The program has been successful in promoting the use of organic farming methods and the adoption of drought-resistant crops, leading to a significant increase in crop yields
- The coastal areas of Gujarat are impacted by groundwater salinization as well as soil salinity.
- The Tata Trusts’ soil conservation programme empowers communities with a systematic approach.
Introducing Sujit Kumar Gopinathan, Regional Manager- Gujarat at Tata Trusts. With over a decade of experience in the development sector, Sujit Kumar has been at the forefront of driving positive change in rural India. Under his leadership, Tata Trusts has been working tirelessly to bring about sustainable solutions in the areas of agriculture, water management, and soil conservation.
One of the programs that Tata Trusts has been actively involved in is the Soil Conservation program. The program has been instrumental in promoting soil conservation and sustainable land use practices in the rural areas of India. Through a combination of awareness campaigns and on-ground implementation, the program has successfully transformed the lives of thousands of farmers. Excerpts of an interview:
1. What was Tata Trusts’ approach while developing the soil conservation programme?
Over the past few decades, community mobilisation and agriculture development programmes have been the backbone of soil conservation efforts in India. They have enabled the establishment of sustainable practices and processes and catalysed the creation of local economic frameworks for advanced development.
The Tata Trusts’ soil conservation programme is a systematic approach that leverages the foundations of previous initiatives to inform and empower communities to implement independent soil conservation efforts within their existing socio-ecological context. The major engagements include watershed treatments for moisture retention and soil conservation; construction of water harvesting structures to maximise harvesting of rainwater runoff and thereby controlling the soil erosion and plantation activities. Other interventions also include promotion of mulching, vermicomposting etc to conserve as well enhance the quality of soil.
Tata Trusts also worked with the local Krishi Vikas Kendras, local agriculture universities and subject experts in the region to develop focused initiatives that enhance agricultural productivity and rural development. Supporting grassroot organisations ensures long term change and makes communities resilient, and our focus at Tata Trusts is to empower local organisations with tools and knowledge to address the challenges faced by their communities. This further guides resource allocation and planning and gives us a channel to better engage with the farmers.
2. Gujarat has been facing challenges due to climate variability and lack of water for irrigation. How is Tata Trusts’ addressing the challenges faced by farmers in Gujarat?
Gujarat has been a key area of focus for the programme due to the climatic variability, extreme weather events like high intensity rainfall during short spells as well as overall reduction in the seasonal rainfall.
The Trusts has been engaged in two specific geographies of Gujarat – primarily the Eastern Tribal belt along the districts of Banaskantha, Sabarkantha, Dahod and Panchmahal and the Coastal areas along the Saurashtra region of Gujarat – Bhavnagar, Amrelli, Gir Somnath, Porbandar, and Dwarka. Both these geographies have their unique challenges as well as opportunities and the programme interventions in these geographies have focused engagement on addressing the issues related to enhancing areas under irrigation as well as address ground water quality due to sea water ingress in coastal areas.
The key activities include construction of water harvesting structures and check dams, establishment of small lift irrigation units on existing water sources, and facilitation of the solar energy solutions for non-grid connected farmers – solar pumps for water lifting, construction of wells and borewells. Similarly, in the coastal areas where apart from addressing issues of water availability for irrigation, Tata Trusts also engage intensively for water resource development to recharge ground water, thereby addressing the issues of salinity due to sea water ingress.
While continuing to invest monetary resources to enhance the supply side of water for irrigation, equal importance is also focused on the demand side management, essentially through promotion of efficient irrigation methods – drip, sprinkler, spray irrigation, use of plastic mulch and also promotion of appropriate agronomic practices which will improve the efficiency of crop irrigation water.
Behavioural change in the farmers through training, exposures, demonstrations are key to the same. Strong collaboration with other state agencies like NABARD, GGRC, KUSUM Scheme etc is also built into the programme design so as to leverage the support as well as expand the scope of the outreach to a larger number of farmers. On average, the programme interventions of the Trusts have been able to help an annual recharge of 30 – 40 million cubic feet (mcft) of ground water in these locations.
