Why Interest In Multi-Cropping Is Declining In Kachchh

Kachchh is characterised by harsh summers and bitter winters. Until two decades back, droughts were common. Ram-Mol, that sees the cultivation of up to seven crops together, is a result of indigenous knowledge that ensures both food and fodder in such conditions, with optimal utilisation of water. It also improves soil health.

Although rain-fed and weather dependent, mixed cropping ensures that even if one crop fails, the others will cover the loss for the farmer. Typically, Ram-Mol sees a mix of millets (pearl millet, sorghum), legumes (cluster bean, green gram, moth bean), and oil seeds (castor, sesame).

“Some are to eat, like pearl millet and green gram; some are to sell, like castor; and some for fodder, like sorghum,” explained Rasika Gagal, whose family does Ram-Mol farming in Jawahar Nagar village. Typically, four to five of the seven native crops are grown together in Ram-Mol.

It was a hot summer day when I had met some of the women and men in Jawahar Nagar village to understand the significance of Ram-Mol farming. Rasika Behn explained the wisdom of elders who, through trial and error, learnt to grow a certain combination of crops in Ram-Mol--like, when green gram and pearl millet are grown together, green gram gives a better yield than when grown alone.

Ram-Mol literally means God’s crop, which is what rain-fed farming is--dependent on nature. Cultivating different crops--with different harvesting times--on the same piece of land is however a laborious process, and one of the reasons why there has been a decline in interest in this traditional form of farming. The advent of hybrid seeds--which pose a stiff competition for native varieties--and the expansion of irrigation which reduces dependency on rains, have added to this.

Emerging challenges

Kaku Behn and her husband Ranchod Gagal own 30 acres of land, half of which is under Ram-Mol farming. “We grow hybrid castor in the remaining 15 acres,” Gagal said. Until two years back, they had completely left Ram-Mol farming, choosing to grow only castor and cluster bean in different parcels of land.

“We moved away from Ram-Mol because it was more laborious," Kaku Behn explained. "Every crop is harvested at a different time. In addition to that, hybrid seeds (of castor) give a better harvest and are of short duration.”

Hybrid castor gives a harvest of 1,000-1,200 kg per acre, unlike the desi variety that gives a harvest of 600-800 kg. Shyamjibhai Kag explained that the expansion of irrigation in parts of Kachchh has also played a role in the gradual change of the cropping system. “In our village, wheat, which is not a traditional crop, began to be cultivated ever since irrigation became a possibility,” he said, adding that this escalated once they could access the Narmada canal’s water. Kag practices Ram-Mol on half his land, about 10 acres, and grows castor on the rest of the irrigated land.

This move from traditional to non-traditional crops and hybrid seeds is a step towards better remunerative opportunities. This, combined with government’s policies that give a thrust to certain crops over time, like oilseeds, further aids the transition. Earlier this year, for instance, the Union government launched the National Mission on Edible Oils—Oilseeds that seeks to reduce import of oilseeds by promoting hybrid seeds.

Manish Kanwat, principal scientist and head in-charge at the KVK Regional Research Station (under Central Arid Zone Research Institute) in Bhuj, however, said that growing hybrid varieties is “input intensive”.

“While it is important that we become self-sufficient in cereals and oilseeds, it is also true that growing hybrid seeds requires more investment in terms of fertilisers, insecticides and pesticides,” Kanwat told IndiaSpend. “The government should therefore also pay attention to native seeds being grown in traditional farming systems like Ram-Mol which are ancient and certified by experience.”

In Ram-mol farming, four to five crops are grown together. In this picture, pearl millet, sesame and green gram can be seen grown together.

Mixed cropping enhances food security and resilience

Mixed cropping systems like Ram Mol are significant not just in terms of food security but also in the context of climate change. “Agriculture is closely related to water availability," Kanwat points out. "As a result of climatic changes, if there is a delay in monsoons, or rains are erratic and one crop fails, mixed cropping will ensure that the farmer still has a chance to cut his losses with the other crops. This is not possible with monocropping.”

Kachchh has seen an increase in average seasonal rainfall in the last three decades, from 378 mm to 674 mm; it has also become more erratic. In the face of such abiotic stress, Valjibhai Gagal, a farmer in Jawahar Nagar who practices Ram-Mol farming in 22 acres of his land, feels that native varieties of seeds have better tolerance than hybrid varieties. As an example, Soni Behn Gagal, a resident of the village, said that when it did not rain for almost two months after the initial monsoon shower a few years back, her desi castor field could survive the ordeal while the hybrid castor in the neighbouring fields perished.

