1. Training on Smallholder irrigation & value chains
Strategies to enhance incomes
S.C. Rajshekar
Symbiotec Research Associates
C-6-C, Gangotri Enclave, Alaknanda New Delhi
Tel:

2. What is this about?
How does one enhance incomes of small and marginal farmers?
Gujarat – Junagadh & Dahod
Orissa – Nawarangapur & Sonepur
Eastern Uttar Pradesh – Padrauna & Gorakhpur

3. What can you influence and where should one start
What should we do?
What can you influence and where should one start
Production
Direct reach, distant markets
Green revolution technologies
Market
Not taken off
Increased risk

4. How to increase productivity without significantly increasing risk
Costs, profits & risk
In contrast, near Bangalore
Cost of cultivation of Tomato is Rs..20,000 /acre.
Yield is 12t-15t /acre
Cost per kg is ~Rs..1.50
At Rs.2.00/kg net income is Rs /acre!
How to increase productivity without significantly increasing risk

5. Conceptual framework Crop Management Output market Cropping Pattern
Choice of crop
Crop timing
Motivation, food security, cash needs
Cropping intensity
Crop diversification
Adoption of new crops
Multi-level cropping
Spreading risk by diversifying crop portfolio into grains, vegetables, orchards & trees
Input management
Access to physical inputs
Seeds
Fertilisers
Pesticides
Water
Soil
Labour & Capital
Production knowledge
Right choice of inputs
Right use of inputs
Access to production knowledge
Output market
Location of markets
Type of market, primary, secondary
Price discovery mechanism, direct sale, auction
Transparency & market practices
Prior access to market information

6. What do the 3 cropping patterns tell you?
Junagadh
Ground nut – Vegetables
Sonepur
Paddy – vegetables
Find the area
Multi-crops (millets, pulses, cucurbits) - vegetables
What do the 3 cropping patterns tell you?

7. Cropping pattern tells us about
Soil type
Land location
Irrigation – available or not
Climate
Market choices
And what else???

8. Cropping pattern tells us about..
Attitude
Way of life vs. commercial agriculture
Security vs. profits
Nature of security sought
Extent of integration into monetary economy

9. Typical cropping pattern
Sonepur - Paddy – vegetables
Tribal area - Multi-crops (millets, pulses, cucurbits) - vegetables
First food security (Paddy, millets, etc.)
Next cash needs (Pulses, vegetables, fruits, etc.)
Junagadh - Ground nut – Vegetables.

10. Crop portfolio planning
Increase cropping intensity
Spread risk
Provide long-term security
Crop portfolio
Food security
Cash needs
Long-term security
Diversification into orchards
Field bund plantations
Revival of supplementary land based activities
Existing crops – Immediate term
New high value crops –medium term
Identify new high value crops such as Stevia, Safed musli, etc.
Introduce through a campaign
Reduce risk by backing up with contracted buy-back with reputed firms vetted by IDE-I
Select top 3 existing crops
Document best practices
Identify cost reduction and productivity enhancing measures
Build a campaign to promote

11. Cost reduction & productivity enhancement
Proper crop management
Nursery for cotton?
Alternate furrow irrigation
Micro-drip micro-fertigation
Integrated Pest Management
Multilevel cropping
Increases production from unit area
Spreads risk

12. Multilevel cropping Climbers bottle gourds Lemon Climbers flat beans
Banana
Climbers flat beans, bitter gourd
Climbers flat beans
Climbers bottle gourds
Lemon
Cabbage
lines
Papaya
Beans
Tomato lines

13. Approaches to increasing income
How to increase income
Agri-extension
Grow more = gain more
But
Risk more too!
Ultra unconventional
Less cost, less labour = gain more
And
More crops = less risk
Unconventional response
Grow more but less cost, gain more
And
More crops = less risk

14. Natural farming low cost, low labour, less risk same production
Natural farming is farming integrated with Nature, not in competition with it.
Grow more, but safeguard your asset too – the soil, water, seeds
The question to ask is what operation can I eliminate in growing a crop?