The agriculture sector evidently has linkages with the environmental systems, social and economic conditions of the people, especially the ones engaged in agriculture for livelihood - 22 percent of India’s working population. Sustainable agriculture, by its definition takes all these components into account by emphasising multidimensional (economic, environmental and social) goals for agricultural development (FAO, 1995).

A study conducted by Development Alternatives under ‘Transforming the Development Paradigm II’ supported by Heinrich Böll Foundation, developed a frame indicating components of sustainable agriculture systems at the farm/village level. The objective of this frame is to assess the interventions in the agriculture sector with respect to its impact on various components of sustainable agriculture (Table 1).

The study focused on different roles that technology and community models played on components of the framework developed for Sustainable Agriculture (Refer table 1). Ground work and experience of five organisations working in semi-arid, rain-fed regions was analysed. These organisations are Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (Telangana), Development Alternatives (Bundelkhand), Pravah (Jharkhand), Watershed Organisation Trust (Maharashtra) and WASSAN (Telangana).Various typologies of cases studied individually represent interventions at a certain step in the agriculture value chain and collectively hint towards developing an agriculture programme. Some of the key learnings from each of these cases are highlighted below:

Science and technology interventions broadly include various technology packages for farm inputs, farm implements, farming techniques, risk reduction systems and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) systems. Some emerging learnings are summarised as follows:

Timely, comprehensive, reliable and relevant information can allow farmers to make decisions in farming that not only enhance the productivity, resilience and adaptability of the crops but also helps them understand and choose for practices that are good for the environment. Further, stable food production via information access will influence the farmers’ financial stability and income generating ability. Local adaptive capacities are enhanced when local weather information is analysed and appropriately communicated. Field and extension oriented agro-meteorology requires the coming together of high-end technology and local knowledge, which requires multi-stakeholder partnerships at all the levels.

Rain-fed areas benefit greatly from area level interventions like watershed development in terms of enhanced water security, reduced soil erosion, reduced climate vulnerability and improved agricultural productivity. Various assessment studies (Suryawanshi & Kamble, 2012), (Singh, Behera, & Singh, 2010), (ICRISAT, 2009) indicate positive impact of natural resource management on food production and farmers’ income. A participatory model for watershed development, integrated with other government schemes allows maintenance and ownership of the community in the watershed programmes.

Farm level choice of technology from inputs like seeds, fertilisers and pesticides, techniques of mixed-cropping, irrigation etc. are direct cost to the farmers and have direct link with food production. Environment friendly technologies have a high adoption rate if it makes a good investment case for the farmer. Traditional agriculture practices and techniques that internalise inputs, reduce costs have the potential to be a good economic case for farmers while ensuring environmental sustainability.

Community agriculture models are ‘an arrangement of resource (land, water, human, finance etc) pooling by farmers at different parts of the value chain for increasing agriculture productivity, farmer incomes and/or ensuring sustainable resource use’. Some of the opportunities identified in community model interventions are as follows:

Collective community action is essential for maintaining environmental health in a region and cannot be solely done at the farm level. Further, planning capacity at the community level allows better understanding of the agriculture policies by the farmers and opens doors to mechanisms for feedback and input of the farmers in the district and state planning processes. Enhancing planning capacity of local communities increases ownership and allows convergence of local knowledge with modern science. At the same time, it increases self-esteem and motivation amongst stakeholders to participate in the development interventions.

Natural resources are not equitably distributed. Instances of overuse of water at one place and crop failure due to unavailability of water are common stories. Competitive digging of wells results in water dis-balance especially in water scarce semi-arid, rain-fed areas. Small and marginal farmers in the region also face financial constraints for investing in expensive capital of motors and lift irrigation systems. Resource sharing allows for judicious and efficient use of the resources at the disposal by the community. Efficiency in use of resources allows for higher economic gains for the farmers and in some cases it also impacts food production.

Limited access to urban markets due to high costs in transportation with respect to little produce per small farmer restricts agriculture income. Community models of collectives, farmer producer companies play a critical role in enhancing farmers’ incomes by increasing the profit margins from the farm produce via various activities of value addition, gradation and reaching out to wider customers. It can potentially have impact on crop choice and environment depending on the consumer demand. Community models increase capacity of farmers to reach markets and end-consumers with graded products and thus allow for higher incomes of the farmers.

This study gives insights into what policy developments can learn from ground practitioners. The next step will aim to study these policies and look at the alignment and emergence of lessons from the ground for these policies building a practice-to-policy connect. It aims to provide a direction for the agriculture policies, investments by private sector and to support the work of various other civil society organisations working on the ground.

There is a potential mapped that can strengthen India’s position in securing food for all in the long run with farmers’ and environmental well-being. The government is in the process of revamping extension services, developing irrigation policies and looking at systems of increasing agriculture productivity and potential to making farming remunerative. For the same, Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture, National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), Participatory Guarantee Scheme for farmers are some programmes that will be studied in the next step. An assessment of how well geared are these programmes to the sustainable agriculture framework and potential areas of development and improvement are envisaged from these future studies.  q

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