Understanding Resource Recycling and Land Management to Upscale Zero-Tillage Potato Cultivation in the Coastal Indian Sundarbans

Rupak Goswami, Riya Roy, Dipjyoti Gangopadhyay, Poulami Sen, Kalyan Roy, Sukamal Sarkar, Sanchayeeta Misra, Krishnendu Ray, Marta Monjardino and Mohammed Mainuddin ()
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Rupak Goswami: School of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational & Research Institute, Kolkata 700103, India
Riya Roy: School of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational & Research Institute, Kolkata 700103, India
Dipjyoti Gangopadhyay: School of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational & Research Institute, Kolkata 700103, India
Poulami Sen: School of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational & Research Institute, Kolkata 700103, India
Kalyan Roy: School of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational & Research Institute, Kolkata 700103, India
Sukamal Sarkar: School of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational & Research Institute, Kolkata 700103, India
Sanchayeeta Misra: School of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational & Research Institute, Kolkata 700103, India
Krishnendu Ray: Sasya Shyamala Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational & Research Institute, Sonarpur 700150, India
Marta Monjardino: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Agriculture and Food, Waite Campus, Waite Road, Urrbrae, SA 5064, Australia
Mohammed Mainuddin: Water Security Program, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Environment, Black Mountain Science and Innovation Park, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia

Land, 2024, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-23

Abstract: Upscaling sustainable intensification (SI) technologies is crucial to enhancing the resilience of fragile farming systems and vulnerable livelihoods of smallholder farmers. It is also critical to shape the future land-use and land-cover changes in a region. Zero-tillage potato cultivation (ZTPC), introduced as an SI intervention in parts of the Indian Sundarbans, has demonstrated promises of rapid upscaling, and thus, changes in the seasonal land-use pattern in the region. This study aims to understand the socioecological complexity of farming systems to comprehend how the nascent stage of ZTPC thrives at the farm level and what preconditions are necessary to upscale them. The objectives are to analyse the farm resource recycling pattern in ZTPC, and map and simulate its system’s complexity to strategize ZTPC upscaling in the region. The analysis of farm resource recycling data reveals that ZTPC stability hinges on managing trade-offs in resource allocations, specifically involving straw, organic manure, sweet water, and family labour. The decision to manage such trade-offs depends on farm type characterizations by their landholdings, distance from the homestead, pond, and cattle ownership, competing crops, and family composition. Using a semiquantitative systems model developed through fuzzy cognitive mapping, the study underscores the significance of effective training, input support, enterprise diversification by introducing livestock, timely tuber supply, access to critical irrigation, and capacity building of local institutions as the essential preconditions to sustain and upscale ZTPC. This research contributes a systems perspective to predict agricultural land use within technology transfer initiatives, providing insights into how farm- and extra-farm factors influence resource allocations for ZTPC. Public extension offices must understand the trade-offs associated with straw, organic matter, and harvested water and design differentiated supports for different farm types. The most compelling interventions to upscale ZTPC includes farm diversification by introducing livestock through institutional convergence, pragmatic agroforestry initiatives to enhance on-farm biomass and fuel production, building awareness and integrating alternative energy use to save straw and cow dung, building social capital to ensure access to sweet irrigation water, and developing and/or strengthening farmer collectives to ensure the supply of quality tuber and marketing of farm produce.

Keywords: farm typology; fuzzy cognitive mapping; network analysis; resource trade-off; technology upscaling; Sundarbans; zero-tillage potato (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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