Old wine, new bottle

The term “R&D by People’s Participation” in the context of agriculture is nothing but a new term for the 5000-year old activity of agriculture itself.

Other farmers develop most of the routine agricultural techniques, tools and practices currently operative solely as a result of anonymous innovative contributions, learning and adaptation. Even now, for example, in areas such as grape growing and their varieties, contribution from innovative farmers far outweighs contributions from formal research.

A look at the components of agriculture clarifies why it cannot be anything but an R&D activity. It is multidisciplinary and its results depend upon very complex interactions of several poorly known and uncontrolled natural and man made factors.

A NEW MODEL

A practical outline of such a comprehensive model based on synergistic complementation of strengths of various developmental models will be as follows: The farmer will be centre stage. He will begin with an experimental activity in a technology of his own choice. The size of the activity will be within the risk carrying capability of the farmer and he will define this size. It will basically be his project. He will be fully personally involved with all his experience, ability to carry out farming operations and his acumen and will be in charge of carrying out routine management operations of tillage, weeding, irrigation, fertilization etc. In case he is resourceful, he will arrange for finances required for inputs. If he lacks financial resources, it may be more practical to choose a financier or a corporate as financing partner under fair mutually beneficial conditions (here supportive and validating legislation may be required to encourage this process). This may be required in many cases as lack of risk capital is a major impediment due to preponderance of small holdings. The farmer will take advice from scientists, experts and labs in the choice of technology and the method of its implementation, soil and water analysis, crop analysis, in providing integrated nutritional management with precision, maintaining sustainability and balance, maintaining, appraising, analysing and concluding on yield data and for devising an improved approach for the next season. The scales of operation can be expanded after gaining confidence in the newly adopted system/R&D innovation. The possibilities of achieving practically achievable maximum yields that are sustainable and reproducible are best under these conditions.

Its main components are land itself with its highly complex agro climate, physical and chemical properties. It includes the farmer and his intellectual and financial resources, his commitment, knowledge of farming techniques, management capability and acumen. This apart there are components such as the farmer’s long term knowledge of behaviour of the site of the field, input of technology in the form of seed material, assessment of practices needed to maintain required soil fertility without injurious after-effects on the crop as well as soil, managing irrigation resources judiciously at the correct stage of the crop and with no deleterious effect on soil structure, monitoring crop composition to find out nutritional status and making, if necessary, mid-term corrections, keeping control on pests, current status of surrounding agricultural market etc.

The results of the complex interactions of all these poorly understood factors are different, unique and site specific to every farm. Obviously the choice of the best agricultural options for every farm is a uniquely different R&D problem, not amenable to generic solutions, which needs to be pursued very diligently and endlessly. Every farmer has to be a researcher. His success or failure will depend upon how good an innovator and adapter he is. Agriculture is infinite and needs continuous experimentation and continuous improvement.

Synonyms, not anomalies

Knowledge of agriculture got formalized as a subject of education and formal R&D came in existence. Those engaged in education and R&D in agriculture invariably became urban elites and went away from realities of farming. However, they are the ones who decide what the contemporary problems of agriculture are, solutions are devised by R&D, and presented to farmers for implementation in their fields after a thorough statistical validation done in the context of research station conditions. Knowledge generation and dissemination became unidirectional, a linear activity.