1 WUA EMPOWERMENT FOR IMPROVED IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT IN CHHATTISGARH Chhattisgarh Irrigation Development Project (CIDP) Asian Development Bank and the State of Chhattisgarh Seventh Assignment Report of the Irrigation Agriculture Development Specialist (International) James A. Litsinger 26 April-8 June 2008 KBR-JPS Consultants Office: Water Resources State Data Centre, Sihawa Bhawan Complex, Civil Lines, Raipur (CG) – 492 001 +91-771-5532115; Tele-Fax: +91-771-2445117
Transcript
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WUA EMPOWERMENT FOR IMPROVED
IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT IN CHHATTISGARH
Chhattisgarh Irrigation Development Project (CIDP)
Asian Development Bank and the State of Chhattisgarh
Seventh Assignment Report
of the
Irrigation Agriculture Development Specialist(International)
James A. Litsinger
26 April-8 June 2008
KBR-JPS ConsultantsOffice: Water Resources State Data Centre, Sihawa Bhawan Complex, Civil Lines,
Table of contentsI. Project Update..................................................................................................................2II. Agricultural NGO Mobilization and Training................................................................3IV. IPM Workshop..............................................................................................................5V. PIM Mass Action Rice Plantings in Chaks in Pilot Schemes.........................................6VI. WUA Seed Procurement...............................................................................................8VII. Site Visits.....................................................................................................................9
B. Balar Scheme Visit....................................................................................................161. Rabi non-rice crops................................................................................................172. Summer rice...........................................................................................................19
C. Beherakhar Scheme Visit..........................................................................................191. Rabi crops..............................................................................................................20
D. Geg Medium Scheme................................................................................................241. PIM Mass Action Planting.....................................................................................242. Rabi Crop Results..................................................................................................25
E. Bilaspur Minor Tank.................................................................................................291. PIM Mass Action Planting.....................................................................................292. Rabi crop results....................................................................................................30
General Recommendations................................................................................................44Kharif Interventions.......................................................................................................45
I. Project Update
This is my seventh mobilization and seventh report. At the end of this consultancy I would have consulted for 9.1 months out of the 15 months or 272 days out of 450 or completed 60%. Last mobilization Dr. Sahu and I helped interview new applicants for community organizers (COs) as in order to cover 25 pilot schemes in 2008 (Appendix I), 50 in 2009, and 75 in 2010 more need to be hired. The number of COs on the ground in fact has been dwindling due to poor work habits and the pull to accept jobs as extension agents (RAEOs) which is taking all but one of the agriculturally trained COs. All five COs with agricultural backgrounds sat for the RAEO exam held last December, only two passed. There was a rumor that even those who failed would be hired. The Department of Agriculture has not hired RAEOs in some 20 years so due to attrition there are many openings, more than qualified applicants. Some 20 CO candidates were offered positions and only four accepted due mainly to low salary (Rs8,500/month which includes per diem valued at Rs3,000). Of the four that accepted already two have left. No senior COs were hired as none was qualified. There are now only COs in Pakanjor (1), Amakoni (1), Geg (1), Balar (3), Beherakhar (1), and Bilaspur tank (1) plus the one new trainee Ms
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Kali in Geg.. Darki has been put on the back burner as a site. The project has advertised for 35 more positions as CO and 3 positions as Sr. CO. Some 150 applications have been received for COs. Interviews began in earnest on 2 June and some 15 new COs were selected.
II. Agricultural NGO Mobilization and Training
On 15 May the NGO ASA mobilized 8 of the 9 trainers that are to work with us and set up farmer field school (FFS) training in the pilot schemes. Two are on probation as their CVs are weak. There are three WRD regional training centers (Raipur, Bilaspur, Ambikapur) in which they will be grouped, 2-3 each per region and with one 4-wheel vehicle per region. Three are designated as FFS Trainers, three are Irrigated Agricultural Specialists, and two are Marketing Specialists. It is hoped all will train as to make any impact we will need all 9 in the field.FFS trainers
1. Mr. Johar Sing Rawat2. Mr. Puspendra Bhondoria3. Mr. Ajay Sing (3 month probation)
Irrigated Agriculture1. Mr. Aunrendra Pandey (3 month probabion)2. Mr. Pankaj Sharma3. Mr. Sunil Jain
Marketing Specialists1. Mr. Yogesh Diwedi (Team Leader)2. Mr. Chandra Bhan Sing Kuswaha
The ASA Agricultural Trainers were given training during my mobilization so that they can start with the kharif rice crop for FFS. At 2PM on 15 May the ASA trainers were given a welcome and orientation by the Project Director U.P. Chandrakar and other senior staff in CIDP including the former Project Director and now consultant S.K. Sarkar. Deputy Team Leader Satya Mishra gave background information on the status of the project. This was followed by a review of FFS and the planned activities associated with it. Even though none of the trainers had any experience in FFS and none speaks Chhattisgarhi language they do seem willing to give it a try. Some have experience with rice, mostly in participatory varietal testing and the SRI method they are well versed in a wide range of varieties due to their last assignment which emphasized farmer varietal selection. As it was assumed that the NGO to be hired for FFS training would have had experience in this training method, this will mean a year’s delay in the training program as this first kharif season will focus mainly on training the trainers (TOT). As I cannot be with them for most of the time they will learn on the job and be ‘corrected’ during my periodic mobilizations. The next mobilization will be in late August so that will mean only one period to improve the FFS during the kharif season. FFS is a different learning method than the trainers are used to so they will need to be re-trained. ASA was
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encouraged to visit the IFAD Tribal Project near Ambikapur to see FFS training first hand as PRDIS is leading the program there.
The trainers were given thorough documentation of the planned FFS method and more followed in the next two meetings, first on 16 May from 2-5PM whereupon they were asked to spend a week digesting the material and then make a plan of work for how the training will be carried out, where, and who with specific dates attached.
The trainers (Mr. Diwedi) were given a CD containing the following materials and documents:
1. The Training Plan (developed in the first consultancy)2. The Training Needs Assessment (written up in the fifth consultancy)3. The 131 page kharif Rice Curriculum with 21 technical lessons where all the class
material was presented (Appendix II). This is the major output of the current mobilization.
4. Two documents giving Group Dynamics exercises (pdf files)5. Over 50 graphic training aids in electronic format that supplement the curriculum
(pdf files) taken from training manuals6. Over 50 color pictures of plant diseases, insect pests, nutrient disorders, natural
enemies that will be used for the training when laminated in plastic (pdf files) mostly from my personal collection developed while I was at IRRI. Another 20 or so will be emailed from my home later to complete the set.
In essence the whole training course for the kharif rice 2008 was handed to ASA in toto. Instructions on how to run FFS training were given in a memo (Appendix III). ASA will have to work out the logistics and begin planning the three Regional Curriculum Development Workshops, and six District Curriculum Development Workshops. ASA staff also need to translate the rice curriculum from English into Hindhi. Then they need to go to the sites and meet the WUAs and begin selecting where the FFS classes will be held and then developing criteria for selecting farmers to be training through a series of three local meetings in the each scheme.
A third orientation meeting occurred on 26 May at 2PM with the 8 ASA trainers who presented their plan of work for the training schedule for kharif 2008. Disappointingly they really did not have a relevant plan of work and gave some information on the Madagascar method and farmer participatory breeding which they had done in a previous contract. I told them that we need a different plan that includes where the FFS training will be, how many farmer classes, and how many will train each class. They had translated a number of lessons into Hindi which was given to Dr. Sahu to edit. I told them that the expectation for kharif 2008 was for them to learn the FFS curriculum for rice and to forget their past project and concentrate on the curriculum given to them which does not include participatory farmer breeding. I also told them that Madagascar method should wait for a few years until the farmers grasp more elementary concepts. The curriculum is a lot of material for them to grasp and as they are not familiar with the FFS method this will delay the number of classes we can hold until they get more experience. With their inexperience two ASA trainers will need to be present for each class instead of
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one, thus the number of FFS classes will be only 50% of what is possible the first year. Realistically they can only work in sites with COs so right now that is only five. Whether the Raipur group can handle Amakoni, Balar, and Pakanjore with only three people and one vehicle is questionable as two trainers need to conduct FFS not one in the first years until they gain more experience. In this meeting I gave them a document with 50 questions to be used in the pre-and post-FFS test called the ballot box test (Appendix IV). Thus they now have a lot of information to start a training course and they need to digest it and decide what material to use and become familiar with the information. Next trip I will visit at least one site in each of the three regions with Dr Sahu to see how the training courses are being run. The main factor to consider is whether the trainers lecture or follow the FFS method of participatory learning and learning by doing rather than being told. Attendance of the trainers and farmers will also be of concern. Probably late August would be a good time and I would stay a month.
While on our trip to Geg we contacted the ASA regional team who were attending an agricultural fair in Ambikapur with the DA so they were making local contacts needed to schedule the Regional Curriculum Development Workshop. They had said that the previous day they had visited Geg and ASA PIM introduced them to several villages and the WUA president.
On Fri 6 June Dr. Sahu and I went to Amakoni to get the data from the rabi harvest and while there inquired as to whether ASA trainers had contacted Sanjay the CO. First ASA requested the WUA president and TC members to go to Raipur to the ASA office but none did. Then two ASA trainers came on 28 May and they met 15 farmers from two villages. The then gave 2 kg of rice seed of four varieties (Mahamaya, Chandrahasini, MTU 1001, MTU1010) to each of the farmers for them to test. The WUA president and TC members selected the farmers. This is a positive start. On 6 June Dr Sahu and I while at the IGAU Seed Production Farm we found out that ASA had recently sent an order to purchase seed in the name of CIDP. The head of the Seed Production Farm did not know what CIDP was until Dr. Sahu explained that it was the same project as the farmers who were coming from Amakoni to purchase seed. A final meeting with Mr. Diwedi was held just before I left for home on 7 June from 2-4PM at the ASA office in Raipur. I repeated what we expected them to do. They had not begun making training materials and I told them to hurry up as preparation is needed for the classes ahead of time.
On our trips to Beherakhar and Geg we learned that Domendra and Deepak/Kamlesh had stolen all of the supplies that we gave them to conduct the on-farm trials including tape measures, meter stick, insect net, some reference materials etc. If these are not returned it will set ASA back as it takes 2 months to order insect nets. Hopefully Abhisek can get the set from Domendra but that from Geg is lost.
IV. IPM Workshop
In an effort to cooperate with IGAU, Dr Sahu and I presented a technical paper at the National Conference on Pest Management Strategies for Food Security, organized by IGAU and the Applied Zoologists Research Association, CRRI, Cuttack, Orissa, 2-3 May
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2008. We attended the first day of the 1.5 day workshop and gave a paper entitled Overview of Integrated Pest Management Strategies for Rice in Chhattisgarh and the Role of Action Thresholds with Dr. RK Sahu co-author (Appendix V). Some 25 papers were presented, most on rice or rabi crops. There were about 100 scientists in attendance, mostly local as it was difficult to travel by train at this date due to school holidays and weddings. The waiting lists were several hundred for each train.
