CRIDA-SRLS News A Quarterly Newsletter

January-March 2009; No.3, Vol.1

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From Lead Centre:………

• Sixth CIC (Consortium ImplementationCommittee) meeting

• Fourth CAC (Consortium Advisory Committee)Meeting and ICT Kiosk Inauguration at CRIDA onMarch 21, 2009

Dr.A.P.Srivastava trying his hand on the touch screen

Padmasree Dr. I. V. Subba Rao inaugurating ICT kiosk at CRIDA

Innovations:

• Natural Colors for Holi

• Teleconferencing

• Yield in Rainfed Cotton

National Agricultural Innovation Project Comp.3 stainable Rural Livelihoods Through Enhanced Farming Systems Productivity and Efficient Support Systems in Rainfed Areas

tral Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad-500059

News from clusters: Training on value addition to Ground nut Training on Zero Tillage Training on Soft skills

Related News & Events • National Workshop-cum-Brainstorming on Rainwater

Harvesting and Reuse through Farm Ponds-Experiences,Issues and Strategies from April 21-22, 2009 at CRIDA.

• Skill training to ICT kiosk operators of all clusters ofNAIP planned during first week of May 2009.

• Experience Sharing and Planning Workshop of NAIPcomponent-3 Projects on May 15-16, 2009 at CRIDA.

Complied and Edited by K. Ravi Shankar & K. Kareemulla, CMU, NAIP-SRLS Technical Support by S. Raghava Sarma

Sixth CIC (Consortium Implementation Committee)

meeting at CRIDA on February 11, 2009

The Sixth Consortium Implementation Committee (CIC) meeting was

held at 10.00 hrs. in the Conference Hall I at CRIDA on February 11, 2009

under the Chairmanship of Dr.B.Venkateswarlu, Director, CRIDA and

Consortium Leader. All the partners and CCMT members attended the

meeting. The meeting was held with the following agenda:

1. To discuss the process of data collection, collation and interpretation.

2. Status of expenditure.

3. Plan of work for summer 2009 with special focus on NRM works.

4. Possibility of convergence with NREGS.

5. Over view for kharif planning.

Fourth CAC (Consortium Advisory Committee) Meeting and ICT Kiosk Inauguration at CRIDA on

March 21, 2009

The Fourth CAC meeting was held at 2:00 PM in the conference hall-III

at CRIDA under the chairmanship of Padmasree Dr. I. V. Subba Rao. The

main agenda of the meeting was presentation of annual report of NAIP for

2008. Later, after the meeting, Padmasree Dr. I. V. Subba Rao inaugurated

the ICT kiosk installed at CRIDA.

Promoting Natural Colors on the Eve of Holi

Holi, a festival of colors is celebrated to mark the onset of spring by

sprinkling a hue of colors on neighbors, friends and relatives. Traditionally,

colors derived from natural sources were used in this festival. However, of

late synthetic colors are being used resulting in the damage to skin and eyes.

In order to prevent this and to promote use of natural colors that creates

income and employment opportunity to tribal rural women the NAIP cluster

anchor KVK, Adilabad has come out with an innovative approach. Butea

monosperma popularly known as the ‘flame of the forest’ found abundantly in

the scrub forests around Seethagondhi cluster in Adilabad. The flowers of

B.monosperma are an excellent source of natural yellow. Tribal women were

organized to collect the flowers of this plant and extract color from the

flowers.

Ms.Roja Rani, Home science expert working with KVK, Adilabad

trained the tribal women in the process of extracting the color. Dr. G. Samuel

and his colleagues worked out a plan to organize an awareness campaign for

promoting natural colors besides setting up a sale cum exhibition of the

product in the heart of Hyderabad city on the eve of the festival (9th March,

2009). Necessary permissions and approvals were obtained from the

authorities of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and an

exhibition stall was put up at the Andhra Bank circle in Koti, the busiest

market place in the city. The event was scheduled at 9.00 am sharp to catch

the attention of early birds. Media and press were present to cover the event,

which was jointly inaugurated by Dr.B.Venkateswarlu, Director and CRIDA

and Dr.L.G.Giri Rao, Director of Extension, Acharya N.G.Ranga Agricultural

University. Both the dignitaries called for using natural colors for the festival

and wished everyone a safe and colorful holi. A representative of the women’s

Self Help Group that was instrumental in processing and producing colors

spoke about her experiences.

