The story of Indian farming: ancient knowledge and traditional systems

Detail

1. Early farming in the Indian subcontinent ("Echoes from the Past")

Archaeology (the study of old sites and objects) shows that farming in India is very old.

Site / period	What was found	Date
Ganga plain	Rice grains	7th–8th millennium BCE. Planned, regular cultivation may have started later.
Mehrgarh (Baluchistan, now in Pakistan)	Barley and millets	7th millennium BCE
Harappan sites	Barley and wheat were the main foods. Some sites also had rice.	Rice by the 3rd millennium BCE
Across the subcontinent	Animals tamed (domesticated)	From about 3500 BCE

• Order of dates (oldest first): rice grains in the Ganga plain and barley at Mehrgarh (7th millennium BCE) → animal domestication (about 3500 BCE) → Kalibangan furrows (about 2800 BCE) → rice at some Harappan sites (3rd millennium BCE).

2. Kalibangan: proof of intercropping

• Kalibangan is a Harappan site in Rajasthan, dated to about 2800 BCE.
• The find (NCERT Fig. 1.2): a ploughed field with criss-cross (perpendicular) furrows. Furrows are lines cut into the soil by a plough.
• What it shows: the furrows point to intercropping, which means growing two or more crops together in the same field.
• Furrows running one way held one crop.
• Furrows running across them held another crop.

• Farmers in the area still used this method in the 1960s.

• Vedic crop names: yava (barley), godhuma (wheat) and vrihi (rice).

3. Ancient texts on farming

Text	What it says about farming
Kautilya's Arthashastra	How to prepare seeds before sowing
Sangam literature (old Tamil writings)	Farming and farm landscapes of the south
Amarakosha (a Sanskrit word-book)	Names twelve kinds of agricultural land
Krishi-Parashara	A text on farming (krishi means agriculture)
Varahamihira's Brihatsamhita	Grafting
Surapala's Vrikshayurveda ("science of plant life")	Seed treatment and watering of plants

• Grafting: a part of one plant is joined to another plant so that the two grow as one. Farmers use it to get, for example, a fruit tree with good fruit and strong roots.
• The ancient seed drill did three jobs in one operation: 1. It prepared the soil. 2. It dropped the seed in. 3. It closed the furrow over the seed.
• This saved labour and seed, and sowing was even.

4. Traditional farming systems: plant and soil as one system

• The main idea: traditional farmers saw the plant and the soil as one living system. To feed the plant, they fed the soil.
• Farmyard manure (dung, urine and crop waste) went back into the soil.
• This fed soil organisms such as earthworms and microbes.

• Those organisms kept the soil fertile.

• Terrace farming (Uttarakhand): steps (terraces) are cut into hill slopes.

• Each flat step slows down the rainwater running off the slope.
• Less soil is washed away, and more water soaks in.

• This makes it possible to farm on steep Himalayan slopes.

• Kulagar (Goa): homestead gardens of the Konkani people. These are mixed gardens next to the house, with many trees and crops grown in layers.

• Gokrishi: cow-based farming. Cow dung and urine are used as manure, and bullocks pull the plough.
• Bio-inputs studied by ICAR (farm inputs made from natural, living material):
• Panchagavya: made from five cow products (dung, urine, milk, curd and ghee). It is used to help plants grow.
• Beejamrit: a seed treatment made from cow dung and urine. Seeds are coated with it before sowing.

5. ICAR and the scientific check of traditional knowledge

• Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR): India's top body for farm research and education.
• Founded in 1929 as the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research.

• It now works under DARE (Department of Agricultural Research and Education), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

• Testing traditional knowledge:

• ICAR recorded about 5,000 traditional practices.
• It tested over a hundred of them.

• Over 85% were found to be scientifically valid (the methods work).

• Seeds: NCERT points out that farmers have long saved and swapped seeds of local varieties. This kept crop diversity alive.

6. Zabo system, Nagaland

• Zabo means "impounding water" (holding water back). It is a traditional farming system of the Chakhesang Nagas of Kikruma village, Phek district, Nagaland (NCERT Class 9, iest102).
• How the slope is used, from top to bottom:

Position on the slope	Part	What it does
Hilltop	Protected forest	Holds soil and lets rainwater soak in
Upper slope	Ponds	Collect (harvest) the rainwater
Middle slope	Cattle yards	Animal dung washes down with the water as manure
Foot of the slope	Rice-and-fish paddies	Rice and fish grow in the same flooded field
Field edges	Earthen bunds (mud walls)	Keep soil and water in the field

• How it works, step by step:
• Rain falls on the forest and is stored in the ponds.
• The stored water flows down through the cattle yards and picks up manure.

• The water reaches the paddies and feeds both the rice and the fish.

• Result: the system combines forestry, water harvesting, animal rearing, farming and fish farming. It also conserves soil and water.

7. Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS)

• GIAHS: a list kept by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) of traditional farming systems that matter for their ecology, culture and livelihoods.
• Start: the programme was launched at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), Johannesburg [3].
• India's three GIAHS sites (NCERT Fig. 1.20):

Site	State / UT	Year	Key feature
Pampore saffron heritage	Kashmir (J&K)	2011	Saffron grown for centuries around Pampore
Traditional agriculture of Koraput	Odisha	2012	Combines forest management with the crop diversity kept by tribal farmers: many types of paddy, millets, pulses, oilseeds and vegetables
Kuttanad below-sea-level farming	Kerala	2013 [2]	Rice grown about 1–3 m below sea level

• Order by year: Pampore (2011) → Koraput (2012) → Kuttanad (2013). In the same order, they run north → east → south-west.

8. Kuttanad below-sea-level farming, Kerala

• Location: Kuttanad is a delta region on the west coast of Kerala, next to Vembanad lake.
• How the land was made: delta swamps with brackish water (a mix of salt water and fresh water) were drained to create farmland [2].
• Dykes (raised earth walls) were built to hold back the water.
• The water inside was pumped out.

• Paddy is now grown on this reclaimed land, about 1–3 m below sea level.

• History: farmers here have used below-sea-level farming for over 150 years [2].

• Fields and water management:
• Polders (low land enclosed by bunds) are used to redirect water [2].
• Bunds are made of coconut by-products, sand and clay. Farmers strengthen them according to how high the floodwater is [2].

• Padasekhara committees (field committees) share the cost of keeping the bunds in good repair. Each farmer pays according to the size of their land [2].

• Thanneermukkom barrier (bund): it stops sea water from entering Kuttanad during the paddy season [2].

• Three parts of the landscape [2]:
• Wetlands for paddy and fishing.
• Garden lands for coconut and food crops.

• Water areas for inland fishing and shellfish.

• Mixed farming: rice is combined with fishing and duck rearing. Ducks are let into the fields right after the rice harvest [2].

• "Rice bowl of Kerala": Kuttanad grows about 25% of Kerala's rice [2].
• Under stress:
• The number of fish species fell from 150 to 36 over three decades. Many are now critically endangered or have disappeared from the region [2].

• The area was badly hit by the 2018 Kerala floods.

• Who proposed it to FAO: the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) [2].

9. Looking ahead: hydroponics

• Hydroponics: growing plants without soil. The roots sit in water that has the nutrients dissolved in it.
• NCERT presents it as a way to farm in cities, where there is little land.

Prelims Hooks

• Kalibangan (Rajasthan), about 2800 BCE: criss-cross furrows show intercropping, a practice still seen in the 1960s.
• Mehrgarh (Baluchistan): barley and millets, 7th millennium BCE. Harappan staples were barley and wheat.
• Vedic crop names: yava = barley, godhuma = wheat, vrihi = rice. A common trap is to swap godhuma and vrihi.
• Text–topic pairs: Brihatsamhita (Varahamihira) = grafting. Vrikshayurveda (Surapala) = seed treatment and watering. Amarakosha = 12 kinds of land. Arthashastra = seed preparation.
• Kulagar = Konkani homestead gardens of Goa. Zabo = Chakhesang Nagas, Kikruma, Phek district, Nagaland.
• ICAR: founded in 1929 as the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research. It works under DARE.
• India's GIAHS sites: Pampore saffron (2011) → Koraput, Odisha (2012) → Kuttanad, Kerala (2013). The programme was launched at WSSD 2002 [3].
• Kuttanad: the only place in India where rice is grown below sea level. It lies by Vembanad lake, and the Thanneermukkom barrier keeps out salt water [2].
• The ancient seed drill prepared the soil, sowed the seed and closed the furrow in one operation.

Mains Points

• Traditional knowledge is backed by science.
• ICAR documented about 5,000 practices and found over 85% of the tested ones valid.
• Panchagavya and beejamrit are ICAR-studied bio-inputs.

• Use: natural farming, reducing chemical fertiliser, and soil health (GS-III).

• Farming systems built for their landscapes.

• Hills: terraces in Uttarakhand, Zabo in Nagaland.
• Wetlands: Kuttanad.

• These show how to save soil and water and combine farming, fish and animals. They are models for agriculture that can cope with climate change (GS-I distribution, GS-III environment).

• Heritage systems under threat.

• In Kuttanad, fish species fell from 150 to 36 [2].
• Kuttanad also suffered in the 2018 floods, and salt water can get in.

• Policy responses: GIAHS recognition, barrier management, and shared upkeep of bunds by padasekhara committees [2].

• Ancient to modern.

• Path: intercropping at Kalibangan → texts such as the Vrikshayurveda → ICAR (1929) → hydroponics for cities.
• Point to make: India's knowledge of farming has developed without a break over thousands of years. Use it to answer questions on how farming systems have changed.