V. PIM Mass Action Rice Plantings in Chaks in Pilot Schemes
In the consultants’’ meeting 27 May the Team Leader stressed that we were all behind in the coverage of the 25 pilot projects at stated in the project plan to ADB. So a mass action PIM approach was conceptualized by the Team Leader. We already had begun in this effort but a quicker pace was needed. Earlier Mr. Nandi had accompanied Dr Sahu and I to Amakoni and Balar where the COs were instructed to convene meetings with groups of farmers in several villages which as it turned out were the first steps to realization of this plan which included a series of five meetings with farmers in each village under the guidance of the COs. The COs are directed to get farmers in each village to sow two chaks of 20 acres or more to varieties of the same maturity class so that irrigation will be synchronized in the chak as a whole. The first meetings were in Amakoni and brown draft paper was used for the farmers to begin the process by making a map of their irrigation scheme and their fields including known landmarks. Farmers gathered around the map while it was being drawn to give their comments on locations of roads and canals as well as their fields. These are not exact maps and each field is not drawn. The map making was a good method to allow farmers focus on planting in each chak of the scheme for each village. In most cases farmers made the drawings and then on a separate sheet a list of farmers in each chak was made along with the area of their field and what varieties were intended to be grown. It was also useful to show the farmers a map made before in another village so they could conceptualize what the activity was like. After making the map it should be taped to the wall of a prominent building in the village for all farmers to see. It was our purpose of this first meeting to stress that farmers should select early or medium varieties in order to have a timely harvest so that a rabi crop could be grown and irrigation water conserved. In most villages the farmers have seen the ongoing repair work. In most villages in fact they are the paid laborers working on the repair using NREGS (National Rural Employment Guarantee System) funds from the government for job creation to keep rural folks from migrating to the cities in the off season. This work also made it hard to convene day time meetings with farmers as they were off working and only a handful were left in the village, mostly the older farmers who did not work.
In Balar the 4 COs made a chart out of the brown craft paper that they taped to the wall before the meeting that gave the characteristics of each popular variety that farmers were likely to choose including some new ones from Dr Sahu who got seed from IGAU, particularly Bambleshwari resistant to bacterial leaf blight and Chandrahasani resistant to both gall midge and brown planthopper. It was felt that it was beneficial to have a poster
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such as this for each of the five meetings that the COs are scheduling in each village in the pilot schemes where COs are present.
Based on the 2008 Kharif Package of Practices for Rice (Appendix VI) that Dr. Sahu put together we determined that there should be five of these mass mobilization meetings. The first one centers on selection of the rice varieties of proper maturity length. The second will focus on seeding rate, planting density, initial water management post-transplanting and basal application of fertilizer. It will be scheduled for the first two weeks in June. I have made a chart where farmers can be told what the dosage of NPK will be for each of the scheduled three applications for field sizes from 0.25 to 10 acres. A poster should be made to accompany these meetings and taped to a wall afterwards and could be based on this chart. The third meeting will be the third and fourth weeks of June and focus on the first top dressing of fertilizer and weeding. While the fourth meeting would be in the third and fourth weeks of August before panicle initiation stage for the second top dressing. The summary of this plan is given in Appendix VII. The fifth meeting will encourage farmer to farmer information sharing by those who have adopted synchronized planting to show their neighbors who did not.
Ideally the TC Member for each village would preside over these meetings but in the meantime it is the CO for the most part. This depends on the interest of the TC member, some are more outgoing than others. In some areas that are larger the map of the village was divided into four quadrants and further ‘Assistant’ TC Members were chosen to represent the block of farmers. This was the farmers’ idea. It will take some time before the TC members can run these meetings but this exercise can be copied for the rabi crop season as well and in future years for both crops. Whether to have a training session for TC members on how to conduct such meetings needs to be decided. It probably would be a good idea to schedule this. It took Manju three meetings to get the method down and even in the last meeting Mr. Nandi still had to make some additions.
In each of the meetings Dr Sahu followed with a discussion on the characteristics of the most popular varieties and then on the key points for use of fertilizer, water management and pest management. These are always closely listened to by the farmers and many questions are asked. It can take 45 minutes for him to make the explanations and give the answers. It would be a good idea to video tape some of these sessions and for the COs to show them in the other villages as Dr Sahu can only visit a few each site. Clearly we need posters and video tapes to go along with this ‘road show’ to create interest in the communal plantings that lie behind PIM. Who should make these needs to be decided. It could be ASA or Samarthan or both.
As with anything new there will need to be follow up if one expects this mass planting to be carried out successfully. The few times that Dr Sahu, Mr. Nandi and I visit need to be supplemented by more visits to the sites. As the number of sites increases this will be even more necessary especially among the new schemes. In the first round of schemes it took the on-farm trials to galvanize the interest of farmers and to give the COs respectability. That will not happen in the second round as the agricultural input will be FFS only. Will FFS and the canal repairs be enough to give the new COs respect among
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farmers so that when meetings are called that farmers will attend. Mass mobilization requires farmer attendance. In each of the meetings held so far only a small minority of farmers attended. Thus there is need to reach those that do not. Posters and video tape presentations are one way and more meetings are another way. A key to the success of group planting will be early delivery of irrigation water for the farmers to start communal seedbeds. Irrigation canals are still be repaired and only in a few sites will this be possible although how the farmers can insist on water delivery needs to be determined. This will take a number of years before this practice is adopted as most of the villages are still growing rainfed rice and communal nurseries are a long way from their thoughts.
Despite the rhetoric and promises of PIM and CIDP it seems as it is business as usual to the farmers. This was underscored in our meeting in Odagi village in Geg. The WUA president was there but did not say much. He is buddies with WRD and the contractor doing the repair work. It is known that to be elected to be a WUA president took a lot of money and they need to get it back in the form of kickbacks from contractors. Thus when the farmers said that the recently poured concrete to make the canal lining was not properly covered with wet gunny sacks for proper curing of the concrete WRD had nothing to say. After all the temperature is over 40oC and not an ideal time to pour concrete. These ‘savings’ are necessary for the contractor to pay the bribes. The three are often seen socializing in drinking sessions by the farmers. Who is monitoring the quality of the repair work? This story is being repeated in most of the schemes. The WUA president usually has little interest in agriculture as he is making money in other businesses thus he has no vested interest to see sound construction practices being followed. WRD wants to continue to repair the canals so a good job does not suit them either.
VI. WUA Seed ProcurementDr Sahu and I met AK Dewangar, In-Charge of the IGAU Seed Farm and copied their list of rice varieties available for the public to secure. Farmers would have to pay cash and a wide array of varieties were available with good stock. For example there were 100 quintals of Chandrahasani a new variety resistant to gall midge and brown planthopper which also is fine grained. We are anxious to see how this performs and is accepted by farmers.
In Amakoni the CO Sanjay has discussed with a group of farmers at the suggestion of Dr. Sahu that they procure their own seed from a reliable source, the IGAU Seed Farm. On 6 June a group of 5 farmers went to Raipur to secure their own seed and pay for it themselves. They represented 48 farmers (16 from Amakoni village, 17 from Khotari, and 15 from Khamaria). There were none from Roda as the road is being worked on but Sanjay will show them how to get seed later. At the Seed Farm they can not only avail of high quality seed (Certified Seed) but obtain the latest varieties that are not yet multiplied to such an extent that they would be distributed through the Societies. They also can acquire them in a timely fashion. Dr. Sahu met them at the Seed Farm to introduce them to the staff and show them how to proceed. The farmers had arranged for a tractor drawn trolley to carry the seed back to Amakoni. Amakoni has no varieties currently resistant to gall midge so Mahamaya and Chandrahasani will fill that role. Dr. Sahu and I met Dr
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Taunk at the Seed Farm by chance and he said obtaining good seed will increase yields 20%.
The reason the Amakoni farmers want to purchase seed outside of the Society is that the Society only allows a limited amount of seed to be purchased each season per farmer. Farmers with greater seed requirements (larger holdings) therefore must find other sources. Private seed dealers are known to be a risky source as often the seed is of poor quality. So purchasing seed from a reliable source is a preferred option. They could purchase the seed from the DA in Mahasumund but the range of varieties is more limited and they want some new ones. Amakoni has gall midge and none of their varieties is resistant so they are interested in Mahamaya and Chandrahasani. They next want to find a reliable source of fertilizer and want to make a bulk order so Sanjay is working on this with Dr Sahu. Again they are limited in the amount of fertilizer from the Society. Often the Society runs out of seed and fertilizer so the farmers need an alternative source.
In the Bilaspur tank the WUA farmers will seek good seed from the DA in Raigarh and the CO Dhuryiodan will take them their where they will purchase good seed and some new varieties such as Chandrahasani as gall midge is a problem there.
In the other sites the WUAs can arrange similar ways of securing timely, good quality and the best varieties from the DA seed farms. In Geg they can get seed in Ambikapur from the IGAU branch station. In Balar they can also come to Raipur. In Beherakhar they can come next year in the new branch station of IGAU and KVK in Kawarda. Dr Sahu has taught a group of willing farmers in most of the sites how to grow certified seed quality seed. Local farmers in each site can purchase their seed directly from the seed growers in their village. Trips to seed sources will only have to be made from time to time to replenish seed quality or to obtain new varieties.
We are witnessing the first steps to farmer empowerment through the purchase of their own seeds rather than wait for government Societies to fill their needs. This is a very positive step in meeting the goals of CIDP. It was brought about by the persistence of Dr. Sahu in talking to farmers during our visits regarding the potential of them producing their own certified seed quality seeds locally rather than purchasing expensive certified seeds from Societies.
ASA is also purchasing four varieties from the Seed Farm to obtain quality seed for the study fields in the FFS training program. This is another source of how new and better quality varieties can be dispersed. The study fields will propagate newly introduced varieties or high quality seed and the farmers can sell their good seed to their neighbors.
We will need to set up a similar system for rabi crops where the need for both quality seed and new sources of varieties is paramount.
VII. Site VisitsDr. Sahu, Mr. Nandi, and I visited five sites during this mobilization. Most of the time at the site was taken up in Mass Action PIM farmer meetings. Our primary objective was to
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collect data on the previous rabi crop performance by interviewing farmers. We had handed out data sheets to COs for this purpose but it required our follow up to get the data. We also talked to the COs about the planned FFS training course that ASA was to offer in the kharif and the role of the COs in this. The COs will not be trainers but will facilitate the training programs.
