Rice Farming In India With Brief History

 Rice farming in India has a rich history dating back thousands of years, deeply intertwined with the country's culture, economy, and social fabric. Historically, rice cultivation in India traces back to ancient times, with evidence suggesting its presence during the Indus Valley Civilization around 2500-1700 BCE. The agricultural practices evolved over time, influenced by various factors such as climate, geography, technological advancements, and cultural practices.

During the medieval period, rice farming expanded under various rulers, including the Mauryas, Guptas, and Mughals, who introduced innovative techniques such as the construction of irrigation systems like canals and tanks. These advancements contributed to increased rice production and sustained agricultural development.

However, it was during the British colonial rule that significant changes occurred in Indian agriculture, including rice farming. The British introduced cash crops and transformed land-use patterns, leading to the commercialization of agriculture. This period also witnessed the introduction of modern farming techniques, such as the use of hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers, and mechanized farming equipment.

After gaining independence in 1947, India's agricultural policies aimed to achieve self-sufficiency in food production, including rice. The Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, spearheaded by agricultural scientists like Dr. Norman Borlaug, ushered in a new era of agricultural productivity. High-yielding varieties (HYVs) of rice were introduced, accompanied by the widespread adoption of modern farming practices, irrigation systems, and chemical inputs. This led to a significant increase in rice production, transforming India from a food-deficit nation to one of the world's largest rice producers.

Presently, rice farming remains a cornerstone of Indian agriculture, with the country being one of the top producers and consumers of rice globally. India cultivates various types of rice, including Basmati and non-Basmati varieties, across different agro-climatic zones. The geographical diversity of rice cultivation ranges from the fertile plains of Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh in the north to the coastal regions of West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu in the south.

Despite the advancements in rice farming, several challenges persist in the sector. One of the primary concerns is the sustainability of agricultural practices, including soil degradation, water scarcity, and environmental pollution due to the excessive use of chemical inputs. Additionally, small and marginal farmers, who constitute a significant portion of rice growers in India, face issues related to access to credit, market volatility, and climate change impacts.

To address these challenges and ensure the sustainable growth of the rice farming sector, various initiatives have been undertaken by the government and non-governmental organizations. These initiatives focus on promoting organic farming, water conservation measures, capacity building for farmers, enhancing market linkages, and implementing climate-resilient agricultural practices.

Furthermore, technological advancements such as precision agriculture, remote sensing, and biotechnology hold promise for improving productivity, reducing resource usage, and mitigating environmental impacts in rice farming. Additionally, there is increasing emphasis on value addition, post-harvest management, and diversification of rice-based products to enhance farmer incomes and meet the evolving dietary preferences of consumers.

In conclusion, rice farming in India has evolved significantly over the centuries, playing a vital role in the country's agricultural landscape and socio-economic development. While facing numerous challenges, the sector continues to adapt and innovate to meet the growing demands for food security, sustainability, and economic prosperity. With concerted efforts from all stakeholders, India's rice farming sector is poised to thrive and contribute to the nation's food security goals in the

 years to come.

THE MODERN ERA

 

A lot of things have changed, past 2 decades in India. 1^st the economy of the nation and the 2^nd is agriculture of India. We are going to discuss the 2^nd thing here. Old orthodox process and equipment is the old era of Indian farming.  Before 2000 a lot of farmers do not have access modern equipment – tractors, pumps, combine harvesters etc. the reason behind, it was not easy for farmers to buy such heavy equipment on cash. The financing process was not easy and good. But after 2000, lot of govt. and private financing organisation raised with easy pay off loan process. It changed the course of agriculture in India.

That means if a farmer needs a tractor then he/she doesn’t required to buy it via cash, he/she can down payment a 10 or 15% of the tractor’s price and rest of amount will be loaned by any finance organisation. He/she would pay that amount via EMI i.e.- EQUATED MONTHLY INSTALMENT. With this major changes in finance apart Agriculture Development Offices through out the nation helping farmers a lot. ADO’s providing scientifical Agri knowledge to farmers via seminars and also providing pesticides, nutrition products free of cost to a large number of farmers. ADO’s also providing govt. schemes for agriculture heavy equipment and insurance on the corps.

