The overall objective of this initiative is to increase agricultural productivity and livelihood opportunities of the selected target regions in Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh via sustainable use of natural resources.

1. Improving Agricultural Productivity of Central India
through Participatory Research-cum-Demonstrations
and Knowledge Sharing – Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT)
Sep 2014Ministry of Agriculture
Government of India
Project goal
• The overall objective of this initiative is to increase
agricultural productivity and livelihood opportunities
of the selected target regions in Jharkhand and
Madhya Pradesh via sustainable use of natural
resources.
• The specific objectives of this technical assistance
program are:
–– To establish a holistic participatory IGNRM model
for the convergence of activities in 4 nucleus
clusters for enhancing agricultural productivity and
crop-livestock management systems to alleviate
poverty; and
–– To provide technical know-how to farmers, landless
rural people in the target districts, and partner
NGOs supported by the SRTT in the region through
empowerment by bringing together learnings from
national and international experience.
Project Activities:
• Building partnerships with stakeholders for improving
livelihoods.
• Soil nutrient status assessment by participatory
field soil sampling in different villages and fertilizer
recommendations
• Improving crop yields with balanced nutrient
management along with application of deficient
secondary and micronutrients.
• Evaluation of improved and diversified crops and
their varieties for drought, disease, pest resistance
and higher yields and adoptability.
• Cultivating rice fallow areas by growing chickpea crop
with seed priming technique on residual soil moisture
and with 1 to 2 supplemental irrigation.
• Growing green manure plants Glyricidia on field
bunds as N source and applying lopping in crop row
3-4 times in a year.
• Enhancing livelihood of farmers by promoting
micro enterprises e.g. vermi-composting, NPV virus
production, and nursery raising etc
• Construction of runoff water ponds for supplemental
irrigation to vegetables and also promoting fish
rearing.
• Mechanization through introduction of improved
agricultural equipments selected through participatory
mode viz, Tropicultor, two row weeders etc.
• Capacity building of all the stakeholders
Chemical analysis of soil samples
The results of soil samples collected from targeted region and analyzed at ICRISAT, Hyderabad (Table 1) clearly
showed wide spread deficiencies of secondary and micro-nutrients viz, S, B and Zn apart from deficiency of
major nutrients viz, NPK. Based on these results, recommendation were developed for balanced nutrition
including deficient secondary and micro nutrients viz, S, B and Zn
Table 1. Chemical properties of soils in targeted regions of Jharkand and Madhya Pradesh.
Location pH
EC
ds/m Org-C %
Ols-P
ppm
Exch-K
ppm
Aval-S
ppm
Aval-B
Ppm
Aval-Zn
Ppm
1. Sarikela-kharswan-
Jharkhand
5.2-6.8
0.0-0.2
0.2-1.0 (77)* 0.0-5.7 (97) 13-119 (73) 1.3-20.9 (83) 0.1-0.3 (100) 0.2-1.3 (87)
2. Gumla - Jharkand 5.0-7.1 0.0-0.6 0.3-1.1 (47) 1.4-72.4 (23) 29-247 (27) 2-9.6 (100) 0.1-0.3 (100) 0.3-2.9 (73)
3. Jhabua- MP 6.4-7.4 0.0-0.3 0.6-1.5 (0) 10-42.2 (45) 88-506 (0) 2.7-28.2 (95) 0.3-0.8 (91) 0.7-3.2 (5)
4. Mandla- MP 5.9-7.2 0.0-0.3 0.4-1.3 (14) 1.0-7.2 (90) 82-287 (0) 2-13.2 (90) 0.06-0.38 (100) 0.48-1.14 (52)
* Figures in parenthesis indicate per cent deficient fields
Results
• Introduction of improved crop varieties along
with balanced nutrient management including
secondary and micro nutrients resulted in
significant improvement of crop productivity
(Fig 1.)
• Crop diversification with high value crops
resulted in significant economic returns
• Promoting chickpea in rice fallows improved
cropping intensity to 200 per cent and thereby
increased systems crop productivity by 16-25 per
cent
• Cultivation of off season vegetable cultivation
under drip irrigation has resulted in 27-59
per cent increase in net profit compared to
traditional way of flood irrigation (Table 2)
• The market linkages are developed at local level
which helped the farmers to get additional value
of their produce viz, selling of green pods/cobs
resulted in additional monetary returns
• Promoting micro enterprises viz, nursery raising,
dal making, poultry, fishery etc resulted in
additional income to farmers
Conclusion
• The initiative involving technical backstopping
and capacity building of all the stakeholders
including farmers resulted in improved agricultural
productivity and significantly opened up other
livelihood income generating options to the
farmers and landless labors on sustainable basis.
Table 2: Yield advantage and economics of vegetable
cultivation under drip compared to flood irrigation at Teleya
village in Gumla Dist., Jharkhand (Avg. 2010-12).
Sl
No
Vegetable
crop
Yield Kg ha-1
Income in Rupee’s
Drip
Irrigation
Flood
irrigation
%
increase
Drip
Irrigation
Flood
irrigation
%
increase
1 Brinjal 26400 18200 31 1E+05 88800 38
2 Tomato 19205 15417 25 2E+05 2E+05 27
3 Cabbage 14442 8118 78 2E+05 1E+05 59
Target eco-region of Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand:
AESR and districts Fig. 1. Average crop productivity of important crops
in Jharkhand with improved crop management practices
(2009-2012)
Encouraging farmers for farm pond constructions and to use gravity drip irrigation system for growing profitable
vegetable crops during off season to get higher market price
Excellent crop vigor of maize and chickpea
grown in rice fallows
Diversification with green gram, blackgram
and vegetables etc
Introducing and popularizing vermi-compost units and
new improved agricultural implements.
Establishing Automatic weather station
This initiative
is supported by
Sir Ratan Tata
Trust