Ram-Mol is therefore suitable for a semi-arid place like Kachchh because the crops that are grown in this form of dryland farming--the legumes for instance--require less water.

Satvik, an NGO in Bhuj, conducts awareness programes on the significance of mixed farming system and has helped in the setting up of a collective of women to preserve native seeds.

“Traditionally, a bund is made around the land where Ram-Mol is practiced so that there is no run-off (of rain water)," Praveen Muchhadiya of the NGO, Satvik: Promoting Ecological Farming, told IndiaSpend. "Native trees are grown on the bund that further prevent wind erosion of the soil. This also helps in retention of moisture in the soil.”

Satvik has been working to encourage farmers to continue doing Ram-Mol farming in different villages in Kachchh since 2017.

Falgun Modh, joint director of the horticulture department in the Gujarat state government (Mehsana), added that multi-cropping reduces the risk of diseases and incidence of pests in the crops. “For instance, if there is a pest attack on sesame, that particular pest will remain limited to sesame and not spread to the other crops. Therefore, the pest population will remain limited,” Modh told IndiaSpend.

“Crop diversification,” said a report by IUCN, “acts as a buffer against pests and diseases…by breaking insect and disease cycles.” The more diverse a farming system is, the report said, the more varied the population of pest-fighting microbes in the soil.

Each crop grown in Ram-Mol also plays a different role in improving soil health. “Sesame, for instance, has deep roots and helps in healthy microbe distribution in the soil. It also manages nutrients from a depth,” Muchhadiya said. “Sorghum and bajra on the other hand have shallow roots and take nutrients from closer to the surface of the soil. Legumes help in nitrogen fixation.”

Moth bean grows laterally, providing cover to the soil; so does the native variety of castor which starts gaining height once its companion crops are harvested, and stands tall until April, giving shade to the land.

According to a study by Satvik, in 2024-25, for each acre of monocropping of hybrid castor, the cost of cultivation was Rs 9,545 and income was Rs 32,533, leading to a profit of about Rs 23,000. In mixed cropping of pearl millet, green gram, native castor and clusterbean, the cost fell to Rs 6,753 per acre, but incomes also fell to Rs 27,007, leaving a smaller profit of about Rs 20,000 per acre.

Muchhadiya said, "Monocropping can generate a good income for families but in the long run, makes them dependent on the market to meet their food and fodder needs." If the crop fails, the losses are massive. "Mixed cropping on the other hand is a sustainable approach that fosters self-sufficiency in food, feed and fodder for the farmer, in addition to boosting climate resilience and improving soil health."

Bringing back interest to a traditional practice

Despite its well-known benefits, challenges like the ones mentioned earlier have led to a dip in interest in Ram-Mol in Kachchh. In Jawahar Nagar, locals say that they had almost stopped growing pearl millet (bajra) for nearly two decades, and there was a slow wane in green gram as well. But with initiatives like Satvik’s--providing native varieties of seeds to farmers, organic fertilisers, help in marketing of products--the trend is reversing in the areas they are working in.

“In 2022, we did a study of 200 families in eight villages and found that no one grew pearl millet, but 181 still consumed it by buying from the market,” Muchhadiya shared. In 2023, after their intervention, five families started growing pearl millet. Similarly, from 52 families growing green gram in 2022, Satvik’s work has led to 100 families growing it in 2023. “In 2022, 181 families said that green gram, a traditional food, was a part of their diet. Next year, 198 families said that they have started eating green gram,” he said, pointing to the twin benefits of self-sufficiency and nutritional security.

Rasika Behn, Kaku Behn and Soni Behn are also a part of a collective of local women from this area who have formed a seed bank with the support of Satvik in order to preserve indigenous varieties. The women--the collective has 40 members--go to nearby villages to procure native seed varieties from farmers, and then provide the same to those who want it during sowing season.

“In the first year we collected 1,000 kg of seeds; in year two, we gathered 1,000 kg of sorghum alone and 500 kg of other seeds,” Kaku Behn said. “Our bajra harvest, as of now, is insufficient to meet our needs because birds and animals like Nilgai eat it. But we know of a desi variety (of bajra) that has thorns, so we will plant that variety in our farm this time and see how that fares,” Kaku Behn said.

Valjibhai, who admitted to reducing Ram-Mol on his land a few years back before returning full-fledged, said that not only are traditional crops--and seeds--better suited to the environment, “they also taste much better than the hybrids”.

“If there is ample rain in June, I sow more green gram, pearl millet and sesame. If not, I grow more cluster bean, castor and sorghum,” he said.

Learning to change with the changing environment is, sometimes, the only way to keep an age-old tradition alive.

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