3. What kind of training has been provided to farmers under the initiative? Also, any technologies that the farmers have been introduced to as part of this project?
The Trusts’ focus for this programme has been to motivate farmers to adopt better management practices for optimum utilisation of water, organic matter, pest management and integrated nutrient management. There are focused engagements with the community to enhance their knowledge, attitudes and practices related to the need for soil conservation. These trainings include farmer field schools and seasonal trainings on crop management practices, which have a direct impact on soil health.
Soil testing is also taken up at a large scale to help the farmers understand their soil profile and nutrient deficiencies and application of the soil amendment requirements, based on these soil test reports. This essentially helps the farmers to have focused interventions for soil treatment, rather than continuing with ad hoc application of fertilisers, which is detrimental to soil health in the long term. Improving soil health, especially the soil carbon is also an area of concern that we have tried to address through interventions like promotion of composting, use of biogas slurry, enhancing the soil biomass to improve the water retention capacity of the soil and so on.
Currently, we have implemented watershed projects and treated an area of more than 4000 hectares, with ongoing operations in an additional 1000 hectares. We have worked with farmers to recommend macro and micronutrient balancing steps based on soil testing in the region. Further conservation activities like farm bunding, afforestation, contour trenches, check dams, etc. are also being carried out in private and public land to check erosion and arrest runoff which would help to protect soil degradation.
Some of the technologies incorporated are the use of biogas slurry as amendments for increasing the fertility of the soil, application of gypsum and other micronutrients, and extensive promotion of the concept of vermicomposting. The coastal areas of Gujarat are impacted by groundwater salinization as well as soil salinity. To adapt and address the same, there have also been focused engagements on reducing the use of irrigation water through the promotion of moisture metres which helps the farmers regulate and time the irrigation application, based on the moisture status.
4. Were there any challenges you faced in getting farmers to adopt these techniques? How did you overcome them?
Some of the challenges were related to access to grid connectivity in remote locations in tribal villages. This was addressed through the adoption of solar powered solutions for the lifting the water for irrigating the agricultural fields and bringing fallow lands under cultivation. This has helped the small and marginal farmers to secure their agriculture-based livelihoods. While bringing in additional areas under irrigation, efforts were also made to introduce the concept of “More crop per drop” through improving the irrigation efficiency and adoption of improved practices for soil improvement.
The new model of improved / portable biodigester for the biogas units has also been very helpful in promotion of the biogas units. These farmers are also trained to effectively use the residual slurry for soil application and thereby enhance the soil biomass and its fertility. This improved model has now helped reach more farmers for installation of the biogas units.
Recently, we have also introduced the use of cotton stalk shredders for shredding the branches of the cotton bushes, post the crop harvest and to mix the biomass into the soil. This tractor drawn machinery has been appreciated by the farmers as it not only reduces the drudgery of removal of the stalks from the field, but it also helps mix the shredded stalks into the soil directly and enhance the soil biomass thereby improving the drainage capacity of the soils.
5. Agricultural development has been a focus area for Tata Trusts, so can you share some insight on the impact of the soil conservation programme so far? Which other states and regions does the soil conservation effort extend to?
Since the inception of the soil conservation programme in 2014-15, 12,000 farmers in the Khedbrahma and Poshina Blocks of Sabarkantha and Danta Block of Banaskantha district of Gujarat have benefited, and have implemented techniques like vermicomposting, building contour trenches and drip and mulching. Similar soil improvement programmes are also implemented in villages of Talaja, Gogha and Rajula Blocks of Bhavnagar and Amrelli district. The implementation of these efforts has resulted in an 10-15% increase in yield, benefiting farmers earnings by 15 to 20%.
6. Tata Trusts’ has also encouraged farmers to adopt sustainable farming practices. What has been the result of an increased uptake in organic farming?
Many of the self help groups (SHGs) supported by Tata Trusts have been the torchbearers of organic farming. Sustainable farming techniques like the use of biopesticides have helped farmers reduce soil erosion and decrease nitrate leaching into ground and surface water. These techniques have also helped in improving water infiltration and retention capacity by increasing levels of organic matter in the soil, reducing the cost of cultivation and improving soil health.
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