ENVIRONMENT: Farmers Abandoning Their Ploughs

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Danielle Knight

WASHINGTON, Oct 2 2001 (IPS) - More farmers in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan are using low-till agriculture than ever before, leading to increased yields, less herbicide use and improved water conservation, say agricultural researchers.

The Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), in an assessment released Tuesday, described the trend toward farming without ploughing a “major agricultural transformation” that is “sweeping across Asia’s bread basket.”

“Low-till practices have caught on like wildfire among farmers, with the area being planted to low-till agriculture increasing ten- told per year,” said natural resource agronomist Peter Hobbs.

The change in farming methods is likely to have benefits for the 150 million people in the region who depend solely upon rotational cropping of rice and wheat during the wet and dry seasons, Hobbs added.

For the past several decades, researchers like Hobbs have been promoting the low-till method to large and small farmers worldwide as an inexpensive way to reduce weeds, save water, and increase harvests.

According to Hobbs, low-till agriculture, also known as reduce- till and no-till, has been particularly successfully in India and Pakistan. The cropland sown using low-till techniques in these two South Asian countries increased from about 3,000 hectares in the 1998-1999 growing season, to more than 100,000 hectares in 2000- 2001, he said.

“It is anticipated that this area could surpass 300,000 hectares next year and soon reach one million hectares,” CIMMYT said in its assessment.

Traditional ploughing methods expose the soil to air, which over time leads to the depletion of soil nutrients. Soil moisture also is depleted, increasing the need for irrigation water.

The reduction or elimination of ploughing leaves much or all of the soil surface and existing ground cover undisturbed during the planting process. This also restricts the growth of weeds.

Low-till techniques also reduce water use by as much as 30-50 percent per year by increasing the moisture retained by the soil.

Low-till practices could save as much as five billion cubic meters of water each year in South Asia, according to Timothy Reeves, director general of CIMMYT.

“Low-till is one of the best examples in the world of technologies working for both people and the environment,” said Reeves.

In South Asia, Reeves said, researchers and farmers have adapted low-till techniques to meet local needs and circumstances.

For example, when farmers sow wheat after harvesting rice, they use locally manufactured “planters” to place wheat seeds and fertiliser into the soil through the rice straw left standing from the previous harvest.

Because the leftover straw remains anchored in the soil, its roots provide channels for wheat roots to grow as well as a habitat for the beneficial pests that prey on invasive insects. As the rice straw decomposes, it provides a natural fertiliser of organic matter for the wheat crop.

Planting wheat, said the researchers, immediately after harvesting rice means the crop is planted three or four weeks earlier than it would after ploughing.

“This enables the crop to mature fully before the hot, dry weather sets in, thereby increasing crop productivity and income,” according to CIMMYT.

The low-till method is designed to be accessible to farmers with no equipment, little cash, and often very little land, said Hobbs. About seventy percent of the farmers who practised low-till cultivation between 1999 and 2000 in Haryana State, India, did not own tractors and were considered “resource poor” by researchers.

The “planters” cost about 400-500 dollars each and can sow approximately 80 hectares per cropping season.

“Farmers with little cash rent the equipment,” said Hobbs.

Researchers acknowledged that low-till agriculture had a slow start after being introduced to the region in 1984. Once the benefits became apparent on a few low-till farms, Hobbs said, the technique began to spread rapidly.

“These benefits could not be realised if it weren’t for the local farmers who were willing to experiment with these low-till techniques and adapt them to their local conditions,” said Hobbs.

Other researchers said no-till farming is spreading even more quickly in other parts of the world, especially South America.

“We’ve slowly learned that ploughing is not good for the soil, costs more, and takes more time,” said Brian Halweil, research associate with the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute.

According to the Potential of Sustainable Agriculture to Feed the World Research Project at the University of Essex in Britain, no- till farming has increased apace in Argentina and Brazil.

In Argentina, there were 9.2 million hectares under no-till farming in 1999, up from less than 100,000 hectares in 1990. In the three southern Brazilian states of Santa Canterina, Rio Grande do Sul, and Parana, there were 11 million hectares of low-till agriculture in 1999, up from one million hectares in 1991.