Changing crop management improves farm level productivity and profitability for smallholder farmers in northern India

Cropping practices such as diversification, intensification and conservation agriculture-based management, which provide productivity and economic benefits to farmers, have been tested across northern India; however, farmers' adoption rate of these technologies remains low. A key reason for poor adoption rates of improved practices is the difficulty in enabling farmers, extension officers and policymakers to understand the likely farm-level trade-offs and benefits of these practices. Simulation models which integrate resources and activities (i.e. crop and livestock production, economics, and labour availability) across the whole farm can be used to examine the trade-offs and benefits of alternative farming systems. This study examined changes in farm-level productivity and profitability over a 20-year simulation window under a range of cropping system interventions for four farm typologies found in smallholder farming systems across the northern Indian cereal-growing belt. The farm typologies studies are: well-resourced, moderately-well resourced, moderately-poorly resourced and poorly-resourced farming systems. The baseline management for each farm typology was a rice-wheat cropping system under conventional crop management practice combined with dairy production. Alternative cropping system scenarios were (1) intensification (inclusion of a third crop, mungbean); (2) diversification (replacing wheat with maize); (3) intensification and diversification combined (intercropping spinach with maize); and (4) introducing conservation agriculture (CA) management practices in all cropping systems. The same livestock management was maintained in all scenarios, with mating of cows staggered throughout the year to try to maintain continuous milk supply. The effects of intensification and CA were examined for all four typologies; diversification and intensification- and-diversification combined were examined for the two more marginal typologies only. For all scenarios, farming system economic productivity, gender-disaggregated labour requirements, and the farm cash balance were simulated monthly and then reported annually. Intensifying the cropping system increased farm economic productivity by 16-19%, diversification increased productivity by 21-40%, intensification combined with diversification increased farm economic productivity by 19-39%, and CA practices improved economic productivity in all combinations of cropping system scenario and farm typology. CA practices reduced overall farm labour requirements, with savings greater for men than for women. Diversification did not affect labour demand, while intensification increased labour requirements, especially for men. Annual farm cash balances increased when cropping systems were intensified by introducing a third consecutive (mungbean) or concurrent (intercropped spinach) crop and in cropping systems under CA practices. This study demonstrates the ability of biophysical whole-farm models to quantify the likely medium-term effects of a range of cropping system management options in terms of farm economics and labour requirements. This simulation modelling approach has the potential to enable farmers, extension officers, policymakers and others to examine the benefits, risks and trade-offs of different management options within smallholder farming systems.

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