Here is a list of agricultural machinery and tools used in India:- 1. Tractors 2. Combines 3. Micro-Irrigation Equipment 4. Power Tillers 5. Electric Pumps and Motors 6. Seed Bed Preparation 7. Sowing and Planting Equipment 8. Plant Protection Equipment 9. Harvesting and Threshing.   

 

1. Tractors:

Tractors are used for a variety of purposes in the agricultural sector. Over the years, the tractor industry in India has made significant progress in production, capacity addition and technol­ogy indigenization. Both MNCs and home-grown companies provide products with varying horsepower to meet farm requirements.

Tractor sales depend on size of landholding of the farmers, credit availability and income/savings, which depend on a large part on the mon­soons. Though the penetration of tractors has been low, low crop yields, rising labour costs, planting of high yield varieties, modernization and increased mechanization is expected to push the growth in this segment in the next decade.

2. Combines:

Combines are very popular in developed countries. Harvesting with combine harvester is becoming common where workforce is scarce or farms are very large, for example, at the time of wheat harvesting in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. More than 48 local manufacturers mainly in Punjab have developed combines, which are self-propelled or tractor operated.

Combines are also used for harvesting paddy, soybean and gram. Entrepreneurs from Rajasthan and Punjab provide combine harvesters to farmers in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Two known combines are the Class Crop Tiger and Kartar K3500, which have been tested by Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute. Institutes have been set up by the government in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Andhra Pradesh. They test farm equipment and also conduct training courses in opera­tion, maintenance and repair of farm machinery and equipment. The institutes provide official testing of combine harvesters, farm implements and machinery, irrigation pumps, sta­tionery power engines and plant protection equipment.

3. Micro-Irrigation Equipment:

Micro-irrigation systems supply water directly to the root of plants through a network of plas­tic pipes. Low discharge emitters supply water at slow and regular intervals to plants. Micro-irrigation components consist of pipes, tubes, water-emitting devices, flow control equipment, fittings and accessories. Such systems help in saving water by transporting it to the roots as compared to the traditional way in which the whole field is flooded. It also results in fewer weeds and thus improves crop yields. Micro-irrigation technology is becoming popular with farmers all across the world. It is widely used in the USA, Israel, Australia, parts of Europe and in Asian countries. It is already being used in India and China, and due to a rising population and growing water scarcity, it will be adopted by many more farmers in times to come. Minor irrigation equipment includes micro-irrigation systems, pumps, agriculture pipes, valves and mechanized irrigation systems. Sprinklers such as spray, mist, drippers, micro-jets, fan jets, micro-sprayers and foggers are also used.

 

4. Power Tillers:

Power tillers are mini-tractors with two wheels and rotary tillers and are useful in small farms. They replace animal power. Sud (2021) writes that these are very popular in paddy cultivation in Japan, but not so in India, where tractors are preferred. Tractors sell about 700,000 units per year in India, while power tillers sell less than one-tenth of that, with most of the sales happening in the southern and north-eastern states.

A power tiller is cheaper than a small tractor and has lower diesel consumption though it takes longer to complete the same job. Besides, the maintenance cost of power tillers is also far lower than that of tractors. Power tillers are more economical even for other uses, such as for running water pumps and grain threshers. It is especially useful in undulated and hilly ter­rains. There has been a steady growth in the sales of power tillers in the country. However, power tillers have not been very popular with Indian farmers. One reason is that while operating, a person has to walk behind it to guide it, which not only increases drudgery but can also be hazardous. A remote control system is probably the answer, and one has been developed by Mangalore Robautonics but is yet to catch on. Second, farmers like the status attached to a bigger machine and thus prefer to buy a tractor instead.

