Final version of Tropical Legumes II Project Report for Phase 1 - icrisat

Prakasam district: Crops grown in Prakasam district a decade ago were paddy, pigeonpea, sorghum,
pearl millet, chillies, groundnut, sunflower, cotton, and tobacco and with a negligible area of chickpea (
less than 5,000 ha). In recent years, many of the crops like groundnut, cotton, sorghum, pearl millet to a
large extent have been replaced by chickpea. In fact, chickpea is competing with crops like tobacco, and
chillies, which is evident by the fluctuating area under these crops shown by secondary data at district
level during the latter part of the last decade.
The cropping pattern indicated by the present survey conducted in the sample villages of adopted and
control Prakasam district is summarized as follows. About 90% of the area surveyed has been occupied
by chickpea during post-rainy season and followed by tobacco with traces of area under sunflower. Paddy
remained as a main crop during rainy season in the villages with irrigation water. Four types of crop
varieties are grown by both adopted and controlled area sample farmers. However, area allocated for
chickpea in adopted sample villages are more than twice of controlled villages.
Karnataka
Across the selected districts and area (adopted and control), the gross cropped area was to the tune of
1,207 ha and the net sown area was 805 ha. The cropping intensity was worked out to be 150%. Rainy
season crops shared nearly 55% of the gross cropped area while the remaining 45% was planted to
post-rainy season crops. The major crops grown during rainy season were pigeonpea, maize, mungbean,
sorghum, onion and sunflower, accounting for 13.6%, 11.1%, 10.4%, 6.0%, 5.9% and 2.5% of the gross
cropped area, respectively. Duringpost-rainy season, since all the respondents were chickpea growers by
choice, the area under chickpea was the highest (36.3%) followed by wheat (5.5%) and sorghum (2.1%).
The cropping pattern was slightly different between districts. In Dharwad, rainy-season and post-rainy
season crops shared 52% and 48% of the gross cropped area respectively. The major crops grown
during rainy season were maize (18.9%), mungbean (12.8%), onion (9.9%), sorghum (5.4%), sunflower
(2.1%) and cotton (2.0%), while in post-rainy season, chickpea (34.9%), wheat (9.2%) and sorghum
(2.7%) were predominantly cultivated. This pattern was almost similar in adopted and control villages
of Dharwad district, with a lone exception of mungbean being less predominant than onion.
In Gulbarga district, 58% of the gross cropped area was occupied by rainy season crops as against
42% in post-rainy season crops. The major rainy season crops were pigeonpea, (occupying 32.8% of
the gross cropped area), mungbean (7.0%), sorghum (6.9%), sunflower (3.2%) and urdbean (2.6%),
whereas chickpea (38.2%) and sorghum (1.2%) were the important post-rainy seasoncrops. Thus,
Gulbarga district has been called the “Pulse bowl of India”.
Reasons for growing chickpea
Andhra Pradesh
Ranks for reasons for growing chickpea crop were captured and Garrett scores were worked out. Chickpea
is preferred by Kurnool (adopted) village farmers because of fodder availability for livestock (76), fetching
higher income (54.8), low risk and less labor requirement (52.11) for farm operations, but the control
villages farmers adopted chickpea due to low risk and less labor intensive nature of the crop (54.38) and
higher income (52.17). In Prakasam district, farmers of adopted and control villages also indicated that
they preferred chickpea as it is a low risk (57.14) and higher income generating crop (55.82).
Karnataka
The most important reasons for growing chickpea by the sample respondents were ascertained and
analyzed using Garrett Scores. Across districts and areas, the most important reason for growing
chickpea was higher income as indicated by the highest Garrett Score (63.54), followed by restoration
of soil fertility (32.12), food/home consumption (22.06) and fits well into the present cropping system
(16.58). Similar pattern existed in adopted and control areas separately and also in Dharwad district
individually. However, in Gulbarga district, low cost of cultivation was more important than fitting well
into the cropping system.
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Engaging Smallholder Farmers | Tropical Legumes II Project