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“There was a huge gain inproductivity,” says Prof. Malik. “Atthe height of the Philaris problem,farmers would harvest 1.5, 1.6,maximum 2 tons per hectare.With zero tillage, they wereharvesting 4.5 tons or more.”The technology providedadditional opportunities for income,too. After the second year, somefarmers bought machines and, aswell as sowing their own fields, hiredthe machines out to their neighbors,a practice known as custom hiring.Support for zero tillagegrew among farmers as well aspolicymakers, with the stategovernment in 1998-99 offeringa 50% subsidy to farmers to buytheir own machines. Commercialopportunities for the private sectorwere boosted accordingly—whensubsidies were introduced, therewere only two manufacturers ofzero-tillage machines. By 2003-04, this number had reached70 across Haryana and theneighboring state of Punjab, andin 2007-08 was close to 100.With the RWC acting as acatalyst, national and internationalinterest grew among researchorganizations, nongovernmentalorganizations, governments, andthe private sector. More fundingagencies came on board—particularlythe Asian Development Bank, theAustralian Centre for InternationalAgricultural Research (ACIAR),Agricultural engineer Harminder Singh Sidhu, with an early-generationHappy Seeder, says that farmers must combine a range of resource-conservingtechnologies if they are to achieve the productivity gains required to meetgrowing demand.the United States Agency forInternational Development, and theUnited Kingdom’s Department forInternational Development—andthe Indian Council for AgriculturalResearch put its weight behindthe initiative. The number of RWCprojects grew rapidly and, accordingto R.K. Gupta, former regionalfacilitator of the RWC, a critical massof scientists turned their coordinatedattention to the rice-wheat system.In Haryana in 2007-08, 0.6million hectares of agricultural landwas planted using zero tillage. Thefigure across the rice-wheat regionof the Indo-Gangetic Plains wasalmost 2 million hectares out of atotal of almost 13.5 million hectares.But it is not only the resultson the land that have benefitedfarmers. Prof. Malik says that oneof the most important things tocome out of zero tillage and theaccompanying movement, knownas conservation agriculture, is thechange in the way research is done.“Scientists and policymakers arenow convinced that the participationof farmers in research—the bottomupapproach—is really morefruitful,” he says. “The managementof site-specific issues has to bedone in a participatory way.”In Punjab, immediatelynorthwest of Haryana, scientists atPunjab Agricultural University (PAU)in Ludhiana are concerned aboutmaintaining the high productivityenjoyed byfarmers in thisstate, knownas India’sbreadbasket.Despite relativelypoor soils, Punjabachieves thecountry’s bestrice and wheatyields, but thesehave stagnatedin recent years.“Punjabsoils arecharacteristicallylow in organicmatter,” explainssoil scientistA farmer inspects a seed drill at a Central Soilsalinity Research Institute field day in October2005 at the institute headquarters in Karnal,Haryana.Bijay Singh, “so, if we want tosustain high productivity, it’s very,very important that farmers adoptresource-conserving technologiesthat can improve soil health.”Development and disseminationof resource-conserving technologiesare a key plank of the RWC. As wellas zero-till wheat, such technologiesinclude a leaf color chart that allowsfarmers to easily determine when andhow much nitrogen fertilizer shouldbe added to their rice crop, and laserland leveling, which promotes bettercrop establishment and reduces wateruse by up to a third. This technology,which should be used once every 3years or so, has been a big success inPunjab, with the number of levelingmachines growing exponentially eachyear: one in 2005, eight in 2006,150 in 2007, and 650 in 2008.Another key resourceconservingactivity—performed incombination with zero tillage—isreturning to the soil rice straw leftin the field after harvest, ratherthan removing or burning it.“When you till, you lose organicmatter, which leads to poor soilhealth,” says Prof. Bijay Singh.