Background

            Jharkhand is a new state with immense possibilities of development of industrial and agricultural sector. Out of 10.13 million working population, 76.86% are engaged in agriculture. Vast working force and natural resources are able to produce food grain to meet only 50% requirement. Water is the major constraint in agricultural land alongwith soil erosion. On account of topography and agro-climatic conditions, the region of Chotanagpur and Santhal Parganas is suitable for horticultural crops. Comparison of the agricultural production of the state vis-à-vis requirements with that of the country show the need for upscaling the production related activities in agricultural sector. 39% of the total geographical area has waste lands and only 10% of the total area is irrigated. The productivity of principal crops is very poor because of the poor soil fertility and rainfall dependent risk prone agriculture.

            Farmers use limited amount of chemical fertilizer during the transplanting of rice. Otherwise farmers use farmyard manure as organic fertilizer on their field. In general rice is grown once a year, except in few areas where there are natural source of water for summer rice. The physical resources like population, climate, rainfall, soils agrarian structure mostly influence the farming practice and limit the productivity as most of them occupy-sloppy, undulating, rocky or hilly land where only some low value crops can be grown. Aside from the physical constraints the population is mainly tribal dominated whose literacy level is very low.  According to 2001 census report the literacy of Jharkhand is as such : male 67.94%, female 39.38% and the total 54.13% only. Moreover, the poor access to infrastructure like road, electricity isolate them from modernization. Due to lack of irrigation facilities, farmers seldom grow winter crops. To seek other sources of livelihood and food insecurity, males migrate on a seasonal or permanent basis to urban centers, brick kilns, tea gardens and high productivity areas in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh. In this situation, wives are left behind and become de facto heads of households and managers of their farms. However, they are faced with several constraints such as lack of access to technical knowledge and skills required by improved varieties and crop management techniques and suffer the increasing burden in farming, household and child care responsibilities.

            Rainfed rice farmers in Jharkhand are trapped in a cycle of poverty in which high risks from drought, flood and other stresses prevent adoption of improved technologies for rice production, diversification of rice systems and investment in non-farm activities. Reducing poverty in these areas requires that average productivity be greatly increased and stabilized in rainfed rice systems. The experience of Asian economic development in last 50 years indicates that the achievement of large and stable increases in rice yields by or farmers leads to greater income and food security, freeing them to engage in other income-generating activities. With recent advances in genomics and genetics the probability of research success in developing appropriate technologies for these ecologically unfavourable environments in much greater today than in the past. Thus increasing rice productivity, increasing cropping intensity and crop diversification through the validation and promotion of improved technologies through farmer/community participatory approach are important entry points for reducing poverty and increasing food security.

The NAIP Project

            Agriculture is and will continue to be the main driver of country’s economic growth with social justice. Our agriculture did extremely well and it was on the ascendancy till the mid nineties but after that the growth slowed down. Since 1996-97 the growth rate of agricultural GDP has been, on an average, 1.75%  per year in contrast with the rate of 4% that is required. On the other hand the farmer has been facing rising input costs, declining returns from the inputs, uncertain market, increasing role of market in agriculture and blurring of distinction between the domestic market and the international market. To assist the farmer in these changing contexts new strategies and innovative solutions are urgently required which in turn will require technological support. Hence the agricultural research system which generates technologies, has to conduct the business of agricultural research in an innovative way. The World Bank aided National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) has been conceived to pilot this innovation in conducting agricultural research.

            Household livelihood security is defined as adequate and sustainable access to income and resources to meet basic needs (including adequate access to food, potable water, health facilities, educational opportunities, housing, time for community participation and social integration).

            Livelihood can be mad up of a range of on-farm and off-farm activities which together provide a variety of procurement strategies for food and cash. Thus, each household can have several possible sources of entitlement which constitute its livelihood. These entitlements are based on the household’s endowments and its position in the legal, political and social fabric of society. The risk of livelihood failure determines the level of vulnerability of a household to income, food, health and nutritional insecurity. Therefore, livelihoods are security when households have secure ownership of , or access to , resources and income earning activities, including reserves and assets, to offset risks, ease shocks and meet contingencies.

            A livelihood is sustainable when it “can cope with and recover from the stress and shock, maintain its capability and assets, and provide sustainable livelihood opportunities for the next generation”. Unfortunately, not all households are equal in their ability to cope with stress and repeated shocks. Poor people balance competing needs for asset preservation, income generation and present and future food supplies in complex ways. People may go hungry up to a point to meet another objective. Thus, food and nutritional security are subsets of livelihood security, food needs are not necessarily more important than other basic needs or aspects of subsistence and survival within households. Food-insecure households juggle among a range of requirements, including immediate consumption and future capacity to produce.

