Blending Traditional Knowledge of Farmers in Agriculture with Modern Scientific Technologies in the State of Haryana

Haryana is an agrarian society, with 3.63 mha net sown area out of 4.42 mha of the total geographical area. About 60% of the area is irrigated with canals and tube wells, and 55% of the groundwater is of poor quality. Numerous indigenous agriculture practices have been followed by the farmers since ages. With the advent of the Green Revolution, new technologies were developed and adopted by the farmers which later resulted in the extension of area under irrigation, multiple cropping, high-yielding crop varieties, fertilizers, pesticides and farm machinery and caused various negative impacts. The over-exploitation of natural resources led to an increase in the cost of crop production, loss of agro-biodiversity, the emergence of resistant weeds and pathogens, soil degradation including multi-nutrient deficiencies and decline of the water table.

Indigenous knowledge of making manure with locally available resources like cow dung and urine, crop residues, non-edible by-products like rice husks and oil cakes is a pragmatic practice for improving soil organic matter. The application of farm yard manure (FYM) on seed lines at 3tha⁻¹ as mulch increased the seedling emergence and yield of pearl millet, cotton, sorghum and maize by about 49, 75, 85 and 62% over their respective yield of 25.3, 12.3, 18.3 and 15.1 q ha⁻¹ in crusted soil. The technology of ridge sowing in such soils is found to increase the yield from 15.3 to 20.3 q ha⁻¹. Trichoderma harzianum enriched spent mushroom substrate at 25 ton can control damping disease in bottle gourd, chilli and tomato from 30 to 63%. These processes can be blended with modern ways of adding fertilizers to soil for long-term sustainable management of soil health. The local crop varieties, though low-yield, are highly tolerant to biotic and abiotic stresses and can be used for crop improvement programmes to maintain crop diversity. Spraying of tobacco and neem products, use of ash to control insects and pests and intercropping of garlic and potato to minimize pest attacks have been in practice. The blend of such technologies is also required in modern agriculture in the state, to maintain chemical, physical and biological properties/diversity for sustainable crop production.