Presenter : Suhas P Wani and Team Research Program - Asia

1. Smart Villages: Role of ICT in Agricultural
Productivity
Suhas P Wani and Team
Research Program - Asia
23 September 2016

2. ICRISAT’s Vision, Mission and Challenges
 To reduce poverty, enhance food and nutritional security and protect
the environment of the semi-arid tropics by helping empower the poor
through science with a human face
Challenges
Mission
Vision
 Water scarcity
 Land degradation
 Weak delivery systems
 Climate change
 Poverty
 Malnutrition
 Food Security
 To provide science-led integrated development solutions in the
Asian SAT for achieving food and nutritional security along with
improved livelihoods for the rural poor while protecting environment
for sustainable development by building partnerships for large scale
impacts

3.  Current farmers’ yields are lower by 2 to 5 folds than the achievable
yields
 Vast potential of rainfed agriculture needs to be harnessed
Rainfed Agriculture:
Large Untapped Potential

4. Large Yield Gaps on Farmers’ Fields
Examples of observed yield gap (for major grains) between farmers’ yields and achievable
yields (100% denotes achievable yield level, and columns actual observed yield levels).
(after Rockström et al., 2007).

5. Death Valley of Impact
Food secure and prosperous farmers
 Changing external environment
 New Paradigm – R4D to transform lives
Discovery
Lab/plot
Pilot
Field
Proof of
Concept
100s
Impact/
Outcomes
100,000 &
millions
Development
Research
Death Valley
of Impact

6.  Large number of farm holders
 Insufficient and dispersed knowledge
 Weak delivery system
 Scaling up approach is lacking
Why Farmers do not have access
to such knowledge

7. Value Chain
Improved Livelihoods
Intensification
High-potential agroecologies
• Intensifying crop production
• Diversification thru high value crops
• Forward-backward market linkages
• Product processing
Diversification
Low-potential agroecologies
• Rehabilitation of degraded lands
• Crop-livestock
• Biodiesel plantation
• Self-help groups
Scaling-up &
Scaling-out
Capacity Building
Participatory
Research & Development
On-station and
On-farm Research
Reflections
Road Map for Improving Livelihoods
in Rainfed Agriculture

8. How We Do Scaling-up
Two Prong Strategy
Scaling-up with low hanging
fruits technologies
Innovation at pilot sites to
sustain growth
Converge Consortium Collective
Action
Capacity
Building
Synergy Partnerships Farmers
Producers
Organizations
Skill
development
Efficiency
(Production)
Value
addition
Profits Employment

9. Form a consortium with
visionary and strong
leadership
Team building
Convergence
Site of learning
Participatory planning
PR&D
Participatory monitoring,
learning and evaluation
Dissemination
Documentation
Our Strategy

10. Kommireddypalli
Soil Health Mapping as on Entry
Point Activity
Needs assessment
Knowledge generation
Knowledge formatting
Knowledge dissemination
Demonstration “Seeding is believing”
Results dissemination

11. Increased crop yields by 30 to 120 percent in AP, MP Rajasthan and
Gujarat in India, North Vietnam and China provinces benchmark sites
Yields of various crops with micronutrients and other inputs
in the APRLP watersheds, Andhra Pradesh, India during
2003 rainy season
Economic gains due to micronutrient application to various
crops in the APRLP watersheds in three districts in Andhra
Pradesh, India during 2003 rainy season
Widespread Deficiency of Micronutrients
Holding Back the Potential in the SAT

12. ICT plays critical role in achieving the mission of improving
rural livelihoods in SAT areas
of the world
Information and Communication
Technology (ICT)

13. Dissemination of Results

14. Seeing is Believing
 Not to reduce capacity building to class room lectures and
exposure visits
 Establish model watersheds as sites of learning through
hands-on experience
 Benchmark watersheds for detailed monitoring of complex but
critical parameters e.g. runoff, soil loss, water quality

15. Knowledge Transfer within the Institution
NGOs
WS1
WS2
WS3
WS4
WS5
WSn
Knowledge Dispersion
Nucleus
watersheds
Poverty
reduction
WS1
WS2
WS3
WS4
WS5
WSn
Learning
Sharing knowledge
Capacity building
Knowledge infrastructure
Institution building
Knowledge Exchange and Dispersion

16. Krishi Gyan Sagar (KGS)
Innovative Extension System
GoK-ICRISAT Initiative – Bhoochetana

18.  Empowering Farm Facilitators
 Strengthening Farmer Field Schools
 Farmer to Farmer videos using Pico Projectors
 Tablet-based extension systems
 Delivery system for inputs
 Monitoring and evaluation system
 Online transactions of knowledge inputs to farm produce
disposed
Important Components

