ECOLOGICALLY AND ECONOMICALLY SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

Centre for

Sustainable

Agriculture

FARMING BECOMING UNVIABLE Increased costs of cultivation

Increased risk of crop failures

Lower Productivity

Lower price realisation

Drudgery for women

Disguised unemployment

INCREASING THE INCOMES OF THE FARMERS Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture:

basic principles

Regenerative, ecologically sound practices

Organized action by communities in planning, implementing and managing the program

Govt/ngos playing facilitating agency role

Farmer Field School approach

Value chain approach

Reducing the costs of cultivation

Reducing risk of crop failures

Increasing Productivity

Increasing the price realisation

Improving the work efficiency of the farmers/agriculture workers through small farm mechanisation and establishing custom hiring centres

Additional income generating activities

IMPACT Working with 1750 people in 35 villages in two districts (Yavatmal

and Wardha) of Maharashtra

Among them about 724 (41%) are completely pesticide free and about 338 (19%) have become organic and others are in various stages of shift other are in various stages of shift

Pesticide use reduction it was 100% with 1062 farmers which includes 338 organic farmers (amounts to Rs. 53.10 lakhs) and about 70% with the rest (about Rs. 0.32 lakhs).

Fertiliser use reduction: 338 farmers have reduced their fertiliser use by 100% (amounts to Rs. 7.65, lakhs) and about 40% by the rest (amounts to Rs. 13.53).

One producer company currently into production and marketing of seed

Wheat (5.4 tons), Soybean Bengal gram (5.4 tons)

80% good seed realisation

In Andhra Pradesh CSA directly works with 5000 farmers who adopt these practices and 3.5 lakh farmers covering 7.0 lakh acres through Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture during 2005-2008. Currently the program is spread over 36 lakh acres.

COMPARATIVE ECONOMICS (2012-13) Operations Cotton Wheat Soybean Gram

Cost (NPM) Cost (Chemical) Cost (NPM) Cost (Chemical) Cost (NPM) Cost (Chemical) Cost (NPM) Cost (Chemical)

Preparatory Tillage ₹ 3,800.00 ₹ 2,900.00 ₹ 3,000.00 ₹ 2,200.00 ₹ 3,500.00 ₹ 2,700.00 ₹ 3,000.00 ₹ 2,100.00

Seeds Bed Preparation ₹ 550.00 ₹ 200.00 ₹ 300.00 - - ₹ 300.00 ₹ 300.00

Seed & Sowing ₹ 2,400.00 ₹ 2,060.00 ₹ 500.00 ₹ 1,800.00 ₹ 1,800.00 ₹ 1,800.00 ₹ 500.00 ₹ 1,100.00

Nutrient Management ₹ 500.00 ₹ 3,920.00 ₹ 500.00 ₹ 1,500.00 ₹ 500.00 ₹ 850.00 ₹ 500.00 ₹ 1,400.00

Pest and Disease

Management₹ 200.00 ₹ 830.00 ₹ 400.00 - ₹ 200.00 ₹ 1,000.00 ₹ 200.00 ₹ 2,000.00

Intercultural Operation ₹ 2,700.00 ₹ 2,250.00 ₹ 2,800.00 ₹ 900.00 ₹ 2,800.00 ₹ 1,800.00 ₹ 2,800.00 ₹ 1,300.00

Harvesting ₹ 7,000.00 ₹ 6,000.00 ₹ 2,500.00 ₹ 2,500.00 ₹ 2,200.00 ₹ 2,500.00 ₹ 2,200.00 ₹ 2,200.00

Transportation ₹ 1,400.00 ₹ 1,200.00 ₹ 850.00 ₹ 600.00 ₹ 350.00 ₹ 450.00 ₹ 700.00 ₹ 600.00

Dealers margin/storage ₹ 750.00 ₹ 600.00 ₹ 1,400.00 1200 (storage)

Total Cost ₹ 19,300.00 ₹ 19,960.00 ₹ 10,850.00 ₹ 9,500.00 ₹ 11,350.00 ₹ 11,100.00 ₹ 11,600.00 ₹ 11,000.00

Yield (q/acre) 14.00 12.00 17.00 12.00 8.00 9.00 14.00 12.00

Selling price (Rs/q) ₹ 4,000.00 ₹ 4,000.00 ₹ 1,800.00 ₹ 1,600.00 ₹ 3,500.00 ₹ 3,500.00 ₹ 3,000.00 ₹ 3,000.00

Total Returns ₹ 56,000.00 ₹ 48,000.00 ₹ 30,600.00 ₹ 19,200.00 ₹ 28,000.00 ₹ 31,500.00 ₹ 42,000.00 ₹ 36,000.00

Net income ₹ 36,700.00 ₹ 28,040.00 ₹ 19,750.00 ₹ 9,700.00 ₹ 16,650.00 ₹ 20,400.00 ₹ 30,400.00 ₹ 25,000.00

Benefit: Cost 1.90 1.40 1.82 1.02 1.47 1.84 2.62 2.27

Colloboration with women self

help groups, Society for

Elimination of Rural Poverty

and NGOs

2004-05 started with 225

acres in one dist and reached

7 lakh acres in 2007-08 in 18

dist.

A national program called

Mahila Krishi Sashaktikaran

Pariyojana (MKSP) is

launched based on this

experiencce

COMMUNITY MANAGED SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

0.225 25200 700

1300

2000

2800

3500 3600

0.1 1580

300600

1000

1500 1600 1770

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

Acerage ('000 acres) Farmers ('000)

STATUS OF PESTICIDE UTILIZATION IN DIFFERENT STATES**

States/UTs 2005-06 2006-072007-08 2008-09 2009-10kg/ha

2000-01

kg/ha

2009-10

Punjab 5610 5975 6080 5760 5810 0.98 0.82

Haryana 4560 4600 4390 4288 4070 0.84 0.68

Andhra Pradesh 1997 1394 1541 1381 1015 0.34 0.09

Maharastra 3198 3193 3050 2400 4639 0.17 0.24

Tamil Nadu 2211 3940 2048 2317 2335 0.32 0.45

Gujarat 2700 2670 2660 2650 2750 0.30 0.29

Kerala 571 545 780 272.69 631 0.31 0.26

Karnataka 1638 1362 1588 1675 1647 0.17 0.14

**Source: http://ppqs.gov.in/IpmPesticides.htm MT of active ingredient

REPLICABILITY, SCALABILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY

The basic principles are replicable any where…production practices/models were evolved for Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Odisha, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh etc..

Institutional systems, knowledge management and extension are key for scaling up

Sustainability The farmer groups needs five years of intensive support and five years of handholding support to

become completely self-sustainable

After that beneficiaries would continue to use the practices as it would reduce their costs of cultivation

The capacities of the group and the community resource persons would be built to handle day to activities

They may need regular capacity building updating their knowledge and skills in production, institutional and financial management, marketing etc

By fifth year, the farmer cooperatives starts functioning and can generate enough surpluses to pay for the capacity building services.

VRC1

VRC2

VRC3

VRC4

VRC5

STRATEGIES

Scientific approach:

Focus on agroecological approaches

Evaluation in farmers fields

Mainly based on local situations and resources

Change as ‘Factor 10’

Knowledge based Extension

Using ICT tools: Krishi TV (http://www.krishi.tv)

Incremental change

Viable Community Institutions

Convergence with the ongoing government programmes

Showcasing the success stories

Farmer Service Cente

Integrated services:

• Knowledge

• Inputs

• Market

• Financial

ORGANISATIONAL CAPABILITIES Well experienced agricultural scientists and

field staff

Research on Agroecological practices, participatory breeding and selection of seeds, Quick composting methods, green enterprises like Malkha,

Currently working with 5000 farmers in AP, Maharashtra and Punjab and supporting various groups in Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar

Seed Producer Company registered and is operational at Wardha. Seed production and sales are operational

Sahaja aharam marketing procurement was initiated 4 years back.

www.csa-india.orgwww.krishi.tvwww.agrariancrisis.inFacebook: ramoo.agripageTwitter: ramanjaneyuluGVEmail: ramoo.csa@gmail.comPhone: 040-27017735, 09000699702