            Livelihood promotion involves improving the resilience of household livelihoods so that food and other basic needs can be met on a sustainable basis (i.e. development). Interventions of this type often aim to reduce the structural vulnerability of livelihood systems by focusing on :

Improving production to stabilize yield through diversification into agro-ecologically appropriate crops and natural resource management measures (e.g. soil and water conservation)

Creating alternative income-generating activities (e.g. activities to develop small enterprise).

Reinforcing coping strategies that are economically and environmentally sustainable (e.g. seasonally appropriate off-farm employment).

Improving on-farm storage capacity to increase the availability of buffer stocks.

Improving common property management through community participation.

Against this background, the present project on “Developing Sustainable Farming System Models for Prioritized Micro Watersheds in Rainfed Areas in Jharkhand” has been formulated as an action research pilot project in selected village clusters of the 2 backward districts of Jharkhand involving a consortium of ICAR institutes and Birsa Agricultural University. The specific objectives of the project are:

Objectives

To develop appropriate land & water use plan in the selected micro-watershed for conserving natural resources.

To improve productivity of crops, promote horticulture, animal husbandry fisheries & lac cultivation for livelihood security.

To promote entrepreneurship for value addition to reduce migration & employment generation at farm level.

To develop sustainable farming system models for the micro-watershed & improve market linkages.

Project Location

            The identified districts for implementation of the programme are Dumka (10 blocks, 1412mm rainfall, 61 rainy days, 104081 ha land suitable for agriculture, 5792 ha irrigated, 73662 ha under rice, 49.2% cultivators, 34.4% agricultural labour, 518493 total workers) and Jamtara (4 blocks, 1376mm rainfall, 60 rainy days, 79810 ha land suitable for agriculture, 7251 ha irrigated, 60,000 ha under rice, 43.1% cultivators, 35.1% agricultural labour, 260908 total workers). The consortia includes BAU, Ranchi as Lead Centre, HARP & IINGR, Ranchi and CRURRS, Hazaribagh as Consortia Partners. ZRS, Dumka, ATMA Jamtara, ATMA, Dumka & Progressive farmer as cooperators. Four micro watersheds in Jamtara (Narayanpur and Jamtara blocks) and Dumka (Jama and Dumka blocks) districts comprising over 2000 hectares lands are the locations of the present study.

Project approach and phasing

            This is neither a pure research nor a development project. It is basically an action research project i.e. research on putting technologies to work. It aims to understand the constraints and packaging the available technologies in such a way that the communities can adopt the same and enhance the productivity/profitability. This will be done through participatory farming systems approach. There will be also focus on landless and promoting off-farm employment opportunities. The major interventions will be on resource conservation, enhancing productivity of crop, livestock (goat, pig, poultry, duck), fisheries, horticulture, lac cultivation, value addition and market linkages, institutional innovations and capacity building. The project will be implemented in four phases.

Innovation of the Project

Consortium approach in project implementation deriving synergy from different institutions with strengths in technical expertise, market linkages and community mobilization.

Interventions with a holistic approach to address the livelihood security of the community rather than increasing crop productivity alone.

Linking natural resources management with livelihood security i.e. a watershed plus approach.

Enhanced profitability rather than increased productivity as the deliverable.

Attention to cluster level processing, value addition and market linkages.

Linkages and Upscaling

            The project will have strong linkages with development departments. Convergence of project activities with that a State Soil Conservation, Horticulture, Sericulture & Agriculture Departments will be ensured so that there is no duplication/overlapping. Up scaling of technologies generated will be done through KVK/ZRS/ATMA, who are partners in the programme. SAMETI/MANAGE.CRIDA will impact requisite training to extension & project partners on different aspects of farming system. NABARD and other financial institutions & market organizations at local level will provide the necessary support as per requirement. Regular visit of development department officials to project sites will be ensured. It will bridge the key technology gaps in the ongoing rural livelihood programme in Jharkhand. The outputs from the project and lessons learn are to feed into the state and national level policy in the area of NRM and livelihoods in rainfed areas.

Expected output, outcome and impact

Project duration            :           2007-08 to 2011-2012 (5 years)

Budget                         :           Rs. 605.40 lakhs