Soon after the sale was inaugurated there was a bee line of buyers for

the new product. The color is sold in two forms; a ready-to-use liquid and a

powder concentrate, which needs to be boiled in water to extract the color.

Teleconferencing: Interface Innovation between Partners

Regular monitoring is the key to achieving desired outcome from the project

intervention. This is an important learning the Lead Center has gained during

the initial phase of project implementation. The target districts addressed by

the consortium are spread over a distance of over 750 km across the length of

the state. As a result, interaction between the Lead Center and its partner

institutions located in different districts becomes difficult to physically

monitor all of these within a short time period because of the physical

distance separating them. To address this, the project is using

teleconferencing method to its full advantage. I-Kisan, the ICT and market

linkage partner has installed bipartite teleconferencing equipments at the

VRC building in all the eight clusters while tripartite conferencing device is

installed at the Project Secretariat, CRIDA and I-Kisan. This enables both

CRIDA and I-Kisan to initiate a conference call with any two partners at a

time. The device also allows the use of mobile sim card to connect as most

clusters receive fairly strong signals of at least one mobile service provider.

This will enable the Lead Centre to have a chat with a group of farmers from

any of the clusters.

The first tripartite test teleconference was successfully held on

February 27, 2008 between CRIDA, IKISAN the project staff of BIRD located

at Mahbubnagar. To review and monitor the progress of activities at different

clusters, it was decided that similar teleconferencing would be held every

Friday at 2:30 PM.

Training on “Post Harvest Value Addition to Groundnut”

NAIP, CRIDA organized two training programs on “post harvest value

addition to groundnut” in collaboration with Krishi Vignana Kendra, CRIDA,

Hyderabad, during 6th Feb to 12th Feb 2009. The training was conducted in

two locations, KVK of CRIDA (6th to 7th Feb 09) for Mahahbubnagar,

Warangal, Rangareddy clusters and Bananganapalli (10th to 12th Feb 09) for

Ananthapur, Kadapa. These five clusters are predominantly growing

groundnut crop. The women and children in these clusters are not only

suffering from malnutrition and anemia, but also lack viable cottage

employment opportunities. Hence, the focus of this training program was to

address these issues and develop skills of micro entrepreneurship among the

SHG members.

Getting experience with value addition Unemployed women enabling skills from The experts

The training program was planned in such a way that, skills are

developed in preparation of groundnut value addition products with locally

available infrastructure. The training focused on imparting skills in

preparation of groundnut sweets, snacks items and nutritious food like

groundnut milk etc. As part of training, Chikki moulds and reading material

were distributed under NAIP and also supported them to begin a micro-scale

industry on it. A total of 40 farmwomen participated in this training actively

and learned the skills in preparing the value added products for both

household consumption and local market.

List of products Prepared through value addition:

Groundnut Chikki

Groundnut Curry leaf powder

Groundnut Halwa

Groundnut Pakodi

Groundnut Muruku

Groundnut Chekka

Groundnut Burfi

Groundnut Baksha

Groundnut Biscuit

Groundnut Milk

Groundnut Powder

Stepping towards self employment and Display of valuation of Groundnut nutrient food Products

Dr. Sreenath Dixit, CPI, NAIP with trainees and products

Feed back on Training of Groundnut Value Addition:

I am Nagendra, studied upto 10thclass and belong to Jamistapur,

Mahabubnagar (dist). Due to some family problems I discontinued my studies. My

father is a groundnut farmer and we used to sell the whole produce in the market

rotating 3-4 kg for family consumption. Prior to this training I was not aware of all

these value additions. This training has helped me to learn about the different

products. Now I am confident that I can build a small scale industry at the village

level by gathering all farm women in my village.

Kumari. Nagendra, Jamistapur

My name is Smt.Ganga Devi and belong to konampet, Kadapa district. I know

some basic concepts in the preparation of some value added products and now because

of this training, I came to know the small tips, techniques and skills etc. I can make

the products based on the local demand and order from the market.

