Contents & Foreword, Characterizing And ... - IRRI books

lowland, 2% is submergence-prone lowland, and 4% is submergence- and droughtpronelowland. Apart from drought and submergence, soil sodicity was identified asanother priority research area in the district.Similarly, a detailed meso-level analysis was done in the Masodha block ofFaizabad District (IRRI 1992). The block covers about 21,000 ha of total land areaand has about 8,000 ha of rice area. Rice-growing environments in terms of physiography,land use, soils, flooding, drought, groundwater, and irrigation were studied indetail using remote sensing and conventional data. The major part of the block isclassified as a shallow favorable rainfed lowland rice subecosystem. This analysisshowed that about 14% of the block area is affected by flooding, 10% by sodicity, and2% by waterlogging. Only 32% of the groundwater potential has been developed sofar. Recharge-draft analysis showed that about 16,000 ha-m of groundwater is stillavailable for irrigation.Micro-level analysisWithin each of the upland, rainfed lowland, and deepwater ecosystems in easternIndia, target environments were characterized at the micro level to set research prioritieswithin and among the dominant farming systems. More than 100 sites were analyzed.Rapid rural appraisal techniques, which included agroecosystems mapping anddiagnostic surveys, were employed at all sites (IRRI 1990). The analysis focused onspatial, temporal, resource flow, and decision patterns. The methodology involved atwo-tier training program for researchers on how to set priorities using agroecosystemsanalysis. The problem diagnosis and research prioritization at this level were conductedby multidisciplinary teams, with continuous involvement and interactions fromgroups of farmers.At all sites, the static factors studied were land types, land use, source of watersupply, and soil properties, as described in Singh et al (1993). The dynamic factorswere rainfall and field-water depth; cropping pattern and crop calendars, crop yields,varieties and management practices, insects, diseases, and weeds; production costsand returns; and labor supply pattern, income distribution, landholding size, and demographyby social class and gender.The geographic area was zoned into agroecosystems and the problems and opportunitieselucidated in each major agroecosystem (Singh et al 1993). The highestpriority was given to the agroecosystem with the largest rice area. The research programswere then prioritized on the basis of the physical extent (coverage); number ofaffected households; complexity, severity (crop-loss estimates), and frequency of problemoccurrence; importance of the affected enterprise in the farming system; and thefarmers’ perceptions of the problem.All site studies within each subecosystem and ecosystem were pooled and comparedto identify the commonality of problems and opportunities. This provided anempirical picture of the entire ecosystem, which served as a basis in formulating aneed-based research agenda for developing appropriate technologies for the specific194 Borkakati et al