Addressing the Labour Barrier in the Transition to Crop Diversification

Bengali migrants are in demand in Raichur district for their paddy-cultivation skills. Here, they are transplanting paddy in BR Gunda village. Photo by Nabina Chakraborty

Crop diversification has emerged as a key strategy to enhance agricultural productivity and sustainability in low-input farming systems.

It leverages the ecological interactions among crops, known as economies of scope (Noack & Quaas, 2021). This challenges the conventional preference for monocropping, often justified by economies of scale.

In India, the increasing frequency and severity of climate shocks have exposed the vulnerabilities of monoculture farming, intensifying agrarian distress (Pingali, 2012). Consequently, there is a growing interest in promoting crop diversity and sustainable agricultural practices to bolster the resilience of rural livelihoods (Lal et al., 2017). 

With the establishment of the Narayanpur Right Bank Canal, farmers in Devadurga taluk, Raichur district, Karnataka have shifted from traditional polycropping practices to monocropping systems.

Devadurga has a semi-arid climate and an average annual rainfall of 726 mm (Jose, 2020), which pose significant challenges for agriculture. The introduction of the Narayanpur Right Bank Canal has led to farmers largely transitioning from cultivating crops that requires less water, such as millets and groundnuts, to water-intensive crops like paddy (Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare, n.d.).

While the canal has transformed the region’s agricultural landscape, uneven water distribution remains a critical issue. Tail-end farmers often face severe water shortages, while head-end farmers grow water-intensive crops.

Even in areas beyond the canal’s reach, there are disparities in water access.

Villages outside the canal command area rely on rainfall and groundwater. Farmers dependent solely on rainfall can usually grow only one crop a year. Dry spells and drought years negatively impact their yield — they might even suffer complete crop failure. Only a few farmers have access to groundwater sources like borewells, which help them secure their first crop and potentially grow a second crop (depending on water availability). However, even they struggle with water-quality challenges such as salinity, fluoride, arsenic contamination, etc. (Central Ground Water Board, 2013). 

The prevalence of monocropping in the region has led to numerous problems.

Groundwater depletion, soil degradation, and broader environmental harm arising from monocropping (Pujara & Shahid, 2016) are challenges in Raichur too. Crop diversification presents a viable alternative for achieving sustainable agriculture, particularly in regions dominated by paddy monoculture. Diversified cropping systems can mitigate climate risks, reduce the risk of soil salinity, and improve both productivity and profitability (Lal et al., 2017).

Labour availability and costs pose additional challenges to crop diversification.

The availability of machines like combined harvesters reduces the drudgery associated with paddy cultivation significantly. However, this is not the case with crops such as cotton, chilli, groundnut etc., These still require significant labour as there are limited labour-saving technologies to cultivate these crops. This is also a contributing factor to the reluctance in adopting crop diversification.

This study explores the labour dynamics of various crops, the gendered dimensions of farm work, and the technological interventions that can reduce the labour burden of diversified cropping and make it more accessible and sustainable.

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