Rainfed Agro-Ecosystem Production System Research Completion Report 1999- 2004

Not AvailableSustainable management of natural resources is key for improved agricultural productivity and better livelihoods for farmers in rainfed regions of the country. Over the years, large number of improved technologies like superior varieties, nutrient management, pest control, cropping system etc. were evolved for major rainfed crops like pulses, oilseeds, cotton and nutritious cereals in different agro ecological situations in the country. Application of these technologies resulted in significantly higher yields at research stations across the country. But the actual yields realized by the farmers still remain low and this yield gap is a major concern for the Government of India. There are many reasons for the continued yield gap. However, the most important has been the field level constraints in adopting the best technologies and management practices by the farmers for realizing optimum productivity from a given crop or cropping system, as done at the research stations. It is more so in rainfed regions where the growing environment is quite heterogeneous and the risks are enormous in adopting any new technology which requires higher investments. It is therefore important to critically understand the performance of the improved technologies under farmer’s conditions and analyze how best to leverage to farmers strengths and overcome the weaknesses in order to bridge the yield gap as much as possible. The production systems research (PSR) under rainfed agro ecosystems of the NATP attempted to address this issue through a farmer participatory on-farm research mode. Network projects were formulated in all the five production systems on major thrust areas like rainwater management, INM, IPM, on-farm varietal testing, post harvest technology and value addition. As a chairman of the Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP), I have been associated with the NATP project with reviewing, approval and monitoring of the sub projects under rainfed agro ecosystem between 1999 to 2004. This was a major effort of on-farm research in more than 200 districts involving nearly 8000 farmers. As a departure from the normal crop demonstrations, these experiments were located in specially identified target districts which have fairly large area under a given production system but lag behind in productivity. This participatory research model was fairly successful in generating useful data on farmers micro farming situations which truly reflects the strength of the technology and its application domain. In addition to identifying and validating nearly 48 technologies in different production systems, the sub projects have also resulted in transferable technologies in the area of post harvest technology and value addition which can be taken up by private entrepreneurs. The project tested successfully a new model of inter institutional research with in built monitoring mechanism which should be main streamed into the research system of the NARS. This completion report eloquently captures all the major events in the implementation of the project covering the project development processes, salient achievements, technology transfer, linkages and impact. I am sure this report will be quite useful to all the stakeholders of rainfed agro ecosystem research in the NARS. I wish to acknowledge the excellent co-operation and efforts of the all my colleagues in the scientific advisory panel (SAP) who played a key role in identification and formulation of relevant research projects in the priority domains. Some of them who were associated for most part of the project implementation and made substantial contribution include Drs.N.G.P.Rao,I.C.Mahapatra, B.K.Soni, N.N.Goswami, S.Bislaiah, R.K.Gupta and S.N.Puri. The agro ecosystem Directors, Dr.Y.S.Ramakrishna, the present Director and Dr.H.P.Singh, the former Director of CRIDA, efficiently implemented the projects at the AED level. Dr.B.Venkateswarlu, Principal Production System Scientist (PPSS) did an excellent job in coordinating the work, organizing the SAP meetings and documentation, which was responsible for good recognition and appreciation of the AED Rainfed by PIU, NATP. Dr.K.P.R.Vittal, former PPSS, played immense role in the project development process by preparing the base documents and putting in place the functional network for different sub projects. I wish to specially acknowledge the cooperation of all the participating farmers and project scientists who contributed to the success of this major project in evaluating, validating and refining various technologies to improve the productivity and sustainability of this stressed ecosystem. I wish to acknowledge and congratulate all those involved in the successful implementation of this unique project.Not Availabl