19.  Developed sowing date
application
 Piloted in 2 districts based on
water balance calculations
taking into consideration rainfall
forecast from aWhere using
Moisture Adequacy Index (MAI)
 Current observed rainfall and
predicted rainfall for the next
five days
 Advisory is communicated thru
voice mail and SMS based on the
Predicted Sowing Date
ICRISAT, Microsoft and aWhere Developed Sowing
Date App under AP Rythu Kosam Project

20. Farmer to Farmer Video

21. Short Videos from Farmers

22. Field Days “Seeing is Believing”

23. Training to Department Officers & FarmersTraining to Department Officers & Farmers
Capacity Building Programs

24.  Farm Facilitators (FF) and Lead Farmers (LF)
Every 500 ha one FF and 2-3 LFs
 Training and empowering FFs and LFs
 To be certified and quality assurance
Empowered Farmers as Extension
Agents

25. Existing drainage infrastructure Household wastewater drains
Wastewater ponds
Household wastewater drains empting on roads
Wastewater: Safe Reuse
Opportunities and Challenges

26. Decentralized Wastewater Treatment: A Business Model

27. Water Harvested from 1 Ha farm area
during monsoon in a pond (20X20X3m)
1000 m3
Area irrigated during Rabi
(Depends upon cropping system)
2000 – 4400 m2
Solar pump capacity 1– 2 HP
Cost of solar pump 1.5 lakh
Cost of storage pit + drip system 1.5 lakh
Total cost 3.0 Lakh
Cost of cultivation @ Rs. 50000/ha Rs. 10000
Crop Vegetables yield (Tomato) @ 30 t/ha 6000 kg
Average price @ Rs 10/- Rs. 60000
Net Income Rs.50000
Payback Period 6 years
Solar – Drip Irrigation System

28. Rythu Kosam
 Convergence
 Consortium
 Campaigns for awareness building
 Effective delivery systems
 Value chains and market linkages
 Enabling policies and institutions
 Effective monitoring
Scaling-up with low hanging fruits and Innovations
in Pilot sites of Andhra Pradesh

29. Farmers Producers Organizations Promotion
Policy of Andhra Pradesh - 2016
 The overall goal of FPO initiative is to
create wealth for the small farm holders
by creating appropriate ecosystem for
wealth generation, increasing productivity,
maximise profitability and realization of
proper pricing thru processing, market
linkages, value addition and better
knowledge system
Farmers Producers Organisations
Promotion Policy of Andhra Pradesh–2016
Operational Guidelines
“Raithu Kosam”
Farmers Producers Organisations
Promotion Policy of Andhra Pradesh–2016
Government of Andhra Pradesh- FPO promotion policy
- Operational guidelines for FPOs and
Corporates
- Guidelines for DPR preparation by
Corporates
- MoU between GoAP and
Corporates/NGOs

30. Fig: Fishermen and women using solar
dryer in Barripeta, Vizianagaram district
Solar dryer technology :
PPP mode from Science for
Society (Mumbai)- 4 m2
dryer
unit cost : Rs. 35,000/-
Zero energy operating cost
Piloted in 5 districts: East-
Godawari,
Visakhapatanam,
Vizianagaram, Guntur and
Chittoor
Farmers reached : 1319
Vegetables, fruit and small
fish
Postharvest Management

31. Commodity
*Mean
cost
fresh
(Rs)
Price
estimat
e after
drying
(Rs)
%
increase
in value
addition
Farmer
attendence
Tomato 47 95 102 283
Mango 50 125 150 20
Potato 60 109 90 76
Bhendi 18 34 112 37
Others 20 42 130 37
Over all 117 % 453
Table: Value addition of commodities using solar drying in Chittoor district
*Mean sample size (n) > 5
Postharvest Management (Cond..)

32. Bhoochetana
 To identify and scale-up best management practices
(soil, crop, nutrient and water management) to
enhance productivity by 20% of crops in 30 districts
 To build the capacity of the stake holders (farmers
and consortium partners) to implement practices in
the sustainable management of natural resources
and enhancing productivity in dryland areas

33. 0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Areaunderimprovedmanagement
(1000ha)
Cropyield(ton/ha)
Farmers practice (ton/ha)
Improved practice (tons/ha)
Area under improved mgt (ha)
Year 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Total
Net income (Rs in Crores) 11.49 204.81 599.45 451.80 695.30 1962.85
Net income (Million US$) 2.52 45.72 112.48 82.44 110.35 353.51
Improved Agricultural Practices Increased Crop
Yields and Incomes in Karnataka: Bhoochetana

34. Scaling-up of Technologies for
Impact: Bhoochetana

35. Thank You