SRI in Orissa - Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

panicles. Panicles are 25-30 cm. long carrying 200 plus bold grains. We are still in research to grow 95% effective tillerings and 75 tillers/hill is our target for Rabi 2008. Constraints and Suggestions 1. Seed: SPARD is the only source for indigenous rice seed varieties. We do not get any support from Government/ OUAT/CRRI to maintain continuity of seed production which is very much cost intensive. However, our present effort can meet the seed requirement of 500 farmers. The programme needs attention of Government and other stakeholders. 2. Weeder: SRI is for resource poor farmers. They cannot afford to buy weeders that cost Rs 700/800 each. Farmers’ SRI cooperatives under 2002 self reliant Cooperative Act needs to be formed. Such innovation would help popularising SRI. SRI target group should be small & consist of marginal farmers, share croppers and women. 3. Organic Manure: Every farmer should have at least one cow and a calf of heifer. Annual composting of cow dung urine and farmyard waste would be enough to feed one acre of SRI Field. Such expectation can be materialized through co-operative loan, otherwise SRI won’t be meaningful. Co-operatives can effectively provide neem oil cake, biofertilisers through a common pool. 4. Training & exposure visits: Training of farmers and field visit is the most important component for SRI implementation. Government Agency even with a large number of Agri-scientist and professionals can hardly be able to meet training requirement. Well experienced SRI farmers and V.Os working on SRI (organic way) can prove better trainers. SRI is a system that could be taken in different directions. It is quite possible that in their attempt to create a second green revolution SRI is promoted to enhance GM rice as well. However I think an important point to consider is whether such directions would help in enabling greater control for farmers or not. A more fruitful direction in SRI is to enhance productivity of long neglected indigenous varieties of rice as this could have greater impact on the livelihoods of several small and marginal farmers even as it is beneficial to the soil in the long run. We perhaps need to focus on this much more. Seed sovereignty of farmers can be guaranteed through SRI. “Long Live SRI Long Live Organic Farming”! 64 Towards a Learning Alliance: SRI in Orissa
CHAPTER 11 D. Narayan 32 Discovering SRI: Lonely Searches and Running Ahead I am a 50 year old commerce graduate from Makarjhola village of Hinjilikut block in Ganjam district, and for the last 37 years I have been a progressive farmer. My prime occupation is cultivation, but I also spare time for social work. In 1984 I was the Sarpanch of Makarjhola gram panchayat and Panchayat Samiti member. Also I participate in activities of the NGO called United Artists Association working in the interest of farmers, although I am not an active member. Being an inquisitive farmer I try to acquire all the information I can find on farming. I try to attend any agriculture fair, seminar, workshop and training programme within my reach. For example I often attend programmes in Sambhav, an NGO focused on organic farming, and I also attend programmes of the Horticulture Department. A couple of times I went to Vijayawarda, Andhra Pradesh, and I regularly watch agriculture-based television programmes. Basically I just try to gain knowledge on agriculture and its practice. I think every farmer is a good source of information because he needs and collects information on weather, markets, government policy and emerging technologies related to agriculture. My Land I have eight acres of agriculture land, which is my parental property. The entire area is irrigated by water from a canal that comes from the river Rushikulya, and the soil is sandy and black cotton in nature. I have one pair of bullocks, one cart, and one 2HP diesel motor. In the last six years I have adopted organic farming practices for all my crops in order to save my soils from the ill effects of chemical fertiliserbased farming. Apart from rice that is the staple crop in Orissa, I grow a variety of crops, with paddy, groundnut, ragi, til, and green gram as regular crops. Also I have replanted a mango orchard in an area of 0.8 acres after this was destroyed