Crop Diversification in the Asia-Pacific region - United Nations in ...

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3. PATTERNS OF CROP DIVERSIFICATION3.1 Crop Diversification in Rice LandRice is cultivated mainly in the Red River and Mekong River deltas. It is difficult topractice crop diversification in the rainy season in both river basins. From November to Mayor June, upland crop(s) can be grown in rotation with rice if farmers have the capacity toinvest on inputs and can get net returns from such cropping patterns. Upland crops inrotation with 2 rice crops are considered as “sub-crop(s)”, for which farmers need not paytaxes.In the Red River Delta, farmers have experience in growing an upland crop betweentwo rice crops. Spring rice is harvested in June and early ‘Mua’ rice crop is harvested at thebeginning of November. The possible upland crops to follow in this cropping pattern arepotato, vegetables, beans etc., or at the end of October it could be corn, sweet potato orsoybean. They are sown immediately after harvesting rice to avoid low temperature inwinter. Short duration and non-photosensitive rice varieties are chosen for the early Muarice crop. When necessary, crop seedlings for each hill are prepared by sowing seed inseparate boxed seedbeds made of leaves or plastic. Sometimes farmers put seedlings of theupland crop in rice fields about 10 days before harvesting the rice crop. Such croppingsystems (rice-rice-upland crop) are practiced on hundreds of thousands of hectares in theNorth, including the Red River Delta. Farmers can get more cash from the upland crops,especially by growing temperate vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower and potato whichcan yield 15-20 tonnes/hectare. There is a residual effect from the upland crop for thesubsequent spring rice crop which includes minimizing land preparation and weed controlcosts, and spending less on fertilizer.In the Mekong delta, there is no problem of low temperatures. Farmers have grownmany upland crops in rotation with rice, except crops of temperate origin such ascauliflower. Farmers grow winter-spring rice from November to February, then follow upwith an upland crop before summer-autumn rice. It is interesting to note that in Longxuyenquadrangle, peanut has been grown on heavy soils (60 percent clay) on thousands ofhectares, which can yield 3-4 tonnes/hectare. The soils in this region are perhaps high inorganic matter (5-6 percent) and the difference of diurnal day/night temperature is high (6-10 o C). In terms of residues for the next rice crop, groundnut and vegetable soybean (65days) are considered the best. Generally, no tillage is applied for upland crops. Afterburning rice straw, farmers make planting holes and place the seed. One of the problems ofcrop intensification for crop diversification on rice land is damage from floods in the rainyseason. Floods occur from the middle of August and recede in November. Farmers areattempting to experiment with new technologies to overcome such constraints, for example,by using rice varieties with a duration below 90 days, or to apply a method of water seedingfor the winter-spring rice crop in order to shorten the duration of the crop in the field.In the 1960’s and 1970’s, Azolla was cultivated on a large scale in about 0.5 millionhectares in the north, especially in the Red River Delta. Azolla could replace 30-50 percentof N fertilizer for winter-spring or spring rice crop, but this practice has since beenabandoned. The reason is that Azolla cultivation requires a lot of labour with very preciseconditions in the winter season and farmers had to spray insecticides and apply phosphorousfertilizer every 5 days. They also had to manage water and remove dew to dry Azolla everyday when temperature was low (below 15 o C), if not, Azolla would die. Leguminous crops149
such as groundnut, soybean, mungbean for either cash crop or green manure are feasiblecultivation alternatives under these conditions. These leguminous crops can be grown inrotation with rice or intercropped with corn as well. Data from production experimentsshow that vegetable soybean (65 days for green soybean, 90 days for soybean seed) andpeanut are the best for the above purpose, grown either as a cash crop or for green manure.Yield of the following rice crop can be increased by 20-30 percent, or it can decrease Nrequirement by 30-40 kg/ha. When grown as an intercrop with corn, spacing of 80 cm x 25cm should be replaced by spacing of 120 cm x (25x40 double lines), as by theseconfigurations the corn population will have the same plant density of 50,000 plants/hectare,which gives the same yield. Three lines with 40x20 cm of leguminous crop can be grownbetween two lines of corn with a spacing of 120 cm.3.2 Crop Diversification on Sloping LandThe movement of soil, water and nutrients is the major problem on sloping land. Forexample, the Red River Basin is located on a split topography with steep slopes measuring19-37 percent on the average and the Red River, therefore, annually loads 137 billion cusecsof water with a substantial amount of soil and nutrients, leading dramatically to erosion andrapid degradation of soils. Serious deforestation in the past for agriculture developmentreduced forest cover to 28 percent, but in recent years (1999) it has increased to 33 percentby using different measures.According to the results of surveys of the National Institute for Soils and Fertilizer(1998), in the North the crop yields have decreased from year to year after clearing forest forcrop cultivation. Some of the results are given below:Crop Yields after the Third Year of Shifting Cultivation (kg/ha)Crop First Year Second Year Third Year1,3007002,5001,50012,0008,000Upland RiceCornCassavaDepletion of the Organic Matter (0-30 cm depth) after Forest CleaningCultivation Cycle Organic Matter (%)First year after forest cleaning3.5After 5 years of tea cultivation2.5After 5 years of cassava cultivation0.91504006005,000Human activities under severe population pressure and poverty conditions oftenneglect erosion control measures on cultivated sloping land, although the best controlmeasures are to keep a forest cover or re-forest, or to plant perennial industrial or fruit crops.In this situation, methods of farming activities are recommended such as planting crops onthe contour, in combination with agro-forestry and intercropping.Leguminous plants such as Sesbania cannabina, Crotalaria strata, Cassia tora,Vigna indica, Tephrosia candida, Leucaena glauca and Medicago hispida, are used onsloping land either for soil loss reduction or green manure. Cropping patterns of cassavawith intercropped peanut and Tephrosia candida as hedgerows, or hedgerow tea culture on
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RAP PUBLICATION: 2001/03CROP DIVERS