 

5. Electric Pumps and Motors:

Electric motors and diesel engines are used in agriculture and are the primary sources of sta­tionary power for irrigation, threshing and various post-harvest agro-processing operations. Indian pumps are made according to the specifications of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). Agricultural pump industries are situated in Coimbatore, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Kolkata and Dewas. Rajkot, Agra and Kolhapur are famous for oil engines.

The most popular pumps are single phase monoblock pumpsets from 0.5 hp to 2 hp range, selling about two million sets a year, followed by three-phase monoblock pumpsets 2 hp to 30 hp range and submersible pumpsets 3 hp to 30 hp range, selling 600,000 sets each per year. Bigger pumps consisting of diesel engines up to 10 hp and above 10 hp are also popular. As water tables go down in the country, larger pumps and motors will be required in the future.

 

 

6. Seed Bed Preparation:

Various cultivators, disc harrow, mould board plough, puddler, disc harrow-cum-puddler, peg tooth harrow, spring tine harrow, rotavator and patela harrow operated by animal and tractor are the improved implements which have been adopted by farmers. Different sizes of cultivators and disc harrows are used.

7. Sowing and Planting Equipment:

Line-sowing helps in regulated application of fer­tilizers near the root zone. Mechanical weeders are used to control weeds. Mechanically metered seed drills and seed-cum-fertilizer drills operated by animals and tractors have been developed.

8. Plant Protection Equipment:

Weed control in irrigated and rain-fed agriculture during the kharif season is required and various equipment is available for it. Khurpis, long handle wheel hoe and peg type weeders, bullock-operated weeder and cultivator are also used for control of weeds. Low-cost hand-operated sprayers and dusters are also available.

9. Harvesting and Threshing:

Harvesting and threshing equipment is used to reduce costs of production and reduction in harvest/post-harvest losses, non-availability of labour during the harvesting period. They are also used to reduce drudgery in opera­tions. Harvesting is done in several ways—manually with sickle, with animal or station­ary power threshers operated by diesel engines, electric motors or tractor power.

 

 

 

 

 

FARMERS PROTEST IN INDIA

 THE REASON OF PROTEST FOR LAST 7 MONTHS 

• Thousands of farmers have been camping at several Delhi border points since 26 November
  
• On 11 January, the SC stayed the implementation of new farm laws till further orders and decided to set up a 4-member committee to resolve the impasse between the Centre and farmers' unions protesting.

The farmers protesting against the three farm laws, clashed with police at several places in the national capital on Tuesday. The Delhi Police had earlier permitted the farmers to hold their tractor parade on selected routes on the Republic Day. The chaos erupted when the farmers broke through the police barricades in the capital. A protesting farmer died after his tractor overturned at ITO during the farmers’ tractor parade on Tuesday, police said.

FROM THE FARMERS POINT OF VIEW--

Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at several Delhi border points since 26 November last year, demanding a repeal of three farm laws — Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. They also demanded a legal guarantee on Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for their crops.

Farmer unions in Punjab and Haryana said the recent laws enacted at the Centre will dismantle the minimum support price (MSP) system. Over time big corporate houses will dictate terms and farmers will end up getting less for their crops, they argue. Farmers fear that with the virtual disbanding of the mandi system, they will not get an assured price for their crops and the “arthiyas" —commission agents who also pitch in with loans for them — will be out of business. Their demands: The key demand is the withdrawal of the three laws which deregulate the sale of their crops. The farmer unions could also settle for a legal assurance that the MSP system will continue, ideally through an amendment to the laws.

They also wanted the government to withdraw of the proposed Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020, fearing it will lead to an end to subsidised electricity. Farmers say rules against stubble burning should also not apply to them.

