Embracing Agricultural Diversity
While remaining at home in the current time, the families who have enough financial security are busy cooking. The WhatApp statuses are recently full with food photos. Kids are learning to make Chapatis. Mothers are baking cakes to cheer up everyone in the family. People have been complaining about lack of stocks of bread, biscuits, noodles and pasta in the grocery shops. Imagine while doing all that you come across an article on the internet saying that if agriculture in this world stops, the food stocks are going to last only 57 days. You get panicked. You will think of preparing for the doomsday because you have been dependent on one single grain called wheat.
In fact there is one study and the article is actually there on the internet. After reading it I did not panic since my stomach was full with jackfruit. The article deals with how lands are being diverted to grow crops for making bio-fuels, meat etc. which cannot be denied but while calculating these numbers they have must have referred to data for world stocks of only three major grains, wheat, rice and maize. Even if we consider only India and the base of nutritional pyramid, the carbohydrates, the potential it presents for its production is huge but if we only have wheat and rice in mind like those policy makers in the ivory tower and the worried writers of that article we are not going to make it.
We take pride in the diversity that is called India. It has 15 agroclimatic zones identified by the Planning Commission. As per the climate these regions can produce the suitable type of crops. Talk of grains, high altitude Himalayas have been growing Barley, drought affected west central India has been cultivating Bajra and Jowar and the southern India has been planting Ragi. Add to it diverse range of unique local millets which tribals have preserved since ages. Talk of tuber crops, there are potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams and tapioca which Indians have been growing efficiently. And the humble jackfruits back at my native region of Konkan were planted and maintained by the grandfathers are still giving fruits rich in carbohydrate. This is all in addition to the food stocks of wheat and rice lying in the government godowns.
Now the question is whether we have paid any attention to this diversity. Talk of the farmers, they have been neglecting these crops and remaining content with the minimal production of some of these. I remember talking with some of the farmers in Nashik district where Bajra has been a major crop traditionally. Most of them did not care much about how much their crop produced once their own food requirement was fulfilled. However discussion with some really knowledgeable and innovative farmers was an eye opener. They were able to produce 24 quintals of Bajra grains in an acre in the rainy season with 2 irrigations applied during critical stages to ensure production. In the same village Wheat crop was being grown in dry season which required 6 irrigations and was able to produce only 12 quintals in an acre of land.
Nutritionists have been advocating diversity in diet and despite that the consumers are increasingly going towards monotony of it. If they start eating this iron rich Bajra grain, which will have lesser cost of production and resultantly lesser price compared to wheat, its demand will increase. Businesses will start operating in that direction. There will be mills for cleaning and sorting this grain, retailer giants will start keeping it in their malls and processing units will get established to make various products out of it.
The links are missing.
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In fact there is one study and the article is actually there on the internet. After reading it I did not panic since my stomach was full with jackfruit. The article deals with how lands are being diverted to grow crops for making bio-fuels, meat etc. which cannot be denied but while calculating these numbers they have must have referred to data for world stocks of only three major grains, wheat, rice and maize. Even if we consider only India and the base of nutritional pyramid, the carbohydrates, the potential it presents for its production is huge but if we only have wheat and rice in mind like those policy makers in the ivory tower and the worried writers of that article we are not going to make it.
We take pride in the diversity that is called India. It has 15 agroclimatic zones identified by the Planning Commission. As per the climate these regions can produce the suitable type of crops. Talk of grains, high altitude Himalayas have been growing Barley, drought affected west central India has been cultivating Bajra and Jowar and the southern India has been planting Ragi. Add to it diverse range of unique local millets which tribals have preserved since ages. Talk of tuber crops, there are potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams and tapioca which Indians have been growing efficiently. And the humble jackfruits back at my native region of Konkan were planted and maintained by the grandfathers are still giving fruits rich in carbohydrate. This is all in addition to the food stocks of wheat and rice lying in the government godowns.
Now the question is whether we have paid any attention to this diversity. Talk of the farmers, they have been neglecting these crops and remaining content with the minimal production of some of these. I remember talking with some of the farmers in Nashik district where Bajra has been a major crop traditionally. Most of them did not care much about how much their crop produced once their own food requirement was fulfilled. However discussion with some really knowledgeable and innovative farmers was an eye opener. They were able to produce 24 quintals of Bajra grains in an acre in the rainy season with 2 irrigations applied during critical stages to ensure production. In the same village Wheat crop was being grown in dry season which required 6 irrigations and was able to produce only 12 quintals in an acre of land.
Nutritionists have been advocating diversity in diet and despite that the consumers are increasingly going towards monotony of it. If they start eating this iron rich Bajra grain, which will have lesser cost of production and resultantly lesser price compared to wheat, its demand will increase. Businesses will start operating in that direction. There will be mills for cleaning and sorting this grain, retailer giants will start keeping it in their malls and processing units will get established to make various products out of it.
The links are missing.
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