Of scientists in drylands

The farm is lovely. It is over 200 hectares. I landed up there on a cloudy morning. It was lush green. It was difficult to believe that this was the famous red alfisol of adegraded variety. In any case, on a first glance, hardly any topsoil was visible with the lush vegetation.

Also we learnt that the rainfall levels here were just an average of around 33 inches and in many years not even that much. They have it all there — water harvesting, tree crops, mixed farming, mixed agriculture, deep tillage, nitrogen fixation, improved and simple tools, regimes for different soils and climates. I have been going to such places for more than 30 years now. There was a difference this time.

The first difference is that the scientists have a lot more confidence. They used to complain then and they complain now. But the more mature ones have arrived. They know that their work matters. There is a quiet air of accomplishment, particularly among the senior ones. The younger ones are as iconoclastic as ever.

And so the young scientist who was looking after classification of genetic material was very critical, almost bitter, about the large-scale piracy of our wealth going on in theworld. He said that if he was not trained in science he would have asked for a more "closed" system. But as a community they feel that they can perform. I see two reasons for this.

The first is that dryland technology is at a premium as the Indian food and demand basket diversifies. Now is the time for fruits and vegetables and spices and all the nice things which grow on trees and vines. We love them because they are steeped in our culture. Now that we have some more money, we want a lot more of these things which grandmother showed us were good.

The drylands also love them. Behind the scary scientific names there is currypatta, mehndi, mango trees that are not more than 12 feet and a whole lot of others.

The second reason is even more important. It is now possible, albeit with a combination of steps to make real money, for a farmer to make big money with science and technology backup in dry areas. This was not so ten years ago.A "conclusion" of Indian agricultural economics was that dryland technologywas not working, since the incremental returns to investment or profits were low as compared to, say, the green revolution technologies. The dryland scientists wanted it, but the economics was not good enough. This phase is now over. Biotechnology, wider markets, better soil, water and agroprocessing techniques have changed the picture.

Does all of this mean that the technology is now there and we can sit back and watch the fun? The answer is decisively negative. In a sense, the world for the dryland farmer is more difficult. But he does have enormous demonstrated and proved potential.

To begin with, the technology packages are more comprehensive. The green revolution business was simpler. If soils were good, water was available, and the new seeds worked wonders. Now we are talking of a range of possibilities.

Complexity is interesting in mathematics, but not easy for social organisations to come to grip with. The range of possibilities the Hayatnagar farm demonstrates is larger. Take the crops first.Apart from good old sorghum, you have all kinds of peas, gram and oil-yielding crops.

Then there are cultivated fodders. Today you have lovely bushes for intercropping, henna, curryleaf, drumsticks, karonda and jatropha, to name a few. Then you have dryland horticulture — guava, anar, ber, amla, custard apple. Again you can have combinations of these.

There are of course the water management practices — many ways of bunding, storage tanks and now mulching. Modern devices and materials have arrived, just as biotechnology has made the difference to cropping. There are also the issues of soil management — of different tillage practices, long known to work on drylands. This brings us to newer implements far more important in dry soils.