Rainfed agriculture

I’m not a farmer. As ashamed as I am to admit that, I really don’t have much practical experience in farming, or really, even taking care of a garden on my own. My plants inside my house have mostly struggled valiantly to survive in the past. I might not be the opposite of a green thumb, but I’m pretty close, probably.

Although I’ve spent most of my higher education learning about, and advocating for, different forms of sustainable agriculture, it was all theoretical. I’ve longed to WWOOF for at least a season, but it always ended with the (maybe valid) excuse of “I just don’t have enough time.”

Now, though, I’ve been at least doing as many field visits as possible to monitor our farmers. I’ve learned so much just asking questions about the crop cycle here and the main challenges. Most of all, it really made me re-think what it meant to be a farmer dependent on “rainfed agriculture.”

In the past, the textbooks made it sound like rainfed agriculture was ‘backwards’ or ‘inefficient,’ without really explaining the reasons. I assumed it was because of some sort of paradigm where ‘modern’ conventional agriculture was viewed as the only correct method of farming. After all, rainfed agriculture has been around for as long as humans have farmed, how inefficient can it actually be? According to my bias towards all things ‘natural,’ traditional methods must have some good uses too!

Boy, have I been wrong.

Farming here is completely dependent on the rain. The most common phrase you’ll hear is “If God gives us the rains, we will do well.” What does it really mean to be dependent on the rain? Here’re a few examples:

• Two farmers planted their bean crops side by side; one three days before the other. There was a good rain during those three days. One farm had 100% germination while the other only had 50%. That’s half of your business, gone because of raining patterns you can’t predict.
• A whole district had great germination for their bean plants. There was a sudden lack of rains for about a week and a half in some areas. Everyone in those areas suffered from almost-dying bean plants. Some farmers planted a few days later than others, their plants luckily survived. Those who were diligent and planted earlier, suffered losses.
• If it rains hard now, the maize plants would do great, but the beans would be damaged from the hard rain. If it doesn’t rain hard now, the maize plants would yield less, but the beans would thrive. Which one do you wish for when you’re a farmer who has planted both?
• If you can harvest your beans now, you want two sunny days to dry them and sell them while the price is still high. But all the other farmers with plants still growing want the rains to continue every day.
• If it rains too hard when the beans are flowering, you lose your whole crop. If it rains too little when the beans are growing, you lose at least half your crop. You can develop irrigation systems to prevent the drying, but you can’t put tarps over 3 acres of plants to prevent heavy rain. (Unless you’re in a total controlled environment like a greenhouse.)

Farming is risky. Hence the need for seeds that are drought and flood resistant. Hence the need for irrigation systems. Hence the need for a variety of crops for insurance. Hence the need for safety margins, without assuming 100% germination and profit. Farming isn’t a normal business where everything can be controlled by hard work; not when your main input is controlled by the sky.

And really, it’s not only limited to farmers in developing countries. I just saw this article today about the potato crop in Delta (near Vancouver in Canada).