Farmer Field Schools Improve
Crop Security
in Climate Sensitive Bundelkhand
Development
Alternatives is working with Marico to rejuvenate tank-based ecosystem
as an adaptation strategy in the climate sensitive Bundelkhand region in
Central India. Agriculture and other productive land use compete with
environmental and biodiversity goals. We needed to reconcile agriculture
to achieve our objective in the area.
Farmer Field School (FFS) approach was
incorporated into the Marico project to ensure food security. As per the
Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), FFS is an
innovative, participatory and interactive learning approach that
emphasises problem-solving and discovery-based learning. It aims to
build farmers’ capacities to analyse their production systems, identify
problems, test possible solutions and eventually encourage the
participants to adopt the practices most suitable to their farming
systems.
After a detailed survey of the project
villages, the team decided to operate five Farmer Field Schools (FFS) to
reach out to as many farmers as possible and identified the farmers who
would take up the crop cultivation for demonstration. These five school s
are currently focusing on the Kharif crops mainly millet however some
would continue to operate in the Rabi season as well. Figure 1 showcases
the farmer's participation and status of demo plots against the area
under cultivation and the gender of the farmers. Drought resistant crops
like Millet and Sorghum were cultivated by the interested small and
medium holder farmers as a mitigation response to low rainfall i.e. 300
mm in the current year as opposed to 800 mm every year. While female
farmer’s uptake of cultivation of Sorghum was relatively lower to the
male farmers, uptake of Pearl millet saw equal participation by both the
genders.
FFS for the Kharif season was concluded with a Field Da y organised on
the 23rd September 2020. The programme was initiated in the presence of
officials from the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare,
Government of Madhya Pradesh. The objective of the field day was to
demonstrate the crops to other farmers and to leverage resources and
support from the local governing bodies.
To begin with, the DA field team gave an overview of the Tank
Rejuvenation project supported by Marico India while farmers shared
their experiences of being part of the Farmer Field Schools. Farmers
accredited the quality of cultivation to the sowing and crop management
lessons learnt in the FFS. They were vocal about how rain deficit in the
current year has affected other cash crops including Urad, but Millet
and Sorghum cultivated by them is showing good results. While other
crops could not even bud, their crops managed to fair better in terms of
the number of tillers and the height of the plants. These
characteristics are indicative of good yield and thereby promise an
income enhancement for these farmers. Crops are harvested and ready for
thrashing and yield would be calculated to ascertain growth markers.
![](images/Lead4.jpg)
Expert from the Department of Agriculture,
discussed the current agricultural practices, its aligned issues and
techniques for better crop management including pest management and
organic farming.
Key Learnings![](images/Lead5.jpg)
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Engage people from the beginning.
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Introduce native varieties which are from
the region for better results.
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Regular training and follow up is important.
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Hand holding support is must in two seasons
with the primary farmers and scale up farmers.
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Linkages with local government officers is
important for larger adoption.
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Focus on seed availability for next season.
Modules for Conducting
FFS
Methodology
Total six sessions conducted
in a farmer field school.
Module 1. Concept of
Land Preparation and
Use of Healthy Seed:
In the first training, farmers are oriented on land preparation, what is
a good seed and how to maintain seed rate, seed treatment etc.
Module 2. Soil Health and
Aromatic Management for better productivity.
Module 3. Nutrient and
Pest Management to secure the crops.
Module 5. Moisture
Management: During this session, farmers are told about ways to
protect soil moisture by doing the appropriate inter-culture operation.
Module 6. How to Estimate
Yield: Farmers are facilitated to learn about simple methods of
yield estimation along with harvesting, mowing and post harvesting
management.
Field day: The
farmers are taken to the field and all the concepts discussed are shown
on the site. This includes intercropping, plant protection etc.
Following are the other
aspects which are explained during the training through direct
presentations:
▪ Compost manure and field
waste management
▪ Making of Amritjal
(organic pesticide) and herbal tonic
▪ Use of garlic and green
chilly for pest management
▪ Insect management
▪ Tree plantation
Along with this, the
importance of soil conservation is also explained and farmers are told
the following:
▪ Use only an appropriate
small amount of chemicals for insect pollinators.
▪ Use seeds with protective
properties.
▪ Follow the crop cycle.
▪ Use maximum amount of
organic manure.
▪ Do not burn crop surplus
but put them in a pit and let them rot.
▪ Use water saving
irrigation techniques such as sprinkler etc.
■
Lalit Kumar Gangwar
lkgangwar@devalt.org
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