ICRISAT Archival Report 2006 - The seedlings of success in the ...

ICRISAT has been working with government, NGOs and the donor community to test more sustainable farming
strategies that will increase food production levels even under drought conditions. For years, we sought to develop
more drought tolerant varieties of sorghum, pearl millet and groundnut. But these offered only limited gains in
productivity. More recently, ICRISAT and its partners have been testing strategies to sustainable improve crop
productivity. These encompass two major components – the precision application of small doses of nitrogen-based
fertilizer and the application of planting basins, which concentrate limited water and nutrient resources to the plant.
These simple technologies have increased the average yields being obtained by more than 200,000 farm households
by at least 30% since 2004 (Figure 9B4). Rather than simply handing free inputs to farmers, this strategy teaches
farmers how to apply the inputs most efficiently. The pursuit of input use efficiency provides higher and more
sustainable productivity gains necessary to achieve food security in drought prone farming systems, and provide
incentives for the private sector to develop input supply channels.
2
grain yield t ha -1
1.5
1
0.5
0
2004 2005 2006 2004 2005 2006 2004 2005 2006
Maize Sorgum Pearl Millet
A
Farmer Practice
MD 17 kg N
grain yield t ha-1
B
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
2005 2006 2006 2006
Maize Sorgum Pearl Millet
Farmer Practice Basin Conservation Farming
Figure9B4 Average yield increases obtained in southern Zimbabwe since 2004 to A.
Microdosing and B. Basin Conservation Farming
i. Planting Basins increase maize yields for smallholder farmers in the semi-rid areas of southern and western
Zimbabwe L Hove, S J Twomlow, D Rohrbach, Nester Mashingaidze, M Moyo, Putso Maphosa, W Mupangwa
Working with Non Governmental Organization (NGO) partners, ICRISAT has been promoting a conservation
agriculture package that has
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