Crop diversification for sustainable farming: What do farmers think?

By Swatantra Kumar Dubey, Prakashan Chellattan Veettil, Proloy Deb, Anton Urfels, and Virender Kumar

Farmers across the districts of Panipat, Sonipat, Karnal, and Yamuna Nagar in Haryana, India, have encountered considerable challenges over the past decade due to groundwater depletion and the adverse impacts of climate change. Despite the alarming decline in the groundwater table of 33 cm per year, farmers continue to rely heavily on irrigation for both paddy and wheat cultivation. This type of farming is practiced on more than 70 percent of land in the region, where early sowing of direct seeded rice (during May) and transplanting of paddy (in June) further exacerbates the water crisis due to extreme heat leading to higher crop water requirements.

Bijendra Singh, a farmer from Panipat District in Haryana, India, has witnessed several farmers in his village deepening their tubewells due to unprecedented depletion of groundwater. In response, he is diversifying from paddy rice to high-value crops that require less irrigation water. Som Nath, a farmer from Yamuna Nagar District, also plans to switch from rice to other crops. However, he is concerned about whether his proposed new crops will attract a minimum support price, or be affected by climate anomalies including recurrent floods and droughts.

Diversifying crops to conserve water

In regions experiencing groundwater depletion, crop diversification is an essential strategy for both conserving water and sustaining agricultural productivity in the face of market fluctuations and climate change. By diversifying their crops, farmers can prioritize varieties that require less irrigation, such as millets, sorghum, and pulses, over water-intensive crops like rice and sugarcane. These drought-resistant crops are better suited to thrive with limited water, easing the pressure on already depleted groundwater resources. Additionally crop diversification helps reduce land degradation promoting more sustainable farming practices and supporting long-term agricultural resilience.

For instance, replacing rice with pulses or legumes in rotation can improve soil health by fixing nitrogen, while also reducing groundwater demand. Additionally, millets, which are naturally suited to dry conditions, offer resilience to both farmers and ecosystems in groundwater-depleted areas. However, rice is well-adapted to areas that are commonly flooded during the monsoon, requires little investment, and has a guaranteed market. Therefore, for diversification to be effective, a spatially and socially targeted approach is needed to ensure that the transition aligns with local conditions and farmers’ livelihoods.

To ensure financial sustainability, farmers may choose crops with local market demand or those that can be exported profitably, all while requiring less water for growth. High-value crops with low water demands can bring in profits, but timely market access is essential to prevent losses. In regions where groundwater depletion is a critical issue, crop diversification strategies must balance water conservation with economic returns to achieve long-term sustainability.

Exploring what farmers think

To shed light on farmers’ perspectives on crop diversification, and to identify the challenges encountered, a series of focus group discussions was conducted across four districts of Haryana under the CGIAR Initiative on NEXUS Gains. Participants in the programs included 50 progressive farmers from the Yamuna Nagar, Karnal, Panipat, and Sonipat districts of Haryana Province. The focus group questionnaire included open-ended questions where farmers shared their views on the benefits of diversifying from rice into less water-demanding crops, the challenges of diversification, and the additional crops that they are willing to adopt.

Most farmers, concerned about the ongoing groundwater crisis, were willing to adopt changes to their conventional practices. These changes included introducing short-duration rice varieties, dividing their entire parcels into smaller plots, and diversifying some sub-plots of rice with other less water demanding crops. These practices may provide a temporary solution to the prevailing challenge of groundwater scarcity in the region, while ensuring that farmers’ incomes remain unaffected.

Identifying farmers’ choice of crops

NEXUS Gains targeted farmers in Haryana who had already adopted some alternative crops. Figure 1 demonstrates the crops commonly chosen by the farmers – sugarcane, mustard, bajra, and maize – and highlights farmers’ growing awareness of the benefits of crop diversification. The farmers also focused on green gram, potato, and sunflower to a moderate degree, possibly due to their market potential or because they are included in government schemes for high-value crops. However, these crops may require more specialized management practices compared to those for traditional grains, posing additional challenges for farmers transitioning to these alternatives.

The focus group survey showed that farmers in Haryana are shifting from traditional grain cultivation to more diverse cropping strategies, incorporating water-efficient or high-value crops like bajra, mustard, and sugarcane. It is worth noting that sugarcane, though water-demanding, is favored by farmers for its profitability, while other, less water-intensive crops are more sustainable. This diversification aims to enhance income stability and build resilience against climate change, while still maintaining a reliance on staple crops.

However, the survey results also indicate that farmers are strategically reducing rice cultivation in favor of crops like millets (bajra, jowar) and pulses, which are more water-efficient, and mustard, maize, and potato which offer better market prospects. This transition may reflect a response to both environmental pressures and economic opportunities.

Understanding factors affecting farmers’ decisions

Economic factors play a significant role for farmers, for whom profit margins are essential. Farmers are driven by minimum support prices and are more likely to diversify if they see potential for higher returns. The cost of inputs is also critical, as high expenses can deter farmers from experimenting with new crops.

Another influencing factor is the encroachment of grazing animals and rodents, which are attracted to fields in the landscape that are planted out of coordination, with new crops, or not flooded – if a single farmer within a village diversifies from paddy to other crops and planting dates. Several solutions exist including fencing, integrated pest management, and synchronized cropping where farmers in a village cultivate the same new crop type to spread the risk evenly. To support crop diversification, such solution-bundles will need to be tested and vetted to ensure they are effective in the local context and have limited environmental impacts.

Knowledge and technical expertise are also crucial for effective diversification. For example, understanding soil health and climate adaptability may guide farmers in selecting crops that enhance sustainability and resilience to environmental changes. However, infrastructure and resource limitations, such as inadequate storage facilities and irrigation systems, can limit farmers’ ability to implement diversification strategies and fully realize their benefits.

Government policies and support can either encourage or hinder diversification efforts. When policies favor crop diversification through subsidies or training programs, farmers are more inclined to explore new options. However, a lack of adaptive research tailored to local conditions can suppress innovation, leaving farmers with limited knowledge of how to diversify successfully.

NEXUS Gains’ findings show that farmers are already diversifying, and that several options for shifting crops exist. But for farmers to diversify effectively and at scale, they need a supportive environment that addresses economic and infrastructural challenges – reducing risk while providing access to technology and adaptive research to support their experimentation and efforts.

Swatantra Kumar Dubey is Senior Specialist in Economic Modeling at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) South Asia Regional Center, Varanasi, India; Proloy Deb is Postdoctoral Fellow in Water Management at IRRI South Asia Regional Center; Prakashan Chellattan Veettil is Agricultural Economist at IRRI, New Delhi; Anton Urfels is Senior Scientist in Water Management at IRRI, Los Baños, Philippines; Virender Kumar is Principal Scientist in Weed Science and Systems Agronomy and Deputy Head of the Sustainable Impact Department IRRI, Los Baños, Philippines.

This work was carried out under the CGIAR Initiative on NEXUS Gains, which is grateful for the support of CGIAR Trust Fund contributors: www.cgiar.org/funders

Header image: Crop diversification. Photo by Tom Fisk/Pexels.