The results of the rabi crops as presented below from five pilot sites represent the basis of the rabi crop FFS curriculum that will be developed in the next mobilization. It will be shorter than the rice curriculum and some of the crop neurtal lessons from the rice curriculum can be shifted over. Both the rice and rabi crop curriculum were developed based on both surveys of farmers to elicit their practices and on field trials that tested the technologies in real life situations. In this way we are more sure that the training courses will be both relevant and interesting to farmer participants.
A. Amakoni Scheme VisitVisited Sanjay the CO on Mon-Wed 5-7 May 08 and on Fri 6 May. There was still 16’ of water in the tank and work was ongoing in one canal with the other delivering water. The whole dam face was being rehabilitated and the canals leaving the dam were being renovated. Irrigation should be available for Amakoni and Kotari villages as well as Rhoda this kharif season.
People were collecting leaves from a forest tree (tendu) to bundle and dry and sell as cigarette wrappers as off-farm income. 100 bundles of 50 leaves each would earn Rs60 which is good money. The Forestry Department purchases the leaves as collection is on government land. Whole families using all of the children engage in this work. The tendu bundles could be seen drying in the sun. Due to the hot weather farmers are only active in the early morning until about 10AM. Families stay indoors these two months for most of the time as farm work is minimal.
1. Horticulture Seed Kits
Sanjay distributed about 100 vegetable seed kits to farmers in four villages and farmers showed great interest in planting them in small plots near sources of water. Most were near harvest. We saw potato, tomato, squashes, eggplant, okra, and chili. These gardens were irrigated by the scheme either on rice fallow land or near their homes along canals. The farmers were very happy with the arrangement and sold most of the vegetables in local markets where supply was low thus the prices were higher than in larger marketing areas. The only crop that had problems was chili which did not bear fruit although grew well. We suspect a seed borne virus disease but we need to confirm with specialists at IGAU.
2. Communal PIM Rice Cropping
At the suggestion of the Team Leader we organized two farmer meetings in separate villages to sensitize the farmers over the need for early rice cropping in the kharif 08 crop
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with medium maturing varieties so that a rabi crop could be grown in a timely manner. The idea is to organize farmers in a chak to establish communal nurseries using water from the tank to get a head start. During our stay we were able to organize one chak in Amakoni and four chaks in Rhoda. Sanjay will meet with more farmer groups after our departure. Dr. Sahu had prepared a handout of ‘best practices’ for transplanted and rainfed wetland rice that the COs will follow to guide farmers in the selected chaks. The number of chaks participating depended on interest generated in farmer meetings. The best method for eliciting cooperation was to make a simple map of the irrigation system and call for farmers in various chaks to join. Once interest was displayed their farm land was added to the map. It was not always certain whether they joined because they wanted to harvest early and plant a rabi crop or that they were just pleasing us. Their idea of a rabi crop is still irrigated rice however. Until the irrigation systems and field channels are in place farmer interest is at best polite.
Discussions in the farmer meetings often wandered because with the presence of Dr. Sahu as farmers wanted to ask him technical questions so this often took up more than half of the meeting time. Farmers were prepared to cooperate with us due to the fact that we patiently answered their queries and followed up with visits the following days to their fields where they had field symptoms or problems to show us.
One problem that surfaced in the meetings was whether seed would be available for the farmers. According to the farmers the first shipments of seed that are delivered get purchased or diverted by the larger farmers who have political clout and the farmers have to wait until July before seed is available in the Society for them to acquire with credit. If farmers have cash they can get seed anytime. If they grouped together the government seed suppliers would send a truck to their village. However they have to pay cash at the time of delivery. Late plantings often occur due to late shipment of seed as the local Society in Barbara serves 28 villages. Fertilizer however has already arrived. Farmers complained that in the past few years they believe that the fertilizers were substandard as they had to apply up to five times to get a growth response from the crop. Farmers also said that they have not received any results of the soils they sent to the Soil Testing Lab almost a year ago. They felt that the best way is to petition the Joint Director to request a mobile soil testing lab to come to serve them.
3. Seed Production
One way to avoid delays in planting and at the same time to ensure good seed quality is for the farmers to produce their own seed in their village. Only one or two farmers can supply a whole village. They will exchange seed rather than ask for cash as farmers generally do not have cash at this time of the year. Although in the future with rabi cropping they would. Using the prevailing seeding rate of 40 kg/acre a farmer who grew a 4 t/ha crop could supply the seed needed for 100 acres. The seed growers that we approached had several fields and more land than the average farmer so they can easily supply the needs. In return they will charge more than the normal rice price for producing seed. All of the varieties except MTU 1001 that are being grown are of the right maturity to enable an early rabi crop (MTU 1010, Mahamaya, and IR64). Dr. Sahu will get a new
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variety from the university (Chandrashasani) that has resistance to brown planthopper and gall midge to test in the sites. Normally the seed producers can purchase certified seed to start with so that quality is maintained. Dr. Sahu will give the seed producers the recommended set of practices for best yield and then the farmers will rogue out off types twice before harvest.
4. Communal caseworm control
Last kharif season we happened upon a farmer whose field was entirely denuded by caseworm and he lost his entire crop. He happened to have his farm at the tail end of a large field-to-field connected watershed and his farm was on the extreme bottom. Most of the caseworms that developed in the upper lying fields coursed down stream after heavy rains ending up in his field. He was unable to control this insect pest even though it is the most susceptible to insecticides among the common rice pests. We met Mr. Joli Ram, the farmer, and asked him to purchase one m2 of mesh screen and place it in his inlet to screen out incoming caseworm larvae. In order to have a better effect we asked him to contact the owners of the ten farmer immediately upstream for them to do the same. We will see this kharif if they were successful. If so the cost would be minimal.
5. DA office Mahasumund
The DDA was out of the office but three of his assistants attended our questions. According to them rice seed is available for farmers in their Societies as of today. Apparently the DA is attempting to be more timely this year due to past farmer complaints. Dr. Sahu got a list of the varieties and quantities available in Mahasumund itself.
Soil testing is a problem as the Mobile Soil Testing Lab is in Raipur now. The farmers need to visit the DA office to appeal for help in soil analysis. Adulteration of fertilizer was brought up and the DA suggested that the farmers approach the Fertilizer Inspector who would follow through.
6. Rabi crops
We visited Banjarbara where sunflower and groundnut had been planted. The farmers applied more fertilizer and the crops caught up in growth from last visit where farmers had not applied much fertilizer thinking that as they had applied it to rice that there still would be some for the vegetables. The sunflower crop (3 fields) had already been harvested. One of the fields planted on 0.65 acre (65 decimals) yielded 80 kg (or 300 kg/ha) which is a good harvest.
Based on the results of interviewing nine farmers to collect detailed information on how they grew their rabi crops we were able to learn about what technologies to emphasize in the planned rabi crop FFS program. We obtained information on sunflower, groundnut, wheat, ladyfinger, and rice from Banjar Bahara the only location where rabi crops were grown using irrigation from the Amakoni tank delivered in the canal (Tables 1a, 1b).
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Sunflowers were grown from hybrids purchased from private dealers and the average yield was a low 0.6 t/ha. The farmers planted on time and did adequate land preparation. One area where farmers need more knowledge is on fertilizer usage. No farmer used FYM and the inorganic fertilizer was very low. No farmer applied P and K into the soil at sowing as recommended. The seeding rates were not uniform for the farmers and need to be improved. None of the famers constructed compartments within their fields in which to irrigate more efficiently and they preferred to flood irrigate. Farmers will need to be taught better irrigation practices. The price for sunflower is attractive and this is considered to be a promising rabi crop.
Groundnut is also a promising crop on these mostly light matasi soils. Again fertilizer input was poor and imbalanced with often more P than N applied and none basally. Better varieties are needed as the farmers did not even know the name of their selection which they purchased from the market. The price for groundnut is favorable and this should also be a good crop.
Wheat was grown by Mr. Diwan in Roda in his newly improved field. He selected a good traditional variety Sujata and harvested a modest 1.7 t/ha. Amakoni is probably not a favorable area for wheat as it is too far south. The farmer planted in a timely way however and used adequate fertilizer levels. He even added FYM as the soil had been scraped during leveling operations.
Vegetables fetched good prices in the local markets due to the low supply so ladyfinger yielded well and paid handsomely to the farmer. It is not know how much vegetable production the local market can accept without an oversupply and then diminishing prices.
We took the yield from a rabi rice crop grown in bore well irrigation. This will be the economic baseline that we will need to surpass if we are to encourage farmers to replace rabi rice with less water loving summer crops. The yield was very high 6.8 t/ha as the farmer used very high amounts of fertilizer. The fertilizer was probably too high as N was 157 kg/ha. Probably 120 kg/ha would have been suitable but as fertilizer is subsidized farmers will overuse it.
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Table 1a. Results of rabi crop culture of sunflower, groundnut, wheat, ladyfinger, and rice, Amakoni tank, Mahasumund, 2007-08. 1/
Field Land preparation Inorganic fertilizerFarmer area No. Power Date Seed rate FYM Total no. First Second Third kg/ha
no. Village Farmer acres Variety plowings source sown kg/acre kg/acre applications DAS DAS DAS N P KSunflower
Irrigation No. of Farmer Total no. First Second Third Fourth pesticide Days to Yield Price Value
no. Farmer applications DAS DAS DAS DAS applications 2/ maturity kg/ha Rs/kg Rs/haSunflower
1 Lekhan 3 0 22 44 0 140 244 25 6,100
2 Uday Ram 4 0 22 44 66 0 138 561 25 14,030 Takur
3 Samralli 4 0 21 43 64 0 157 976 25 24,400
4 0 22 44 65 0 145 594 14,843Groundnut
1 Samaru 3 0 30 47 0 180 1,049 25 26,230
2 Basaul 3 0 30 50 0 140 634 25 15,860
3 Punarad 3 0 27 53 0 142 671 25 16,775
3 0 29 50 0 154 785 19,622Wheat
1 Kunju Ram 3 0 27 54 126 1,773 12 21,276 Diwan
Ladyfinger1 Dinwan 78,080
RiceSharwan 154 6,832 Shukala
1/ DAS = days after sowing2/ Monkeys damaged mr. Lekhan's field
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B. Balar Scheme VisitVisited 12-14 May Mon-Wed with Mr. Nandi and Dr. Sahu. All four COs were present.
On 12 May Mon we visited Semaria village in the late afternoon where the COs had put up a poster on brown craft paper describing characteristics of rice varieties for farmers to view. There was good attendance and a map was first made of the scheme in the village and turnouts were identified for communal rice farming from communal nurseries. Most of the farmers were rainfed farmers so they did not plan a nursery. Many volunteered to sow their crop to early or medium varieties and to chose the same maturity class in each turnout (chak). Dr. Sahu gave a review of the Recommended Package of Practices that they were to follow.
