Bhoochetana Mission Project on Rainfed Agriculture: Bridging Yield Gaps through Science-led Interventions for Sustainable Use of Natural Resources in Karnataka Annual Report (2011-2012) Patancheru 502 324, Andhra Pradesh, India Bhoochetana Mission Project on Rainfed Agriculture: Bridging Yield Gaps through Science-led Interventions for Sustainable Use of Natural Resources in Karnataka Annual Report (2011-2012) Patancheru 502 324, Andhra Pradesh, India Contents Topics Page Executive Summary 01 Background 03 Goal of the Mission-Mode Project 04 Objectives 05 Consortium Partners 05 Project Planning and Monitoring Mechanism 06 Project Strategy 07 Appropriate Rainfed Agricultural Technologies 09 In-situ Soil and Water Conservation Techniques 09 Integrated Nutrient Management Techniques 11 Integrated Pest Management 12 Income-generating Rural Livelihoods 13 Farmers’ Preferred Varieties 15 Project Activities 16 Review and Planning Meeting 2010-11 16 Capacity-Building of Stakeholders on Sustainable Natural Resource 19 Management Team Building workshop in Bengaluru Review and Planning Meeting 2011-12 24 Facilitation of Project Activities in the Mission Mode 26 Awareness and Field Publicity Campaigns on Bhoochetana for Farmers 26 Soil Nutrient Diagnostic Studies and Nutrient Input Recommendations 27 Stratified Soil Sampling in the 30 Districts 27 Soil Nutrient Status Mapping and Fertility Status Manual 29 Taluk-wise Nutrient Recommendations, Fertilizer Dosage for Kharif 35 Crops Monitoring & Evaluation of Progress by SCC 37 Rainfed Crop Planning during 2011-12 38 Target Area Sown to Major Crops in Rainy Season 38 Input Distribution during Rainy Season 42 Target Area Sown to Major Crops in Post-rainy Season 43 Input Distribution during Post-rainy Season 45 Seasonal Rainfall and Cropping Situation in the Districts 46 Crop Cutting Experiments for Crop yield Estimation: A Joint Evaluation 76 Procedure for Field Selection for Sampling 77 Results of Participatory Crop Yield Estimation 78 Rainy Season Crop Yields 78 Crop-wise Summary 126 Pulses Production 131 Oilseeds 134 Enhanced Productivity Scaled up 137 Field Days and Field Visits 2011-12 143 A Compendium of Success Stories 152 Lessons learned 174 Learnings 174 Executive Summary To address the issues of stagnant agricultural growth in the state during 2002-2008, Government of Karnataka (GoK) embarked on a mission mode project to approach the yield gaps through science-led interventions for sustainable use of natural resources in Karnataka since 2009. The mission mode project referred as “Bhoochetanna” is technically supported by the ICRISAT and has adopted a consortium approach for implementation across 30 districts by the Department of Agriculture. The goal of Bhoochetana is to make a difference in the lives of farmers in all 30 districts of Karnataka through increasing average productivity of selected crops by 20% in four years. The specific objectives are as follows: 1. To identify and scale-up best-bet options (soil, crop and water management) including improved cultivars to enhance productivity by 20% of the selected crops in selected 24 (later extended to 30) districts; 2. To train DoA staff in stratified soil sampling at villages, analysis of macro- and micronutrients, preparation of GIS-based soil maps; and to guide DoA, to establish high quality soil analytical laboratory at Bengaluru and to undertake stratified soil sampling, their analyses and sharing results in nine districts; and 3. To build capacity of the stake holders (farmers and consortium partners) in the sustainable management of natural resources and enhancing productivity in dryland areas. The ICRISAT-led consortium comprised of knowledge-generating institutions like State Agricultural Universities of Bengaluru, Raichur and Dharwad with knowledge-transforming departments like Department of Agriculture, Watershed Development Department along with Department of Economic and Statistics. The Bhoochetana has adopted farmer participatory holistic approach in partnership with community based organizations (CBOs) for increasing the crop yields with improved management practices. During the third year implementation, Bhoochetana mission project has consolidated the benefits observed during the first two years and expanded the coverage with improved management practices to three million ha during the rainy and post-rainy season of 2011-12. The review and planning meeting held at ICRISAT had decided to cover three million ha area during the season and also recommended inclusion of irrigated crops like sugarcane, paddy under Bhoochetana program. 