by the super-cyclone that hit Orissan shores in 1999. Since 1986 I have a biogas plant operating that meets the fuel needs for my family of 6/7. Since the cow dung from my two bullocks is not sufficient for the biogas plant, I offer the use of my large cattle shed to others for their cattle, in exchange for which I get the dung instead of rent. Last year I also started a vermi compost unit. It is 350 square feet in size and has a capacity of 20 tons. I had to invest in this myself, as I found little cooperation of commercial banks in financing such units for farmers. Despite a plethora of schemes the support mechanisms from lead banks such as NABARD for organic farming are poor. My Introduction to SRI The first time I heard about SRI was while watching an ETV programme in Oriya called Annadata. This was in May 2005, just before Kharif season. The high yield potential and the new method of cropping of SRI sounded very interesting, and I became curious to know more about the new technique. I called Mr. R. Madhav Rao, a relative of mine from the Sikakulum district of Andhra Pradesh, but because SRI was just recently introduced in Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Rao could not tell me much about it. He did give me a phone number of an agricultural scientist at Sikakulam from whom I got some tips. His specific advice was to replicate SRI in a small area, which I did straight away. I tried to get some more information and guidance from the local agriculture departments, but I did not succeed. At the same time I heard that the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) in Bhanjanagar in the Ganjam district had experimented with SRI in a small patch in its campus, but I was not in a position to visit. Despite the disappointing lack of guidance and help I felt I should persist with trying out SRI. Nevertheless, despite these difficulties in gaining information on SRI and the risk of low or no return, I enthusiastically 32 As told to Debasis Mohanty and Koen Beumer Discovering SRI: Lonely Searches and Running Ahead 65
Page 1:
Towards a Learning Alliance SRI in
Page 4 and 5:
Towards a Learning Alliance SRI in
Page 6 and 7:
Abbreviations ANGRAU BOJBP CBO CEC
Page 8 and 9:
Important Considerations and Packag
Page 10 and 11:
List of Tables, Figures and Boxes f
Page 12 and 13:
in rest of India needs several lear
Page 14 and 15:
Scaling up SRI in India The growing
Page 16 and 17:
follow-up was held in March 2006 at
Page 18 and 19:
only possible through building trus
Page 20 and 21:
Appendix 1.3: Trend in Yield of Ric
Page 22 and 23:
Other Supporting Agencies Sl. No. A
Page 24 and 25: Sl. No. Productivity Zone Productiv
Page 26 and 27: Use of Organic/Compost: Use straw,
Page 28 and 29: Sl. No. Name of the AAO/JAO Circle
Page 30 and 31: Sl. No. Name of the DAO/ ADAO Circl
Page 32 and 33: CHAPTER 3 P. K. Roul and D. Mishra
Page 34 and 35: the soil aerated so as to get the b
Page 36 and 37: Area (m ha)/production (m tons) 100
Page 38 and 39: Table 4.4: Strategic plan for disse
Page 40 and 41: Package of practices - CRRI Nursing
Page 42 and 43: SRI at Sambhav SRI fields with tank
Page 44 and 45: Seed bed preparation at SVA Transpl
Page 46 and 47: Gopal Khuntia a farmer of Kotapokha
Page 48 and 49: we started observing the crop more
Page 50 and 51: encouraged. This is a subjective as
Page 52 and 53: • continue to promote SRI • bui
Page 54 and 55: Purulia had demonstrated the potent
Page 56 and 57: given training on SRI; a film on Pu
Page 58 and 59: chemicals. The SRI work has extende
Page 60 and 61: Box 7.2: SRI to the rescue of Bulu
Page 62 and 63: The relative humidity is high durin
Page 64 and 65: Case Study 8.1: Dibakar Jani “Lay
Page 66 and 67: Sl. No Name of the Farmer Appendix
Page 68 and 69: the four others contained 700-750 e
Page 70 and 71: Dissemination and Future During the
Page 72 and 73: CHAPTER 10 Natabar Sarangi 30 My Ex
Page 76 and 77: decided to go ahead with it. I had
Page 78 and 79: CHAPTER 12 Ranjan K. Panda, Bimal P
Page 80 and 81: seed was sufficient to transplant a
Page 82 and 83: the earlier yield rate of the same
Page 84 and 85: practiced with lesser investments w
Page 86 and 87: The State Level Dialogue and Beyond
Page 88: from eight districts participated.
show all

SRI in Orissa - Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?