WHAT SUPREME COURT SAYS--

On 11 January, the Supreme Court stayed the implementation of new farm laws till further orders and decided to set up a 4-member committee to resolve the impasse over them between the Centre and farmers' unions protesting at Delhi borders. The four names of members include Bhupinder Singh Mann, President of Bhartiya Kisan Union; Anil Ghanwat, President of Shetkeri Sangthana, Maharashtra; Pramod Kumar Joshi, director for South Asia, International Food Policy Research Institute, and agriculture economist Ashok Gulati.

Later, Bhartiya Kisan Union president Bhupinder Singh Mann had recused himself from the committee appointed by the apex court.

Three farm laws

The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 seeks to provide for the creation of an ecosystem where the farmers and traders enjoy the freedom of choice relating to sale and purchase of farmers' produce which facilitates remunerative prices through competitive alternative trading channels to promote efficient, transparent and barrier-free inter-state and intra-state trade, said the government. It also seeks to commerce of farmers' produce outside physical premises of markets or deemed markets notified under various state agricultural produce market legislations; to provide a facilitative framework for electronic trading and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto, the ministry said.

The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 seeks to provide for a national framework on farming agreements that protects and empowers farmers to engage with agri-business firms, processors, wholesalers, exporters or large retailers for farm services and sale of future farming produce at a mutually agreed remunerative price framework in a fair and transparent manner and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto, the ministry said.

The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020 seeks to remove commodities like cereals, pulses, oil seeds, edible oils, onion and potatoes from the list of essential commodities. This will remove fears of private investors of excessive regulatory interference in their business operations, the ministry added.

Why Potato Farming Run In Loss

WHY POTATO FARMING RUNS IN LOSS

There are many reasons but I will elaborate hear some reasons.
The first one is of course the excessive production of potatoes. The production of potatoes is much more then the actual quantity needed. And according to farmers farming potatoes is not cheap. 60000 rupees per acre actually needed to produce a acre land of potato. Due to higher production quantity maximum Times sell rate of potatoes is very low so farmers faces loss.

The second one is the weather effect. Potato needed cold temperature to grow. For global warming sometimes it is very cold and sometimes the weather get little bit hotter in winter. This thing affected on potato farming a lot. And after that the rain, it affects a lot. Like this year in (25/2/2019)West Bengal ,Hooghly too much rainfall in the month of February it affected potato cultivation a lot. Acres land with potatoes got rotten because of excess water due to rainfall. The government in India and West Bengal is communicating with the farmers and give them special benefits loan packages to recover from this types of losses. The weather effect became the main culprit many times of farming potatoes especially the time of harvesting potatoes.

The farmers ‘Long March’

The farmers ‘Long March’ 

The Maharashtra Rajya Kisan Sabha (All India Kisan Sabha) has taken a decision to begin a ‘Long March’ on foot of over 50,000 peasants for a distance of nearly 200 Km from Nashik to Mumbai. Both men and women are likely to take part in it in large numbers. It will begin from Nashik on March 6, 2018 and will culminate in Mumbai on March 12. Following which the peasants will indefinitely gherao the state assembly, which would be in session, until their demands are met.

Their demands include issues like farm loan waiver, remunerative prices and implementation of the Swaminathan Commission recommendations, stringent implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), temple lands and pasture lands to be vested in the names of the tillers, increase in various pension schemes to poor peasants and agricultural workers, issues connected to the public distribution system, compensation for losses sustained by peasants due to pest attacks and hailstorms, an opposition to acquisition of peasants’ lands in the name of elitist projects like the bullet train and super highways, and a complete change in the river linking scheme proposed to be started in Nashik, Thane and Palghar districts, so as to ensure that tribal villages are not submerged and water is made available to these districts and to other drought-prone districts in Maharashtra.

All India Kisan Sabha has been in a constant movement in Maharashtra for past 2 years for these demands of the farmers.

It all started in March 2016, when the AIKS led an unprecedented one lakh strong peasant siege for two days and nights at the central CBS square in the heart of Nashik, which paralysed the city. This forced the Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP to invite the AIKS delegation to Mumbai in the midst of the assembly session to give some assurances.

