Four Seasons of Learning and Engaging Smallholder Farmers - icrisat

As stated earlier in this chapter, availability and access to seed are crucial factors in the adoption of
improved technologies by farmers. TL II invested significant amounts of time and efforts on this aspect
during Phase 1 and will continue to further strengthen it. Nearly 93,000 MT of various classes of seed
were produced during Phase 1 across countries (Table 1-4). CS and FS accounted for about 83% and
16% of the total seed production, respectively. Country wise, India and Ethiopia accounted for about
80% and 12% of the total seed produced.
Considering each crop (and seeding rate in kg per ha) for common bean (100), groundnut (90), chickpea
(70), soybean (60), cowpea (20), and pigeonpea (8.5), this amount of seed would be sufficient to plant
a minimum of 1.3 million ha. Considering an average of 0.25 ha of the legumes per household, this
would mean more than 5.2 million households.
Capacity building
Good progress has been made in terms of both physical and human capacity building in the NARS
of target countries. Laboratory and office equipment has been purchased and submitted to the NARS;
irrigation facilities for conducting research on drought tolerance have been installed or upgraded in all
countries. Seed storage facilities have been renovated and are in use in the countries which needed these.
A total of 37 students have registered for their MSc (26) and PhD (11) degrees in national, regional
and overseas universities (Table 1-5). Six of the total students are women. Many of these have either
completed their studies and joined back the national programs or are in the process of completing.
Awareness raising
Awareness creation has been effected through field days, demonstrations, seed fairs, agricultural shows,
dealing with farmers’ research groups/farmer field schools, and distribution of small pack seed samples.
TL II has been able to reach nearly 240,000 farmers during its first phase (Table 1-6). Kenya, India and
Ethiopia had particular successes with reaching farmers.
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Engaging Smallholder Farmers | Tropical Legumes II Project