Farmers now benefit from better sorghum varieties

Over three years in India, farmers tested 27 varieties of sorghum in their fields. They chose five, and three of these went on to be officially released. All three are resistant to shoot fly and charcoal rot and make good roti flour. Plus they are suitable for intercropping with chickpea or safflower. Until these trials, farmers weren't benefiting from decades of plant breeding because researchers had just concentrated on raising yields. They had overlooked strains that made good roti flour although this was an important factor for farmers. So, farmers didn't adopt the new varieties. On-farm trials meant that farmers, as well as testing new varieties could, at the same time, try out better farming practices such as transplanting seedlings rather than sowing seed directly.

Project Ref: PSP05:
Topic: 1. Improving Farmers Livelihoods: Better Crops, Systems & Pest Management
Lead Organisation: CAZS-NR, UK
Source: Plant Sciences Programme

Contents:		Description
		Validation
		Current Situation
		Lessons Learned
		Impacts On Poverty
		Environmental Impact
		Annex

Description

Research Programmes:

PSP

Relevant Research Projects:

R7409

Partner institutions and individual persons:

• CAZS-Natural Resources, UK: Dr D.S. Virk and Prof. J.R. Witcombe
• Directorate National Research Centre for Sorghum (NRCS), Hyderabad: Dr B.S. Rana, Dr (Mrs) S.L. Kaul, Dr Appaji Chari,
• ICRISAT, Patancheru, AP: Dr Belum S. Reddy

The outputs are three rabi sorghum varieties, Phule Yashoda, Mauli and Parbhani Moti (Table 1), for rainfed conditions. All are tolerant to shoot fly and charcoal rot and have semi-compact panicles. Parbhani Moti and Phule Yashoda have excellent cooking quality with good roti quality. These varieties are suitable for intercropping with chickpea or safflower.

Table 1. Description of outputs

All the varieties were tested in PVS trials and released during the project period from 1999 to 2002.

Growers of rabi sorghum in the project states did not have any alternative to the popular but very old local varieties Maldandi and M35-1, a selection from Maldandi. Maldandi was released in 1930 in Maharashtra and M35-1 was released for Maharashtra, Karnataka and AP in 1984. This low genetic diversity made the rabi sorghum crop potentially highly vulnerable to diseases. It also meant that farmers were not benefiting from decades of plant breeding research as new varieties that had been released were not adopted by them largely because plant breeders had concentrated on yield rather than providing varieties that at least matched M35-1 for grain quality (Witcombe et al., 1998).

The PVS approach removed the major limitation of the public sector breeding programme by selecting varieties in the farmers’ fields under their own management, and so minimised genotype x environment interaction resulting from the high input and management conditions on research stations. In three years, farmers were provided 27 varieties to test and choose from. They preferred five of them, of which three were subsequently released.

Types of Research Output:

Major Commodities Involved:

The main commodity is rabi sorghum suitable for shallow, medium and deep soils in Andhra Pradesh (AP), Karnataka and Maharashtra states in India under rainfed conditions. The rabi sorghum follows a wide range of rainy season crops such as groundnut, pearl millet, maize and sorghum. Therefore the improved varieties of rabi sorghum are relevant to these commodities in a farming systems.

The PVS process can be applied to all crops (see PSP33 on the PVS process).

Production Systems:

Farming Systems:

The introduction of new varieties of rabi sorghum by PVS is an intervention which can be combined with the testing of other interventions that are synergistic, for example crop protection and improved crop agronomy interventions such as transplanting (PSP31). The output can be linked with the rainfed rabi fallow projects (PSP35), seed priming (PSP27) and intercropping with chickpea using seed priming in the rainfed rabi fallows (PSP26). Since farmers evaluate varieties for all traits including fodder quantity and quality then clustering with improved livestock nutrition would be synergistic.

It fits well with participatory varietal selection (PSP33), COB (PSP34) and community-based seed production (PSP36).

It is also synergistic with outputs that improve the preceding crop such as groundnut and also with others:

• NRSP, Participatory Technology Development, R7412
• NRSP, Scaling-up process, R7865
• CPP, Linking demand with supply of agricultural information, R8429, R8281
• CPP, Good seed initiative, R8480
• CPP, Increasing effectiveness of research system, R8410
• CPP, Rosette resistant groundnut varieties, R7445, R6811
• CPP, Commercial incentives for groundnut production and farmer led multiplication, R8422, R8105
• CPP, Farmer multiplication systems (groundnut/potato), R8104, R8435

Validation

How the outputs were validated:

Participatory trials were conducted by farmers who were provided 1 or 2 kg seed of each new variety. The on-farm trials were conducted on 27 varieties from 1999-00 to 2001-02. These trials were baby trials, where a new variety was grown alongside the local check, or mother trials, where all entries were grown together in a single replicate by a farmer (Witcombe, 2002). Farmers served as replications. All trials were conducted under the farmer’s normal management. The on-farm trials were conducted by the six centres of the All India Coordinated Sorghum Improvement Project (AICSIP) located at the NRCS, the State Agricultural Universities in Maharashtra and Karnataka and at ICRISAT with the help of seven NGOs. A total of 720, 838 and 1,026 on-farm trials were conducted in 1999-00, 2000-01 and 2001-02 respectively, and were jointly monitored by researchers and farmers. Both pre-and post-harvest traits were evaluated by both participating and non-participating farmers.

Table 2. Number of research trials for validation, and number of farmers who validated the products from 1999-00 to 2001-02

Who validated: Validation was done with the technical help of CAZS-NR and NRCS, India. The validation trials were conducted by NRCS and ICRISAT in AP; by the ICAR All India Coordinated Sorghum Improvement Project (AICSIP) located in State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) at Solapur, Rahuri and Parbhani in Maharashtra; and Dharwad and Bijapur in Karnataka. In addition seven non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were also involved in the three states. In Maharashtra these were the KVK, Agricultural Research Station, Dhule; KVK, Jeevan Jyothi Charitable Trust, Parbhani; the KVK, Shri Siddeshwar, Krishi Vigyan Prasarak Samstha, Solapur; and the Maharishi Vivekanand Samaj Kalyan Santhan, Solapur. In Karnataka, NGOs were the Institute for Studies on Agriculture and Rural Development (ISARD), Dharwad, and the Association for Studies on Agricultural and Rural Development (ASEARD), Bijapur, while in AP they were the Deccan Development Society, Hyderabad, and the Centre for Environment and Development (CESC), Secunderabad.

The target groups of male and female farmers were from all social groups representing resource-rich, medium and poor farmers. Wealth categories were determined through local informants using key proxies for wealth such as landholding size. The participating farmers included all social groups including the lower castes. Evaluation of PVS trials included participating farmers (with a representative proportion of women) and their neighbours, relatives and friends (this always included some women). The evaluation of the post-harvest traits always involved women.

Increases in productivity: M35-1 is the most popular variety of rabi sorghum, and was used as a check to compare new varieties. Overall, in trials between 1999-00 and 2001-02, the new varieties gave 19 to 47% more grain yield and 14 to 43% more fodder yield (Table 1). However, Mauli was lower yielding than M35-1 by 5% when trials in all types of soils were considered, although it yielded 20% more fodder. Mauli specifically performs better in shallow to medium soils where M35-1 does not perform well, with grain yields about 20% higher in such conditions. Despite the higher grain and fodder yield of the new varieties they had similar maturity to M35-1 (Table 2), while Mauli is three days earlier than M35-1, making it specifically adapted to shallow soils which are prone to terminal drought.

Table 3: Average grain and fodder yield of new varieties in comparison to M35-1 over three years across all locations from 1999-00 to 2001-02

†The overall average is based on trials in all type of soils. However, the variety is released for shallow to medium soils where normally M35-1 does not perform well. It gives about 20% more yield than M35-1 in shallow soils.

In addition to higher yield, farmers recorded a number of other preferred traits in the new varieties (Table 4). The most important was the drought tolerance of Mauli under rainfed conditions in shallow soils with very poor water holding capacity.

All three varieties are suitable for intercropping with chickpea and safflower, which can add value to the output.

Table 4. Traits other than yield for which new varieties excel M35-1 (farmer perceptions)

The varieties were validated in three states in India: Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, where rabi sorghum is grown on 5.42 M ha out of a total area of 5.6 M ha. The outputs were validated from the 1999-00 to the 2001-02 seasons.

The validation locations were:

• Andhra Pradesh:   Medak (NRCS and ICRISAT)
• Maharashtra :        Solapur, Dhule (Rahuri centre), and Parbhani
• Karnataka:             Bijapur and Dharwad

Validation was done through seven NGOs who conducted trials in the following types of soil

• Bijapur/Solapur:    Shallow, medium, deep and irrigated
• Dharwad:              Medium, deep and irrigated
• Parbhani:               Medium, deep and irrigated
• AP (Hyderabad):   All types of soil except irrigated

All these sites have centres of the ICAR’s AICSIP located in state agricultural universities (SAUs). Seven NGOs, six centres of the AICSIP located in SAUs, the National Research Centre for Sorghum (NRCS), and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) collaborated in the research (Table 2).

The outputs were validated by farmers in their fields under their own management and by researchers on the research stations. Hundreds of farmers, of all wealth categories, in the three states took part. However, a special focus was on evaluation by resource poor and women farmers.

The outputs were validated in the semi-arid system in small-holder in rainfed dry and humid systems. All testing was carried out under rainfed conditions.

Current Situation

Farmers were given only 1 to 2 kg seed of any new variety for testing and adopting, and saved the seed of preferred varieties to continue growing them on a limited scale. Seed exchange among farmers has been slow. The outputs are on the recommended list of AICSIP, and the State Agricultural Universities in Maharashtra.

Farmer-to-farmer spread since 1999, when the project supplied the seed to farmers for testing in PVS, has undergone a number of multiplications and exchanges. Therefore there is a high chance of seed deterioration due to admixtures, and farmers’ seed needs to be replaced immediately.

Usually there is a gap of 5 years between release and dissemination. All three varieties are from Maharashtra State, and a limited quantity of seed of the released varieties has been produced by the Agricultural Universities at Rahuri and Parbhani in Maharashtra. The Maharashtra State Seed Corporation (MSSC) has also produced some seed of all the varieties, which has met some of the demand from farmers in Maharashtra, but no seed has yet been made available to farmers in AP and Karnataka where Phule Yashoda is also recommended. Even in Maharashtra, seed supply to farmers of remote villages is constrained.

The products are being used in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka states in India by the farmers who participated in the PVS project. These varieties are recommended in these states, and have entered official seed channels.

These varieties are also grown in the areas of activity of the collaborating NGOs who conducted trials in various soil types.

Informal seed spread among farmers within the three states and in those adjoining has also encouraged their spread into other sorghum-growing areas of India where they are preferred by farmers.

The project operated from 1999 to 2002. Within these three years, three varieties were released that were preferred by farmers over existing material. This has generated a high seed demand, although no single agency can meet it. As seed production by the SAUs in Maharashtra and the Maharashtra State Seed Corporation (MSSC) is limited, the spread of the released varieties is largely limited to Maharashtra, and then only to areas near the universities.

About 30% of the participating farmers in all three states are continuing to cultivate these varieties from farm-saved seed.

Present status: Farmers in Maharashtra have benefited from seed supply within the state but those in Karnataka and AP do not have an assured seed supply and are constrained. Even with the all-India release of Phule Yashoda, no large scale seed production has yet taken place. The total amount of seed supplied by MSSC and the SAUs in 2005-06 for all varieties is sufficient to sow only about 29,000 ha in the 2006-07 rabi season (Tables 5 and 6).

Table 5. Detail of certified seed produced and disseminated by Maharashtra State Seed Corporation, Akola during 2005-06 rabi season and the amount of seed of three varieties distributed in PVS trials

Table 6. Detail of breeder seed production

The NRCS and AICSP, ICRISAT and State Departments of Agriculture have assisted in the promotion and popularisation of these sorghum varieties through on-farm PVS trials, demonstrations, frontline demonstrations, minikits and adaptive trials. The Zonal Agricultural Research Stations of the State Agricultural Universities and the 7 associated NGOs also assisted in the dissemination activities by conducting on-farm trials.

Local level bodies such farmers’ cooperatives and groups, self-help groups formed by NGOs, and village Panchayats have assisted in selecting farmers to validate the outputs.

In terms of capacity strengthening for testing PVS products and creating demand for seed of un-released varieties the key factors are:

• Raising of awareness about these new varieties (and the PVS technology) through existing networks.
• Capacity building by training to GOs, NGOs and farmer groups.
• Creating awareness with the stakeholders for the new varieties through workshops, demonstrations and publication of literature.

Lessons Learned and Uptake Pathway

Promotion of Outputs:

The current promotion is in Maharashtra State, India, where all three released varieties are recommended and two are released specifically for the state. This is conducted by the State Agricultural Universities and the Maharashtra State Seed Corporation, for the released varieties only. No promotion of varieties released by Maharashtra takes place in AP or Karnataka, although limited promotion of the all-India released variety, Phule Yashoda, is under way in all three states. This limited promotion is because of the gap of about five years between release and dissemination of a variety, due to the long chain from breeder to the production of certified seed. There is undoubtedly a high seed demand, but no single agency can meet it.

Farmers of the three states where the project operated saved seed from the PVS trials, and many hundreds of these farmers are continuing to grow the new varieties. Seed has also spread to other farmers through informal seed channels.  Enough seed to sow about 29,000 ha of the new varieties was produced by the MSSC in 2005-06, but this is very small compared to the total seed requirement for rabi sorghum.

NRCS promoted new sorghum varieties in all three states by popularising better ways to use grain. Although farmers’ have accepted all these varieties, they needed education and training in improving flour recovery, roti quality and keeping quality for which NRCS has taken the necessary steps (Annex 1). Sorghum is a health food for diabetics and has a low gluten content. The consumption of sorghum flour, sometimes blended with other flour, and snacks is increasing due to its nutritional value and to increased awareness and new methods of cooking. In particular, wealthier urban consumers are consuming increasing quantities of sorghum, which indirectly benefits poor farmers by providing more marketing opportunities. 

In addition, a large number of frontline demonstrations were conducted from 2003-04 to 2005-06 to promote the new varieties in the three states (Table 7).

Table 7. Frontline demonstrations (FLDs) under AICSIP in Mahrashtra during 2005-06 for promotion of new varieties

NRCS is also promoting the new varieties in all three states as good quality fodder for animals because of their resistance to charcoal rot disease. Animal feeding trials are being conducted with various species of livestock, and the use of sorghum grain and forage may prove to be a viable alternative to other fodders in goat and sheep rations.

Potential Barriers Preventing Adoption of Outputs:

There is a long gap between release and dissemination in the government sector. Phule Yashoda was released in 2000, Mauli in 2002 and Parbhani Moti in 2003, but the scale of seed production by MSSC (see above) is very small and the varieties have not yet completely entered the official seed production system. 

A possible alternative is an increased role for the private sector. However, the formal private sector sees investments in more favourable agricultural areas as far more profitable, and this is exacerbated for what are perceived to be ”poor people’s” crops such as rabi sorghum, where seed demand is low in comparison to that for the main season sorghum hybrids. The other private sector is the farmers themselves. However, for this to work requires continual input from senior NGO staff, and such a system will not be sustainable unless the producer groups are directly linked to the market for the seed they produce. This has not happened so far.

Seed production by GOs is dependent on actual orders for seed (called indents), which resource-poor farmers cannot raise themselves, and the State Departments of Agriculture are slow in placing the indents with the seed producing agencies. This is another reason why there is yet to be a reasonable amount of seed production by GOs.

Despite farmers clearly benefiting from out-of-state varieties, official seed channels such as the State Agricultural Universities, the Departments of Agriculture, and the extension system do not promote non-released varieties within a state, which limits seed production and dissemination in AP and Karnataka for those varieties only released in Maharashtra. This discourages the private seed sector, whose failure to deliver new varieties is also influenced by the overly-narrow official demarcation of recommendation domains of new varieties. For example, the varieties Mauli and Parbhani Moti were preferred by farmers in all three states, but were only released in Maharashtra. Clearly there is a need to better define the recommendation domains of varieties by testing them widely with farmers.

Changes in seed regulatory frameworks to encourage the participation of farmers are required. There is also a need for farmers’ preferences to be translated into a demand for seed production. In order to influence policy changes, policy advocacy at a higher level is required.

How to Overcome Barriers to Adoption of Outputs:

The most important action to remove the barriers would be to raise awareness of the characteristics and value of the new varieties at all levels (State Agricultural Universities, NGOs, Departments of Agriculture, the private sector, and farmers), and over the whole of the wide geographical area to which they are adapted. There is a lack of awareness of the new varieties because the results are new, and because of the constraints to delivering the seed of new varieties, particularly for those that are out-of-state recommendations (see above).

The involvement of private-sector seed companies would enhance the take up of new varieties. One option is private-sector (community based) seed production for which capacity building is required, with training in the economics and production of truthful seed.

The following will be key to removing the barriers:

• Raise awareness with the state extension agencies for participatory evaluation of out-of-state released varieties with farmers.
• Promote farmer-preferred varieties irrespective of their state recommendation.
• Include such varieties in the state list of recommendations so that they qualify for seed subsidies.
• Raise awareness among NGOs and the private seed sector to begin seed production and delivery of such varieties in areas where they are not currently recommended but are preferred by farmers.
• Training in business and marketing for the NGOs and GOs involved in seed production
• Removal of the barriers to direct private sector collaboration with community-based seed production groups.

Lessons Learned:

Using Rogers (2003) diffusion of information as a framework for the lessons learnt:

1. The relative advantage of a technology compared to what it is replacing; This is extremely high. The replacement of old varieties such as Maldandi or M35-1 produces spectacular increases in both grain yield and in quality of grain. It also adds immensely to the attractiveness of a new cropping system by allowing more options due to the earlier maturity or different adaptation of some of the varieties. For instance Mauli grows in shallow soils where M35-1 does not perform well.
   
2. The compatibility of the technology with existing systems and ways of doing things, which is closely related to culture; The compatibility of these technologies is extremely high and allows people to continue with their traditional farming systems. However, for scientists and extensionists trained in the transfer of technology model the compatibility is lower.
   
3. The complexity of the technology in terms of what people need to learn to make it work; The complexity is very low. The adoption of new varieties does not entail any change in farmers’ practice. The complexity for scientists and extensionists trained in the transfer of technology model is moderate, as they need to learn a new range of participatory techniques, although these are largely simpler than those currently used.
   
4. The observability of a technology in terms of how easy it is to demonstrate and observe performance; The observability is high for most traits (e.g. maturity, yield), although less so for grain quality.
   
5. The trialability of a technology in terms of how easy it is to test it before deciding to adopt. The trialability is very easy as long as seed is available, but not possible without seed and information concerning varietal characteristics. Farmers grow new variety alongside their own variety without changing the management.

Hence provision of a sustainable seed supply is the most important factor in getting this research into use. In relation to this, in "How to Overcome Barriers to Adoption of Outputs" key factors were identified that include awareness raising amongst all of the stakeholders in the innovation system, and the role of the non-formal private sector in sustainable seed supply.

Impacts On Poverty

Poverty Impact Studies: 

No additional impact studies other than the participatory varietal trials were carried out to record farmers’ perceptions of the new varieties, of which the following, recorded in focus group discussions and household level questionnaires, are important:

Phule Yashoda (SPV 1359 or CSV-216R): Higher grain yield; bold grains; stems sturdy; no sweetness in stem; fodder not preferred by cattle due to poor quality; better flour recovery with good keeping quality.

Parbhani Moti (SPV 1411): Very bold and lustrous grains; moderately high grain yield; fodder of good quality and preferred by cattle; good threshability and better flour recovery; good roti quality with better keeping quality.

Mauli (RSLG 262): Moderately grain yielder; fodder preferred by cattle; low incidence of aphid; excellent drought tolerance.

The NRCS has published five ‘sorghum crop profiles’ in five different Indian regional languages for different states. The enthusiasm with which farmers of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh tested and adopted the new varieties revealed that they perceived significant improvement in their livelihoods.

The impact and perceptions were summarised in the Final Technical Report of the project and reflected in the following publications:

Rana, B.S., Kaul, S.L., Appaji, C., Reddy, B.V.S, Witcombe, J.R. and Virk, D.S. 1998. “Farmers Participatory Varietal Selection aimed at improving rabi sorghum productivity in India”. in the workshop on “Farmer participatory methods in research and development for semi-arid tropics” on 27-28 October, 1998 at ICRISAT, Hyderabad, India.

Rana, B.S., Kaul, S.L. Appaji, C., Prabhakar, Shetty, K., Reddy, B.V.S., Witcombe, J.R. and Virk, D.S. 2000. “Participatory varietal selection in rabi sorghum in India”. In  the International conference on “Participatory plant breeding and plant genetic research” held at Pokhara, Nepal, on 1-5 May , 2000.

Financial analysis: The new varieties gave up to 47% more grain yield than the local check. Assuming a more moderate yield increase of 20% from new varieties, covering only about 10% of the rabi sorghum area will give 75,000 t of additional grain per year. At a price of Rs 8,000 t^-1, (=£96.4 t^-1) with an exchange rate of £1 = Rs 83 this is a total benefit of more than £7 M per year.

In fact the benefit to farmers is greater due to the higher fodder yield of the new varieties and their better market price as a result of the bolder grains. Additional benefits can also accrue from large scale seed distribution and production of the varieties on more than 10% of the assumed adoption area, and the rate of return will increase anyway after a few years with greater use of farm-saved seed and the increased participation of GOs and the private sector in seed production.

Table 7. Financial analysis of benefit from new varieties

† For assumptions of additional production and exchange rates see text.

How the Poor have Benefited (including gender and other poverty groups):

Positive impact on adoption of new varieties: The participating farmers have rapidly adopted their preferred varieties. Farmers’ perceptions about  the new varieties were for good cooking quality to make rotis, and drought resistance. Farmers saved seed from the on-farm trials, procured it from other farmers, or purchased it from the Department of Agriculture after the varieties were released.

Yield increases: Over all the trials between 1999-00 and 2001-02, the new varieties gave 19 to 47% more grain yield and 14 to 43% more fodder yield than the most popular variety of rabi sorghum, M35-1 (Table 1). Mauli was lower yielding by 5% than M35-1, but yielded 20% more fodder. However, Mauli was specifically adapted to shallow soils where it yielded 20% more than M35-1. All the new varieties were comparable to M35-1 for time to maturity (Table 1).

The yield gains clearly show that all participating farmers benefited from the new varieties. There was a substantial increase in grain production and availability for the poor people. This illuminates the need for large scale dissemination and scaling-up of the new varieties.

The effect of yield increases on the livelihoods of people was not apportioned in terms of assets (although all of the assets of the livelihoods framework have been considered in the many impact assessments on other crops, PSP16), but the increased yields reduced poverty and increased the food security and purchasing power of the participating farmers, who improved their living standards by using the additional income from the increased yields.

Poor people, including women farmers, benefited the most from the outputs. The potential impact will be on the 5.6 M ha where rabi sorghum is currently grown in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In Maharashtra, 75% of the sorghum area is sown in the rabi season, and this is the major target area for the impact. Farmers’ yields are only 0.6 t ha^-1 in Maharashtra, 0.7 t ha^-1 in AP and 0.8 t ha^-1 in Karnataka, so the increased yields of the new varieties will benefit the farmers tremendously.

There are 76 M people in AP, 53 M in Karnataka and 97 M in Maharashtra, a total of 226 M in the three states. If we assume that 50% live in villages, then the impact of new varieties will be on nearly 113 M people. Demand from urban people for sorghum is also increasing because of its low gluten content and slow digestibility, making it suitable for diabetics. The increased demand benefits the poor by selling greater quantities of sorghum at increased prices. This also benefited the women in the households by empowering them with increased role in storage, processing and marketing.

Environmental Impact

Direct and Indirect Environmental Benefits:

Direct and indirect benefits:

• The adoption of out-of-state released varieties and PVS process will reduce the national wastage of breeding and testing of varieties that farmers will ultimately reject.
• Increased productivity per unit area without the use of additional external inputs is environmentally beneficial. This could be achieved by growing farmer-preferred varieties without changes in management.
•   Varietal diversification will help reduce crop loss due to pests and diseases and so reduce the use of pesticides. The introduction of new varieties increased on-farm diversity as farmers adopted many more varieties. This had a positive effect on on-farm diversity and provided insurance against the disease dangers of monocultures.
•   Increased productivity of from 0.3 t ha^-1 for Phule Yashoda to 0.6 t ha^-1 for Parbhani Moti, and increased fodder yield by from 0.64 t ha^-1 for Mauli to 1.23 t ha^-1 for Parbhani Moti compared to the previously popular variety M35-1 will reduce the pressure to increase the area under cultivation (Evenson and Gollin, 2003).
• The higher fodder yields of the new varieties will reduce deforestation for fuel wood and fodder. It will also have positive effects on animal health and milk and meat production.
• The better disease and pest resistance of the new varieties reduces the use of water polluting agro-chemicals and reduces soil pollutants. Lower applications of pesticides and insecticides also reduced the risks to human life and helped in the creation of a balanced pest-predator cycle and in the regeneration of the micro-ecosystem.

Effect on policy: Adoption of a number of varieties by farmers indicated the possibilities of releasing several varieties at the same time instead of choosing the best one at the time of release. Because of the release of multiple varieties there would be more options for farmers, policy makers and NGOs who wish to promote diversification.

Any adverse environmental impact is unlikely in the present case as the new varieties are scale neutral and do not require any special cultural, management and production input.

The focus group discussions and household level questionnaires during the monitoring of the trials have indicated increased benefits from enhanced grain and fodder yields from the new varieties. Under severe drought conditions sorghum is the only cereal crop that can grow well and provide farmers with food. The new varieties are recommended in areas where M35-1 grows without changing the input levels, and so are neutral to climate change.

The resource-poor farmers intend to adopt many additional varieties than the single variety (M35-1) and a few landraces they used to cultivate. Varietal diversification is a means of coping with climate change because staggered deployment of varieties in different soil types will spread out water demands and reduce the risks from natural disasters such as diseases, pests and other calamities. Deployment of new varieties that do well under varied soil depths increases the resilience of farmers to cope with natural risks. The adoption of many varieties simultaneously has increased the cropping options for farmers, allowing them to take up a range of possibilities of crop scapping and sequencing.

Farmers’ resilience has increased with the introduction of the new varieties as they are suitable for intercropping with chickpea or safflower. Chickpea is useful in checking malnutrition among poor people, and also to improve the fertility of poor soils. Safflower oil is low in saturated fatty acids, and provides a healthy option in diets.

Annex

References

Evenson, R.E  and Gollin, D. 2003: Assessing the Impact of the Green Revolution, 1960 to 2000. Science 300: 758 – 762.

Rogers, E.M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations. 5^th Edition. New York: Free Press.

Witcombe, J.R. 2002. A Mother and Baby trial system. In: Breeding rainfed rice for drought-prone environments: integrating conventional and participatory plant breeding in South and Southeast Asia. Proceedings of a DFID Plant Sciences Research Programme/IRRI Conference, 12-15 March 2002, IRRI, Los Baňos, Laguna, Philippines. Department for International Development (DFID) Plant Sciences Research Programme, Centre for Arid Zone Studies (CAZS) and International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Bangor and Manila. Appendix, pp. 79.

Witcombe, J.R., Packwood, A.J., Raj, A.G.B. & Virk, D.S. 1998. The extent and rate of adoption of modern cultivars in India, pp. 53-68, in: Seeds of Choice. Making the most of new varieties for small farmers, J.R. Witcombe, D.S. Virk and J. Farrington (Eds). Published by Oxford IBH, New Delhi  and Intermediate Technology Publications, London.

Relevant Research Projects, with links to the
Research for Development (R4D) web site
and Technical Reports:

R4D	Project Title	Technical Report
R6395	The Development and Testing of Seed-Priming to Improve Stand Establishment, Early Growth and yield in Semi-Arid Zimbabwe and India.
R6636	Nepal: Participatory Plant Breeding: Monitoring the Spread of Varieties from Participatory Plant Breeding in High Altitude villages in Nepal
R6748	Participatory Crop Improvement in High Potential Production Systems in India and Nepal
R6811	Groundnut Rosette Disease Epidemiology
R6826	Testing drought-tolerant plant types of upland rice in Ghana using participatory methods
R7080	Assessing the feasibility of using marker assisted selection for root characters to aid participatory plant breeding (PPB) in upland rice in India
R7122	Participatory Plant Breeding in Rice for High Potential Production Systems in the Terai and low hills of Nepal
R7281	Participatory crop improvement for maize-millet intercropping in the mid hills of the Himalayan region
R7323	Participatory crop improvement in high potential production system and salt-affected areas of Patiala District of Punjab State
R7324	Participatory plant breeding in finger millet in India
R7341	Transplanting sorghum and pearl millet as a means of increasing food security in semi-arid, low income countries
	Transplanting sorghum and millet - a key to risk management
R7409	Participatory varietal selection in rabi sorghum
R7412	Incorporation of local knowledge into soil and water management interventions which minimise nutrient losses in the Middle Hills of Nepal
R7438	Participatory promotion of "on farm" seed priming
R7445	Groundnut rosette disease management. Main Report. Annex.
R7540	Promotion of chickpea following rainfed rice in the Barind area of Bangladesh
	Uptake and impact of the promotion of chickpea following rainfed rice in teh Barind area of Bangladesh
R7541	Assessing the potential for short-duration legumes in South Asian rice fallows
R7542	Participatory crop improvement in high potential production systems - piloting sustainable adoption of new technologies
R7838	Rapid generation advancement of a chickpea population for farmer participatory selection
R7865	Scaling-up strategies for pilot research experiences - a comparative review
R8071	Participatory plant breeding in high potential production systems - an evaluation of products and methods
R8098	Promotion of rainfed rabi cropping in rice fallows of India and Nepal: pilot phase
R8099	Participatory plant breeding in rice and maize in eastern India
R8104	Promoting potato seed-tuber management for increased ware yields in Kapchorwa District, Easten Uganda. Main Report. Annex.
R8105	Farmer-led multiplication of rosette resistant groundnut varieties for Eastern Uganda
R8221	Promotion of rainfed rabi cropping in rice fallows of eastern India and Nepal: Phase 2
R8269	Improvement of rainfed cropping systems in the High Barind Tract of Bangladesh
R8281	Linking the demand for, and supply of, agricultural production and post-harvest information in Uganda. Main Report. Annex.
R8410	Increasing the Effectiveness of Research within NARO, Uganda
R8429	Linking supply and demand in Uganda phase 2. Main Report. Annex.
R8435	Sustainable Potato Seed – Tuber Management and Marketing Through Commercialization (SPOMMAC). Main Report. Annex 3, Annex 4, Annex 5, Annex 7 to 11, Annex 12.
R8480	The Good Seed Initiative - sharing the learning from CPP programmes into pro-poor seed systems in East Africa

For relevant research projects, with links to further information

Geographical regions included:

India,

Target Audiences for this content:

Crop farmers,