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CROP DIVERSIFICATION IN THEASIA-PAC
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13. INTENSIFICATION OF CROP DIVERSI
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INTRODUCTORY REMARKSMinas K. Papade
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New opportunities that would benefi
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CROP DIVERSIFICATION IN BANGLADESHM
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(CDP) during 1990/95 in 125 Thanas
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SlName of Crops1 Aus:HYVLocalTable
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Table 4. Trade of Crops/products (I
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through development projects implem
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y the terminal year of the Fifth Pl
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cropping. This has only been possib
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process and export those labour int
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g) restoration/improvement of soil
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8. RECOMMENDATIONSConsidering the i
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enthusiasm of the farmers in their
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3.3 The Formation and Development o
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carried out for years, guarantees t
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environment protection. Special att
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2. CROP PRODUCTION AND ECONOMICS SC
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What is most notable is the change
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8.36 m/ha involved in the area shif
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fact that the area shares of the do
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country. Therefore, a judicious use
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5.3 Emerging Technology and Crop Di
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7. CONCLUSIONSIndia, being a vast c
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Table 3. All India: Temporal Change
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Table 5. All India: Temporal Change
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CROP DIVERSIFICATION IN JAPANMasa I
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production, these ratios were deter
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soybean using paddy fields should c
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food industry have sharply increase
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7. CONCLUSIONSThe Japanese socio-ec
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Figure 2. Change of Rice Productivi
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Figure 4. Aid Provided by Major Cou
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The Natural Rubber (NR) industry co
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About 78 percent of the rubber grow
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should be attractive to justify the
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REFERENCESAnon. 1990. Proceedings o
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Table 3. Agriculture Land Use in Sa
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Table 7. Paddy Production, 1985-199
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Table 10. Imports and Exports of Fr
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Table 14. Exports and Imports of Pr
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CROP DIVERSIFICATION IN NEPALK. C.
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We know hill farmers face many prob
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Table 2. Growth of Agricultural Com
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3. PATTERN OF CROP DIVERSIFICATIONN
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With regard to success stories of c
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5. CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITIES AND PR
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It recognizes the need for a differ
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CROP DIVERSIFICATION IN THE PHILIPP
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2.3 Yield Per Hectare of Agricultur
Page 106 and 107: In coconut, diversification means t
Page 108 and 109: were used in the preparation of the
Page 110 and 111: There are a variety of factors that
Page 112 and 113: Table 1. Production Area of Commerc
Page 114 and 115: Table 3. Yield (tonnes) Per Hectare
Page 116 and 117: Table 5. Selected Macroeconomic and
Page 118 and 119: Table 7. Dominant Rice Cropping Pat
Page 120 and 121: 1.2 Soils in the Crop Diversificati
Page 122 and 123: Table 1. Major Crops, Their Extents
Page 124 and 125: drained and rice on poorly drained
Page 126 and 127: Figure 3. Schematic Representation
Page 128 and 129: The potato production in the up cou
Page 130 and 131: Table 6 clearly shows that there is
Page 132 and 133: In addition to the above scenario,
Page 134 and 135: 6. GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND STRATEGI
Page 136 and 137: Panabokke, C.R. 1996. Soils and agr
Page 138 and 139: y promoting diversified crops inste
Page 140 and 141: Over the past few years, agricultur
Page 142 and 143: Land TenureMore than half of the Th
Page 144 and 145: The New theory is a novel approach
Page 146 and 147: Mushrooms: nang-fah mushroom (Pleur
Page 148 and 149: - Farmers can sell their rice at a
Page 150 and 151: In order to maintain the growth rat
Page 152 and 153: REFERENCESAthipanan, Withaya. 1995.
Page 154 and 155: CROP DIVERSIFICATION IN VIET NAMNgu
Page 158 and 159: the contour with mulching using ric
Page 160 and 161: development of new crop varieties a
Page 162 and 163: • Cultivated and growing area und
Page 164 and 165: other hand, the size of an average
Page 166 and 167: 4.1 Crop NutritionA major contribut
Page 168 and 169: increased from 130 million ha to 15
Page 170 and 171: in tobacco nurseries. These also he
Page 172 and 173: past experience. A sustainable prog
Page 174 and 175: diversification, taking into accoun
Page 176 and 177: The major outputs are:- Integration
Page 178 and 179: • Database and information materi
Page 180 and 181: • Business plans have been formul
Page 182 and 183: minimize such losses. The developme
Page 184 and 185: LIST OF PARTICIPANTSBANGLADESHM. En
Page 186 and 187: SRI LANKAH.P.M. GunasenaDirectorPos
Page 188 and 189: FAOR.B. SinghAssistant Director-Gen
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