13 May 9AM Tues we visited Dhawewabhata village but there had been a death so we moved on to Kerve village at 10AM. Again there was a good turnout and a poster was on the wall giving characteristics of varieties. Farmers made a map and then signed up to grow varieties with early plantings as a group in three turnouts. Farmers gave their name, area of field and preferred variety to sow. Rain will start the third week in June and by 1 July to 15 August there will be assured rains.
At 4PM we visited Pisid village and farmers made a map and signed up for the group planting. Only a moderate number of farmers turned out. Dr Sahu answered questions on rice cultivation and gave the characteristics of rice varieties from the data on a poster placed in the village meeting place. Farmers were concerned about their rabi rice as despite all of the discussion we held with them before the rabi season. Their choice of rabi crops they opted for rice. They planted some 200 acres of rabi rice and complained about stemborers where they estimated losses of up to 50%. We believe this is highly exaggerated but they did have high incidence which we could see from the road. The reason is believed to be that the 200 acres were dispersed among many fallow fields with the rice stubble in tact. When they irrigated the rice area the fallow area also became wet and ‘woke up’ the dormant larval stemborers which then developed into adults and sought out the adjacent rice fields. Because of the long lapse between rice crops the natural enemy population was probably very low so stemborer survival was high and within the span of the rice crop the population increased and descended on the panicles to cause high incidence of whiteheads.
After the meeting we went back to Dhawewabhata village to interview rabi crop farmers to learn why the yields were so low in wheat. We managed to meet several farmers despite the late hour of 8PM.
14 May 10AM Wed we visited Motipur village. There was a very poor turnout. Some 60% of the farmers have migrated to larger cities to find work and they will return mid June. We were not able to sign up many farmers to plant together. Dr Sahu again spoke of the characteristics of rice varieties and went over the package of practices.
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After a summary meeting we left for Raipur at 3PM.
1. Rabi non-rice cropsFarmers grew wheat and mustard in Dhawewabhata village from irrigation from the canal (Table 2). Field to field irrigation occurred from a main canal. They flood irrigated the whole field rather than making smaller compartments for better distribution of water thus some fields were overwatered reducing yield potential. Land preparation was the same for both wheat and rabi crops. Two initial plowings cross wise N-S and then E-W. Then one or several harrowings cum levelings with the patta. They broadcast their seed and basal fertilizer before the third and last plowing so both became incorporated into the soil. No farmer used FYM. They purchased two brands of DAP, one from the Society called Navratna which was good but some purchased DAP from the Kasdol market called Anand which was adulterated. According to Dr. Sahu it was old stock from Maharastra.
Wheat was sown at 40 kg seed/acre and most did not know their varieties but were probably either Sujata or Lok1 as these are the most common. Very few farmers knew the name of the variety they grew. Seed was obtained from the Society or in the market from the private sector. The government source was better quality seed. Mustard was sown at 2 kg seed/acre. In the market you can find old seed imported from another state. A number of farmers reported that they had termites affecting their crop just after sowing and went to the RAEO who told them to apply BHC. This is a good selection of insecticide in terms of efficacy but as a chlorinated hydrocarbon it has a long residual activity thus Diazinon would have been a better choice. However termites are not a serious problem and instead of spraying the whole field the farmers would only have needed to apply in a swath around the edge of the bund where the termites live to stop the foraging workers. The first irrigation occurred just after sowing and was followed by 2-3 others at different ages depending on the farmer. Price of mustard seed was Rs2000/quintal. Bees are needed to pollinate mustard so using insecticide spray will be discouraged, although no farmer applied. Aphids would be the most likely insect pest that would lead farmers to spray but they did not. If farmers were to spray for aphids we would ask them to try Wheel or similar bar laundry detergent. They would cut about 5 cm off the end of the bar and with their fingers dissolve the detergent into the sprayer. Laundry soap is not as effective as a purchased insecticide so that a second spray may be needed. But the soap will not harm bees and is almost cost free. This recommendation comes from a FAO project in Bangladesh regarding cotton aphid control. Farmers were happy in general to have harvested even the poor yields that they did as they have no reference and do not do an economic analysis to gauge profit or loss.
Fertilizer usage in wheat all farmers broadcast a basal application and if they applied PK they applied all of it then as only urea was applied after the crop emerged. All farmers applied N and P while four of the five farmers applied K.
Low yields of wheat were due to hot temperatures in March. Crops were sown 25 Dec and harvested the first week in April giving about 100 days each. This was probably more important than water logging, termite damage, poor quality seed, or adulterated DAP.
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Table 2. Results of rabi crop culture of wheat and mustard in Dhawerabhata village, Balar Medium Scheme, 2007-08. 1/
Field Inorganic fertilizer Irrigation Number of AmountFarmer area Date Total no. First Second kg/acre 2/ Total no. First Second Third Fourth insecticide Days to Yield received
no. Farmer acres sown applications DAS DAS N P K applications DAS DAS DAS DAS applications 3/ maturity kg/ha Rs/haWheat
1/ DAS = days after sowing2/ Farmers overapplied inorganic fertilizer as the DAP was adulterated3/ For termites, farmers applied BHC upon recommendation of RAEO
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2. Summer rice
Rabi rice grown in Pisid suffered very high stemborer attack, reportedly from 20-50% whiteheads. Most villages reported the same problem including Motipur where farmers estimate that loss will be 20% (24 bags/acre instead of 30 bags/acre) but as they have not taken the yield these are just guesses. We asked the farmers in Pisid to record their yields and we will get that data to be able to tell if the rice crop could tolerate the infestation or suffered losses. We believe the latter would be true if the crop was not under stress from other causes. The worst causes that could lead to high losses would be the combination of stemborer whiteheads and drought, weeds, or zinc deficiency. Farmers in Pisid also reported a symptom similar to bacterial blight and they have used two bactericides to combat it. One in Bectrinashak (Indofil/Rohm and Haas) and Strpetocycline (BASF). Dr. Sahu who did his PhD thesis on BLB resistance says that these chemicals will only work if they are applied early in the infection cycle but as soon as the infection becomes intense no bactericide can work. He recommends a resistant variety such as Bumbleshwari which he developed. We will be introducing this variety in small trials along with others in all of the sites. ASA is very interested in new varieties and has experience in this. It will be done in the FFS training and in the communal rice farming initiatives that the COs are engaged in with our assistance.
C. Beherakhar Scheme VisitVisit 23-24 May Fri-Sat with Dr. Sahu and Abhishek Tiwari the CO from Balar. No resident CO was present.
Domendra the CO assigned to Beherakhar has not been at the site since November as he wanted to be transferred. He had helped arrange a marriage for his sister and many other excuses and now has resigned to become a RAEO in Dhamtari. Abhishek says he will be assigned to Ambikapur but will stay in Beherakhar until the ADB team visits. We had assumed that Abhishek would be assigned to Beherakhar. Domendra has tendered his resignation as has Sauraub from Balar so we are now down two more COs with agricultural experience. Fourteen CO candidates were offered the job but turned it down as the salary Rs8,500 per month is too low. In addition the salary consists of expenses that the COs are asked to bear, so the salary figure is even less. We arrived about 2 PM and went to the dam site and met the Assistant Engineer who was supervising the R&U. Work stopped for several months as there is a problem with the contractor regarding payments.
We then went to Pandaria village where we were successful in arranging a meeting for the following day at 9AM with the farmers to discuss the rabi crop. That night we met the WUA president in his home in Lohardardi village. He is currently charged with stealing trees from the forest and had purchased a tractor to carry out the illegal logs. He has been caught and is trying to get himself out of the jam. He has gone up to the brother of the CM for help. He said he could not meet more with us for a while until he makes due with the law.
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Sat morning we visited Usarwahi and Lohardardi villages but failed to meet any farmers as most were working in Beherakhar village on the canal for NREGS to earn Rs70 per day as a laborer to undergo repair work. As there is no resident CO in the village we found it difficult to meet farmers and decided to return home a day early. We will not return to Beherakhar until a permanent CO is stationed there. Days were still hot but it rained a little bit Fri night. Most of the farmers have plowed their fields and some were seen loading FYM onto carts. Piles of FYM can be seen in some fields. We talked to some small scale vegetable farmers who pumped out of local wells. One was growing chech and chuniya both local forms of spinach which they mix crop in wide furrows and flood irrigate. The field was intercropped with trellises for squash. A field of chili had not fruit although it grew well. We assume that the same problem as we found in Amakoni was present, that is a virus disease. Some of these viruses are seed borne and we need to see a virologist at IGAU to find out if there is any resistant variety. Larger fields were planted to okra and eggplant.
The meeting with the farmers went well and was attended by the RAEO. Farmers did not leave early either as they were anxious to learn as much as they could. In casual conversation we asked the farmers how the wheat plant takes up fertilizer and none knew or had any idea. We asked what the function of the root was and they did not know nor did they know the function of the leaf. They said they never had thought about it! The RAEO purchased land and converted it to crop land and grew his first crop of wheat which yielded zero. He had scraped all of the top soil off and did not replace it to level his field. Normally one piles the topsoil in one place to be pushed back after the leveling so it will now take several years to bring it back. The large farmer in Roda in Amakoni who did the same thing bought the soil from the bottom of a drained tank and had it spread on his field. Some of the farmers mentioned that they too have problems with adulterated fertilizer.
1. Rabi crops
Only in Pandaria did farmers plant rabi crops, some 300 acres to wheat and 60 to chickpea. Domendra filled out some 10 data sheets but has them with him so Abhishek will get them from him hopefully so we can have more data. We interviewed 7 farmers during the meeting with our forms, 6 who grew wheat and 1 chickpea (Table 3a, 3b). Wheat yields averaged 1.5 t/ha while chickpea was only 0.4 t/ha. Most farmers planted WH147 wheat variety but some planted Sujata. For chickpea it was JG74. They mostly got seed from the Society but some from the local market. The chickpea from the Society averaged only 50% germination. No farmer used FYM on wheat. They realize that they need to use more on even rice and do not have enough, so even more so on rabi crop. There is a need for a larger supply of FYM which should come from their making compost. Land preparation was mostly by bullock but some hired tractors. For bullock power farmers averaged 3 plowings and 2 harrowings/leveling with patta. Wheat seeding rate was 42 kg/acre while that of chickpea was 30 kg/acre. Farmers broadcast their seed and then plowed to incorporate. Only some farmers applied DAP or urea at this time while others broadcast on the ground before an irrigation. Farmers sowed both crops the
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last week in November and harvested in the first week in April for 129 days in the field. The project is fixing the canals and one canal the water was on time while the other it was late. Farmers averaged three irrigations although some only were able to irrigate twice and others up to four times. The crop ages where the first three irrigations occurred were 16, 38, and 48 days after sowing (DAS). All farmers used DAP followed by urea top dressing. Only one farmer applied muriate of potash. An average of 2 to 4 applications of fertilizer occurred. The first was basal followed by applications at 23, 49, and 90 DAS. No insecticide was used on wheat but farmers sprayed chickpea for cutworm and podborer. Farmers see termites in the wheat fields but do not spray as they know that irrigation will control them. One farmer was interviewed who had sprayed and he had a 10 liter sprayer and when he sprayed an acre used 8-10 sprayerloads or 200-250 liters/ha which is okay. He did not know the name of the chemical so we do not have data on the concentration but most sprayable insecticides are 35-50% formulated product. The farmer said he put 15-50 ml of the product per sprayerload, more if the pod borer cannot be easily controlled. At 15 ml that is 120-150 ml per acre or 300-370 ml/ha. If it is 35% he is spraying 0.11 –0.19 kg ai/ha. The active ingredient to be effective should be double the highest range or 0.4 kg ai/ha so that farmers underdose by at least a factor of two times. Unseasonable rains occurred near harvest time which resulted in off color grains (not glossy) but the grains that Dr. Sahu examined were full so that the irrigation was adequate.
Wheat averaged 1.5 t/ha and chickpea 0.4 t/ha. Both of these results are low but the farmers were happy as they have no other data to compare it too and since they do not calculate economic returns they do not realize how little they would earn. Their comparison is zero as they have not planted rabi crops in over 20 years. There is great scope to increase
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Table 3a. Results of rabi crop culture of wheat and chickpea, Pandaria village, Beherakhar Minor Scheme, 2007-08. 1/
Field Land preparation Inorganic fertilizerFarmer area No. No. Power Seed rate Date Total no. First Second Third Fourth kg/ha
no. Farmer acres plowings harrowings source kg/acre sown applications DAS DAS DAS DAS N P KWheat
Irrigation No. of AmountFarmer Total no. First Second Third pesticide Days to Yield Price received
no. Farmer applications DAS DAS DAS applications maturity kg/ha Rs/kg Rs/haWheat
1 Shawan 3 15 27 47 0 129 1952
2 Shubhifal 3 15 40 60 0 129 1220
3 Chandra Lal 3 15 30 60 0 732
4 Visram 3 3 20 40 0 1708 6.4 10,931
5 Kamal Singh 2 45 90 0 128 1220
6 Ramesh 4 0 20 35 0 128 2196 Dhurve
Average 3 16 38 48 0 129 1505
ChickpeaDamarah 3 0 45 90 0 128 366
1/ DAS = days after sowing
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D. Geg Medium Scheme
28-31 May we travelled with Dr. Sahu and Mr. Nandi. Left Raipur at 10AM and arrived in Baikunthpur at 6PM.
1. PIM Mass Action Planting
28 May 7PM meeting in Odagi village with some 30 farmers and Manju the CO. Ms. Kali the other CO was in Ambikapur for a PIM training session. A WRD Asst Engineer was present and had to continually remind the farmers that this meeting was about agriculture and not the repair of the system. Farmers were complaining that the concrete that was poured during this very hot season was not cured by placing wet burlap bags on the surface and they said the concrete would crack. Odagi village is in the middle of the canal and there had been no rabi crop in 2007. The first business was to conduct the mass action PIM exercise to have farmers determine when they were going to plant in each chak and to select early and medium maturing varieties. Mr. Nandi led the discussion and tried to involve Manju and the TC member but as this was the first time for both of them Manju did most of the work with the TC member in attendance with Mr. Nandi giving instructions. Most farmers are going to grow MTU1010 and IR64 both medium or early duration so there will be enough time for a rabi crop.
29 May 10AM to Kanchantur village to meet with farmers and again Manju led the meeting and used a map made in Odagi as a model for the farmers to see what they were supposed to do. Farmers now grow mostly early and medium varieties Proag 6444 hybrid, US43 hybrid, IR64, IR36.
4PM to Ani village to meet some farmers to interview about their rabi crops. We met one farmer who had gall midge and hispa insect pests in his field last kharif and he applied 1 kg of Phorate granules (too low a dosage to be effective). Despite this he harvested 13 quintals/acre (3.2 t/ha) despite the insect infestation. The farmer planted wheat in a waterlogged field and had a low yield. He did not dig drainage ditches.
5PM to Kasra village. The farmer meeting was not well attended as many were working as laborers on the construction repair of the irrigation system. Manju led the session on organizing mass planting in the chaks. The most common varieties were IR64, IR36, Proag 6444. In attendance was a WRD employee who was just promoted to the judicial branch of WRD but before was a Canal Depty Collector. He collected water fees (Rs91/season made up of Rs81 for the charge for water and Rs10 surcharge). He said that the payment rate was 90%. One farmer said he just paid over Rs2000 including back payment with 13% interest charged. Mr. Nandi left for Raipur by the 8:30PM train.
Friday 30 May 11AM we visited Basdevpur village we were joined by Ms. Kali the new CO who had been in Ambikapur for PIM training. We interviewed farmers regarding
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their rabi crop results which is discussed in the next section. We saw a farmer making a yoke from a piece of kamar wood. Virtually all farm implements are home made and in every village there is a blacksmith that makes steel from local sources of iron ore in his foundry. The villagers contribute rice each year to pay for his services.
2PM visited Ani village where the farmers grew not only wheat and mustard but linseed, chickpea and green gram. The field of the latter was too small to report any results. We tasted blackberries from the tall jamum tree and local mangoes where we sucked the juice from the fruit. Bel fruits are from a tree that are like a squash in taste.
5:30PM to Amgoan village to interview a rabi crop farmers. The farmer only was able to provide one irrigation at sowing so the yield of wheat was low. While there we saw farmers preparing a seedbed using fresh FYM. As it was fresh they were burning it to kill the weed seeds. They had not made compost.
2. Rabi Crop Results
Geg is probably the largest adopter of rabi crops and included mostly wheat, mustard, chickpea and linseed . Some vegetables were also planted. Wheat should do the best here as it is the furthest north. Most farmers were able to plant before mid December, the cutoff date established by IGAU as later crops will suffer high heat near grain filling stage reducing yield. Farmers grew more than four different wheat varieties and in a large percentage of fields mix cropped with low seeding densities of mustard. Wheat was by far the most important rabi crop. The highest yield recorded was less than 3 t/ha due to a number of factors. The most prevalent was water management, either too little or too much. Some farmers irrigated up to five times and registered low yields. If the farmers said that the grains did not fill this was a clue that irrigation water was lacking. The main problem here is that very few farmers subdivided their fields into parcels with low bunds to irrigate only a portion at a time. Rather they flooded the whole field and overwatered leading to water logging of the roots. Farmers can dig drainage ditches along the sides of the fields to lower the water table. Others had to pump the water from the canal and the water soon ran out. The second was lack of delivery of irrigation water either from late release or from broken canals that could not deliver the water. Some farmers even attempted rainfed wheat with disappointing results.
A second common problem was lack of balanced fertilizer application. Some farmers told us that they purchased a fertilizer called ‘Ganga’ which they applied and there was no yield response. They assumed that the fertilizer was adulterated but it could have been that fertilizer was P or K and without N no matter how much P and K was added there would be no response. As the farmers were unaware of which elements they were applying we cannot know. During the interviews we often got very low yield results which even if the farmers had not applied fertilizer there still should have been some yield. When reminded of this the farmers stated higher yields. Our explanation for this phenomenon is that they see us coming from the outside and hope that we are going to give them free fertilizer if they can convince us that their yields were low. So they report low yields in the hope of getting free inputs. Indian agriculture is infused with the idea of
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entitlements and politicians continually give away inputs etc to garner votes in the next election. Thus the CM is like Santa Claus and gives away presents to everyone. Almost every week there is some new scheme to offer inputs. This has saturated the thinking of farmers and they bias their results to position themselves for the next giveaway. They are farming the government! This is why we set out to do on-farm trials to be able to get accurate measurements of yield but this is time consuming and in the end we only had a few trial results on the rice crop and we did not attempt to try this on the rabi crop.
Another reason for low yields was the selection of variety. In many instances only some local source of seed was used and the farmer did not even know the name. Some old wheat varieties mentioned were Sona Kalan and Sona Lika and RR21. We hope to introduce variety trials in the FFS classes as part of the rabi curriculum. Dr Sahu and ASA can get a range of improved varieties to test in small plots (50m2). A further reason for low yields is late sowing in a number of instances.
There will be another interviewing process for field coordinator, senior COs and COs to hopefully hire more to place in all the 25 schemes. The last interview process only resulted in one new CO Ms Kali who is in Geg with Manju. They will make a good team as Kali has experience in agriculture and worked with women’s groups making compost. We will use her skill later with the FFS training course to teach farmers how to make compost.
27Table 4. Results of rabi crop culture of wheat, mustard, linseed, and chickpea, Geg Medium Scheme, 2007-08. 1/
Field Land preparation Inorganic fertilizerFarmer area No. No. Power Seed rate Date Total no. First Second Third Fourth kg/ha
no. Farmer Village acres Variety plowings harrowings source kg/acre sown applications DAS DAS DAS DAS N P KWheat
Linseed1 Yogesh Ani 2.25 Local 3 1 Tractor 5.3 30-Nov 1 51
ChickpeaYogesh Ani 1.5 Local 3 1 Tractor 13 28-Nov 1 Basal
1/ DAS = days after sowing
28Table 4b. Continued
Irrigation No. of Farmer Total no. First Second Third Fourth pesticide Days to Yield Price
no. Farmer applications DAS DAS DAS DAS applications maturity kg/ha Rs/kgWheat
1 Vinod Sahu 3 0 2,684
2 Madau Singh 3 15 45 65 0 2,440
3 Bindhen Kujur 1 0 113 0
4 Budu 5 20 40 60 75 0 113 732 Singh 1,220
5 732
6 5 0 1,220732
Average 3 18 43 63 75 0 1,290Wheat + mustard
1 Ramkripal 4 Basal 22 45 65 0 118Sahu 112 18
2 1,8305
3 2 0 1,464244
4 3661 0 12
5 Yogesh 4 0 124 8784
6 Yogesh 4 0 134 1,220366
Average Wheat 4 0 125 1,152Average Mustard 112 126
Linseed1 Yogesh 1 0 115 488 20
ChickpeaYogesh 1 0 118 415
1/ DAS = days after sowing
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E. Bilaspur Minor Tank
Traveled to Raigarh Tues-Thurs 3-5 June with Mr. Nandi and Dr Sahu. Left 9:45AM and arrived 4PM in hotel Shirwad
5PM to Bhupdevpur Village for discussions with CO Durjyodhan Megh and we were joined by WUA President Mr. Patel. The CO has made a sign in front of his home identifying it is the local CIDP office. He has gathered a number of agricultural magazines and goes over the practices with a group of key farmers that regularly visit the office. We reviewed the progress on the PIM Mass Action plan and discussed strategies.
As reported in other sites many of the repairs to the tanks and canals are being done with collusion of the WUA president, contractors, and WRD staff with the result of either being overcharged or producing inferior work. The exception is Mr. Patel. He said that the contractors are charging the project four times the worth of the construction work based on his calculations. The contractor is being watched by the farmers and in this case as opposed to Geg the concrete in Bilaspur is being cured.
Durjyodhan with the WUA president has organized the purchase of certified seed in Raigarh. Discussion with Mr. Nandi with the WUA president and others confirmed that they can ask WRD to deliver water whenever the farmers wish and even ask for tail end first. Right now there is about 10 feet water depth in the reservoir and that can irrigate about 500-700 acres. Some farmers have already sown their seedbed.
As the monsoon is imminent, farmers are moving their FYM from the compost pit to the field by ox cart. As it is hot this is mostly being done in the evening when it is cool. They also want to distribute the FYM before the rains come as this will make the FYM wet and also carts will bog down in the fields.
We paid Mr. Patel to prepare our lunch on Wed and had a delicious dish of mudah or local chicken. We also ate lotus flower seeds and tamarin seeds which were in fruiting.
1. PIM Mass Action Planting
Wed 4 June 11AM to Darri village where there are two TCs, one of which is a woman. But she has not been allowed to attend PIM training outside of the site as her husband has not given permission. Discussions were not able to resolve this.
Then to Kontari Village for a farmer meeting 1PM. This is a tail end village but some have bore wells. There are 400 acres of which 80 are irrigated. The bore wells are enough to start community nurseries but not enough to puddle the fields. If they sow the nursery too early and the rains do not come then they will have to wait and transplant older seedlings which will not tiller much thus lose yield. Timing of the seedbed needs more careful thought. This village also is not getting water from the canal thus farmers
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wondered what this PIM exercise was all about as they are rainfed farmers. Some 10 farmers turned up. There was much heated discussion over the futility of this exercise in this village. Mr. Nandi then instructed the CO to only work in villages where irrigation will be coming for the PIM Mass Action. Farmers mainly plant Mahamaya, MTU1001, Swarna, and MTU 1010. The first two are medium maturing while the last two are long maturing. The long maturing varieties will be grown on bottomland and is a correct match of variety to soil type according to our recommendations.
The PIM Mass Action plan will reach most farmers who attend meetings. They were told that those who plant together in two chaks minimum for each village can do whatever they liked in terms of management in their other fields but in the PIM chaks they should follow the recommended practices. We did not have any problems last kharif with farmers adopting our recommended practices, in fact we had the opposite problem as they also adopted them in the control plot which ruined the experiment as there was no comparison based on their instant adoption.
FFS will take time to generate the number of trainers necessary to train a significant number of farmers so in the meantime the Mass Action regimented approach will reach the majority of farmers who will see a benefit from the project. At the end of our Mass Action mobilization meetings Dr Sahu gives a talk on the main points that will be followed in the recommended practices which is very much enjoyed by the farmers who ask endless questions. We normally have to cut it off as time runs out. This happened in Katmari.
5PM Katmari village where the turnout was much better, 7 women and 20 men. There are over 600 hectares of rice land in this tail end village. However as opposed to the previous village they are able to get irrigation in most years. The most popular varieties are Swarna, MTU1001, and Mahamaya followed by Kulture, Ganga and HMT. Many of these are long maturing. We encouraged farmers to plant the long maturing ones in low lying fields.
10:30AM Thurs 5 June in Bhupdevpur Village with the WUA president and two more farmers for a short meeting to make strategies. Discussion was held regarding the chaks in the bottomlands where long maturing varieties will be grown. These fields will be harvested in January and are preferred sites for sunflower or mustard planting. The soil is too heavy for groundnut which grows best in light matasi soils. In groundnut sites sown in February farmers only now finished harvesting. Even some rabi rice still awaits harvest and it is time for kharif rice to be prepared.
2. Rabi crop results
The RAEO had offered farmers a 25% discount on a fertilizer containing sulfur and calcium. The farmers asked us what they should do. Given that the area is not known to have any deficiency symptoms on rice we said that they could test it on rabi crops such as groundnut and wheat.
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Farmers had a good crop of groundnut which they were now harvesting. They are planting bunchy types which have two seeds per pod but should use spreading types which have more seeds and thus higher yield potential. This underscores the need for more variety trials at the sites in the rabi season. Monkeys are pests of groundnuts near forested areas of the site. The results of farmer surveys are given in Tables 5a, 5b.
Wheat yielded a respectable average of 2.3 t/ha based on results from other sites but considering the amount of fertilizer used 131-112-27 the yield was not as good as it should have been. Here farmers make compartments within each field to irrigate more effectively and avoid over irrigation. We can only conclude that wheat is not as good a crop because of the low latitude and late planting. Nov 15 is the cut off date and all farmers had exceeded it. Farmers will be better off growing other crops. The disease they noticed that caused them to spray insecticide and fungicides was a symptom of nutrient deficiency and the crop outgrew it. Thus the sprays were misdirected against the wrong problem. The mustard intercrop yielded less but not because of growing mustard but because of the few samples of farmers.
Mustard sown as a sole crop yielded 0.6 t/ha which was good but the inorganic fertilizer was imbalanced as P was higher than N. Also all crops suffer from a lack of FYM. Organic fertilizer will be more important as now two crops are being taken instead of only one. There are a lack of farm animals to produce FYM in the manner that farmers are used to thus the project will need to teach them how to make compost so that for a given amount of manure a larger bulk of organic matter can be produced. They can do this several times a year using both rice and wheat straw.
Sunflower and groundnut gave the highest returns as both crops are well suited to the area. There are areas of light soils where groundnuts will do better and sunflower will do better on the heavier soils. If we introduced better varieties yields will go up just from that. Farmers applied more P than N so nutrients were imbalanced. The prices are good and yields were low and can be improved by better adapted varieties and cultural practices that will be improved over the next five years. We hope to show that these crops will bring in more cash than rice.
An economic analysis was performed by the CO Durjyodhan in Table 6. Both sunflower and groundnut gave the highest profits and clearly outperform wheat. We should have also analyzed mustard as a sole crop for its economics but few fields were available.
32Table 5a. Results of rabi crop culture of wheat, mustard, sunflower, and groundnut, Bilaspur tank, Raigarh, 2007-08. 1/
Field Land preparation Inorganic fertilizerFarmer area No. Power Date Seed rate Total no. First Second Third kg/ha
no. Village Farmer acres Variety plowings source sown kg/acre applications DAS DAS DAS N P KWheat
1. Which of these rice varieties is resistant to bacterial leaf blight?a. IR36b. Swarnac. BamleshwariAnswer: c2. If a farmer plans to sow a rabi crop then he should chose which of the following
varieties to sow in the kharif seasona. MTU1010b. MTU1001c. SwarnaAnswer: b3. Mixtures of rice varieties can be avoided by which of the following methods.
a. Roguing twice just before harvest b. Insecticide applicationc. Timely harvest
Answer: a4. Mixtures reduce yield because of which reason
a. May not be harvested with the main cropb. Encourage weed growthc. Crop requires more irrigations
Answer: a5. During grain filling which rice leaves on the plant produce the food that will fill
the grainsa. Bottom twob. Middle twoc. Top two
Answer: c6. Rice grown under the shade of a tree growing on the bund will produce low yield
due to which of the following factorsa. Less heatb. Less sunshinec. Less air
Answer: b7. After maximum tillering the number of tillers per hill
a. Remains the sameb. Increasesc. Decreases
Answer: c8. FYM is added to the seed bed for what reason
a. To make it easier to pull seedlings and not injure rootsb. To give added nutrientsc. To improve soil moisture
Answer: a9. The main benefit of deep plowing is to:
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a. Increase the supply of water to the plantb. Decrease weedsc. Allow the roots to grow deeper to find more nutrients
Answer: c10. Farmers now dig deep pits in the ground to store their FYM and add rice straw.
Rainwater fills up the hole to cause the following.a. Rainwater helps decompose FYM to make it a better fertilizerb. The mixture of rainwater and manure seeps deep into the soil to remove
FYM from the pit and can enter groundwater to pollute drinking waterc. Rainwater allows the FYM to mix better with the straw
Answer: a11. Farmers need more organic fertilizer and making compost is one way of achieving
this need. In making compost what factor is most importanta. To have more FYM than rice strawb. Not to mix the ingredients of FYM and strawc. Chop the straw into small pieces with a mechanical chopper
Answer: c12. Green manure is another way to increase organic matter to the soil which can
involve what methodsa. Grow Sesbania for 30 days before rice and plow it underb. Plow down rice stubble soon after harvestc. Burn the rice stubble after harvest
Answer: a13. Farmers need to apply bags of fertilizer to rice each season because of what
reasona. Because nutrients are taken out in the straw and grain and need to be
replacedb. To add nutrients that are not present in FYMc. To make the roots grow longer
Answer: a14. What rice variety should be grown in matasi soil
a. Swarnab. MTU1001c. MTU1010
Answer: c15. What is the best soil to grow rice
a. Matasib. Dosac. Kanhar
Answer: b16. What age of seedlings will tiller most
a. 21 dayb. 28 dayc. 35 day
Answer: a17. What is the consequence of having an uneven seedbed. The seedlings will be:
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a. Unequal height and mature at different timesb. Short and stoutc. Dark green in color
Answer: a18. What is the optimal depth to transplant seedlings
a. 2-3 cm or 1 inchb. 4-5 cm or 2 inchesc. 6-7 cm or 3 inches
Answer: a19. The iffco fertilizer is 12-32-16, what is the percentage of phosphorous
a. 16%b. 32c. 12%Answer: b
20. Rice needs a balanced amount of nutrients. Which mixture of fertilizers give a balance of the most nutrients
a. Urea + muriate of potashb. Urea + DAPc. DAP + muriate of potashAnswer: c
21. In using the leaf color chart what color of green signifies the healthiest planta. Greenb. Dark greenc. Yellow greenAnswer: a
22. The symptom of zinc deficiency is the followinga. Tall plantsb. Dark green plants c. Stunted and brown leaved plantsAnswer: c
23. Fertilizers should be applied first basally and then a tillering stage and the next top dressing application is needed at
a. Bootingb. Floweringc. Panicle initiationAnswer: c
24. The basal application should be broadcast a. Just before the transplanters enter the fieldb. Just before the last plowing to incorporate it deep into the soilc. Just before field levellingAnswer: b
25. Having fields level achieves what purposea. Better distribution of broadcast fertilizerb. Fewer diseasesc. Fewer mixturesAnswer: a
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26. Having 20 cm deep water in the rice field in the field early in crop growth does the following
a. No effect on rice plantsb. Makes for more tillersc. Reduces root growthAnswer: c
27. Some farmers change the water in their rice fields for clean water because dirty water reduces crop
a. Prevents pests and diseasesb. Cleans the water of dirt of weedsc. It is not necessary and in fact wasteful of waterAnswer:c
28. Greatest yield loss from weeds occurs whena. The weeds are very youngb. Before the weeds reach the crop canopyc. After the weeds grow above the crop canopyAnswer:c
29. Hand weeding should begina. 3 weeks after transplantingb. 5 weeks after transplantingc. Before the weeds grow to the crop canopy heightAnswer: a
30. Just after transplanting the field water level should be how deepa. Just at soil saturationb. 4 inches deepc. 8 inches deepAnswer: a
31. How many seeds can one weed plant produce a. 100b. 5,000c. 50,000Answer: c
32. One should apply fertilizer a. Before weedingb. After weedingc. It does not matter whenAnswer: b
33. Farmers should weed late in the crop growth for what reasona. To prevent seeds from falling in the soil from mature weedsb. To reduce the chance of bacterial blightc. To make pesticide usage more effectiveAnswer:a
34. The most common cause of chitri banki damage is rice caseworm which is particularly a pest due to which of the following factors
a. It can fly long distances to find a field
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b. Its numbers become very concentrated in numbers because it floats on water inside a folded leaf
c. The folded leaf case protects it from predatorsAnswer: b
35. The easiest way to control caseworm is toa. a. Select a tolerant or resistan t varietyb. b. Spray an insecticidec. Put a screen on the inlet for irrigation water in each fieldAnswer: c
36. If armyworms or cutworms are seen damaging the crop how much damage should there be before applying an insecticide
a. 5% damaged leavesb. 10% damaged leavesc. 15% damaged leavesAnswer: c
37. Termites damage the crop by eating the roots. What best describes the threat of this pest
a. It is a very serious pest which is likely to spread rapidlyb. It is serious and should be sprayed with an insecticidec. It is not serious and will soon be controlled by irrigation waterAnswer: c
38. Rice plants are only susceptible to stemborer attack based on what of the following causes
a. When the fields are weedyb. When the crop is very youngc. When the tillers elongate at tillering and panicle emergenceAnswer: c
39. If the crop is not under stress from drought, weeds or zinc deficiency a tillering crop can tolerate what percentage of deadhearts before there is a yield loss
a. 1%b. 5%c. 30%Answer: c
40. What is the most effective method to control gall midgea. Insecticide spraysb. Planting a resistant varietyc. Keeping weeds from the fieldAnswer: b
41. What is the most effective way to prevent damage from brown planthoppera. Monitor the field weekly to detect its numbersb. Spray the crop each monthc. Plant a hybrid varietyAnswer:a
42. Where does the brown planthopper come froma. It lives on plants in the rice bundb. It lives on weeds in the field
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c. It flies in from rice fields a long distance awayAnswer: c
43. What is the role paid by spidersa. They are beneficial as they feed on pestsb. They are pests and must be sprayed with insecticidec. Their webs reduce rice growthAnswer: a
44. The best way to maintain natural enemies is toa. Weed early in the cropb. Do not apply pesticidesc. Keep water levels lowAnswer: b
45. Most pests are controlled in the field by the action of a. Use of pesticidesb. The action of natural enemiesc. Resistant varietyAnswer: b
46. Rice blast is caused by a. A fungusb. An insectc. Nutrient deficiencyAnswer: a
47. Rice blast can be controlled bya. An insecticideb. Using more fertilizerc. Spraying a fungicideAnswer: c
48. Bacterial leaf blight is made worse bya. Applying more ureab. Weedy fieldc. Overcast weatherAnswer: a
49. Bacterial leaf streak is spread plant to plant bya. Windb. Rain and waterc. SoilAnswer: b
50. A method to control bacterial leaf blight isa. Pesticide seed treatmentb. Plow under rice straw and stubblec. Drain the fieldAnswer:b
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APPENDIX VI. Package of Practices for Paddy 2008JUNEEarly and Medium Varieties
Variety Days to maturityPoornima 110Danteshwari 110MTU 1010 110IR36 120IR64 120Chandra Hasani 125Mahamaya 130Kranti 130Hybrids 130*KRH2, PHV71, Sahadari, ProAgr 6201, Pro Agro 6444
Field preparation. If plowed in dry season then just one plowing after rainsSowing
Transplant BiasiNursery sowing 15 June – 5 July Broadcast sowing 21 June – 5 July
Fertilizer rateBiasi or transplanting Recommended rate 80-50-30 NPK/ha or
33-20-12 NPK/acreBasal soil incorporated * 1. 1 bag DAP pe acre
2. ½ bag MOP per acre (save 5 kg for second top dressing)
* Datari (with tines) or patta
Zinc deficient soils or scraped or newly made field then apply zinc sulfate
Should be good 3 years
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Transplanted Direct seededIn seedbed per m2 40 g zinc sulfate or 400 g/100 m2 (10m x10m)
10 kg/acre basal
JULYWater management
Direct seeded Transplanted Water level1. At transplanting No standing water only
saturated1. Water level at biasi (30 days after sowing) stage
2-4 inch (5-10cm)
2. Water level after crop establishment 3-4 days after transplanting for another 20-25 days until tillering over
2-4 inch (5-10cm)
AUGUSTWeeding
Direct seeding Transplanting1. After gap filling (chalai) hand weeding, 3-4 days after biasi
1. 20-25 days after transplanting, if needed then hand weed
2. 20-25 after first weeding
If zinc deficiency symptoms showDirect seeded Transplanting
30-35 days after sowing 10-15 days after transplanting
After weeding then if zinc deficiency is apparent then broadcast 10 kg zinc sulfate / acre
SEPTEMBER
50-60 days after sowing for early and medium duration (panicle initiation stage) for late duration varieties 70-80 days after sowing
First top dressing of fertilizer during active tilleringDirect seeded Transplanting
1. Half bag urea/acre 20-25 days after basal
1. Half bag urea/acre 20-25 days after basalIf long maturing variety apply only 1/3 bag urea/acre
Precaution for urea application: drain the field before broadcasting and after 24 h re-flood 4-6 inches gives oxygen to root zone
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Second top dressing of fertilizer – 5-7 days before panicle initiationDirect seeded Transplanting
15 kg urea/acre + ½ bag urea/acre +4-5 kg MOP/acre 5 kg MOP/acre
If long maturing variety apply 1/3 bag of urea + 5 kg MOP per acre
Flowering stageMaturity class Days after sowing
Early maturing 70-75Medium 90Late 110 * count the days after sowing nursery or field
A third top dressing of urea at heading in long maturing varieties onlyDirect seeded Transplanting
1/3 bag urea/acre 1/3 bag urea/acre
MaturityMaturity class Days after sowing
Early maturing 110Medium 130Late 150
Maturity at harvestSowing Maturity class 15 June 21 June
15-30 July Early 5 Oct + 10 days 15 Oct + 10 daysMedium 25 Oct 5 Nov + 7-10 daysLate 10 Nov 20 Nov + 7-10 days
General Recommendations
1. Plant Mahamaya, Chandrahasani, or MTU1001 varieties where gangai (gall midge) is a problem
2. Don’t use any chemicals to control bacterial leaf blight and don’t apply urea as top dressing if the disease is present
3. Control chitari banki by using a screen at the inlet where the problem has happened
4. Early and timely transplanting of biasi will escape gall midge and chitri banki5. Don’t apply insecticide to control stemborer if the deadhearts are less than 50-60/
m2 (20%) if the crop is growing well and there are no other stresses.
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6. Please note that blight and blast are two different diseases. Blast can be checked by fungicide spray (Hinosan, Bavistan) but blight has no chemical recommendation.
7. If there is no response of fertilizer on plant growth this may be a sign of zinc deficiency as varieties differ in expressing the symptom.
8. Incorporate basal fertilizer in the soil in the operation of datari or patta before transplanting
9. Drain out standing water before any urea top dressing10. Don’t allow cracks to develop in the soil (dry up) as nitrogen losses become high
Kharif Interventions1. Field leveling
Present status is that most fields are not sufficiently level. Schedule of leveling:Dry season May-JuneWet season July
2. Soil testingPresent status is that soil testing has never been done in the past. Soil testing before
planting is desirable. April to May. WUA should organize this activity with the
guidance of the CO and the forms are available at the local DA offices and the
samples with the forms and payment (Rs2/sample) need to be paid at that time.
3. Use of certified seedPresent status. Seed replacement (certified seed) is less than 4% in CG. It should be
12-15%. So effort should be made to use certified seed as much as possible. All GOI
supplied seed will be distributed to each seed distribution center by 30 May. Farmers
should purchase in May or June.
4. Use early and medium duration varieties or hybrids. More than 60% of the area is under late maturing crops which negates the ability to sow rabi crops. Only in low lying bhara lands 140 days is okay. Rabi crop sowing time is mid Nov, so sowing should be 15 June to 5 Jul to achieve this schedule. Only one group of varieties in one chuk.
5. Use of balanced fertilizer at critical stages.Most are using unbalanced fertilizer, more of nitrogen and K is 0-60 rather than 30. Zinc is nil. Our recommendation is 80-50-30 NPK and 25 kg of zinc sulfate. Basal application should be incorporated and not on soil surface. Nitrogen top dressing at tillering and second 5-7 days before panicle initiation. Schedule is July
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to Sept. For long maturing varieties there are three top dressings with 1/3 bag urea each per acre
6. Keep water level 5-15 cm onlyPresent status: There is a trend to fill as much water in the field as possible this results
in reduced tillering and poor root growth due to the less oxygen to roots.
Recommendation to keep standing water in the field for the first 40 days to2-5 cm
and later 7-15 cm from July to October.
7. Rouging out off types and mixturesPresent status farmers try to remove wild rice and weeds but not off types. This results in poor seed. Recommendation is rouging to improve genetic purity Sep – Oct. Second rouging one week before plant harvest Oct – Nov. Schedule Sept to Nov.
