Pampered Crops and Sustainability

Human beings are susceptible to conditioning. Formal classroom instruction or informal digital campaigns both stifle a common man’s ability to look over the wall. The din that we create over select issues of our choice shuts the doors on feasible alternatives. Over an extended period, we run the risk of losing the indigenous societal knowledge, and the alternatives soon become obscure.

Agriculture, especially human food and nutritional security exemplifies a classic instance of human conditioning, and consequent focus continues to remain on pre-selected issues. The scientific and technological world is putting all eggs in the same basket when chasing a handful of crops to satiate human hunger. It is unfortunate even the voice of philosophers, who are supposed to act as beacons, remains subcritical.

While time and again we remind ourselves that rice forms the staple crop of more than 50% of the human population, little do we care to think since when this has happened? Rice became available, accessible and affordable to the majority of the 50% over the last 50 years. Tubers, millets and other lesser known crops were predominantly consumed by the masses of the ‘struggling world’. A rice dish, for them, was a luxury.

With new rice varieties emerging from research labs, the crop got an impetus. Mass introduction, advocacy and adoption of rice in South and South East Asia raised the plant to its present global consumption status. Rice is a demanding crop. It needs plenty of water, nutrients and time investment. The crop is sensitive to and poorly adapted for ambient temperature fluctuations. The initial buoyancy was short lived. With fatigue setting in, rice yields continue to raise eyebrows. Increasingly more certain climatic deviations complicate the cauldron.

There is a thrust to explore prospects of emerging technologies to reduce uncertainty in rice yields. Field-specific crop advisory system (based on crop simulation models) and Artificial Intelligence for timely advisories are two instances. There is nothing wrong Per-Se in deploying emerging technologies in computing and communications realms to augment human food and nutritional security; it would be prudent to explore the possibilities of alternative species, which have been shut out. They are more resilient, less demanding and offer a more sustainable alternative.