Acute drought and shortage of labour and water for irrigation have forced progressive farmers to devise new strategies to raise crops. A farmer in Chinnamanur has successfully adopted a multi-cropping system blending one short-term and one long-term crop to improve yield.
R. Singaram of Seepalakottai has raised banana and small onion in the same field using limited water for irrigation.
“I look at multi-cropping as a feasible strategy to overcome difficulties in farming. It helps me produce more in a limited area and avert risk of crop failure.”
He has formed a five-and-a-half-foot-wide pit around the banana tree to sow onion. “I need not irrigate separately for banana and small onions. Irrigation cost has come down by half now,” he adds. Onion plants prevent development of stem borer and root borer in banana.
Mr. Singaram has raised onion and banana on six acres and plans to expand it by four acres next month.
“Before planting banana and onion, I had raised maize as single crop. After harvesting, I ploughed the land with maize plants and applied 100 loads of manure and goat droppings. It improved the health of plants and made them disease-resistant. Attack by pests like green worms and beetle is also reduced.”
“In 90 days, onion crop will be ready for harvesting. Banana will give long-term benefits and onion will meet the short-term expenses,” he says.
Since water yield in his well was not enough to irrigate the entire area, he had raised crops only in half of the land and left the other half barren. He cultivated only dry crops that did not fetch much income.
Now, multi-cropping has enabled him to utilise the entire land to raise twin crops at a low cost and with less water. It helps to protect the soil from extreme erosion, improves soil structure, enhances fertility, conserves moisture and suppresses pests and pathogens. It also contributes towards improving overall health of ecosystem. Use of external inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides is reduced substantially, he points out. He has maximised the use of natural resources and minimised external inputs to scale down expenses.
