Department Of Agronomy

DEPARTMENT OF AGRONOMY, COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, PARBHANI POST GRADUATE SEMINAR Speaker Degree Reg. No.

: KADAM S.B. :M. Sc. (Agri.)student : 03M/07A

CourseNo: Agro. Date : 22. 12. 2008 Day :Monday

Topic: CROP DIVERSIFICATION: For sustainable agriculture. Crop intensification and crop diversification are the budge words in agricultural scenario at the national and international level. During the period of green revolution when there was a need of enhancing total food grain production, emphasis was given on increasing the cropping intensity and crop productivity but in long term, this approach digressed from the principles of crop production where the basics of crop rotation and crop sequences play an important role. Research findings suggest that crops or enterprises get diversified in one or other way, even without any scientific recommendations (Sharma et al., 2002). Agriculture and crop diversification is now almost a normal feature of stable agriculture and progressive farm management in most of the extensive agricultural parts of the world (Joshi et al., 2004). Therefore, in changing agricultural scenario, crop diversification is one of the ways towards meeting challenges of food, environmental and economic security of nation and achieving the sustainable agricultural development. The area under agronomical crops viz. jowar, bajra, small millets, summer groundnut, and tobacco are decreased and the area under pulses, sesamum, cotton and wheat has increased. The area under horticultural crops such as banana, potato, cumin, garlic and onion are increased where as in chilli area decreased. (Anno. 1995-2004). CONCEPT OF CROP DIVERSIFICATION 1) A shift of a crop cropping system to another crop or cropping system. 2) Use of resources in best possible way by changing and modifying the degree, trend and spatial and time options of crop/cropping activities. 3) A shift from less profitable and sustainable crop or cropping system to more profitable and sustainable crop/cropping system. NEED OF CROP DIVERSIFICATION 1) For raising farm income. 2) Sustainable production and income. 3) Sustainability of Production Systems. 4) Food and nutrient security. 5) Promotion of export. 6) Employment generation. 7) Poverty alleviation. 8) Judicious use of land and water resources. 9) Reduction in environmental pollution.

CONCLUSION Crop diversification or crop shift is a new paradigm of sustainable agriculture. Crop diversification is not only a shift from traditional and less remunerative crop(s) to more remunerative crop(s) but it is a demand driven, need based situation specific and national goal seeking continuous and dynamic concept and involves spatial, temporal, value addition and resource complementary approaches. However, crop substitution and addition of more crops in existing cropping system has been the major approach of diversification in India. The nature of crop diversification is has been mainly from low value coarse cereals to high value oilseeds and other food grains. REFERENCES: Anonymous (1995-2004). Directorate of Agriculture, Gandhinagar, Gujarat state. Gopalappa D.V. (1996). Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics. Vol. 51, No. 3, July-Sep. Joshi, P.K., Gulati, Ashok, Bhrithai, P.S. and Tewari, L. (2004). Economic and political weekly, June 12, pp. 2457-2466. Pandey V.K. and Sharma K.C. (1996). Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics. Vol. 51, No.4, Oct.-Dec. Sharma S.K., Rathore P.S. and Tiwari S. (2002). ICAR Winter School: 24th Nov.-14th December. Shiyani R.L. and Pandya H.R. (1998). Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics. Vol. 53, No.4, Oct.-Dec.

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