Smt. Ganga Devi, B.Yerragudi

Prepared by K. Gayatri, RA, NAIP

Innovative Approaches for up scaling zero tillage maize, a resource conservation technology

Paddy is cultivated extensively during rabi in Jaffergudem cluster of

Warangal district by exploiting the scarce groundwater source. In order to

discourage this practice and provide an appropriate alternative, maize was

introduced in paddy fields by encouraging zero tillage in one acre plot during

rabi 2007. This intervention resulted in a significant outcome in terms of

higher production and income. A group of farmers who practiced paddy –

paddy sequence cropping were invited to the field day conducted in early

2008. Later in rabi 2008, these farmers (about 15 no.s), were motivated to take

up zero tillage maize (ZTM). Seven of them came forward.

Jamistapur (Mahaboobnagar) and Ibrahimpur (Rangareddy) clusters

also have significant area under rabi paddy cultivated with tube well

irrigation. In order to upscale ZTM in these clusters, farmers practicing paddy

– paddy sequence were short-listed and twenty of them (10 each from

Jamistapur and Ibrahimpur) were bought to Jaffergudem for exposure visit to

ZTM fields on 27th Feb 2009.

The exposure visit was designed in such a way that farmers of

Jaffergudem who cultivated ZTM acted as resource persons and shared their

experiences with the visiting farmers. In addition to farmers, Shri.

Vishwanath Raju from MARI and Bhaskara Rao and Gayatri from CRIDA fed

technical inputs to farmers. Farmers visited ZTM fields and summer

vegetable fields (Brinjal, Okra and Tomato). Visitors interacted with ZTM

farmers and got clarifications for their doubts and ambiguities on the new

intervention. This exposure visit has generated a lot of interest in Jamistapur

and Ibrahimpur farmers and they need to be meticulously followed up for

taking up ZTM during rabi 2009.

“Earlier, I used to cultivate paddy in rabi using precious water from the bore

well. Last year, I visited Puligilla Aanjaiah’s field where he had adopted ZTM in place

of paddy and got significant income. In spite of having field exposure on ZTM,

initially I did not believe in the new technique. After my several interaction with

NAIP, I decided to adopt the technique in this season. The crop as you have seen is

very good and I am expecting bumper harvest”.

---Bheema, Jaffergudem cluster

“I used to cultivate half an acre of paddy in rabi season with available bore

well water earlier. I was educated on the importance of water and its efficient usage by

NAIP staff of CRIDA, Hyderabad and MARI, Warangal. I decided to change to a

crop that requires less water in summer during rabi summer. Now I am able to

cultivate one and half acre of vegetable crops against half acre of paddy. I’m very

happy with this change. It has also given more returns”.

---Varala Aagaiah, Jaffergudem cluster

Some of the typical questions from the visiting farmers and the answers

provided by expert farmers are summarized below.

Questions asked by the visitors

Answer Answered by

In ZTM intervention:

When the sowing needs

to be done and what is

the method of sowing?

Immediately after harvesting of paddy, ZTM

sowing operation has to be taken up. If there is

enough moisture in field after harvesting of

paddy, irrigation is not required at the time of

sowing. Otherwise, irrigate the field first. Field

has to be marked as grids lines with help of

threads and seeds should be dibbled at each grid

point.

Is there any pest attack

in maize

At initial stage of crop, it was infested with stem

borer. I applied Carbofuran granules as advised

by the project staff.

Jalander,

ZTM farmer,

Jaffergudem

Irrigation water saving In ZTM fields, number of irrigations can be cut

down as the soil is not disturbed and irrigation

frequency is less. Earlier I used to irrigate paddy

fields on every alternate day. Now I am giving

irrigation to ZTM in the interval of 15 to 20 days

so, the number of irrigations in ZTM may be 5 to 6

How you controlled

weeds in ZTM in paddy

fields.

Glyphosate and Atrazine were applied within one

or two days after dibbling of maize seeds. Make

sure that spray covers the field without gaps.

Bheema,

ZTM farmer,

Jaffergudem

In summer vegetable intervention:

How much irrigation water was

saved?

Earlier I used to cultivate 0.5 ac

of paddy. Now I am able to

irrigate 1.5 ac of vegetables.

What about the expected profits?

Where do you get more money? By

cultivating vegetables or paddy?

In absolute terms, 1.5 ac under

vegetable is more profitable

than 0.5 ac paddy. Besides there

is continues money flow

through frequent pickings of

vegetables. Paddy cultivation in

rabi season is somewhat risky,

as we can not rely on already

depleting groundwater

Varala

Aagaiah,

Vegetable

farmer,

Jaffergudem

Organized & prepared by K. Vishwanatha Raju, RA

I .Bhaskara Rao, RA (SWCE) and K Gayatri, RA (Agronomy)

Shri. Bheemji is explaining about his experiences to other farmers; Visitors at field exposure;

Banothu Mallu, farmer is sharing his approach in ZTM; Trainees in discussion with NAIP Staff at Jaffergudem cluster (clockwise)

Training Programme on Soft Skills

Under the capacity building and knowledge empowerment initiatives,

ICT Kiosks have been established at each cluster. As the next step Internet

connectivity is being provided through wireless data cards. In order to use these

facilities effectively, the capacity of the committees needs to be build. As the first

step towards building such capacity, a one-day training course was organized for

educated youth at Dupahad cluster, Nalgonda on 20th Feb. 2009. Twenty-five

rural youth were selected from across the 9 villages of the cluster for the training

course. The training module consisted of the following:

1. Soft skills and importance in developing career.

2. Creation of email id.

3. Composing and sending emails.

4. Searching on the Internet.

Mr.Gopal Naik, an educated rural youth coordinated the selection of the

youth for the training course and conducted a general knowledge quiz for the

youth. Cash prizes sponsored by SAIRD were given away by Dr.N.Venkata

Reddy, Director, SAIRD. Books useful for developing soft skills were also

distributed to the trainees. It is now planned to upscale this activity in all the

clusters. Mr.Dastagiri and Mr.Suresh of IKisan coordinated ICT related

arrangements and facilitated the training course. Dr.M.N.Reddy, Principal

Scientist, NAARM who represented the Co-PI of the NAIP project on “Rural GIS”

also participated and expressed strong desire to converge with NAIP led by

CRIDA.

Prepared by K Gayatri, RA (Agronomy)

A Case Study

Increasing the Plant Density will increase the Yield in Rainfed Cotton

Experience by Kavati Komuraiah

My name is Kavati Komuraiah. I belong to village Jaffergudem,

Warangal district. For the last 8-10 years, I have been growing Rainfed Cotton

in kharif season. I was habituated to sow the seeds with the spacing of

90x90cm, which is more suitable to plough with indigenous blade harrow.

The average yield was 4-6 quintals/acre. I would get another 6 quintals more

when rainfall is good. Under National Agricultural Innovation Project

(NAIP) scientists from CRIDA, Hyderabad, MARI, Warangal and ARS,

Warangal conducted a meeting on kharif action plan and they suggested that

increasing the plant density through 90 x 60 cm instead of 90 x 90 cm will

increase the yields. Sowings between row-to-row spacing is 90 cm and the

plant-to-plant spacing is 60 cm. They also suggested inter cultivation with

the help of chilli blade harrow. As per scientist’s suggestions, I adopted 90 x

60 cm in the area of 1 acre and 90 x 90 cm in the area of 1.5 acre. The rainfall

was very low during the season and its distribution was also erratic. We did

not get any rain after September. I got 7.5 quintals/acre with 90 x 60 cm

spacing and in case of 90 x 90 cm I got only 7.75 quintals/1.5 acre.

Name Yield under 90x60 cm Yield under 90x90 cm Kavati Komuraiah 7.5 quintal/acre 5.5 quintal/acre 18.50 quintal/ha 13.75 quintal/ha

I am very happy with the new practice and I am now convinced that

modified spacing will give higher yield in cotton due to higher plant density.

Closure spacing (90 x 60cm) in Rainfed cotton

Conducted & organized by K. Vishwanatha Raju, RAand K Gayatri, RA (Agronomy)