The prospect of weak monsoon is never good news, but this time it comes on top of a rabi harvest destroyed by unseasonal rainfall, and a spate of farmer suicides
The prospect of a sub-normal monsoon is never good news, but this time it comes on top of a rabi harvest destroyed by being rained on at the wrong time, and a spate of farmer suicides. The only option is to turn monsoon adversity into an opportunity for closer inspection of water usage in agriculture. We need to look at cultivation pathways that generate more output per unit input of water. We also need to release farmers from the clutches of the corporate seed mafia.
It is here that a miracle solution, which has been on offer in this country for at least 15 years, needs to be pressed into speedy action. No, this is not genetically modified seed. It is just a system of intensive cultivation that cuts water requirement in half, and uses less seed, less fertiliser and less pesticide, and delivers higher output per acre by anywhere from 20% to 100%. Initially developed for rice alone, it now extends to other crops such as wheat and sugarcane as well.
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