Since the assurances remained unfulfilled, the AIKS led a 10,000-strong novel ‘Coffin March’ in Thane city in May, 2016 to focus on the issue of peasant suicides.

On the issues of drought, loan waiver and remunerative prices protest actions were organised at Aurangabad by AIKS in the Marathwada region in May 2016

In October 2016, over 50,000 Adivasi peasants, women, youth and students under the leadership of various organisations like AIKS, AARM, AIDWA, DYFI and SFI gheraoed the house of the state Adivasi Development Minister at Wada in Palghar district, for two days and nights, and got written assurances on issues like FRA and malnutrition-related deaths of Adivasi children

The food of the farmers

The Food Of the Farmers_
They start their life from the morning eating very nominal food Like dal chawal roti sabji. And pack some food in towel or some container for rest of the day. They take this food to the field or their workplace. With this normal food energy they work really hard. No brevarage or energy drinks like us no tea or no coffee. No matter what the weather outside it's 5 degree Celsius or 45 degree Celsius they rely on this nominal food and mostly a litre of water all the day. After returning from the field fully exhausted they eat also very nominal food. According to my opinion and some sources farmers did not get the actual protein what they need to work in this field. Their basic food is  roti_ sabji, dal, chawal ,aloo gobi ,aloo matar, sabzi. If some farmers own some cattle or cow then they drink some milk n rest of they sell it for extra income. The actual peoples who work really hard to feed us only rely on that kinda nominal food. They don't waste food like we do. They have very limitited sources. Just think how much Rice, Grain, Potato, Chiken_muton we waste daily but In some circumstances its very hard to produce that food. To all the reader of this blog Please think before you throw food to dustbin. It actualy need very labour to grow that food in the field.

THE STRUGGLE

The struggle_
Every morning they started newly hoping that everything will go fine but at the end of the day It Ends with a lot of struggle and hurdle. Still in many places of India farming is a very hardworking job to do because in this field Technology is very little And Everything depends on manpower.  the farmers eat very little and worked very hard to feed the nation. Their usual morning breakfast is handmade roti and sabji in some places puffed rice with sugar. agricultural paddy and potato needs very much man power to use. After this lots of hard work if the produced Cops price became low the farmer faces a big loss. They doesn't have the other way to recover from the loss so they start there they again with new hope. They start that this time they will grow much better cop and produce a lot of more crop that will give them plenty of money to recover from the loss. When we see good foods in our plates always try to think a lots of labour and hard work is in it. In our area where I live everybody depends on fresh veggies, growing vegetables is more hard working and then growing paddy. Hard work and work hard is the only Moto of the farmers. The global warming impact and also price hiking of agriculture products making their struggle more harder. Let me tell you more accurately and being more specific on this. That the price of insecticide and bio and chemical fertilizers has hiked a lot in past few years. Show the costing of doing agriculture become high. But in the vice versa ratio the corp price not hiked as much. So many farmers specialy the small farmers ( who's farm land is small than a acre) does not see profit. But they still doing their job becaue the usualy say a word very often, "Whatever it is agriculture is in our blood

