Sustainable pathways: fixing the rice-wheat system, organic and natural farming

Detail

1. How farmland is damaged

Land degradation means the soil loses its fertility or its physical health, so it grows less crop over time. The damage takes different forms in irrigated land and in rainfed land.

Land type	Main form of damage	How it happens
Irrigated areas (Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, canal commands)	Salinisation (the main form), waterlogging, alkalisation, pesticide build-up	Too much canal water and poor drainage cause the damage
Rainfed / dry areas (Deccan plateau, Rajasthan, ravine lands)	Water erosion and wind erosion	Bare soil is washed away by rain or blown away by wind

• Waterlogging: the water table rises close to the surface. Roots sit in water and cannot breathe.
• Salinisation (salts collect in the topsoil). The process runs in three steps:
• Too much irrigation water raises the water table.
• Water moves up through the soil and evaporates in the heat.

• The salts dissolved in it stay behind as a white crust on the surface.

• Alkalisation: sodium salts build up and make the soil alkaline (high pH). Such soils are called reh, kallar or usar soils in the northern plains.

• Toxic pesticide build-up: chemicals that are sprayed again and again stay in the soil and the water.
• Loss of natural nitrogen fixation. Legumes and fallows used to restore the soil, and both are disappearing:
• Legumes (pulses such as gram, moong and arhar) have root nodules with bacteria. These bacteria take nitrogen from the air and put it into the soil.
• The Green Revolution's rice-wheat system pushed legumes out of the crop rotation.
• Fallows (land left uncropped for a while so the soil can rest) became shorter. As a result, the soil now depends on bought urea for nitrogen.

2. The rice-wheat cropping system: the core problem

• Rice-wheat cropping system: paddy is grown in the kharif season (sown June–July, harvested October), and wheat follows in the rabi season (sown November, harvested April). The same field carries both crops every year.
• Extent: about 10 million ha of the Indo-Gangetic plains. The core is in Punjab and Haryana, and it spreads east into Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
• Why paddy grew in Punjab: Punjab is a semi-arid region with only about 500–700 mm of rain, and paddy is not its natural crop. Paddy spread because of:
• assured government buying at Minimum Support Price (MSP);
• free or cheap electricity for tube-wells;

• high-yielding varieties brought in during the Green Revolution of the 1960s.

• Groundwater depletion. A puddled paddy field needs standing water for months:

• so tube-wells pump out more water than the monsoon puts back;

• so the water table falls every year.

• Official data (CGWB):

• The stage of groundwater development in Punjab was 164% as on March 2022. This means the state pumps out much more water every year than is recharged [3].
• Of 150 blocks assessed in 2022, 114 were "over-exploited", 4 "critical", 15 "semi-critical" and only 17 "safe" [3].

• This matches the figure that roughly 80% of Punjab's area is over-exploited (NCERT: about 80%).

• Soil health: repeated puddling (churning the wet soil to hold water) forms a hard layer called a hardpan below the surface. This hardpan blocks the roots of the wheat that follows.

• Stubble burning: after the paddy harvest, farmers burn the leftover straw (stubble) so they can sow wheat quickly. This is a major cause of the October–November smog over Delhi-NCR (see geographical-issues-problems).

3. Fertiliser imbalance: the NPK ratio

• NPK ratio: the balance of the three main plant nutrients:
• N: nitrogen, for leaf growth;
• P: phosphorus, for roots;

• K: potassium, for grain filling and disease resistance.

• Ideal ratio: taken as about 4:2:1 for Indian soils.

• Why the ratio is skewed:
• Urea (the nitrogen fertiliser) has a fixed, heavily subsidised price, so it is very cheap.
• P and K fertilisers (DAP, MOP) cost more.

• So farmers apply too much nitrogen. The imbalance is worst in Punjab and Haryana.

• Result: soils become short of P, K and micronutrients such as zinc. Extra nitrogen leaks into groundwater as nitrate, and yields stop rising.

Response	Year	What it does
Neem-coated urea	2015	A thin coat of neem oil slows the release of nitrogen, so crops use more of it and less leaks away. It also stops urea being illegally diverted to industry.
Soil Health Card scheme	2015	Each farmer gets a card from a soil test. It shows which nutrients the field lacks and the right fertiliser dose for each crop.
Nutrient-based subsidy (NBS) reform	NBS since 2010	The subsidy on P and K fertilisers is fixed per kg of nutrient. Trap: urea is kept outside NBS, which is why the N bias continues.

