Agricultural Sustainability in Context of Indian Agriculture: A Parametric Approach from Punjab and Haryana

Abstract

An attempt was made to develop and quantify the agricultural sustainability in India, particularly in food basket states of Punjab and Haryana in the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) with an improved methodological approach to capture the complexities of soil sustainability in its holistic manner. Agricultural sustainability in this study is defined in terms of soil health. Three main drivers of soil health viz. soil degradation, soil fertility and soil management options were considered to develop the sustainability index. These drivers are closely associated and defined by different soil indicators. For developing sustainability index, 15 indicators were taken by adopting various methods such as equal, principal component analysis (PCA), and expert opinion weights. Results indicated that the percentage of area under unfavourable soil structure was quite high in both Punjab (18.4%) and Haryana (27%). Similarly, the deficiency in boron (B) and soil organic carbon (SOC) in Punjab were quite high at 69.6% and 75.6%, respectively. The corresponding values of 43.2% and 90% were recorded for Haryana. Soil management practices to restore soil health were not that adequate and encouraging in these states. The percentage area under conservation agriculture (CA) is only 13.6% (Punjab) and Haryana (5.2%) as against the benchmark of 33% suggested by the experts in the field. The excess use of urea to the extent of ~70-108% from the recommended doses was recorded for Punjab and Haryana, which is real cause of concern and needs to be optimized through strong policies. The use of pesticides in agriculture (65.7% net sown area) under both states was alarming and most farmers do not use the recommended doses. Excess use of pesticide, nitrogenous fertilizers, high stubble burning and low per hectare use of farmyard manure (~0.9- 1.5 t ha-1) were found in both states. Overall, lower to moderate soil sustainability was observed in both Punjab and Haryana. By and large, PCA-based combined soil sustainability indices (CSSI) provided better results for both Punjab (0.64) and Haryana (0.60). Results highlight the importance of reorientation of the existing policies and adopting new policies, institutional arrangements and regulatory measures to enhance the degree of sustainability as measured by CSSI in both Punjab and Haryana.