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ASA Training Plan for kharif Rice Farmer Field School 2008
You will need to make a training plan in the next month to explain how you are going to schedule all of the planned activities in the FFS. This will be a calendar so you have to say what dates of the month that you will schedule each activity.This should be ready to present to Dr. Sahu and myself on 26 May Monday at the WRD Data Center at 2PM.We will meet again at 2PM on 6 June Friday before you all go to your regions.In the meantime you will need to absorb the technical information related to rice culture as presented in the Package of Practices for Rice for the culture of the Study Field as well as the material in the 21 technical subjects. You will need to translate all of this information from English to Hindhi language and start preparing the training materials needed to begin the FFS classes. The training plan will include the scheduling of the 16 meetings for each FFS class for each site and for each class over the total number of classes planned as well as how many farmers are planned to be training and from that number how many farmer trainer candidates you expect to identify.The training plan should also have a typical schedule for one FFS meeting showing the times of each component.The training plan should also specify which of you will be the FFS trainers for each class for the three regions and 6 pilot schemes (Raipur region =Amakoni, Balar, Pakanjor, Bilaspur region = Bilaspur tank in Raigarh, Beherakar, and Ambikapur region = Geg scheme in Baikunthpur)I plan to give you the training aids that I am preparing by 26 May.After the 26 May meeting I will accompany you to your office and give you electronic files covering as much material I have to put in your computers. If you want to meet us at any other time please tell us. Dr. Sahu and I plan to visit Beherkar on 22-24 May, Geg 27-30 May, and Bilaspur tank in Raigarh on 1-5 JuneI stay at the Hotel Celebration Tel 4092990 and ask for Mr. James. I am available in the evenings and weekends.
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TYPICAL FFS CLASS SCHEDULE
8:00AM Meet at study field and hutSubgroups begin Agroecosystem Analysis by monitoring a section of the study field8:30AM return to hut to summarize findings and draw on craft paper sheet their conclusion9:00AM Each study group reports their findings to the whole group using the craft paper sheet taped to the wall as a guide (the subgroup members take turns each week doing this). Farmers discuss and question each presentation in turn.The Recommended Package of Practices for the Study Field are carried out by the farmers. If it is hand weeding then either the farmer owner will hire laborers or the 25 farmers themselves will weed the 1000m2 field themselves. But it is expected that the culture will be transplanted rice and weeds generally are not such a problem.9:45AM Summary of last lesson. Trainer summarizes the main points of last week’s technical lesson based on questions and goals of that lesson10:00AM Group dynamics team building game10:15AM Snack and tea break (there is a budget for this and some of the women in the village could be paid to prepare and serve to the group)10:30AM Technical LessonTrainer follows Class Instruction for that lessonTrainer may use training aid to give short presentationSubgroups discuss information given in one of the cards. There are five cards one for each subgroup. In each subgroup one member reads the paragraph of information one sentence at a time to be sure everyone understands what is being said. The members discuss the information and answer the questions. 11:00PM One member of the subgroup gives their presentation, first by reading the paragraph of information and then giving the conclusion of the group and answering the questions. This is followed by question and discussion of all farmers12:00PM Groups do activities (if there is more than one activity then several subgroups can combine to do each one) They may set out an experiment as well as take data on existing experiments in the field12:30PM Summary of this week’s lesson, give each farmer the farmer leaflet on the lesson that day, show the posters for that lesson.1:00PM End of class
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Notes:Two ASA trainers will supervise each class.If a second FFS class is scheduled in the village that afternoon one of the trainers could leave this class at noon and take his lunch and then go to the second class which can begin at noon and last to 5PM
Farmers can be instructed to begin the class before the trainer arrives as they can do the Agroecosystem Analysis by themselves without supervision for the first 45 minutes to 1 hr. Thus classes can last 5 hours and two can be held each day.
If the classes are running too long then some of the activies can be eliminated from the schedule and these will be carried out in follow-up years 2 and 3 when farmers will have more time
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S.No. Name of Scheme Name of Water Resources
Division & District
Designed Area(ha.)
No. of WUA
Name of WUA
No. of TC
Members1 Uprwaha Tank Rajnandgaon,
Rajnandgaon425 1 Khairghiti 7
2 Beherakhar Tank Kabirdham, Kabirdham
404 1 Beherakhar 5
3 Deogaon Tank Mahasamund, Mahasamund
1886 1 Singhoda 8
4 Kotari Tank Gariaband, Raipur 1335 1 Kasekara 85 Kharkhara Tank Gariaband, Raipur 1769 1 Kharkhara 86 Pakhanjore Tank Kanker, Kanker 435 1 Pakhanjore 67 Markatola Tank Kanker, Kanker 263 1 Rampur 68 Banskot Tank Kondagaon, Bastar 324 1 Bishrampuri 8
9 Neota Tank No.2 Kondagaon, Bastar 522 1 Neota 6
10 Burangpal Tank T.D.P.P. Division, Jagdalpur, Bastar
243 1 Burungpal 6
11 Bhansagar Tank T.D.P.P. Division, Jagdalpur, Bastar
269 1 Bastar 8
12 Kranti Tank Mungeli, Bilaspur, Bilaspur
1012 1 Pandariya 8
13 Pondiguma Tank Kharang Division, Bilaspur,
643 1 Pondiguma 6
14 Khandwa Tank Raipur, Raipur 416 1 Khandwa 615 Amakoni Tank Mahasamund,
Mahasamund591 1 Amakoni 6
16 Jagannathpur Tank Surajpur, Sarguja 567 1 Jagannathpur 617 Darki Tank No.2 Ambikapur,
Sarguja450 1 Damodarpur 6
Kanti 10Katkala 5
19 Ghunghutta Tank Baikunthpur, Koria 680 1 Sonhat 620 Amhar Tank Baikunthpur, Koria 802 1 Amhar 4
24 Charbhata Tank Bemetara, Durg 415 1 Charbhata 5
25 Ganiyari Tank Tandula, Durg 348 1 Ganiyari 4
APPENDIX I. LIST OF CIDP TWENTY-FIVE SCHEMES 2008
18 Banki Tank, Medium scheme
No.2 Ambikapur, Sarguja
3446 2
1
23 Balar Tank, Medium scheme
Kasdol, Raipur 5500 4
21 Gej Tank, Medium scheme
Baikunthpur, Koria 4416
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KHARIF INTERVENTIONS 2008FOLLOWING THE PIM METHOD OF PIM MASS ACTION
PLAN OF WORK
The following FOUR meetings can be held by COs in all participating villages of all of the 25 schemes.
Meeting 1. 2nd-3rd week of May. Held before land preparation begins in the dry season. Farmers in a village make a map of their irrigation system and field areas. By chak the farmers decide what variety they will sow and make plans for a communal nursery and set a date for sowing the nursery and delivery of irrigation water. The procedure is that the CO will bring some craft paper and colored pens and pencil and eraser for the farmers to draw a map of their village and locate the major chaks. Farmers will indicate where their fields are on the map and a second sheet will be used to list the farmers giving the area and variety of choice. The plan is that they will not chose long maturing varieties as they need to harvest early in order to plant a Rabi crop. A poster can accompany the talk giving the characteristics of the major varieties grown by the farmers. The maps that have been made can be taped to a wall of a central building for farmers to see.
Meeting 2. 1st-2nd week of June. Held before sowing. 4-5 carts of FYM to be plowed into the soil. Certified seed is used or seeds are inspected by hand to remove small and dark
colored grains before sowing. FYM is incorporated into the seedling nursery. Farmers will use the Fertilizer Calibration Chart to determine how much fertilizer
to purchase for their first basal application (DAP and MOP). Both will be broadcast into the field just before the last plowing during land preparation (for 1 acre the rate is one bag (50 kg) DAP and ½ bag (25 kg) muriate of potash (MOP).
Seeding rate is 15 kg/acre for transplanted and 40 kg/acre for direct seeded. In zinc deficient areas 40 g of zinc sulfate/10 m2 is incorporated to the seedbed
per acre. 21 day old seedlings will be transplanted at 2-3 seedlings per hill. Irrigation will be water saturation only for three weeks until seedlings recuperate.Again a meeting is needed with a poster outlining the points mentioned above so that after the meeting the poster will be taped to a wall of a central location where farmers can refer to the information at a later date.
Meeting 3. 3rd-4th week of June. Held before the first top dressing Apply top dressing (see Fertilizer Calibration Chart) for urea rate (1/2 bag/acre) to
field where water has been drained Afterward raise water level to 2-4 inch or 5-10 cm. Begin hand weeding Watch crop growth and if not normal then it may be due to zinc deficiency
wherein one needs to apply 10 kg of zinc sulfate per acre Any pest problem to be reported to CO and ASA trainer before pesticide is used
for proper diagnosis
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This third meeting also can benefit from a poster outlining the above points that can be taped to a wall of a central building in the village.
Meeting 4. 3rd-4th week of August. Held before panicle initiation and the second top dressing
Apply top dressing (see Fertilizer Calibration Chart) for urea rate (1/2 bag/acre and 5 kg MOP/acre) to drained field
Afterwards maintain water level to 2-4 inch or 5-10 cm. Any pest problem to be reported to CO and ASA trainer before pesticide is used
for proper diagnosis Continue hand weedingThis fourth meeting also can benefit from a poster outlining the above points that can be taped to a wall of a central building in the village.
Meeting 5. September where farmers will teach other farmers their experiences in undertaking the Mass Action planting and learning about correct crop establishment and management practices.
In order to implement the above PIM Mass Action program there must be a coordinating meeting with ASA PIM and ASA Agric Trainers as well as the COs on how to conduct the four meetings.
Secondly there should be a training session for all TC members and WUA presidents on how to conduct the four meetings.
COs and ASA trainers will make a follow-up plan on how to ensure the program is running as planned.
Dr Sahu and Mr. Nandi will train the COs at each site to be sure they know what to do. the ASA trainer who will train the WUA president and officers (TC member) with the CO present. The minimum size is the village.
Mr Nandi will take care of the follow-up (M& E) with the COs to ensure that the meetings were held as planned and that the farmers sowed the chaks as planned and managed them as planned.
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AGRICULTURE PROGRAM PLANSKharif 2008
The farmer field school method of intensive farmer training will take 16 weeks to cover the rice crop for the first season. Each weekly session will take 4 hours and the ASA trainers will need to concentrate on just a few locations the first year as they are learning how to be trainers as well as the technology that the farmers will need to learn at the same time. The first year two ASA trainers will need to preside in each FFS class session of 25 farmers. The third one could be free to offer training to TC members that are crucial to the PIM mass action program. The selection process for first FFS classes should be favored toward selecting farmers who can be trainers so they must be younger and more progressive than the average farmer. If each FFS class can identify 4 or so farmers to be trainers then the system can progress more quickly. In the off season there will be training for farmer trainers that will take two weeks. In 2009 an ASA trainer can be teamed up with one farmer trainer and in 2010 two farmer trainers can handle a FFS class by themselves with only occasional help from ASA trainers. The extra time in 2009 and 2010 will then be shifted to other schemes. In order for them to fill their other role as agriculturalist advisor for the mass action meetings ASA trainers will only hold four FFS classes in each scheme taking two day’s time. That will leave three days for their mass action duties.
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FERTILIZER CALIBRATION CHART
First application First top dressing Second top dressingBasal 1/ 20-25 days later 1 week before panicle initiation 3/
1/ Basal means applying before the last plowing in land preparation.2/ Muriate of potash, remove 5 kg for second top dressing3/ Panicle initiation stage determined by tiller dissection
