Farmer Support Programme in Responsible Soya (SOLIDARIDAD)
The CARD- Solidaridad Network association has been formd in five districts of Malwa region viz Ujjain, Dewas, Shajapur (Agar), Dhar and Jhabua Districts. We had covered 9000 farming households of the project area under FSP (RS). CARD has already been working in these areas with government and private projects on agriculture productivity enhancement. The FSP programme has brought in the elements of responsible farming in the fore front. The project initiatives include demonstrations of improved agronomic practices, trainings, Exposure visits, awareness camps, scientist interaction, pear review meetings of producers on RTRS principles and GAP including Social, environmental, labour, gender issues, etc. The major achievements of the project are as under:
- Registration of 9000 farmers from different socio economic community including Bhil tribes.
- Trained a total number of 6853 farmers, towards our project objectives.
- Total 2107 demonstrations on different cropping techniques were facilitated. Total 2107 farmers took the benefits of these demonstrations.
- Total 354 Farmers’ Interest Groups have been formed in project villages to organize the farmers in their institutions. Equal number of Lead farmers has also been identified who are representing these institutions.
- Different events were organized in the project villages to facilitate farmers- scientists’ interaction. Total 25 such events were organized through which total 1455 farmers received useful information against their queries and also received information of latest farming system technologies.
- Internal Audit activity was facilitated among all the registered farmers.
- Yield assessment exercise was facilitated among 875 farmers on Soy crop.
- Around 4700 farmers participated in external audit exercise.
- 9704 ha area brought under RTRS principles.
- Solidaridad (South and South East Asia) team organizes trainings/workshops and review meetings for the FSP partners. Following are some major events organized during the project duration:
- National Stakeholder Workshop for Sustainable Soybean Production was organised at Bhopal on 25TH September 2013.Two field staff and two farmers participated in the same from our project.
- Workshop for Capacity building and technical training for I.P field staff had been organised at Bhopal during25th-26th July 2013.Total 14 participants from our project participated in this workshop.
- During 13-15 November 2013 Solidaridad (South and South East Asia) organized Experience sharing and review workshop at Bhopal. Our two team members participated in this workshop and made a presentation on the project achievements.
- Workshop for capacity building and program planning during 16th and 17th June 2014 Total 9 participants from our project participated in this workshop.
- Seminar was organized on “How to create market transformation’’ at Bhopal on 30th June 2014. Total 4 participants from our project participated in this workshop.
- On 13thOctobar 2014 an interactive session was organized with the Directors of Solidaridad International to gain views, suggestions, vision and expectations relating to future role of the Solidaridad in the region. Total 5 participants from our project participated in this workshop.
- Female farmers from our project area visited Dewas and shared their opinion regarding FSP during the field visit of Directors of Solidaridad International
- Experience sharing Workshop was organized in Bhopal on 21 November 2014. Two members from our project were present and shared their experiences.
- Strategic Meeting on Cotton and Soy on 14 Jan 2015.
- "Stakeholders Conference on Sustainable Soy and Interaction with RTRS CEO" on 2nd April, 2015.
- Workshop for Sustainable soya week at Indore (Krishi Anusandhan Kendra) on 5 Jun 2015 totals 13 females participants from our project participated in this workshop.
- Sustainable Soya week at Bhopal 10 Jun 2015 total 9 participants from our project participated in this workshop.
- Organized total 225 training/workshops at different levels in which total 4697 farmers participated,
- Total 701 farmers of the from the project villages participated in 18 exposure visits organized towards various agriculture/horticulture events, research institutes such as KVKs, Directorate of soybean Research, Indore, National agriculture Basant mela, Nagpur, Agriculture college, Verdha & Mahatma Gandhi Rural Industrial Institute, Verdha, Shri shivaji agriculture college & KVK Amravati, Horticulture nursery of Punjab Rao Deshmukh Vidhyapeeth & Udhyan Vidhya College Akola (M.H) etc. Here farmers witnessed various improved farming practices.