“By avoiding tillage and keepingresidue in the field, we returnorganic matter to the soil, whichmaintains or improves soil health.”Further, by returning residueto the soil, farmers circumventwhat has become a major problemin the rice-wheat region of India.Despite laws (which are generallyJ.K. Ladha, Rice-Wheat Consortium coordinator.unenforced) to the contrary, mostfarmers deal with rice straw byburning it, with dire environmentaland health consequences. The air inPunjab and Haryana in November,just before wheat is sown, is thickwith an acrid smoky haze, theresult of tens of thousands ofhectares of burning rice straw.The problem for Prof. BijaySingh and his PAU colleaguesYadvinder Singh, a fellow soilscientist, and Harminder SinghSidhu, an agricultural engineer,is that by avoiding tillage—whichallows incorporation of rice residueinto the soil—farmers were left withfields full of thick, hardy rice strawthat needed to be removed. Theirchallenge was to enable farmersto sow their wheat while leavingtheir rice residue in the field.“Early zero-till machines couldn’toperate through rice residue,”explains Dr. Sidhu. “Farmerswanted to adopt the conservationagriculture technologies but hadno option other than to burn.”Enter the Happy Seeder. Throughfunding from ACIAR, the RWC andPunjab Agricultural University haveworked to refine and distribute thismachine, which can sow wheat seedsthrough rice residue into untilledsoil while simultaneously applyingfertilizer. The Happy Seeder wasfirst developed in the early 2000sby John Blackwell, professor ofagricultural water technology atCharles Sturt University in Australia,Zero-till heroAround 10 years ago, Indian ricewheatfarmer Raj Kumar planted and more drills keep coming intosays Mr. Kumar. “The fact that morehis wheat without first tilling histhe village is a sign of success.”soil. His neighbors laughed, tellingWith better incomes, farmershim he had wasted his seed.are able to buy more land and better“Then, when they saw my crop,” vehicles, and send their children to goodrecalls Mr. Kumar, “they becameschools. It also means less drudgery.converts to zero tillage themselves.”“My family feels good because I canMr. Kumar had been introduced to finish sowing in 1 week and spend morezero tillage by R.K. Malik, an agronomist at time with them,” says Mr. Kumar. “MoreHaryana Agricultural University working income means our standard of livingwith the Rice-Wheat Consortium (RWC). and overall happiness have gone up.”Now, most of Mr. Kumar’s fellow farmersMr. Kumar says that the participatoryin his home village of Bainsi, as well as process fostered by the RWC, in whichin many other villages in Rohtak District, farmers work much more closely withHaryana State, use the zero-till approach. scientists, is mutually beneficial. TheIn the 2008-09 wheat season, Mr. farmers get access to new technologiesKumar planted his entire 24-hectare farm and the scientists get excellent feedbackusing zero tillage. Using his “zero-till seedcum-fertilizerdrill,” he was able to finish Mr. Kumar has no doubt that it is theon their work. In the case of zero tillage,planting in the first week of November, way of the future in this region.around 20 days earlier than when he used “To progress, farmers in the ricewheatsystem need to adopt zero tillage,”to till the land six to ten times prior tosowing. As a result, the wheat is planted he says. “If they don’t, they’ll be behind.”when temperatures are optimum and hisyields are around 0.5 tons per hectarehigher. Not only that, without the need *Exchange rates are approximate for 14 January 2009.to till, his tractor experiences less wearand tear and he spendsless money on diesel.Growing zero-till wheatcosts Mr. Kumar 3,750 Indianrupees (US$75) less perhectare than when he tilledand his income is $200−250per hectare higher. Theseed drill itself cost $600and he made that moneyback through increasedprofit in the first season.“Other farmersin the district havehad similar results,”Rice-wheat farmer RajKumar (left) stands in hisrecently planted wheatfield with neighboringfarmer Dinesh Kumar. Usinga zero-till drill to sow hiswheat seeds, Raj Kumarcuts his labor requirementsand plants his wheat at theoptimum time of year, around20 days earlier than when heused to till.20 Rice Today April-June 2009 Rice Today April-June 2009 21