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NEW DELHI: Indian farmers are revising their sowing strategy and cropping patterns as they look to make the most of the rain they’ll get during the June-September monsoon season. 
 
The state-run India Meteorological Department and private forecasters such as Skymet have indicated that rain could be deficient, with some probability of a drought. Farmers are hoping to be prepared for such an eventuality. 
 
To begin with, some are looking to cultivate crops that will require less water such as cotton, guar, jowar, pulses, maize and soyabean. Others are opting for short-duration crops such as basmati rather than paddy. Sales of drought-tolerant seed varieties could also see a surge. 
 Availability of water for irrigation is a substantial challenge because of poor infrastructure in a country where two-thirds of the arable land is rain fed. More than 42% of the area under paddy, which accounts for over 70% of the kharif crop in the country, is rainfed across Uttar Pradesh, <keyword id="30033" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Bihar">Bihar</keyword>, <keyword id="6355554" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Madhya-Pradesh">Madhya Pradesh</keyword>, <keyword id="43945" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Chhattisgarh">Chhattisgarh</keyword> and West Bengal. 
 
Nand Kishore Singh of Tariyani village in the Jaunpur district of Uttar Pradesh may sow black gram (urad) this year rather than paddy if the season is dry. “We are dependent on monsoon rains and it will be unviable to get a crop if rains are weak and unevenly spread,” he said. 
 
According to rough estimates, 5,000 litres of water is needed for producing 1 kg of paddy whereas 1 kg of basmati requires 400-500 litre of water. 
 
KVS Sandhu, a vegetable grower in Patiala, Punjab, will be allocating 25 acres of land on his farm for basmati this year. 
 
“Growing paddy could pose a problem if rains are unevenly distributed across the four months and hence I will go for basmati sowing for the first time,” said Sandhu, who’s a former bureaucrat. The 70-day crop will need less water than the 90-110-day paddy crop, he said. 
 
Sandhu, a leading vegetable exporter, has already sown ladies’ fingers to export to the European Union and the Middle East. 
 
Most farmers across north India, after harvesting wheat in March, went in for maize, green gram (moong) and even vegetables to earn extra. They will now opt for basmati in July. 
 
Acreage of India’s largest vegetable export, guar, could also increase as companies begin distributing free seeds to farmers. 
 Maganbhai Patel, a cotton and groundnut <keyword id="48857" type="POSITION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Farmer">farmer</keyword> in Gujarat who has 30 acres of land, has been approached by traders and companies to sow guar this year. “We haven’t ever sown guar in our area. The crop doesn’t require any water or fertilizer and it will be a net profit for me even if I get Rs 7,500 per quintal by the end of the harvest,” he said. Guar seed is currently being quoted at Rs 4,500-5,000 a quintal in the Gujarat market. 
 
In 2012, weak rains across western India led to a huge loss for cotton and groundnut farmers as wells ran dried. Patel, who heads Gujarat’s Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, feels that farmers will continue to sow the traditional groundnut, castor and cotton crops.
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“We are not businessmen and will do what best we know. From past experience of poor rains, farmers will go for short-range variety of cotton. If the government subsidises, we may even sow drought-variety seeds,” he said. 
 
The Centre and state governments have been issuing information on the possibility of a below-normal southwest monsoon and what farmer could sow to ensure remunerative returns. 
 “We have been told that this year there would be low rainfall so we have decided to sow soyabean and jowar as these crops need less water than other crops like sugar cane or vegetable plants,” said Singangoud Patil, a <keyword id="195892" type="POSITION" weightage="40" keywordseo="small-farmer">small farmer</keyword> in Kardiguddi village in Belgaum, Karnataka. 
 
“Generally we sow sugarcane but this year we might go with cotton or maize. We have already suffered huge losses due to abnormal rainfall early this year, so don’t want to take risk,” said Manjunath Chikkareddy, who owns 20 acres of land at Hooli in Belgaum.

Farmers Revise Sowing, Cropping Patterns To Overcome Weak Monsoon

<keyword id="1386652" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Fracking">Fracking</keyword> – the word sounds like some kind of slang. And guess what, it really IS! The term is relatively new and it is liberally used all over the world to describe some serious interventions we have with Mother Earth. Sounds judgmental? Nope, it’s not. 
 
Fracking means ‘hydraulic fracturing’ or piercing into the layers of shale rocks lying deep inside the earth to tap natural fuels such as gas and oil. But these reserves have been unavailable so far for a simple reason. Although scientists were aware of their existence, they could not remove them without disturbing the bed of shale rocks. 
 The method involves <keyword id="1569615" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="3D-imaging">3D imaging</keyword> of the site where shale rocks with high untapped reserves exist. Once the presence of gas is confirmed, fracking is carried out – sometimes well over a mile into the depth of the earth – with horizontal drilling mechanisms, allowing highly pressurised fracking fluids into the shale area. The ‘vent’ that is created, yields high amount of gas (and oil as well, depending on the location), compared to the conventional methods. Once the reserves are extracted, the smallest vent created through fracking fluids is cemented to keep the ground water levels intact. 
 
Conventional technology had to give way to the new-found method of tapping these reserves. And that was when hydraulic fracturing or fracking, as it is called, came into existence. This technology has been hugely popular in several countries such as the US, Canada, Russia and China, which have moderate-to-rich reserves of oil and gas. 
 
The reserves, according to energy companies, are so abundant that they have raised the estimates of the US gas reserves from 30 years to nearly a century. The country hadn’t thought shale gas was worth extracting for the high cost involved vis-à-vis the amount of extracted gas, till Houston billionaire George P Mitchell came out with fracking techniques. 
 
As the fracking frenzy grows worldwide, India perhaps has the biggest role to play, apart from its own lands, which are identified as suitable locations for fracking. 
 
Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and some regions in the mountainous north-east are estimated to hold high reserves of natural gas, which can help solve some of the fuel challenges that the country is facing. Natural gas and crude oil mark some of the biggest imports India makes from the neighbouring countries while trying to maintain the fluctuating fuel prices in the domestic market. 
 
Last year, the Indian government declared it was exploring opportunities to tap the shale gas reserves and had already undertaken mapping of locations with sedimentary rocks and rich gas reserves. Reliance Industries, one of the biggest energy bidders, has also shown immense interest to invest in this exercise. In fact, the company has already made a billion-dollar investment in the Marcellus shale reserves across the East Coast in America. 
 
About six sites will undergo mapping under the new Prime Minister’s regime in India. Cambay, Assam-Arakan basin, Gondwana, KG onshore, Indo-Gangetic basin and the Cauvery basin are going to be explored for the gas reserves. 
 
Apart from tapping its own river basins and mountainous ranges, here’s where India’s windfall lies. The dry lands of India grow the most necessary ingredient for the aquifer or the chemical cocktail that goes into the process of fracking. The country produces 80% of the world’s guar gum, produced from the guar bean or Indian cluster bean. 
 
Known as guar bean, these cluster beans look like the less-fleshier form of French beans that grow on a semi-creeper in various parts of India. Known as the ‘poor man’s curry bean,’ the otherwise inconsequential vegetable/crop didn’t even merit any space in the kitchen of the moderately well-off, let alone gracing the dining table. But the lean bean has suddenly hit a jackpot with its unique ability to gel up the fracking water stream that will enter the rocks. 
 
Fracking is sure to catch up soon in India and may turn out to be a boon or a bane for the nation. And just like random mining created billionaires overnight, it may witness the same outcome, if it really becomes an ‘emerging’ trend across the globe. 
 
If it does answer India’s demand for natural gas, it can strengthen the economy from within, making it a self-regulatory and self-sufficient nation that can meet its domestic requirements. Even while supplying the guar gum while the world looks for alternatives such as Xanthan gum, among others, India still holds the key to fracking. 
 
Last time it happened was when the IT boom started and India was at the forefront. Does this mean good days are here for Indian farmers this time around?

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Farmers Revise Sowing, Cropping Patterns To Overcome Weak Monsoon

Economic Times

Fracking Could Trigger Windfall For India, But What’s The Trade-off?

Preetam Kaushik

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