4. The Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act 2009

• What it says: paddy may not be transplanted before a notified date in mid-June. Haryana has a similar Act, also of 2009.
• Why it helps:
• Before the Act, transplanting in May relied on tube-well water during the hottest, driest weeks.
• After the Act, transplanting is pushed close to the arrival of the south-west monsoon (late June in Punjab).

• So the crop uses monsoon rain and groundwater pumping falls.

• Side effect:

• Later transplanting means a later paddy harvest (late October).
• That leaves only about 2–3 weeks before wheat must be sown in November.
• Farmers then burn the straw quickly instead of removing it.
• Result: more stubble burning, just as winter temperature inversion sets in. (Temperature inversion: a layer of warm air sits over cold air near the ground and traps smoke close to the surface.)

5. Water-saving and residue fixes

Practice	What it is	Benefits	Where
Direct-seeded rice (DSR)	Rice seed is sown straight into the field by machine. There is no nursery and no transplanting of seedlings into flooded (puddled) fields.	Saves water and labour; no puddling, so no hardpan; less methane	Punjab, Haryana. Punjab pays a per-acre incentive for DSR (verify current).
Zero tillage	Wheat is sown into unploughed soil with the paddy residue left on the surface, using the Happy Seeder (a tractor-drawn machine that cuts the straw and sows wheat through it in one pass)	Saves water, diesel and time; the straw becomes mulch (a cover that keeps moisture in the soil); no burning	Indo-Gangetic plains
System of Rice Intensification (SRI)	Developed in Madagascar in the 1980s. Young, single seedlings, wide spacing, intermittent watering (the field is wetted and dried in turns, not kept flooded) and organic manure	Less water and seed; stronger roots; similar or higher yields	Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Bihar
Crop diversification	Moving land out of paddy into pulses, maize, oilseeds, millets and horticulture	Saves water; legumes restore nitrogen; breaks the pest cycle	Punjab and Haryana. Haryana's Mera Pani Meri Virasat pays farmers who give up paddy (verify current).

• Why paddy releases methane:
• A flooded field has no oxygen in the soil.
• Microbes that live without oxygen break down organic matter.
• They release methane, a strong greenhouse gas.

• DSR and SRI keep the soil less flooded, so they cut methane.

• For crop patterns and the spread of each crop, see crops-agriculture-india.

6. Organic farming

• Organic farming: farming without synthetic (factory-made) fertilisers or pesticides. It relies on:
• compost and farmyard manure;
• seed cake (oilcake left after oil is pressed out of seeds);
• crop rotation (changing the crop on a field from season to season);

• neem-based pest control.

• Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY): structure and money

• PKVY was launched in 2015 under the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture as part of its Soil Health Management component [2].
• Farmers are grouped into clusters of 20 ha that switch to organic farming together. This keeps standards uniform and lets farmers share costs [2].
• Farmers get ₹31,500 per hectare over three years, split as follows [2]:
  • ₹15,000 for inputs, paid by Direct Benefit Transfer;
  • ₹4,500 for marketing and branding;
  • ₹3,000 for certification;
  • ₹9,000 for training.

• The upper limit is a holding of 2 ha per farmer, so the scheme targets small and marginal farmers [2].

• PKVY: certification

• PGS-India (Participatory Guarantee System): farmers in a group inspect each other's fields and certify the produce. It is cheap and meant for the domestic market. It is run by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare [2].
• NPOP (National Programme for Organic Production, Ministry of Commerce): third-party certification to export standards [2].

• Large Area Certification (LAC), launched in 2020-21: for areas where chemicals were never used, such as tribal belts and islands. It cuts the conversion period from 2–3 years to a few months [2].

  • All 2,700 ha of farmland in Lakshadweep is certified organic [2].
  • So are 14,491 ha in Car Nicobar and Nancowry islands [2].

• PKVY: progress (as of February 2025)

• About 15 lakh ha under organic farming, 52,289 clusters and 25.30 lakh farmers benefited [2].

• The Jaivik Kheti portal lets farmers sell organic produce directly to buyers. 6.23 lakh farmers had registered on it by December 2024 [2].

• North-East: the Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region (MOVCDNER) builds organic value chains from farm to market in the hill states.

7. Sikkim: the organic state

• Phased ban: Sikkim banned chemical fertilisers and pesticides step by step (NCERT Class 7: 2014).
• Recognition:
• Declared the world's first fully organic state in 2016.
• Won the Future Policy Gold Award 2018, given by FAO with the World Future Council and IFOAM.

• The award recognised Sikkim's State Policy on Organic Farming (2004) and Sikkim Organic Mission (2010).

• Certification: 60,000 ha in Sikkim was supported under LAC. Sikkim is described as the only 100% organic state in the world under LAC [2].

