STATE LEVEL WORKSHOP

AGRICULTURE IN ASSAM

Venue: Conference Hall of ‘NEDFi House’, G.S. Road, Dispur, Assam

Organised by: Seven Sisters Development Assistance (SeSTA) in coll

Actionaid

REPORT OF

STATE LEVEL WORKSHOP

ON

AGRICULTURE IN ASSAM: SRI AND ISSUES FOR SUSTAINABILITY

20th

March 2012

Venue: Conference Hall of ‘NEDFi House’, G.S. Road, Dispur, Assam

Organised by: Seven Sisters Development Assistance (SeSTA) in collaboration with RGVN and

SDTT, Mumbai

SUSTAINABILITY

Venue: Conference Hall of ‘NEDFi House’, G.S. Road, Dispur, Assam-781006

aboration with RGVN and

SDTT, Mumbai

Introduction

Assam is predominantly rural and the economy is primarily

agrarian in nature. Agriculture in Assam exhibits most of

the characteristics of underdeveloped/backward

agriculture, namely, a high dependence on agriculture for

livelihood, widespread practice of traditional farming

techniques and correspondingly low usage of modern farm

inputs, low levels and low growth in productivity and

incomes in the sector, widespread prevalence of

subsistence cultivation, poor / inadequate agricultural

infrastructure, and so on. Different government

organizations and NGOs have been engaged in various

projects in order to help the farmers to tackle the problems

and face the challenges. In order to discuss these problems

and challenges as well as to find out fruitful solutions a

state level workshop on ‘Agriculture in Assam: SRI and

Issues for Sustainability’ was organized by Seven Sisters

Development Assistance (SeSTA), a prominent NGO of

the region and Rastriya Gramin Vikash Nidhi (RGVN) on

20th of March in NEDFI House, Guwahti with the support

of PRADAN,Delhi, SDTT,Mumbai and Actionaid.

Representatives from various government departments,

NGOs and farmers participated in the workshop and gave

Power Point Presentations sharing their experiences.

1.0 Inaugural Session

1.1 Welcome and Inaugural Speech: Prof. Dulal

Chandra Goswami

Prof. Dulal Chandra Goswami, renowned environmentalist

and Chairperson of SeSTA inaugurated the workshop and

in his inaugural speech he stressed the need for the

cooperation between the people directly and indirectly

related to agriculture. He also said that scientific method

must be implied in agriculture as most of peoples’

livelihood of the rural area is dependent on it. He

expressed high hope that young and highly qualified

students have been engaged in agriculture and also

working passionately for the overall development of this

sector. In his speech he gave a short description of the

System of Rice Intensification (SRI), how it evolved. He

told that contribution of Dr. Norman Uphoff of Cornell

International Institute for Food and Agriculture, Ithaca,

USA is significant to popularise this technology among the

scientific community. Prof. Goswami told that being an

environmentalist, he also emphasised the issues of

“Scholars of different fields

need to bring their

technology to the grass-root

to help the poorest section

of the society”

-Prof. D.C. Goswami

environmental sustainability of our developmental

intervention. He appreciated the effort of the civil society

organisation in the field of popularising the SRI technology

at the grass-root level.

1.2 Brief Note about the Workshop: Dr. Amiya

Sharma

Dr Amiya Sharma, Executive Director of RGVN and Vice

Chairperson of SeSTA delivered a brief note about the

workshop. In his short speech he said that in order to make

the farmers aware of SRI method, this type of workshops

should be organized more frequently. Not only the farmers,

but also the scientists and well-wishers must be invited to

such workshops. He told that such workshop help us to

understand different issues at the implementation as well as

policy level and that could help the practitioner to find out

the gap for its improvement.