Project activities were planned for 74 villages in the Malwa Plateau consisting of 10 blocks from 5 districts Shajapur-now Agar (Agar, Nalkheda, Susner blocks) Ujjain (Tarana, Ghatiya, Ujjain blocks), Dewas, (Dewas block), Dhar (Tirla, Nalcha blocks), Jhabua,( Petlawad block). Total 9000 farmers have been registered under the project. Different activities were planned to facilitate among these registered farmers. These activities have been divided under three main sectors which are as under; i) Production Support Activity, ii) Organizational Strengthening Activity and iii) Certification Support Activity.
Production Support Activity:
Demonstration of Responsible Agriculture Practices:In India agriculture extension is a primary requirement at all levels hence the main objective behind organizing demonstrations is to demonstrate improved and responsible crop production and protection technologies and its management practices in the farmers’ fields under different agro-climatic regions and farming situations. The selection of the approaches for demonstration has been done considering the principles of RTRS. While demonstrating the technologies in the farmers’ field, the scientists are required to study the factors contributing higher crop production, prevalent practices, field constrains of production, and thereby generation of production data and feedback information. Front-Line Demonstrations are conducted in a plot of one or two hectares land in order to have better impact of the demonstrated technologies on the farmers and field level extension functionaries. Total 433 demonstrations on different farming system techniques have been facilitated. Each demonstration has been performed on 1 Acre land of participating farmer. Details of the same are as under:
Details of Demonstrations Facilitated during May 2013- Oct 2015
| S.No. | Technique Demonstrated | Cumulative |
|---|---|---|
1. |
Broad bed furrow | 121 |
2. |
Raised bed furrow | 155 |
3. |
Integrated Pest Management (Pheromone trap) | 612 |
4. |
Seed spacing, seed replacement, seed rate, treatment etc | 540 |
5. |
Deep Ploughing | 114 |
6. |
Farm bounding’s | 137 |
7. |
Vermi compost | 428 |
Trainings: have been organized in the project area to address the different issues such as, Good agriculture practices, Internal/external Audit process and importance, Farmers’ institution (FPO) formation etc. Farmers, Lead farmers, ICS Staff, FIG members etc. were the participants of these trainings. Besides exposure visits have been organized of the ICS staff towards institutions involved in the FPO formation and promotion of responsible agriculture practices. ICS staff from project area visited these institutions to witness the process of FPO formation and improved agronomic practices for Soy crop and other important crops of the region. Details of these trainings and exposure are as under:
Interaction between ICS staff/Lead Farmers, Farmers and Scientist: Interaction between ICS staff/Lead Farmers, Farmers and Scientist: Input support has been provided to the producers with a view to support them adopt Good Agriculture Practices (GAP). For the purpose a kit containing gloves and masks has been introduced among the farmers to be used while performing cropping operations such as seed treatment, pesticide/ insecticide application, fertilizer application etc. where the use of hazardous chemicals is involved. The distribution of this kit was made during the farmers’ registration event. Before distributing this kit its use and importance was shared with them. Total 9094 farmers have received the kit from the project.
Distribution Details of kit containing Masks& gloves
| S.No. | District | Total Farmer |
|---|---|---|
1. |
Ujjain | 2935 |
2. |
Dewas | 1430 |
3. |
Shajapur | 2258 |
4. |
Dhar | 1759 |
5. |
Jhabua | 712 |
Total |
9094 |
|
Organizational Strengthening Activity
Yield assessment: This has been performed with a representative sample of participating Soy crop producers in the villages of Agar, Dewas, Dhar, Jhabua and Ujjain districts. Yield Assessment exercise had been performed among 1983 farmers which is 10% sample of total registered farmers under the FSP. During this farmers were involved in measuring the yield of selected plots in a participatory method. The soybeans yield was measured through employing Crop cutting Method by plotting (Standard 1x1 mt plots) and 3 Plots per farm (1 Bigha). The exercise was carried out in 1983 farmers’ fields of 1 bigha each.
Certification Support Activity
Internal audit is the integrated part of RTRS certification process. To achieve this we initiated with the trainings to lead farmers from different groups along with ICS staff. Much such training had been organized to generate understanding towards the method, importance and outcomes of the exercise. