Rainfed Farming Development  

 

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The Rainfed agriculture plays an important role in Indian economy. In India 68 percent of total net sown area (136.8m.ha) comes under rainfed lands spread over 177 districts. Rainfed crops account for 48 percent area under food crops and 68 percent of the area under non-food crops. Nearly 50 percent of the total rural workforce and 60 percent of livestock in the country are concentrated in the dry districts. In Tamil Nadu, out of 7 m.ha of cultivable area, around 3.1m.ha comes under rainfed agriculture. But uncertainty in production due to fluctuations in total rainfall and changes in its distribution, decrease in relative productivity in rainfed lands etc. affect the livelihoods of many poor and marginalised farmers. Considering the importance and issues of rainfed farming, DHAN Foundation initiated an experimental project on Rainfed Agriculture with following objectives.

  • Understanding the status and issues of rainfed farming in the locations selected and identification of specific interventions.

  • Improving the total factor productivity of rainfed farming.

The new theme was launched on October 2, 2002 on the occasion of the DHAN Foundation Day celebrations. The pilot project is in the initial phase of implementation. In order to understand rainfed farming context in South India a farmers workshop was organised on the theme ‘Rainfed Farming – Past, Present and Future’. Farmers and experts in this field attended the workshop. The focus of the workshop was on understanding the changes in rainfed farming in the last twenty years and issues faced by these farmers. The prevailing best practices in rainfed farming were also shared. The deliberations in the workshop were on generating ways and means to address the issues that had been identified.

After thorough consultation and screening, it was decided to experiment on this theme in two different agro climatic zones, one in Kallikudi block of Madurai district, which represents black soil. The second one is Natrampalli block of Vellore district, which represents red soil and hard rock areas. In this block dependence on groundwater is present in part of it, while the rest is predominantly drylands. The following areas have been taken up for experimentation in the rainfed farming development theme.

  • Understanding and evolving suitable community organisation model

  • Transfer of farmers best practices for wider use

  • Identification and transfer of suitable technologies evolved by the research institutions

  • Finding suitable extension processes and arrangements for the same

  • Finding solutions to issues not addressed by best practices and modern technologies.

Focus areas

  1. Creating a community organisation base for the theme in the new location by designing a suitable Community Organisation model for rejuvenating rain fed farming

  2. Understanding the rain fed farming practices in the location.

  3. Trying out few experiments to know their suitability to the location.

  4. Placing a team & building their capacity on the theme.

Progress

The rainfed farming development theme has evolved a people organisation model for piloting. Uzhavar kuzhu (Farmers groups) have been formed with 15 to 20 farmers who have lands at close proximity as members. 126 Uzhavar kuzhus have been promoted with 2039 members with both men and women. Kalanjiams are formed with landless agriculture labourers and for tenant farmers. 16 Kalanjiams have been promoted with 249 members.  The team has promoted twelve watershed associations.

Situation specific and need-based interventions were attempted on experimental basis. These attempts were centred on the local best practices and indigenous technology. Focus was given on individual farm that too with small and marginal farm holdings; where the vulnerability is very high. Landless farmers are given central focus, providing them access to lands is one of the key purposes of the theme. The team has evolved several areas for observation and experimentation. The resources for the work have been mobilised through the NWDPRA (National Watershed Development Project for Rainfed Areas) programme. Observation studies have been taken up with 123 farming families. Experimentation on technologies suggested by the agricultural universities and the indigenous ones were attempted to find the suitability for the selected locations. The areas in which experiments were taken up are improved agronomic practices, plant protection measure, crop improvement and farm mechanization. The farmers were trained to observe the performance of each experiment. Farmers could see positive results in some of the experiments. They are interested to follow them in the coming seasons.

The team has built good relationships with District Nodal Agency (Department of Agriculture).

The team could undertake entry point activities like deepening of drinking water wells and construction of hand operated bore wells to solve the drinking water problems in the villages in collaboration with them. Drought proofing works were undertaken with the grant support from NOVIB, the Netherlands in both the locations. The teams gained a lot of learning which was very useful to define the intervention areas for the theme.

An Advisory board has been constituted with eminent persons with experience in this field at time of initiation of the theme. The advisory board met once and the theme related progress including the observation and the experimentation studies were shared with them to get their feedback and suggestions. Several capacity building events were organised for the team members to build their knowledge and skills on community mobilisation and technical aspects.

The team undertook and completed two research studies namely a) Factors responsible for cropping pattern change in Thirumangalam Taluk of Madurai district and b) An analysis of conversion of dryland into garden land in Nattarampalli block of Vellore district . These two studies were useful in understanding the context of the locations in more detail.