Rainfed rice - IRRI books - International Rice Research Institute

Sustaining Rice Farming
in Eastern India
The concept of sustainability
I
ntensive agriculture takes its toll on natural resources and on the
environment. This means that farmers have to produce more from less
and deteriorating resources. Keeping this in mind, the sustainability of
rice farming under existing conditions in this region is not assured without
special efforts. To develop specific plans to enhance the level of
sustainability in priority ecozones, one must understand what sustained rice
farming means.
Understanding sustainability is a
complex matter and it can be defined
and interpreted in several ways. For a
subsistence farmer, sustainability means
survival of the family. An economist, on,
the other hand, may define sustainability
as living on the interest but not on the
capital, while an environmentalist
may look at it as the preservation and
conservation of natural resources and
non-degradation of the environment.
Sustainable rice farming
Sustainable agriculture in a broad
sense means management of resources
for agriculture to satisfy changing
human needs, maintaining or
enhancing the quality of environment
and conserving natural resources.
We cannot assume what sustainable
rice farming means to eastern
Indian farmers, but we know it
includes:
a level of income from rice farming
that could meet their household
needs; and
Sustainability is a complex matter
Sustainability, for practical purposes, can be
defined as striking a balance among productivity,
natural resources, and the environment at
different levels of equilibrium for different agroecological
situations. This can be basically
achieved through the application of ecotechnologies,
which are rooted in the principles of
ecology, economics and equality and equity. This
would mean analysing:
the farming environment where rice farming is done;
trends of productivity and input use; and
the level of benefits derived and the damage done to
the system, and accordingly designing a suitable
production farming system, rather than improving
commodities.
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