Nepal’s economy is essentially hooked in to agricultural, which accounts for 36% of GDP and absorbs about two-thirds of the labor market. About 30% of Nepal’s total land is employed for agricultural purposes. In the present condition too, more focus is given to cereal-cereal cropping systems, such as rice wheat, pearl millet –wheat, maize, etc. The Green revolution that has brought the main increase in crop yield during the 1960s and 1970s in developing Asian countries is now showing signs of slow growth in productivity gains. Sensitive agriculture practiced without maintaining ecological aspects has led to degradation of soil health, the decline in the availability of freshwater resources, and agro-biodiversity. The negative impacts of climate changes are seen to disrupt the balance between food supply and demand by shifting abruptly from its surplus to deficit. The increase in global temperature and water scarcity will fuel it by affecting crop production. So, managing food security and its sustainable development is one of the biggest challenges in Nepal. Within this, crop diversification is a new concept of sustainable agriculture.
In agriculture, the concept of crop diversification is to bring desirable changes towards existing cropping patterns to satisfy the demand of cereal pulses, oilseed, fiber, fodder etc. without degrading soil health and other related issues. Another issue came within the account of crop diversification is economic returns from these farm enterprises with the concept of multiple cropping in small land holding. It implies the use of farm resources in such a manner to realize complementary effects on quality and monetary values. During this direction, a farmer growing agriculture crops also can adopt different sectors like dairy, fishers, horticulture, and vegetable crops with value addition of their products, which enhance the economic security.
Why is Crop Diversification Necessary?
Our objectives like natural resources sustainability, ecological balance, output growth, employment generation, risk coverage can be attained through following crop diversification which aims to increase total productivity in terms of quantity, quality, and monetary value under specific, diverse agro-climatic situations.
Diversification within the direction of the cropping system will help in mitigating many issues. Otherwise you can say problems associated with soil fertility, soil health and soil micro flora and fauna, which are becoming extinct thanks to large scale use of unbalanced fertilizer.
In the present scenario, farmers are characterized by small land holdings. The typical farm size is smaller. So, it’s very hard to shift to another cropping pattern. Before revolution, food security was an enormous challenge. To satisfy this idea , again crop diversification is required for nutritional food security, sustained soil, water, flora -fauna atmosphere and generating income possibilities. Now, it’s time to try to make efforts towards diversification of food basket for food with nutritional security.
Some of the advantages of crop diversification are:
- Increasing income on small farm holdings.
- Minimizing price fluctuation.
- Balancing food demand.
- Improved fodder production.
- Conservation of natural resources.
- Minimizing environmental pollution.
- Decreasing insects, pests, weeds, and diseases.
The approaches;
- Horizontal approach by crop intensification and crop substitution.
- Vertical approach including processing, packaging, etc.
- Land use approach through alley cropping, pasture management.
- Water-saving approach (dry land farming).
- Varietal diversification.
- Nutrient management through increased cultivation of legume crops.
- Pest management (intercropping, resistant varieties)
- Risk reduction by crop rotation.
Possible outcomes:
(i) Increase in production- It which will be obtained by followings ways
(a) Minimizing yield gap through decreasing water shortage, proper supply and use of inputs like healthy seeds, fertilizers, etc., and by
(b) By enhancing yields, nutritional profile, stress tolerance and crop protection and also GM crops through biotechnological approaches that involve crop and livestock production;
(ii) Water resource management- Adoption of irrigation schemes such as Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) is required for enhancing farm incomes;
(iii) Focused and better growth on barren land- adopting rainwater harvesting and storage through different irrigation techniques;
(iv) Reduction in the cost of production – through
(a) Smart nutrient management by implementing soil health card programme,
(b) Low input agriculture- can be achieved through farming methods such as organic farming, sustainable agriculture and precision farming,
(c) Integrated Farming System
So, in brief words, crop diversification in agriculture will have an incredible impact within the uplifting of resource-inadequate farming systems and an overall increase in yield of crops under the effect of climate changes by mainly maintaining the physical and chemical properties of soil through accepting and practicing the mentioned techniques. It’ll also generate employment opportunities for rural youth round the year for the utmost benefits of the farmers. There are still various constraints for crop diversification like poor basic infrastructure, inadequate post-harvest technologies, very weak agro-based industry etc., but location specific approaches and government policies and methods for crop diversification have to be approved.
