Wheat and rice in Karnal and Kurukshetra Districts, Haryana, India: farmers practices, problems, and an agenda for action

Abstract

Two diagnostic surveys conducted during the rice and wheat seasons in 1992 in Kamal and Kurukshetra Districts of Haryana, India, helped develop a preliminary assessment of both near-term and potential longer-term problems in the area's rice-wheat cropping pattern. The surveys obtained information on farmers' rice and wheat crop management (crops and cropping patterns, water and soil fertility management, pest and disease management, and practices from sowing to harvest). Information on interactions between rice and wheat cultivation and other enterprises in the farming system was obtained as well. The major problems affecting wheat are (in order of importance) weed competition. declining soil health, poor groundwater quality, low plant popUlation, and late planting. [n rice. insect pests and diseases were identified as problems. Leaf folder and white-backed planthopper were the most severe. followed by blast, stemborer. foot rot, and bacterial leaf blight. Increased weed pressure and changing weed species were problems that also affected rice. Problems of declining soil fertility and soil health, poor groundwater quality, and groundwater depletion are longer-term problems that have implications for the sustainability of the rice-wheat pattern. Suggested. actions to address these problems include additional diagnosis. monitoring to assess the longer-term effects of fanners' practices and alternative technologies, research on alternative solutions 10 problems that are thought to be well understood, extension. and research on policy implications.