are agree with your points but I have something to share with you sir.
I was working as RA for the project of farm mechanization in Rice. for that purpose we have selected 50 farmers and invited them for the training of 60 days.
In these 60 days they will trained with zero till drill, drum seeder, paddy transplanter, conoweeder, power weeder, combine harvester and four wheel tractors etc.
It was planned to mechanize the 300 Ha land of the district using these trained farmers.
Sir as we all know that farmers are facing the major issue with labour avalability and their wages hike.
Ultimately we were working toward the farmers development.
So we started to train them on our research station fields.
ONE DAY
Current State Minister has Called to Assoc. Director of Research to stop this project on farm mechanization !
Reason ??
That only 10th pass minister was saying that this project will take the jobs from the labours of his constituency.
OK.
But what about farmers then ?
And when it comes to election rallies, they just talk about farmers development.
Sir, I will say these, uneducated politicians are the biggest barrier in the development of India agriculture not farmers.
Based on the scientific work done and the experience gained from the work on farmers fields by different agencies( both national and international) a policy decision has to be taken by Government on zero or reduced/minimum tillage.Necessary resources have to be allotted.Mechinery/equipment need to be procured and arranged and appropiate incentives have to provided to the farmers.Above all concerted extesion deparment efforts are a must with appropiate monitoring and midterm corrections.As I understand countries like Maxico made very good progress in implementing conservation agriculture on farmers' fields.
@ Subba Rao, thanks for your valuable comments. I agree with you. But, my intention of discussion is : When technology is proven, can we not expect little more progress in dissemination and adoption by changing the mindset?
As per my opinion farmers are not motivated or not been educated about its benefits , They are not ready still to break the taboo of intensive tillage .
There are not only one rather multiple factors behind less popularity when it comes to adopting Zero tillage practice in India. Unlike the USA or any other European countries, a major portion of Indian farmers are economically poor to very poor and holds a very small chunk of cultivable land. The success of zero tillage depends on the use of heavy machinery for direct drilling of seeds and other inputs. Again to move these types of machinery across the field, high powered tractors ( generally higher than 65 HP) should be used. The price of any kind of zero tillage machinery is not less than 3 lakh INR while a suitable tractor costs not less than 9 lakh INR. So to adopt zero tillage practice from scratch an Indian farmer will need around 12 lakhs INR in the starting phase. The income from one hectare of rice+wheat land is around 1.10 lakh INR per year. As a result, it does not seem to be an economically sound practice to a maximum of farmers unless community-based or cooperative based ownership is included.
The second point is the yield improvement due to the adoption of zero tillage is controversial. While many research works from India indicate a yield improvement, the USA and many EU countries are reporting the other way. Well, even in case of yield increment, it is always after the initial two to three years, which makes the farmer sceptical who wants his invested money back as soon as possible.
The third point is the non-visibility of the major advantages of zero tillage by a common person. There is no doubt that zero tillage improves the soil carbon stock, soil microbial count and enzymatic activities however, this is something a farmer can not experience by himself. The weed suppression capacity of zero tillage is another factor which a farmer generally doubts off i.e, it can be suppressed using herbicides.
Forth point is the straw management only issues with rice straw in India; as wheat straw is often used as cattle feed. There are other practices such as mushroom production which gives the farmer more income than simply incorporating it to the soil.
So because of all these things, the adoption of zero tillage is sluggish and only limited to wealthy farmer belt of Punjab, Haryana, Western Uttarpradesh and some parts of Rajasthan.
@Subhradip, you have nicely explained. Thanks for your valuable comments.
@Owais, I agree with your opinion. There is need for intensive FLD for awareness and dissemination of the technology.
Zero tillage is minimum or least disturbance of soil for crop cultivation...if we talk about bulk density as a very important soil property which influences soil-nutrient-water status to a greater extent, somehow it is increased if we do zero tillage in the field..as volume of the soil doesn't increased if we don't disturb soil to increase mellowness as well as accurate pore size distribution or say say friability..if we are using conventional tillage like ploughing harrowing and planking operations volume of the soil solid, water and air spaces will be increased but only for a temporary time...may he upto the next tillage in question.after a definite period of time, due to rainfall and irrigation events, soil will become hardy with a great compaction as in case of zero tillage..but it has been reported that bulk density of the soil under conventional tillage and zero tillage varies upto a definite depth of the soil...beyond that, in both of the system, there is same value of bulk density..zero tillage operations have long lasting advantages in the soil influencing all physical , chemical as well as biological properties...soil organic carbon and organic matter will be maintained under zero tillage operation due to lesser exposure of soil aggregates to the air and sun light, there by lesser decay or oxidation of organic matter, thereby organic carbon is maintained hence improve fertility level..I think adoption of zero tillage operations largely depends upon the mentality of the farmer...convince them that they can get same yield under both the system along with restoration of soil fertility with sustainable ecology under zero tillage...farmers used to burn crop residue as they dont have any other options to manage the residue due to sowing of next crop on time..there is very little gap between rice harvesting and wheat sowing...rice residue they can't feed to the animals because of more amount of Si present which is not recommended to the livestock.another region is due to livestock farming...always there is a huge competition between livestock farming and zero tillage as farmers are interested to keep their crop residue for animals(other than rice)..'there is also a problem of appropriate machinery for the sowing in the plots with residue...zero fertilizer seed drills are using away well as happy seeders...but not on a large scale...no doubt, zero tillage offers so many advantages related to soil fertility, soil health, global warming effect management, soil erosion control...but in case of hilly areas, there is a need to identify the microorganisms which is quite responsible for breaking down of the straw for better mixing up with the soil just after sowing to improve soil fertility....
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