Four Seasons of Learning and Engaging Smallholder Farmers - icrisat

Preferred traits in chickpea varieties
Andhra Pradesh
In Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh, Annigeri variety is preferred with high yield (63.44%), drought
resistance (48.9%), short duration (45.73%) and pest resistance (41.32%). Prakasam farmers also
preferred high yield (68.71%), short duration (58.59%), drought resistance (54.7%) and pest resistance
(40.89%) for Annigeri. Clarifying their trait preferences for specific varieties: for JG -11 variety in Kurnool
district, short duration (70.75%) was the first preferred trait, high yield (61.2%) and drought resistance
(51.86%) were the next preferences. Kurnool farmers also responded for KAK 2 variety that high yield,
(70%) and disease resistance (50%) were first and second preferences. In Prakasam district, the traits
preferred (which characterized JG 11 variety) were high yield (67.5%), short duration (62.8%), drought
resistance (51.1%) and pest resistance(39.2%). Similarly KAK 2 variety was preferred with traits such as
high yield (66.97%), short duration (59%), drought resistance (49.35%) and pest resistance (43.23%)
by the Prakasam district farmers.
Karnataka
High yielding performance (93%) was the most single preferred trait across all study situations (districtarea-variety
combinations), with the lone exception of Bhima in Dharwad-adopted village situation,
where pest resistance was preferred to high yield. Aside from pest resistance, the other traits mentioned
as desirable were drought resistance, improvement in soil fertility, disease resistance, short duration,
fitting into cropping system and more recovery/shelling percentage, in that order, across varieties and
locations. Among the consumption traits, better taste, high keeping quality and less cooking time
were the most preferred ones, in that ranked order, across varieties and locations. The preference for
fodder traits elicited from the farmers indicated that more fodder quantity, more durability of fodder and
palatability (quality/taste) were ranked in order of priority across locations and varieties.
Gender roles in chickpea cultivation
Andhra Pradesh
It has been observed that men perform activities like land preparation, field cleaning, chemical
fertilization, mechanical weeding and plant protection measures. The activities performed mainly
by women are field cleaning 6.67% and 7.78%, hand weeding 43% and 54%, harvesting 7.78%
and 23.33% in Kurnool and Prakasam districts, respectively. Major activities performed by both men
and women together are sowing the seed, field cleaning, fertilizer application, fodder harvesting and
intercultural operations. The harvesting of main crop is done by both men and women together as per
67% to 68% of the respondents’ opinion. Threshing is also done by both men and women jointly.
Karnataka
The major activities performed by men in the adopted and control areas of both the districts were
selection of crop and variety (85.56% each), followed by transport of grain and land preparation (more
than 70% each), storage of produce (67.78%), plant protection measures (65.19%) and assistance in
the field cleaning operations (58.52%). The role of women was very conspicuous in hand weeding
as expressed by nearly 18.15% of them in both the districts, followed by fodder harvesting and seed
treatment in Dharwad district and only seed treatment in Gulbarga district. However, men had a meager
role (25% to 33%) in the activities like seed selection, storage and its treatment, watch and ward,
harvesting of fodder and main crop, stacking fodder and hand weeding. It was observed that a majority
of the farm related activities were performed by men and women jointly. Harvesting of main crop was
done jointly as expressed by a majority of the farmers (70.74%), followed by hand weeding (66.30%),
harvesting of fodder (61.11%), sowing of seed (55.19%, intercultural /mechanical weeding (55.19%),
threshing (52.96%) and application of chemical fertilizer (52.22%).
Progress of Phase 1
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