Intercropping is a scientifically proven practice and hasgot several advantages and extends economic benefits for the farmersparticularly under adverse weather conditions. It is largely practiced in dry-land areas as an insurance againstfailure of main crop.
Under All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) onIntegrated Farming Systems, intercropping systems have been studied for manyStates and found profitable for farmers. Intercrops act as live mulch therebyreducing the weeds, water requirement and also providing additional returns tothe farmers. Intercropping with leguminous crops is one of the components ofZero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) and it improves the crop productivity andsoil fertility by way of fixing the atmospheric nitrogen. Further, the cowdung, urine based formulations and botanical extracts used in ZBNF help farmersin reducing the input cost.
The farmers practicing ZBNF either of small land holding orlarge land holding prepare the low cost cow urine and dung based formulation onfarm by procuring the required inputs locally from the village or neighbouringvillages.There is no specific time series data ondisguised unemployment in the country as the phenomenon is not easily amenableto measurement. However, comparable time series data on employment andunemployment is available in the form of quinquennial Survey on ‘Employment andUnemployment Situation in India’ conducted by the National Sample Survey Office(NSSO). The latest available data as per the quinquennial Survey estimatesindicated that workforce engaged in agriculture and allied sector has come downfrom 24.74 crore in 2009-10 to 23.18 crore in 2011-12, i.e., about 6 percent.The shift in workforce from primary (agriculture) sector to secondary andtertiary sectors is a normal phenomenon of the development process experiencedby countries across the world and the same is true for India as well. The shiftowes to changes in the nature and scope of work arrangements in the varioussectors of the economy and the absorptive capacity of the non-agriculturalsectors to accommodate fresh entrants as well as workers hitherto engaged inagriculture. Government has launched various schemes aiming to increaseproduction and productivity which make agriculture sector more viable andthereby enhance labour productivity. Besides, Government has taken varioussteps for generating employment in the country like encouraging private sectorof economy, fast-tracking various projects involving substantial investment andincreasing public expenditure on schemes like Prime Minister’s EmploymentGeneration Programme, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment GuaranteeScheme, Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana and Deendyal AntodayaYojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission.