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CASI in the Eastern Gangetic Plains

The Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) is an agriculturally vibrant region. Endowed with rich agro-biodiversity, EGP is also exposed to various challenges like natural disasters, dense population, poverty, and malnutrition. The cost of input, including electricity, water depletion, and land depletion, the indiscriminate and imbalanced usage of chemical fertilizers, and above all, the detrimental impact of global climate change, which would probably reduce crop yields by 7-10%, is further exacerbated by these challenges. 

Conservation Agriculture-based Sustainable Intensification (CASI) approaches offer an opportunity to increase profitability and reduce inputs while maintaining yields even in the face of climate shocks, thereby also strengthening the resilience of the farming systems.

  • CASI has proven the capability of increasing farm income by diversifying crop systems and using energy more efficiently.
  • CASI enhances climate change adaptation and climatic variability.
  • CASI methods improve the health of soils.

It is necessary to encourage the implementation of methods such as CASI which can sustainably boost efficiency and viability while mitigating environmental and human risks while also addressing added strain from increasing climate variability.

Policies to support CASI include promoting machinery such as Zero Till Drills, Happy Seeders, Laser Land Levelers, Bed Planters and Mechanical Rice Transplanters; making these machinery more affordable and accessible to individuals and groups; promoting opportunities for the private sector to work with smallholder farmers; and enforcing conditions such as banning the burning of crop residues, which make CASI a favorable approach to existing crop production methods.

Supporting CASI

The main obstacles preventing CASI scaling include a lack of access to proper equipment, poor water administration, weak market access, low numbers of local agri-businesses, and a poor capacity for diversification to high-value enterprises. Suitable policies and institutional reforms are needed to address these obstacles, and institutional leadership is equally vital in implementing these changes. An additional difficulty is the lack of comprehensive and broad-based expertise and advice.

Farmers must have access to the appropriate machinery service, reliable inputs, affordable energy, and water, and assured market options, all of which are accessible at crucial times of the year for CASI methods to be applied on a broad scale. This requires a policy environment that facilitates access to information and the use of technology.

Mechanization-friendly policies in the EGP are now a priority. Reforms and initiatives that encourage fairer ownership and access to appropriate equipment will increase the competitiveness of markets. Custom Hiring providing a wide range of farmers to access machinery is an essential model for enhancing service delivery, particularly where the machinery is large and costly. The scaling of CASI technology will be vital to the achievement of customer recruiting through a convergence of national and state systems.

Widespread Adoption of Conservation Agriculture

The Innovations Platforms (IPs) has been identified as the best tool in which conservation agricultural practices for smallholders in South Asia can be used in ways that benefit farmers, input and output suppliers, and promote entrepreneurs and local businesses, as well as creating opportunities for rural micro-entrepreneurs. IPs capitalize on existing groups to build trust in communities, empower women, and develop implementable policies.

Moreover, innovation platforms help align the vested interests of the business players, civil society, and other stakeholders and promote policy mechanisms. They can bring together different types of expertise, experience, and interests which will enable learning between policymakers and market and civil society actors.

Know more about Innovation Platforms

… for more productive, profitable and resilient farming systems

The SRFSI project is a regional research for development collaboration of more than 30 partners, focused on the Eastern Gangetic Plains.