Haryana, Punjab to be first to get sustainable agriculture index

For the first time in the country, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is preparing a development index for sustainable agriculture for Haryana and Punjab.

Facts :

• The announcement was made by ICAR's secretary Chhabilendra Roul during the 42nd foundation day celebration of the National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning (NBSS & LUP) held in Nagpur.
• As a pilot project, the development index will be first prepared for Haryana and Punjab.
• The council's institutes like National Institute of Agricultural Economic and Policy Research (NIAP) will be initiating the study which is expected to go on for two years.
• The project is starting with these two states as they have similar agro-ecological conditions.
• Based on the results of pilot experiment, the study will be extended across the country.
• Studies done by state-level agriculture universities will also be incorporated during the study.
• The council has identified about 115 indicators to determine the index.
• Out of them, 17 indicators will be of soil, 15 of water and remaining will comprise ecological, environmental, bio-diversity and socio-economic parameters.
• There is drastic increase in the area where cotton is cultivated.
• Earlier, the crop would be cultivated in 80 lakh hectares in the country. Now, the area has gone up to 120 lakh hectares and the main reason behind this is market-controlled farming.
• National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning dedicated three first-of-their kind mobile applications to the farmers of the country.
• The three apps included a soil health card, a potential zone mapper and a land resource inventory of Goa.
• It also launched a digital map for Yavatmal, which revealed that 67% of the cultivable farming area in Yavatmal is suitable for growing BT cotton.
• The bureau will be preparing similar maps for other districts too.

Analysis :

• While some countries have a development index for sustainable agriculture, our agro-ecological system is different and we can't rope in all the parameters they have.
• Discussions are going on with experts to zero down the indicators to a manageable level.
• With a development index in place, the government will be better informed about the status of sustainability and would be able to frame better policies for farmers' benefits.
• Indicators used for agricultural sustainability should be location specific.
• They should be constructed within the context of the contemporary socio-economic and ecological situation.
• The precise measurement of sustainability in agriculture is impossible as it is site-specific and a dynamic concept.

Measuring Difficulties of Agriculture Sustainability :

The multifaceted nature of sustainable agriculture, with three interdependent and interactive components (ecological, social, and economic) causes difficulty in monitoring. There are three major challenges :

• The measures currently available generally fall short in terms of assessing the interactions and interdependencies among the three components and the tradeoffs of pursuing one component at the expense of another.
• Many of the measures or indicators currently available are not particularly useful to farmers or are too time-consuming to measure in their day-to-day work, making it difficult for them and their families to monitor progress in terms of agricultural sustainability. This is particularly regrettable because many of the issues relating to sustainable agriculture are location or situation specific.
• Most indicators show progress or no progress towards specific components of sustainability, but they fall short in terms of helping to determine cause/effect relationships to help assess current problems and provide ideas on what needs to be done to ensure continued progress towards sustainability. An additional complication is that some strategies relating to sustainable agriculture require 5–10 years (e.g., a full crop rotation) of implementation before they result in visible or measurable signs of payoff.

Although a large number of indicators have been developed, they do not cover all dimensions and levels. Due to variation in biophysical and socioeconomic conditions, indicators used in one country are not necessarily applicable to other countries .Therefore, indicators should be location specific, constructed within the context of contemporary socio-economic situation.

Some recommendations to selecting indicators in order to more appropriate measuring of agricultural sustainability are:

• Necessity to adoption of a systemic approach.
• Establishment and gathering appropriate data base and other necessary information in shape of time series in developing countries.
• More emphasis on determining of sustainability trend instead of precision determining amount of sustainability, especially with respect to lack of accessing such data in developing countries.
• Launch of professional institutes to monitoring and measuring sustainability of agricultural and industrial systems .
• Develop those indicators which be feasible to implementing, meanwhile responsive and sensitive toward any stresses and manipulation on system.

By: Harman Sandhu