Conservation agriculture in India – Problems, prospects and policy issues

TLDR

Conservation agriculture (CA) in India, which employs minimum soil disturbance, permanent cover, and crop rotations, has been promoted for two decades to boost productivity, cut costs, conserve water and nutrients, and improve environmental outcomes—especially through no‑till wheat in the Indo‑Gangetic plains—yet adoption remains constrained. The article aims to review constraints, prospects, policy issues, and research needs for CA in India and to develop urgent policy frameworks and strategies to promote its adoption. The authors review constraints to CA adoption—including inadequate seeders, residue competition, residue burning, lack of skilled manpower, and tillage bias—and analyze policy issues and research needs to guide promotion. The study finds that CA offers more benefits than drawbacks, with adopters and promoters recognizing a favorable balance.

Abstract

Conservation agriculture (CA) technologies involve minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil cover through crop residues or cover crops, and crop rotations for achieving higher productivity. In India, efforts to develop, refine and disseminate conservation-based agricultural technologies have been underway for nearly two decades and made significant progress since then even though there are several constraints that affect adoption of CA. Particularly, tremendous efforts have been made on no-till in wheat under a rice-wheat rotation in the Indo-Gangetic plains. There are more payoffs than tradeoffs for adoption of CA but the equilibrium among the two was understood by both adopters and promoters. The technologies of CA provide opportunities to reduce the cost of production, save water and nutrients, increase yields, increase crop diversification, improve efficient use of resources, and benefit the environment. However, there are still constraints for promotion of CA technologies, such as lack of appropriate seeders especially for small and medium scale farmers, competition of crop residues between CA use and livestock feeding, burning of crop residues, availability of skilled and scientific manpower and overcoming the bias or mindset about tillage. The need to develop the policy frame and strategies is urgent to promote CA in the region. This article reviews the emerging concerns due to continuous adoption of conventional agriculture systems, and analyses the constraints, prospects, policy issues and research needs for conservation agriculture in India.