Reference- Modern concepts of Agronomy

1. Submitted by- Akash Singh (M.Sc. Agronomy)
(A-2018-30-013)

2. Questions?
▪ What is the Concept of Crop Diversification?
▪ What are the Drivers of Crop Diversification?
▪ Explain different approaches to crop diversification?
▪ Note on Crop diversification for pest management?

3. Meaning and Concept
▪ In agricultural context, diversification can be regarded as the re-allocation of some of a
farm’s productive resources, such as land, capital, farm equipment and paid labor, into new
activities. These can be new crops or livestock products, value adding activities, provision
of services to other farmers.
▪ In general it refers to the shift from the regional or temporal dominance of one crop to a
production of number of crops, to meet ever increasing demand for food grains, oilseeds
and fodder etc.
▪ Crop diversification is not only the shift from traditional and less remunerative to more
remunerative crops, but it is demand driven, need based situation specific and national
goal seeking continuous and dynamic concept and involves spatial, temporal, value-
addition and resource-complementary approaches. It implies the use of environmental and
human resources to grow a mix of crops with complementary marketing opportunities,
and it implies a shifting of resources from low-value crops to high-value crops, usually
intended for human consumption such as fruits and vegetables.

4. Need for Crop Diversification
▪ It has become an important option to attain several objectives-
1. Natural resources sustainability
2. Ecological Balance
3. Output Growth
4. Buffer Stocks
5. Employment generation
6. Risk Coverage
Similarly there are many reasons that has led to the adoption of
diversification such as market and price risks, risk associated with
existing crop-management practices, adverse changes like
degradation of natural resources and environment and socio-
economic needs like attaining self-sufficiency in some crops etc.

5. Drivers of Diversification
▪ It is a response to both Opportunities and Threats.
Opportunities
1. Changing consumer demand- As consumers become richer, food consumption pattern
changes. People move away from a diet based on staples to one with greater content of
animal products and fruits and vegetables.
2. Changing demographics- With rapid urbanization, no. of farmers are reducing while the
consumers are increasing. This calls for the change in agronomic practices.
3. Export potential- Developing countries had considerable success by diversifying into crops
that can meet export market demand.
4. Adding Value-People are shifting to Ready-T0-Go meals and labor saving packaging. This
provides the opportunity for farmers to diversify into value-addition.
5. Improving Nutrition- Diversifying from the monoculture of traditional staples can have
important nutritional benefits for farmers in developing countries.

6. Contd.
Threats
1. Urbanization- With expansion of cities there is pressure on the land resources.
2. Risk- Farmers face the risk from bad weather and from fluctuating prices. A
diversified portfolio of products should ensure that farmers do not suffer
complete ruin when the weather is bad.
3. External and Domestic Threats- Agricultural production is sometimes undertaken
as a consequence of government subsidies, rather than because it is profitable.
The reduction or removable of those subsidies can have a major impact on
farmers. Similarly trade can have impact on farmers.
4. Climate Change-The type of crop being grown is affected by changes in
temperatures and the length of the growing season. It can modify the availability
of water for production.

7. Challenges in Crop Diversification
The major constraints are:
1. Majority of the cropped area in the country is completely dependent on rainfall.
2. Sub-optimal and over-use of resources like fertilizers, land and water, causing negative
impact on the sustainability of agriculture.
3. Fragmentation of land holding, less favoring modernization and mechanization of
agriculture.
4. Very weak agro-based industry.
5. Inadequately trained human resources together with persistent and large scale illiteracy
among farmers.
6. Decreased investment in agriculture sector over the years.

8. Strategies for Crop Diversification
1. Replacement of low yielding value crops with high yielding high value crops with
longer shelf life.
2. Intercropping in rainfed areas.
3. Diversion of high water requiring crops with less water requiring crops.
4. Legumes intervention.
5. Inclusion of crops having both domestic and international demands.
6. Inclusion of energy efficient crops.
7. Systems with high productivity, profitability and sustainability.
8. Shift high risk crops with short duration pulses and drought resistant oilseed crops.

9. Approaches to Crop Diversification
1. Horizontal diversification- It includes the farm diversification through crop
intensification and crop substitution. It is the primary approach to crop
diversification in production agriculture. Here, diversification takes place through
crop intensification by adding new high-value crops to the existing cropping
systems or to suit the defined objective like use of gap between 2 crops, utilize the
space available in the fields or bunds, as a way to improve the overall productivity of
a farm. A tendency towards cereal specialization was observed during 1967-76
replacing coarse cereals. Similarly, replacing tendency continued by giving space to
oilseeds and other high value crops when income from food grain plateaued.
2. Vertical diversification- In this approach, farmers and others, add value to products
through processing, regional branding, packaging, merchandizing, or other efforts to
enhance the marketable access of the product.

10. Crop diversification
For export- Crops like basmati rice and spices have demand for export and there is need for
diversification with high quality basmati rice and spices to meet the demand. Similarly, there is
demand for cut flowers, onion and other vegetable crops. So there is need to rationalize area
under these crops to avoid scarcity and excess in the domestic market to ensure price stability.
For Nutritional Security- Intervention of legumes and genetically fortified genotypes of cereals
such as golden rice, etc. can help to tackle the problem of malnourishment.
For Nutrient management- The crop with deep root system must be followed by crop with fibrous
root system. This helps in proper and uniform use of nutrients from the soil. The leguminous
crops must be sown after non-leguminous crops as they help in the fixation of atmospheric N into
the soil.
For Pest management- Intercropping can be practiced in widely spaced crops to reduce weed
infestation apart from increasing overall productivity. Crops with different botanical relationshiup
should be altered for control of weed, pest and diseases.

11. Diversification of Maize based Cropping System
Maize based systems are mainly practices in HP, J&K, UP, JK, PB and
RJ. Among the systems, Maize-Wheat is the major system and
diversification is considered to be good alternative to improve yield
and profitability. Maize-Pea-Potato and Maize-Pea-French bean
system was found to be better for mid hills sub humid zone of HP.
Similarly, Rice-Wheat system can be diversified through oilseed
crops like sunflower and soybean.