Crop diversification
Topic: Land Use, Farming Systems and Cropping Seasons in India · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Crop diversification means moving away from growing the same one or two crops year after year. In Punjab and Haryana, the rice-wheat system has drained groundwater (about 80% of Punjab's area is overexploited), harmed soils and caused stubble burning. Diversification shifts land out of paddy into crops such as pulses, maize, oilseeds, millets and horticulture (fruits and vegetables).
These crops need less water. Pulses also put nitrogen back into the soil. Growing several crops spreads risk, so one bad season or one price crash does less harm to the farmer.
Example
Haryana's Mera Pani Meri Virasat scheme pays farmers an incentive to grow other crops instead of water-hungry paddy (verify current).
Don't confuse with
- Multiple cropping: this means growing more crops on the same field in a single year. Diversification means changing which crops are grown.
- Mixed cropping: two or more crops grown together on one field at the same time.
Related concepts
- Rice-wheat cropping system
- NPK ratio imbalance
- Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act 2009
- Direct seeded rice
- Zero tillage
- System of Rice Intensification
- Organic farming
- Sikkim organic state
- Natural farming
- Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana