Don't neglect rainy season legumes in India |
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| Improved intercropping and improved varieties of blackgram (IU8-6) and horsegram (AK-42 and VLG-1) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Blackgram and horsegram are important for poor indigenous farmers in eastern and western India. But they are largely ignored by officialdom. Even though there are recommended varieties, farmers can't get seed. So they grow poor varieties that are prone to mildew and other diseases. Better varieties of horsegram have a huge potential for intercropping with maize in western India and rice in eastern India in the rainy season. They could provide additional food and fodder at little or no extra cost. But farmers can only abandon old varieties by saving seed of new varieties themselves. Others would also grow the better grams if they could get seed. Although there is major potential for grams to improve food and incomes, the only way to get seed at the moment is through a few schemes and NGOs. Project Ref: PSP08:
Research Programmes: Plant Sciences Research Programme. DFID India Relevant Research Projects: R8099, Programme development, Bilateral DFID India projects
New varieties were tested with farmers in participatory varietal selection (PVS) that overcomes the limitations of traditional, on-station testing systems. A broader choice of blackgram and horsegram varieties was offered that were chosen to meet farmers’ requirements for adaptation and quality. Methods of horsegram cultivation by intercropping with maize were tested with farmers. The outputs are: Western India
Eastern India
The research on blackgram with IU8-6 began in 1995 and it was released in MP in 2004. The PVS with horsegram AK-42 began in 2002 and it was recommended in 2005 by the Central Variety Release Committee for Rajasthan, MP, Gujarat and Jharkhand. However, at the state level only Rajasthan has endorsed this recommendation. Variety VLG 1 was tested in PVS from 2003 to 2005 in Jharkhand (it was already released for the Uttranchal hills in 1983) where, despite its superiority, it is yet to be recommended. Table 1. List of outputs and primary characteristics (blackgram and horsegram varieties)
In western India, resource poor, farmers of the indigenous tribes cultivate small areas of land in cleared forest in drought-stressed, low-fertility fields. They grow blackgram as one of their most important legumes but grew only low-yielding landraces which were highly susceptible to powdery mildew disease (Joshi and Witcombe, 1998). Horsegram is also grown but knowledge on its use is limited and it is only locally popular. Farmers only grew landraces that are very low yielding and late maturing. Given better varieties (earlier and higher yielding) horsegram has a huge potential in maize-based cropping systems where it can be intercropped with maize to help in weed control, reduce labour demands, and provide additional, nutritious, grain and additional fodder all at little or no extra cost. In eastern India, poor farmers grow horsegram on sloping, degraded lands as a late rainy-season crop in the ‘left over’ fields where they could not sow any crop earlier. It provides additional nutritious food grain legume and quality fodder to the animals. Farmers only grow landraces that are very low yielding and late maturing because all released varieties mature late and hence are prone to end-of-season drought.
This output is focused on blackgram and horsegram but both are integral to maize-based farming systems in western India and both can help in increasing the profitability and sustainability of maize production. In eastern India, the sole-crop cultivation of horsegram is by farmers who primarily follow a rice–based cereal cropping systems. As well as growing the crop in fields that were not sown earlier in the rainy season, it is also possible to grow horsegram as a relay crop in transplanted rice in medium and semi-deep rainfed lowlands.
This fits completely with the new legume varieties produced by COB (PSP14, PSP17) new maize varieties bred by COB (PSP15). It also fits well with new transplanted rice varieties identified by PVS and bred by COB (PSP10 and PSP16). The introduction of new varieties of legumes in the rainfed conditions can be linked with the rainfed rabi fallow projects (PSP35). It can be combines with seed priming (PSP26 and PSP30). In PVS, the new intervention is a crop variety which can combine with the testing of other interventions that are synergistic with new crop varieties, i.e., crop protection and improved crop agronomy interventions. Since farmers evaluate varieties for all traits including fodder quantity and quality then clustering with improved livestock nutrition would be synergistic. PVS as a technique (PSP33) can be used for all crops in all farming systems and is an essential component of client-oriented breeding (PSP34). Clustering can be done with the following RNRRS outputs:
How the outputs were validated: In PVS, validation is always by the first end users of a new variety – farmers - in on-farm participatory trials with participatory evaluation (using many techniques e.g., matrix ranking, surveys,) of many traits important to farmers. The trials were always replicated to provide a test of statistical significance. Validation of yield increases of the blackgram and horsegram varieties was done by government organisations (State Agricultural Universities) in on-station trials. Agronomic trials followed similar methods to PVS and, indeed, horsegram-maize intercropping trials were more successful when combined with the testing of new maize and horsegram varieties. The final step of PVS - the wider dissemination of farmer-preferred varieties - tests the acceptability of a variety on a much larger scale. Some wider dissemination of the three varieties has been done and this has confirmed their acceptability. Validation was done by farmers working with researchers largely from the NGO, GVT, and State Agricultural Universities collaborating with GVT. In addition, state departments of Agriculture were involved to a limited extent as well as other NGOs. In western India, further validation is being undertaken by Madhya Pradesh Rural Livelihood Project (MPRLP) in MP and other NGOs such as Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in Rajasthan, Gujarat and MP; Action for Social Advancement (ASA) in MP, PRYAS, SARTHI, SEWA MANDER, DRDA; National Watershed Mission. The target groups of male and female farmers were from all social groups representing resource rich, medium and poor farmers. Wealth categories (usually three) were determined through local informants using key proxies for wealth such as landholding size. 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. It should be noted that the wealth classes were relative within the village but when compared to other areas in India the vast majority of the participants, predominantly indigenous smallholder farmers, in Gujarat, MP, Rajasthan and Jharkhand would be classified as poor. Substantial increases in productivity were achieved over the local and best modern cultivars in station and on-farm trials (Table 2). The benefits are more than simple grain yield increases because of the earlier maturity of the new varieties that has multiple benefits related to many aspects of the farming system (earlier harvest, reduced proneness to end-of-season drought, greater suitability for intercropping, greater suitability for late sowing). These benefits were recorded as perceptions in the on-farm trials (Table 3). PVS methods usually involve the introduction of varieties from outside the state in which the trials take place. Some varieties exhibited great changes in the time of flowering in the local conditions. For example, VLG 1 horsegram variety matures in 125 to 130 days in Uttranchal hills but when tested in on-station and PVS trials it matured in 84 days in Jharkhand, one to two weeks earlier than Birsa Kulthi 1 (BK!) the modern check variety. Table 2. Examples of yield increase of new varieties given in PVS trials
Table 3. Examples of improvement in traits other than grain yield
Where the Outputs were Validated: The work in western India has been centred on adjoining areas of three western Indian states; eastern Gujarat, southern Rajasthan and western Madhya Pradesh in the districts of Jhabua (MP), Panchmahals (Gujarat) and Banswara (Rajasthan). The region is the semi-arid tropics. These are hilly areas populated by very resource-poor farmers with land holdings that are small and fragmented. Maize is the main rainy season (kharif) crop of these areas and is grown as a rainfed crop by these farmers in low-fertility fields, often on sloping land that is vulnerable to soil erosion. Maize productivity is very low, averaging below 1 t ha-1. Legumes form an important part of this maize-based farming system and in the kharif season these are blackgram and horsegram. Pigeonpea is also grown but it spans both the kharif and the post rainy season because of its very long duration. In eastern India the research was in 13 districts of three states: Jharkhand (Ranchi, Palamu, Hazaribagh, West Singhbhum, Kharsavan, Goda, Gumla, and Bukaro); Orissa (Dhenkanal, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj); and West Bengal (Midnapur and Purulia). The on-farm validation primarily involved resource-poor farmers of the villages in which GVT was working. GVT east operates for the improvement of the livelihoods of 0.4 M people the majority of whom are smallholders (about 90% of farmers have < 2 ha), 40% of land is rainfed upland; 65% households live below the poverty line (BPL); livelihoods are based mainly on agriculture and migration for daily paid waged labour in big cities. All testing was carried out under rainfed conditions in the semi-arid tropics in the years .
Who are the Users? The outputs are being used by resource-poor farmers in the target areas described in detail in "Where the outputs were validated". They have replaced their local landraces with the better varieties and have done so largely by seed saved from the previous harvest (farm-saved seed). Many of the adopters have obtained seed of the new varieties from their neighbours, relatives and friends. Blackgram is grown often as a cash crop so farmers are selling the grain of IU8-6 as a source of income. The market for horsegram is poorly developed so most of the grain is used by farmers for local consumption as dhal. In all cases, the stover from the crop is used as a fodder source for animals. Where the outputs have been used: In western India, all adoption is in the semi-arid system. Blackgram is adapted to better environments than horsegram so the latter will be preferentially grown on the upper, more drought prone slopes. A small area (about 10%) of the total cultivated area is lowland with better soils and blackgram may be grown more in these areas as the crop responds more to better fertility. We have found that intercropping of maize with horsegram tends to be on the more marginal i.e., sloping lands where the provision of labour for weeding is more risky than in the better areas. Hence, farmers can benefit more from the reduction in weeding provided by this simple technology. In better areas, or areas that are too poor for maize, horsegram is grown as a sole crop. In eastern India, all adoption is also in the semi-arid system. Horsegram is grown in the rainfed uplands of Jharkhand, Orissa, and W. Bengal. It is grown in fallow uplands where other rainy season crops could not be grown due to inadequate rains or late onset of rains or where the crop had failed due to lack of moisture. In the unirrigated uplands when rains are receding horsegram normally does not follow any crop and no winter season crop is grown after it. However, the variety identified has not spread because of little dissemination of either knowledge or seed. Horsegram in Jharkhand is grown on 29,000 ha with production of 22,000 t (0.75 t ha-1). See also above under "Where the Outputs were Validated" Scale of Current Use: Determining the scale of the current use of outputs is too early (particularly for horsegram) since large quantity of seed could not yet be produced and disseminated. The measurement of scale of use at an early stage requires considerable resources as it needs sampling of a large number of farmers to gain an accurate estimate. There have been no surveys that have adequately measured the rate of farmer-to-farmer seed spread although we have evidence that this is the case. In western India 500 kg seed of blackgram variety IU8-6 has been distributed to about 100 farmers (Table 5). In horsegram, 690 kg seed of AK-42 was distributed to about 150 farmers. The target areas in western India are Jhabua district of MP, Dahod in Gujarat and Banswara in Rajasthan. However, no seed of VLG 1 was distributed to farmers in eastern India except to the 20 farmers in the PVS trials. This is because no horsegram seed was produced by BAU or GVT. Table 5. Quantity of seed (kg) of blackgram and horsegram varieties distributed to farmers by the GVT
Policy and Institutional Structures, and Key Components for Success: The promotion of varieties in these poor parts of western India has been inefficient as the areas are remote, the purchasing capacity of the farmers is low, and the demand for seed unpredictable because it varies with the rains. Farmers also have limited access to the government extension services. They are supposed to visit the local farm science centre (KVK) but few farmers have the resources to do so. Front line demonstrations by Departments of Agriculture are few and conducted in more favourable agricultural environments. Hence, the main activities for dissemination of seed have been through projects such as the western India rainfed farming (WIRFP) which has now completed. Ongoing projects include the Madhya Pradesh Rural Livelihoods Project (MPRLP) and District Poverty Initiative Programmes (DPIP), National Watershed Programme, Community Resource Centres under District Rural Development Agency. Also some NGOs such Action for Social Advancement (ASA), PRYAS, SAMARTHAN, that work in the area are interested in supplying seed of varieties that farmers prefer over the local landraces. In eastern India the dissemination has been through the eastern India rainfed farming (EIRFP) which has now completed. Ongoing projects such as Western Orissa Rural Livelihood Project (WORLP) and programmes such as the Poorest Area Civil Society Programme (PACS) of Government of India and supported by DFID. The village Panchayats, Krishi Vigyan Kendras, National Agricultural Banking for Rural Development (NABARD), National Agricultural Marketing Federation (NAFAD), Council for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Technology (CAPART) exist in the area and can help in seed production and dissemination. The GOs such as the State Agricultural Universities and State Departments of Agriculture and several NGOs also have dissemination programmes. The GVT has collaboration with about 30 NGOs in Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal. In eastern India, horsegram is a neglected crop and no agency is producing the seed. The seed is not available even for the recommended varieties. The BAU or other GOs do not produce seed of out of state varieties such as VLG 1. The only seed being multiplied is for validation in a modest number of trials. Also seed is not available with the originating institute (Vivekanand Institute of Hill Agriculture, Almora, and Uttranchal) for distributing to the farmers. Unless seed production is supported dissemination and scaling up of VLG 1 will be constrained and farmers will not benefit. Clearly, there is a need for raising awareness of these new varieties and technology through existing networks. For promotion of adoption and capacity strengthening the following are required:
Lessons Learned and Uptake Pathways Promotion of Outputs: Several GOs and NGOs are promoting new seeds of various crops. However, little attention is given to the promotion of minor food legumes such blackgram and horsegram. Organisations that are active in promoting new seeds are: bilaterally funded projects, KVKs, State Agricultural Universities, and State Departments of Agriculture. In western India, promotion is currently taking place in 7 districts of MP, Gujarat and Rajasthan by GVT in conjunction with MPRLP and DPIP projects. In eastern India GOs and other organisation such as Western Orissa Rural Livelihood Project (WORLP), Poorest Area Civil Society Programme (PACS) of Government of India and supported by DFID, KVKs are active. Potential Barriers Preventing Adoption of Outputs: A major problem has been a lack of continuity in the project-based approach to rural development in western and eastern India. DFID funded the WIRFP and EIRFP for many years but both have been completed. One possibility of replacing the role of these projects is an increased input from the private sector. However, for the formal private sector investments in more favourable agricultural areas are more profitable and this is exacerbated by the ‘orphan’ nature of crops such as blackgram and particularly horsegram where existing seed demand is low. Working in a poverty-focused approach by establishing groups within villages to produce seed has been fraught with problems (low and erratic productivity. poor access to markets, poor infrastructure, and lack of training in the commercial - rather than the technical - aspects of seed production). There is a need to establishing groups in more favourable areas that are not too remote from the target areas and where emphasis is placed on training in commercial matters relating to the seed business. Seed production by GOs is dependent on actual orders for seed (called indents) and the poor farmers cannot raise indents. GOs responsible for producing seed, such as the State Agricultural Universities, will not do so without an indent and the Department of Agriculture, and the extension system do not place indents for new varieties unless they are aware of them and know there is a demand for seed. To influence the market by creating a demand a relatively large quantity of new variety needs to be produced. Fortunately the biology of these crops is favourable with low seed rates, high multiplication rates, and the ability to grow an off-season crop. This means that a large scale seed supply to farmers is required to bring sizeable area under its cultivation. How to Overcome Barriers to Adoption of Outputs: The most important factor to remove the barriers is to raise awareness of them at all levels (State Agricultural Universities, NGOs, Departments of Agriculture and the private sector). There is a lack of awareness of the new technologies, particularly because they are regarded as minor crops, but also a lack of awareness on the constraints to delivering them. Packaging the availability of all of the new, related technologies would be helpful (see for example Witcombe and Yadavendra, 2006). There is one major remaining platform in western India, the MPRLP. Like all rural development programmes it is multifaceted and hence focus on important single issues such as the provision of new seed can be blurred. There is a need to raise awareness in this major platform of the possibilities presented by these new technologies. Removing barriers is not as hard as it might appear from the limited current use of these varieties. There are several important advantages with these technologies in terms of their scaling up inherent in the biology of these small-grained legumes:
Lessons Learned: Using Rogers (2003) diffusion of information as a framework for the lessons learnt:
Hence provision of a sustainable seed supply is the most important factor in getting this research into use. Poverty Impact Studies: There are two papers on horsegram, one published and one submitted, that include descriptions of impact. Virk, D.S., Chakraborty, M., Ghosh, J. and Harris, D. 2006. Participatory evaluation of horsegram (Macrotyloma uniflorum Lam Verdc.) varieties and their on-station response to on-farm seed priming in eastern India. Experimental Agriculture 42: in press. Witcombe, J.R., Patel, N.B., Billore, M., Singhal, H.C., Saini, D.P., Meratia, P.S., Sharma, L.K., Tikka, S.B.S., Tomar, H.K., Yadav. S. and Yadvendra. J.P. 2006. Improving the nutritional security of low-resource farmers: Introducing horsegram into maize-based cropping systems. Experimental Agriculture (submitted) These include impact at the level of individual farmers. They indicate high increases in total productivity with related advantages to the livelihoods of the resource poor farmers that are adopting them. Financial analysis: Area and production for blackgram and horsegram are not available for most of states and districts. We illustrate the potential financial gains for only one district of MP (Jhabua) and for Jharkhand state (Table 8). For Jhabua district alone there will be a total gain of £0.86 million per year from the new varieties of the two crops. Farmers of Jharkhand state alone will accrue additional gains of £0.3 million per year. This analysis is based on very conservative assumption of 20% area under the new varieties and an increase of 30% in yield over landrace varieties. The added cost of cultivating the new varieties (the grain will initially be more expensive to purchase) is so small that it has been disregarded and is more than offset by other benefits such as more fodder and the higher grain quality (and hence market price) of the new varieties. . Extrapolation of these analyses to all districts in western India will produce huge economic gains to the farmers in terms of enhanced returns. There will be additional benefits in western India if the horsegram is intercropped with maize in terms of increase in food grains per unit area, reduced expenditure on weeding, and improvement in soil fertility. In eastern India additional gains come from an increased area of cropping as the variety can be sown over a longer period of time (as early as alternatives as well as later in the season if there are late rains). Table 8. Financial analysis for blackgram and horse gram for Jhabua district of MP and for horsegram for Jharkhand state
How the Poor have Benefited (including gender and other poverty groups): The provision of cheaper proteins improves the nutrition of poor farmers who can more often have a nutritious dhal with the daily meal of maize roti or rice. The impact of intercropping of horsegram in maize was studied and it was found that it reduced the need of agricultural operations. In Rajasthan, where weedings were done more often in the sole crop, 9 out of the 10 farmers reported fewer weedings in the intercrop. In both Rajasthan and MP the frequency of intercultivation, was reduced particularly in MP (Table 6). Most farmers reported that intercropping with horsegram had not affected the yield of maize (Table 7). In both states, farmers sold most of the grain of AK-42 in the market followed by home consumption and resowing with the smallest proportion being used as animal feed (Table 7). Less green fodder from weeds was produced in Rajasthan where the number of weedings was reduced. Most farmers reported that fodder availability was not reduced because they got nutritive fodder from the horsegram stover; all farmers used horsegram as a dry fodder after threshing of seed and none reported harvesting before grain production for fodder. Table 6. Farmers reports on frequency of cultural operations, 22 farmers Rajasthan (Raj) and MP, rainy season 2003.
Table 7. Perception of ten farmers regarding use of horsegram seed and the effect of horsegram on main crop yield, two villages in Rajasthan, rainy season 2003.
Direct and Indirect Environmental Benefits: Direct and indirect benefits:
Adverse Environmental Impacts:
Coping with the Effects of Climate Change, or Risk from Natural Disasters:
References Evenson, R.E and D. Gollin. 2003: Assessing the Impact of the Green Revolution, 1960 to 2000. Science 300: 758 – 762. Joshi, A. & Witcombe J.R. 1995. Farmer participatory research for the selection of rainfed rice cultivars. In: Proceedings of the International Rice Research Conference, 13-17 Feb, 1995. Fragile Lives in Fragile Ecosystems. IRRI. pp. 825-842. Joshi, A. & Witcombe, J.R. 1998. Farmer participatory approaches for varietal improvement. pp. 171-190 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. Rogers, E.M. (2003). Diffussion of innovations. 5th Edition. New York: Free Press. Telang, S.W., Deshpande, N.V. and Mandloi, S.C. 200.. Release proposal of uridbean variety IU8-6. Jawaharlal Nerhu Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, College of Agriculture, Indore, MP. Virk, D.S., Chakraborty, M., Ghosh, J. and Harris, D. 2006. Participatory evaluation of horsegram (Macrotyloma uniflorum Lam Verdc.) varieties and their on-station response to on-farm seed priming in eastern India. Experimental Agriculture 42: in press. Witcombe, J.R. and Yadavendra, J.P. 2006. Cultivating partnership: better choices for rainfed farming. Gramin Vikas Trust, India. Witcombe, J.R., Joshi, K.D., Gyawali, S., Musa, A. M., Johansen, C., Virk, D.S. & Sthapit B.R. (2005). Participatory Plant Breeding is Better Described as Highly Client-Oriented Plant Breeding. I. Four Indicators of Client-Orientation in Plant Breeding. Experimental Agriculture 41: 299-319. 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. Witcombe, J.R., Patel, N.B., Billore, M., Singhal, H.C., Saini, D.P., Meratia, P.S., Sharma, L.K., Tikka, S.B.S., Tomar, H.K., Yadav. S. and Yadvendra. J.P. (Submitted). Improving the nutritional security of low-resource farmers: Introducing horsegram into maize-based cropping systems. Experimental Agriculture. Relevant Research Projects,
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