Indian agriculture is characterized by the over-whelming presence of marginal (having less than 1 hectare of operational land holding) and small (having greater than 1 and less than 5 hectare of operational land holding) farmers. Unfortunately, these two categories also feature as the most vulnerable groups at the bottom of the pyramid farming population of the nation. As per the Agricultural Census 2011, there about 138 million landholdings in India, out of which Small and Marginal Farmers account for 117 million. In the last five decades, the average land holding size has significantly declined by 96% to 1.16 hectare. Thus, the Indian agriculture as it stands today has a growing small land holding character and its future sustainability and growth will depend a lot on the productivity and performance of small and marginal farmers.

Are the small holders moving towards sustainability and increased productivity?

The era of early 1970s had brought the ‘Green Revolution (GR)’ which rescued our country from severe food crisis, enhanced the agricultural productivity by manifolds and swelled our food stores for next few decades. But what it also brought with itself was the indiscriminate and erratic use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and unsustainable ‘modern’ farming techniques.

Down in 21^st century, our natural ecosystems are poisoned and our rich crop diversity is as good as lost. The implications of chemical intensive GR technologies has taken the highest toll on the small and marginal farmers. Entangled in declining farm productivity, high input cost of fertilizers, price risk and degrading soil quality they are finding it hard to generate enough farm produce to meet their family basic nutritional’s needs leave aside any incremental farm cash income. The frequent news of farmers’ suicides in different parts of the country unfortunately sums it all.

So what holds the key?

While there a no dearth of policy frameworks, regulations, recommendations to improve the predicament of small and marginal famers, a core solution should be able to unlock the potential productivity of small land holdings through an efficient integration and optimization of available resources. Bio integrated farming models which sets to develop the production and management systems of a farmer are now emerging as potential solutions to implement the ‘evergreen’ revolution, particularly for small and marginal farmer category.

A bio integrated farming model has various sub-systems including farmland, pond, livestock, vermicompost pit, biogas plant effectively linked with each other. With a high level of integration among various sub-systems connected through organic practices, the overall system becomes self-sufficient and sustainable leading to higher farm output which not only caters the nutritional needs of farmer’s family but also generates marketable surplus. Integrated farming tries to successfully answer the core economical question of how to increase productivity per unit of a given resource.

There has been increasing cases of small and marginal farmers transiting from mono-cropping practices to integrated farming models and they have been successfully experiencing a significant turnaround in their earning capacities. However, the larger community still remains abstained from experimenting with this innovation due to lack of expertize knowledge, limited access to financial support required for initial investment and the labour intensive nature of the model. The current situation requires an enhanced participation from all relevant stakeholders to promote a transitional shift from monoculture to integrated farming to safeguard the ‘small landholding’ element of the Indian Agriculture.

A second ever-green revolution is possible in India: it requires taking an integrated view of the entire farming system.

Do you agree? Other suggestions? Tell us in the comments section!