Farming Against the Odds: Realities and Transformations in the Eastern Gangetic Plains

In the Eastern Gangetic Plains, where fertile soil promise bounty, farmers battle shifting riverbanks, floods, and deep-rooted social norms just to grow a crop. What does resilience look like in a place where farming is a daily gamble?

Stretching across Nepal, northern India, and Bangladesh, the Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) are known for their fertile soils and rich agricultural traditions. Yet, for millions of smallholder farmers, this landscape is shaped as much by persistent challenges as by the adaptations farmers make in response. Shifting riverbanks, sandy soil formations, floods, and seasonal droughts create both opportunities and instabilities. Here, farming is far from routine; it’s a daily struggle with climate, economics, and entrenched social (gender) norms, and historical patterns.

The Challenges: Layered and Interlinked

For smallholder families in the EGP, farming is a livelihood full of trade-offs and uncertainty. Even in a region rich in water, timely irrigation access remains elusive. Rising input prices, dwindling labour, especially for time-intensive tasks like weeding, recurring floods and declining soil fertility reduce productivity. Despite women playing central roles in farm and household activities, they often remain excluded from key decision-making. And while public agriculture and allied sectors schemes exist, access to quality inputs and advice is sporadic, leaving farmers to rely on local vendors or outdated practices.

Diversification as a Driver of Change

In response to these overlapping challenges, a quiet transformation is unfolding across the region, driven by farmers themselves and supported by collaborative initiatives. One such initiative, RUPANTAR, led by the University of Adelaide in partnership with CIMMYT and regional collaborators (see Box 1), doesn’t impose ready-made solutions. Instead, it co-creates practical solutions with farmers to diversify their farming systems in ways that are grounded in local needs and realities.

Box 1: The Transforming Smallholder Food Systems in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (RUPANTAR) project is an applied research for development initiative aimed at supporting sustainable intensification and diversification among smallholder farmers in the EGP region of India, Nepal and Bangladesh. For more details refer https://www.cimmyt.org/projects/rupantar/

The diversification pathways include:

Efficient utilization of available land resources by cultivating mustard, ZT mustard, or maize in fallow lands during the rabi season.
Scientific rearing practices for livestock and poultry.
Crops involving multi-layer farming and techniques such as polymulching in chilli or brinjal that thrive with limited water.

What sets this initiative apart is its participatory, locally rooted, farmer-centric approach. In all these interventions, they work with farmers through demonstration plots, exposure visits, peer learning, and local networks. Farmers don’t just receive information — they shape it, test it, and adapt it to their local situation if suitable.

Field Voices: Driving Diversification

A walk through the villages of the EGP, like Chotto Atharokatha, Uttor Berubondo, and D-Gaun, quickly reveals that agriculture here is about much more than growing crops; it is about managing a complex system involving a fragile balance of crops, livestock, off-farm work and environmental uncertainty, all shaped by social and institutional dynamics. The following examples highlight how farmers are embracing diversification in ways that are both innovative and deeply rooted in context.

In Chotto Atharokatha, a farmer restarted winter cropping after 15 years, thanks to a mulching technique introduced in chilli farming. It drastically reduced weeding labour and boosted yields-reviving a practice long abandoned due to high effort and cost.

In Uttor Berubondo, a woman farmer integrated mustard, potatoes, maize, and livestock. Every part of the system such as crops, manure, and feed supports the household economy. This holistic management was shaped through exposure to the diversification pathway.

In D-Gaun, exposure visits helped a farmer redesign his underutilized land into a multi-layer arecanut orchard intercropped with fodder grasses and vegetables, creating a steady year-round source of income and feed.

These stories aren’t isolated. They represent a growing shift in how farmers approach risk and opportunity-supported by new knowledge, skills, networks, and confidence.

Transformative Impact but Hurdles Remain

The emerging changes are delivering meaningful results, but they are not without limits. Here’s a look at what’s working and what continues to constrain broader transformation.

What’s Working?

Labour savings and cost reduction: Mulching has reduced the labour requirement for weeding from 10–20 people per round to just a few, especially benefiting women.
Healthier crops and better yields: Farmers report fewer pests and more vigorous plants, though weather still causes fluctuations.
Income diversification: Small but regular sales from poultry or goats provide financial buffers for daily needs or emergencies.
Knowledge sharing: WhatsApp groups, field demonstrations, and links to agri-service providers are expanding access to information.
Women’s participation: While gender barriers persist, project activities and farmer groups are gradually increasing women’s involvement in farming decisions.

What’s Still a Challenge

High upfront costs: Innovations like plastic mulch remain out of reach for many without financial support.
Input and service gaps: Access to quality seeds, veterinary care, and reliable market channels remains patchy.
Limited scalability: Farmers with small plots or minimal capital struggle to apply new practices on a meaningful scale.
Sporadic institutional support: Government and project-based assistance remain intermittent, limiting continuity.

Chili cultivation in Coochbehar, India within sandy soil

What Sustains Change: Key Learnings from the Field

From the experience of implementing the project across the EGP, one lesson stands out: real change isn’t about technology alone-it’s about trust, participation, and systems thinking. To make change sustainable:

Local context must be respected; no one-size-fits-all approach would be effective.
Technical solutions must be supported by social and economic empowerment, including access to finance, markets, and infrastructure.
Local knowledge must be valued, not overwritten.
Inclusion must be intentional, ensuring that women, youth, and marginalized groups participate and benefit meaningfully.

The Way Forward: Scaling without Losing Ground

As we look ahead, the goal is not merely to replicate success, but to scale it thoughtfully, preserving the local ownership and flexibility that made it work in the first place. This calls for,

Strengthening partnerships with local institutions, agri-service providers, and policymakers to embed change into systems.
Staying adaptive, refining interventions based on farmer feedback, climate realities, and evolving market trends.
Pushing for policy support to ensure infrastructure, inputs, credit, and advisory services are accessible to smallholders.
Documenting and sharing evidence, so that future programs and investments build on what’s been learned- failures included.

Conclusion: A Path Forward Rooted in People

The future of farming in the Eastern Gangetic Plains will be shaped not only by climate and markets, but by the ability of farmers to innovate, adapt, and support one another. Locally anchored models like RUPANTAR—built on participation, diversification, and inclusive partnerships—point toward a promising path ahead. However, its true promise will be realised only through continuous investment, learning and relearning, and collaboration across scales.

Because in the EGP, farming may be against the odds, but with the proper support, farmers are redefining what’s possible.

Author

Dr. Bhuvana N is a Consultant (Senior Social Researcher) at CIMMYT, India, currently working on RUPANTAR project.

Acknowledgement

I gratefully acknowledge the crucial support of our funders, ACIAR and the CGIAR Trust Fund. I thank our CIMMYT team colleagues, regional partners in the EGP of India, Bangladesh, and Nepal for their expertise and assistance during project work. I am especially grateful to the farmers who shared their time and experiences, making these insights possible.