2.0 Session-I: Present Situation of Agriculture in

Assam: Issues and Challenges before

small and marginal farmers

Chaired by: Dr. Amiya Sharma

Panellists : Dr. Mrinal Barman, Assistant Director

of Agriculture, Govt. Of Assam

Tasaduk Ariful Hussain, NEST

Mr. Ratul Ch. Sharma, FCI, Assam

2.1 Dr Mrinal Barman, Assistant Director of

Agriculture, Govt. Of Assam

Dr. Mrinal Barman in his presentation pointed out that

75% of population of Assam is directly related to

agriculture and another 15% is indirectly related to

agriculture. He also focused on the fact that people in

Assam get engaged in agriculture only when there is no

other option for employment. He added that there is a

greater scope of employment in agriculture and youngsters

should realize it, because agriculture is the backbone of

Assam. He said that 60% of land of our state is unavailable

for agriculture and only 36% of land is available for it. But

the livelihood of 85% of people is dependent upon this

36% of land, as such agriculture is very crucial as it

contributes ¼ of states’ GDP. He pointed out the

challenges faced by Assam agriculture are-(i)low per

capita, (ii)poor soil health, (iii)low

productivity,(iv)inadequate availability of quality inputs in

time, (v)low level of farm mechanisms ,(vi)vast mono crop

area, (vii) prevalence of rain fed farming and lack of

“Such workshops help us to

understand different issues at

implementation as well as policy

level and that could help the

practitioner to find out the gap

for its improvement”

-Dr .Amiya Sharma

“There is a greater scope of

employment in agriculture and

youngsters should realize it

because agriculture is the

backbone of Assam”

-Dr.Mrinal Barman

irrigation facilities, (viii)lack of post harvest ,storage

,processing and marketing facilities, (ix) dependence on

outside sources for seeds, (x)warm and humid during

kharif season, (xi)inadequate credit for high cost input,

(xii)poor socio economic conditions etc.

He suggested some measures to face these challenges.

Primary focus to address the challenges are -

(i)improvement of rice based cropping system by

introducing SRI, (ii)stress on rice production by

introducing suitable varieties, (iii)diversified crop planning

wherever rice cannot be grown, (iv)increasing area

coverage of HYV paddy from 61% to 75% of total paddy

area , (v)expansions ion of area under Hybrid seeds to

augment and stabilize rice production, (vi)increasing seed

replacement rate(SRR), (vii)buffer stock of seeds for the

time of calamities, (viii)floriculture, (ix)value addition,

(x)support price mechanism, (xi)supply of market

information etc.

Dr Barman also spoke about the opportunities the state has

in case of agriculture.

2.2 Mr Tasaduk Ariful Hussain, North East Social

Trust (NEST)

Mr. Tasaduk Ariful Hussain gave a presentation on behalf

of Actionaid. He gave a power point presentation on ‘Rice

Risk of Assam’ and pointed out the market related risk of

rice production in the state. The population of Assam needs

11,500 Metric Tons of rice daily and 41 lakh MT of rice

yearly. In the same context the total rice production of

Assam is 40.7 lakh MT. So, there is only deficit of 0.7 lakh

MT. But, FCI in 2009-10 procured only 13 lakh MT rice

for various welfare schemes and unfortunately

procurement of rice from Assam during this period is only

12,000MT. FCI procured rice from Punjab, Haryana and

some other states and as a result farmers of Assam don’t

get the price what they should get. The farmers even don’t

get Production Cost from markets. More than 70% of

people of Assam are agriculture dependent. The increment

of fuel price is also creating problems for the farmers in

case of irrigation. So production cost also has increased

almost three times but the price of rice has not increased to

that level. On the contrary, rice price has been decreased.

Another striking fact is that farmers need 3000-5000 liter

of water for the production of 1 kg rice. In Haryana and

Punjab, farmers utilize the groundwater for this purpose.

The people of those states don’t eat rice but they produce it

for Northern India. Furthermore, due to the transportation

“The increment of fuel price is

also creating problems for the

farmers in case of irrigation. So

production cost also has

increased almost three times but

the price of rice has not

increased to that level. On the

contrary rice price has been

decreased”

- Mr. Tasaduk Ariful Hussain

of rice from distant states, fossil fuel is burnt in vain and

ultimate cost rises higher and higher. As a result FCI spend

more money for procurement than the actual Minimum

Support Price. Moreover our fertile soil and water sources

have been unutilized. Moisture content is also a fact in this

regard. It is said that rice can be procured if there is only

14% of moisture. But in Assam this content is never less

than 17% because of the environment temperature. In case

of Sali it is 17-19% and in case of Boro it is 20-22%. On

this argument FCI don’t procure rice from Assam. But

there is a paradox that rice procured from Haryana, Punjab

also catches the same moisture content within 24 hours.

FCI say that rice of Assam can’t be stored for a long time

for this reason .FCI can store rice for only 2 months. But

we store rice in our granaries in villages years after years.

According to Mr Hussain this is a ridiculous argument on

their part. As, he said, Assam government never asked for

proper norms in this regard. Oddisha government has

already done this; eventually procurement norms have

been changed. Again, there are inadequate numbers of

procurement centres in Assam. He said that in order to

procure, we have to follow mechanized drying system.

Nowadays we can dry 2 MT rice on a daily basis through

such systems. According to him there must be awareness to

meet the procurement norms.

2.3 Mr. Ratul Ch. Sarma, Food Corporation of India

Mr. Ratul Ch. Sarma from FCI also gave a presentation on

procurement norms of FCI and quality issues. Beginning

his presentation he said that procurement, movement,

storage and distribution are the four objectives of FCI. He

reiterated that storage capacity of FCI is only 2.7 MT. The

procurement problem , is also due to market structure. We

have to have regulated markets in Assam to tackle this

problem, in such regulated markets we will be able to

procure rice from farmers directly. FCI has requested the

Assam Govt. as well as Central Govt. to take action.

Citing some other reasons such as shortage of employees,

FCI has not been able to purchase rice from farmer points.

He added that, in order to tackle these problems we

strongly need regulated markets. Moreover proposals to set

up modern rice mills in the areas where rice production is

high e.g. Kharupetia have been given. Summarizing his

speech he said that there is an urgent need for (a) regulated

market, (b) milling facility and (c) storage capacity.

“There is urgent need for

regulated market, modern

milling facilities and increasing

storage capacity of rice to tackle

the market related problems of

rice”

-Mr. Ratul Ch. Sarma, FCI

“In the starting our farmers failed

to believe that how transplantation

of single sapling increases the

yield! But, after demonstration of

SRI techniques at field level,

farmers show interest on SRI and

adoption of SRI techniques is

increasing in our area.”

- Satyanarayan Das, Farmer

“Demonstration at the state level

upto a reasonable scale to establish

SRI as a means to attain household

food security is important”

-Tusar Das

3.0 Session-II: Experience Sharing on Promotion of SRI

methods of crop cultivation in Assam

and other states

Chaired by: Mr. Biswanath Sinha, SDTT, Mumbai

Panellist : Mr. Satyanarayan Das, Farmer, Tamulpur

Mr. Ratan Das, RGVN, Guwahati

Mr. Tusar Das, SRI Secretariat of Livolink

Foundation, Bhubaneswar

Ms Dhruva Mukhupadhaya, PRADAN, Bihar

Dr Arunima Dev Choudhury, NFSM, Nagaon

Mr. Parag Boruah, SeSTA, Bongaigaon

3.1 Mr. Satyanarayan Das, Farmer, Tamulpur, Baska

Mr Satyanarayan Das , a farmer from Tamulpur ,Baska

shared his experience of SRI method. He stated the fact

that farmers don’t show interest in SRI in general, but after

getting the benefit they adopt SRI. He emphasised how

farmers of his region have been benefitted from SRI even

in time of rain water shortage. He in this regard, stressed

for the need of bio-fertilizer. He also said that farmers

clubs should be activated and officials of agriculture

department must have friendly relations with the farmers

and through the KVKs there must be awareness

programmes on a larger scale.

3.2 Mr. Ratan Das, RGVN, Guwahati

Mr. Ratan Das from RGVN said that RGVN has

emphasized on awareness of SRI method. He stressed for

farmers training, field demonstration, input supply, and

also said that the master trainers must be selected from

among the farmers. If it is possible, farmers must be

trained up through satellite communications, and

emphasised on the training of Females involved in

agriculture.

3.3 Mr. Tusar Das, SRI Secretariat of Livolink

Foundation, Bhubaneswar

Mr Tusar Das gave his presentation on ‘Progress and

achievement under SDTT-SRI programme’. Giving a short

introduction of SDTT, Mr. Das said that SDTT-SRI project

presently covered 11 States of India and able to

demonstrated the SRI method of paddy cultivation with 1

lakhs small and marginal farmers. This SDTT supported

project is implemented through 127 NGO partners and able

to increase average rice yield to 4.68 t/ha, 38.8% more that

of conventional method(3.3 t/ha). Giving the example of

NABARD’s initiatives to promote SRI methods, Mr. Das

“Direct field level engagement of

government officials is crucial to

popularise the SRI technology at

grass-root level”

-Ms. Arunima Dev Chaudhary

also explained the initiatives of different State government

to take this initiative forward. He cited the different

initiatives in the field of research and innovation taken by

SRI-secretariat of Livolonk Foundation.

3.4 Ms Dhruva Mukhupadhaya ,PRADAN, Bihar

Ms. Dhruva Mukhupadhya also shared experiences of SRI

method of paddy cultivation by explaining the context of

the poverty situation in Bihar and relevant of SRI. In her

presentation she told that SRI principle could be applicable

for others crop also giving the examples of SRI method of

mustard, sugarcane and wheat cultivation.

3.5 Dr Arunima Dev Choudhury , District Consultant

NFSM (rice),DAO office, Nagaon

Dr. Arunima Dev Choudhury shared her experience in this

regard and said that only direct field level involvement of

the agriculture officials can help the farmers to acquire SRI

method. In her presentation she gave a brief description of

initiatives of NFSM in the regards of promoting SRI.

Giving the example of ‘Community nursery’ and

harvesting paddy by the Agriculture Minister’ were good

initiative to popularise the methods of SRI at field level.

3.6 Mr Parag Baruah, SeSTA, Bongaigaon

Mr. Parag Boruah gave his presentation on ‘Experience of

promoting SRI in Lower Assam area’. In his presentation,

he stated the data that in BORO season there has been 50%

SRI traditionally which is not a new thing. According to

Mr Baruah production of BORO is higher than Sali only

because of the greater involvement of the farmers. He said

that in order to get the involvement of the farmers we

should make them aware of what exactly the agriculture

practice is. In this regard he said that well educated

people must go to paddy fields, and emphasised a strong

need of cooperation between NGO and government

agencies. NGO people are good at motivating but

government people have the resource pools. According to

Mr Baruah, involvement of all stakeholders is essential in

this regard.

“SRI is proved as a means for

meeting food security in small and

marginal farmers in Bihar and

Jharkhand”

-Dhruva Mukhapadhya, PRADAN

4.0 Session-III : Addressing the issues in

Agriculture and Its Sustainability

Chaired by: Prof. D.C.Goswami

Panellist :Dr.A.K.Gogoi, Zonal Project Director,

ICAR, Shillong

Mr R N Talukdar, AGM, NABARD,

Guwahati

Dr Dhiren Kalita from KVK, Kamrup

4.1 Dr. A. K. Gogoi, Zonal project director of ICAR,

Shillong

Dr. A.K. Gogoi gave his speech on issues of agricultural

sustainability. In his speech, he appreciated the initiative

taken by SeSTA in organising the workshop on a very

relevant issue. He told that educating the farmers about the

new agriculture techniques is very important and ICAR is

always in a very cooperative position to support such

initiatives. Giving the preference to the farmers’ needs, he

emphasised that extension workers support should meet the

need of the farmers requirement rather than putting them in

a confusing condition. By giving the example of work done

by KVK Mizoram on SRI, Dr. Gogoi told that today KVK,

Mizoram is known for the SRI. As an agronomist of more

than 30 years experience he suggested that extension

mechanism should meet the want of the farmers rather than

bombarding with various technologies which is not readily

understood by farmers.

4.2 Mr R N Talukdar, AGM, NABARD, Guwahati

Mr.R.N. Talukdar spoke about SRI initiatives of NABARD

to bring this technology to farmers’ level. He also gave

brief description of different NABARD initiatives for the

rural areas. He told that NABARD’s initiatives on SRI

could be able to increase the paddy yield by 50-60 percent

than their yield earlier. He said that banks have already

increased loans for farmers, but multiple cropping have not

been carried out so far. Two farmers from Darrang and

Nalbari districts also shared their experiences and pointed

out the different problems in agriculture they have faced.

4.3 Dr Dhiren Kalita from KVK, Kamrup

Dr. Dhiren Kalita gave his views on sustainability of the

agriculture in Assam. In his presentation he spoke about

the KVKs initiatives in this regards. Mr. Kalita said that

through SRI, farmers could be benefited more from

cultivating small piece of land.

“Extension workers support should

meet the need of the farmers

requirement rather putting them in a

confusing condition”

- Dr. A.K. Gogoi

“Through SRI promotion

programme of NABAR, farmers

could easily enhance their paddy

yield by 50-60 percent,

- Mr.R.N.Talukdar, NABARD

5.0 Open Session

Chaired by: Dr. Amiya Sharma

Dr. Amiya Sharma chaired the open session. In this session, participants raised different issues related

to agriculture and SRI methods of rice cultivation. Prof. Goswami pointed out two major challenges

faced by the agriculture of Assam- firstly, the perennial flood problem which affects thousand hectares

of land and the resultant sand sedimentation making the land unproductive for many years; secondly,

lack of assured irrigation facility at agriculture field. Prof. Goswami expressed that agriculture of

Assam is a gambling game of monsoon and irrigation facility of Assam, hence is one of the most

agriculturally underdeveloped in the country. Prof. Goswami suggested that one has to ensure quality

input supply and assured irrigation facility to improve the agriculture in Assam. Considering the

present agricultural practices in Assam, Mr. Sarat Ch. Das, CEO, Grameen Sahara told that at present

it is quite difficult for the small and marginal farmers to return back KCC loan to bank from their

agriculture produces. Mr. Das agreed with the opinion of Prof. Goswami and emphasised to provide

assured irrigation facilities to the farmers to adopt modern agriculture technologies.

Mr. Aswini Bhattacharjya of SeSTA told that agriculture in Assam is totally a political issue by

pointing out that FCI purchases 30 Lakh MT rice from outside Assam, costing 4 thousand cores,

which is much higher than the annual agriculture budget of Assam. Due to rice import, the rice price

of Assam goes down (less than Rs.600 per Ql) and farmers can not consider the agriculture as a

remunerative business. In this regards Mr. Bhattacharjya felt that the interventions of our people’s

representative like MP and MLA is very crucial. He also told that if farmers adopted SRI technology,

more production from less land can be achieved,which further help the farmers to diversify his

agriculture and earn more money from his own land.

Mr. Chadan Talukdar from GVM, Nalbari showed his interest to know more about the NFSM, Assam

approach to promote SRI in the State. One participant told that corporation between different

development stakeholders is very important to address the issues of farmers.

After a fruitful open discussion, Dr. Amiya Sharma formally ended up the session with a request to

submit the issues of participants in a written from to the organiser, to include those issues in the

proceedings of the workshop.

6.0 Release of SeSTA’s Handbook on Integrated pest and disease management in paddy

cultivation

A hand book prepared and published by Seven Sisters

Development Assistance (SeSTA) on “Integrated pest

and disease management in paddy cultivation” in

Assamese language was release by Dr. A.K. Gogoi of

ICAR, Shillong.

7.0 Conclusion and Vote of Thanks

The workshop was concluded successfully with the vote of thanks given by Mr Aswini

Bhattacharya from SeSTA.

Annexure-I: Some Glance of the Work Shop

Annexure-II: List of participants

Sl Name Organisation Contact no

1 Asif Bin Qutub RGVN 9864043386

2 Alakesh Malla Baruah FES , NE Cell -

3 Alok saha DISHA NGO 9706504645

4 Ananta Borah Kapilee Farmers Club 8876680753

5 Arup Das sSTEP 9954357578

6 Aswini Bhattacharjya SeSTA

7 Avinash Karn Amalgamated Plantation 8011005990

8 Bhairab Deka Sail Management and Biotech 9854937567

9 Bhupen Taid Rural Volunteers Centre(RVC) 9577332530

10 Biswajit Mazumdar GRAMEEN SAHARA 9864794892

11 Biswanath Sinha Sir Dorabji Tata Trust 9930945108

12 Cecilia Khozol ACTION AID 9435067190

13 Chandan Talukdar Gramya Vikash Mancha 9864934619

14 Debasish Acharjee SeSTA

15 Deepak kr. Barman AMAR ASOM 9864717888

16 Dharani Sahariah SATRA 9854712133

17 Dhrubaa Mukhopadhyay PRADAN 8544131244

18 Dilip Gogoi PRAG News 9954754686

19 Dr. Anil Kr. Pegu Centre for Microfinance & Livelihood 9435014290

20 Dr. Arunima Deb Choudhury Dept. of Agriculture 9435063964

21 Dr. Birendra Kr. Pathak Agriculture Deptt. Govt. of Assam 9706012737

22 Dr. Mrinal Barman Agriculture 9435044789

23 Dwijendra Sahariah sSTEP 9864980691

24 Dwipen Baishya Pancharatna 9864147415

25 Elvina Deori SeSTA

26 Haricharan Bezbaruah Pancharatna 8822566289

27 Hiren kalita Ajagar Social Circle 9435725238

28 Hitesh Medhi Pragati Rural Development Society 9854480262

29 Ikbul Hussain Assam Law House 9854352914

30 Jagat Baruah All Assam Krishak Sangha 9854500474

31 Jagat Bora Kapilee Farmers Club 9508839572

32 Janki Kumar Pegu People's Rights Forum 9859933020

33 Kirit Kanti Sen Gupta Food Corporation of India 9435596581

34 M. Banikya Article Writer On Agriculture 9435556932

35 Manoj Kr. Sarma INDIAN GRAMEEN SERVICES 9678832882

36 Md. Babul Ali Milijuli Farmers Club

-

37 Nilpobon Sabhapondit PRAG News 9954633049

38 Nipon Gogoi NEADS 9954281030

39 Pankaj Baruah All Assam Krishak Sangha 9859406275

40 Prasanta kr. Sahariah SATRA 9854667988

41 Purna Chetry Lok Seva Samity 9613430150

42 Ratan Das RGVN -

43 Ratul Ch. Sarma Food Corporation of India 9864072847

44 Saito Basumatary People's Rights Forum 9435687027

45 Sajal Kumar Deb Deshabandhu Club 9435201252

46 Samiran Medhi RGVN 9854122888

47 Sanjay Sarma FES 9435112626

48 Satya Narayan All Assam Farmers Club 9954769194

49 Sunil kaul THE ANT 9435122042

50 Surajit Borgohain SIRD Assam/ NRLM Assam 9435015267

51 Swapan Debnath DISHA NGO 9864636679

52 Swapan Kr. Sarma Gauripur Vivekananda Club 9864847810

53 Swarup Beria TECHNO SERVE

-

54 Tulashi Deka All Assam Krishak Sangha 9207107576

55 Tushar Kanta Dash Livolink Foundation 9439339438