Solution in my opinion

Solution

There could be a number of solutions for this issue, out of which a two way system will be briefly
discussed in the present passage.
Agriculture loan will be provided to farmers via Banks. Loan at the interest rate of like the present
rate 4% per year. But this solution will provide farmers loan without modgage, the security or the
guarantee of Bank’s provided capital will be the produced corps.
Example:- Bank provide a farmer 100,000 rupees loan on 3 acre of land for producing potato. In a
normal production rate 210-230 packet (per packet 50-55 kg) can be produced on a acre land
averagely. Now Bank will acquire 70% of produced potatoes as the guarantee of their given sum.
Now the sum will be- 70% of 210-230= 150aprx. In 3 acres it will be 450 packs aprox. Now the
capital + Interest= 104,000 rupees. Now per pack price will be 232-240 minimum. Every year Govt.
bought a lot of corps for food bank & export to other countries, in this solution Govt. will Act like
the buyer of the corps directly from the farmers. It will ensure the best price for the farmers.
Now after paying back to the bank farmers still have their own 30% of corps as 60-90
packets, at present condition in the year 2015 the reduction of the price if a farmer sell his rest of
corps at the lowest price, it will be all his profit no matter how much low the price is. And he will
not bear any headache to pay his loan back.
After Govt. acquire the corps via bank if the price hiking happens and the corps price will go high
then Govt. will pay back the profit after charging a minimum interest on that money.
Example: - The 70% of acquired corps 3 acre will be 450 packs aprox. In price hiking the per pack
price moves to 500-600 per packs, as the year 2014 then the total price will be 225000-250000
rupees. Now bank will take 15% of this money as being the payer of that money when cultivating
started & rest of the money will be returned to the farmers as their own profit.

THE LIFE OF FARMERS_1

THE LIFE OF FARMERS_1-

“The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways.” – John F. Kennedy

The farmers, they does not have the gorgeous Lifestyle but now a days they are using a lots of technology
to do the best they can. Government is providing a lots of Technical help to grow their knowledge and
also providing modern equipments. Till 1990 farmers used bull cart buffaloes and cows to dig the fields.
Now they use Tractors and harvesters to do the cultivation process much betterly. They started their day from the sunrise and end their day after the sunset. They really work hard to feed the nation. After India
became independent the cultivation process was not modernized like the western countries. In 2017
farmers use big equipments like Tractors and harvesters. They they are contributing the biggest part to
build the nation. Now farmers are participating in a lots of government project to grow their knowledge
scientifically. But apart from that lots of bed bad things still becoming the obstacle to their life and
cultivation. Recent price hiking on cultivating equipments and seeds in many season they are in real loss.
For the loss they cannot repay The Loan, the loan taken to do cultivating became the burden on them.
In some cases the circle of the loan amount Rises too much hai and they doesn't have any other way to
repay or other source of income to repay the loan, so they find another way to release all the headaches,
"SUICIDE". Government is doing well to motivate the farmers in other way do farming in other types of
vegetables. But a lots of work have to be done in the field to ensure they are safety security and future.

IMPACT OF NATURE ON FARMERS

IMPACT OF NATURE:_
Capitalist production collects the population together in great centres, and causes the urban
population to achieve an ever greater preponderance. This has two results. On the one hand it
concentrates the historical motive-power of society; on the other hand, it disturbs the metabolic
interaction [Stoffwechsel] between man and the soil, i.e., it prevents the return to the soil of its
constituent elements consumed by man in the form of food and clothing; hence it hinders the
operation of the eternal natural conditions for the lasting fertility of the soil. KARL MARX

The global warming impact on cultivation is huge. Now present day monsoon does not
come the way it

came before and the wide range of farmers still waits for monsoon to
grow their seeds. Not only for the water also for the atmosphere. In 2017 where I live
the monsoon came after delaying a month, this hampered the seeding process very
muchly. The paddy seeds does not grow well. As well as the whole Aman season
delayed by 1 month. In the seeding process the main thing is the atmosphere water can
be pumped up, but seeding needs actual temperature humidity and sunlight also some
rain to grow properly. In 2017 after the seeding process completed it started heavy
rainfall. Not only in my area of West Bengal some places all over the nation. And the
result was very bad. Manyi area was under flood, it costs not only cultivation also
human lives. Nature is showing her rude image because we are hampering her in other
way. My friend the 2017 was not yet gone. In November 2017 when it was the time to
cut off paddy from field and time of seeding potatoes, the rainfall Started again
hampered the cultivation process again. Farmers were stuck in the Rude hand of nature.
The production of paddy was not as well as expected. Show the rice price hiked a lot. In the year
2016 it was not much rainfall and many places in the nation was under draught. So it's a little
story how the nature impacts on cultivation.