• Pema's story (NCERT Class 8 case): a farmer's experience after the switch went like this:
• yields dipped in the first years;
• then they recovered;
• premium prices for large cardamom and ginger followed;
• birds, insects and soil life came back;
• incomes rose by about 20%.

8. Natural farming

• Natural farming: chemical-free farming that uses only on-farm inputs, not bought compost or bio-fertilisers. Its main tools are:
• Jeevamrit: a liquid made from cow dung, cow urine, jaggery, pulse flour and a handful of soil. It feeds soil microbes.
• Beejamrit: a seed treatment made from cow dung and urine, which protects young roots.
• Mulching: covering the soil with crop residue.

• Mixed cropping: several crops grown together.

• Organic vs natural farming:

• Organic farming may use bought organic inputs and needs certification.

• Natural farming aims at near-zero bought inputs.

• Models:

• Subhash Palekar's Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF).

• Andhra Pradesh's community-managed natural farming programme, the largest state programme.

• National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF), approved November 2024, aims to:

• cover 7.5 lakh ha (verify current);
• work through 15,000 clusters in willing gram panchayats;

• reach 1 crore farmers.

• PKVY is being linked with NMNF [2].

9. The policy umbrella

• National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), 2008: India's main climate plan, with eight national missions:
• Solar;
• Enhanced Energy Efficiency;
• Sustainable Habitat;
• Water;
• Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem;
• Green India;
• Sustainable Agriculture;

• Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change.

• National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA): one of these eight missions. It promotes:

• location-specific integrated farming systems (crops, livestock, fish and trees combined to suit the local area);
• soil and moisture conservation;

• farming that is productive, sustainable, remunerative (profitable) and climate-resilient.

• Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), 2007: a flexible fund that lets states plan their own farm investment. NCERT Class 12 misprints the name as "Rashtriya Vikas Yojana". RKVY also funds PKVY: ₹205.46 crore was released for PKVY under RKVY in 2024-25 [2].

• The trade-off (NCERT Class 7):
• Modern methods (HYV seeds, chemicals, tube-wells) give high yields but damage soil and water.
• Traditional methods (rotation, legumes, manure) are resilient but give lower yields.
• The task is to combine the two.

Prelims Hooks

• The main form of land degradation in irrigated areas is salinisation. In rainfed areas it is water and wind erosion.
• Ideal NPK ratio ≈ 4:2:1. The distortion is worst in Punjab and Haryana. Urea is outside the Nutrient Based Subsidy regime.
• Neem-coated urea and the Soil Health Card scheme both date from 2015.
• Punjab (CGWB 2022): stage of groundwater development 164%, with 114 of 150 blocks over-exploited [3].
• Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act, 2009: bans paddy transplanting before a notified mid-June date. Unintended effect: more stubble burning.
• SRI comes from Madagascar (1980s), not India. Its features: single young seedlings, wide spacing, intermittent irrigation.
• Happy Seeder goes with zero tillage (wheat sown into paddy residue). DSR cuts methane because there is no standing water.
• PKVY (2015): 20 ha clusters, ₹31,500/ha over 3 years, PGS-India certification. It sits under NMSA's Soil Health Management component [2].
• Sikkim: first fully organic state (2016) and Future Policy Gold Award 2018 (FAO-linked). Its organic policy dates from 2004. Lakshadweep's entire 2,700 ha of farmland is certified organic under LAC [2].
• NMSA is one of the 8 NAPCC (2008) missions. RKVY dates from 2007.

Mains Points

• Causes of the rice-wheat crisis (GS-III):
• MSP, free power and HYVs locked Punjab and Haryana into a water-hungry crop that does not suit their semi-arid climate.

• The result is over-pumped aquifers (164% extraction, 114/150 blocks over-exploited, 2022) [3], a hardpan, NPK imbalance and stubble-burning smog.

• Policy contradictions:

• The 2009 subsoil water Acts saved groundwater but squeezed the window between harvest and sowing, so more straw was burnt.

• Fixes need technology (DSR, Happy Seeder or zero tillage, SRI) plus price signals (diversification incentives, rational urea pricing, procurement of pulses and millets).

• Organic and natural farming as alternatives:

• Sikkim shows that a full switch is possible: yields dipped, then recovered with premium crops.
• PKVY has reached about 15 lakh ha and 25.30 lakh farmers (2025) [2].

• Limits remain: lower early yields, certification costs, and difficulty scaling up in the food-surplus Green Revolution belt.

• Way forward:

• Use NMSA's integrated farming systems and soil and moisture conservation under the NAPCC.
• Combine modern productivity with traditional resilience: legumes back in rotation, residue kept on the field, location-specific crop choice.