India’s agricultural sector is enormous, accounting for two-thirds of the country’s workforce. The farming sector employs practices that waste resources such as fuel and water, increasing costs and decreasing returns. Resource-inefficient practices compromise the future of Indian agriculture and the livelihoods of the country’s rural poor.

USAID’s Resource Conserving Practices program promotes methods and technologies to help Indian farmers reduce the amount of water used to produce paddy and wheat. To do so, the program works with farmers, extension services, local organizations, and national bodies to promote, demonstrate, implement and adapt methods such as:

• Zero-till farming – By not tilling fields, farmers save diesel and labor, decrease the amount of seed needed for crops, and increase their yields;
• Field Leveling – Using laser technology to map plots of land allows farmers to adjust field grades for optimal irrigation efficiency, saving precious water needed to irrigate fields and diesel needed to pump water; and
• Raised Bed Farming – Plowing their fields into tight raised seedbeds enables farmers to further decrease the amount of water needed for irrigation, reduce the amount of diesel needed for pumping and lessen the amount of seed needed for crops.