1 Based on the results of soil analysis undertaken by the Department of Agriculture in 15 districts, ICRISAT-led consortium developed soil-test based recommendations which were adopted during the 2011-12 season. Continued capacity development efforts resulted in strengthening the consortium team as well as building the capacity of new farm facilitators as well as Department of Agriculture officials from the newly added 15 districts. In all, 92,150 participants were trained through 4,268 district, taluk and village level trainings. The wide-spread deficiency of multiple nutrients like zinc, boron and sulphur across the 15 districts were observed with a exception of marginal deficiencies of sulphur in Bengaluru urban, Belgaon, Mysore and Ramnagara districts. During the 3rd year of Bhoochetana implementation, inspite of unfavorable rainfall situation during the season in number of districts substantially increased crop yields ranging from 24% to 45% in finger millet were observed. As a result, finger millet production in 10 districts on 94,083 ha out of 3.29 lakh ha increased crop yields by 26,900 tons due to improved practices under Bhoochetana. Similarly in case of maize, increased crop yields ranged from 24% in Bengaluru rural to 44% in Koppal district with improved management over the farmer management. In 10 districts, with average maize productivity of four tons per ha under farmer management practices with improved management productivity was increased to 5.5 ton per ha with a corresponding increase of 1.5 ton per ha. Similarly, paddy yields with improved management increased by 21 to 32% over the farmers management yields and in case of pearl millet, improved management recorded 21 to 63% increased crop yields over the farmers’ management in various districts. Similar results were observing for sorghum, cowpea, greengram, field beans, pigeonpea, soybean, sunflower and groundnut. With the increased coverage area under improved management practices of Bhoochetana, yields of 14 crops in 29 districts were increased and as a result, 2.2 lakh tons of additional pulses production was observed along with 4.62 lakh tons of cereals and 0.53 lakh ton of oil seed crops. This novel approach of Bhoochetana has provided a proof of concept and demonstrated productivity enhancement/bridging the yield caps through science-based approach in the state. The Bhoochetana mission project has become an exemplar scale-up program in the country and the success was recognized by the Central Government through Krishi Karman Award for Karnataka for maximum productivity of coarse cereals as well as Agricultural Leadership Award from Agriculture Today. 2 During the third year, ICRISAT-led consortium piloted a noval ICT-based support systems for the Bhoochetana farmers in partnership with KVK, Dharwad and KVK, Raichur. Through field days and field visits results and learnings by the farmers were shared with other farmers in the districts and in all, 596 field days wre conducted which were attended by 40,500 farmers during the 2011-12 season. In conclusion, Bhoochetana mission project has consolidated the impact observed during the first two years and scale-up by covering three million ha area during the third year. In spite of unfavorable rainfall situation, it is estimated that Bhoochetana contributed additional 2.2 lakh tons of pulses, 4.62 lakh tons of cereals and 0.53 lakh tons of oil seeds in the state. The economic returns from the increased productivity from the rainfed crops was 646.7 crores equivalent to US$ 129 million. In addition to the increased productivity and incomes for the farmers, the important impact of Bhoochetana is development of new farmer-friendly institutional arrangements to reach millions of small farmer, re-vitalized DoA, and convergence of various schemes and developmental activities in the state. There is an urgent need to capitalize on the gains during this phase and scale-up an initiative into a Bhoochetana mission program through a second phase for sustainable intensification of agriculture as well as building the resilience of the systems against the impacts of the climate change. Background Globally rainfed areas are hot-spots of poverty, malnutrition and degradation of natural resources. In India, out of 142 million ha of arable lands, 60% (85.2 million ha) is rainfed. Karnataka has the second largest area under rainfed agriculture after Rajasthan in the country. Crop yields in dry land areas are quite low (1-1.5 t ha-1) which are lower by two to five folds of the yield from researchers managed plots. The findings from the comprehensive assessment of water for food and water for life revealed that the millennium development goal of reducing number of poor people by half can be met only through efficient use of the scarce water resources for agriculture. Food production can be increased substantially in rainfed areas through enhanced water use efficiency measures by adopting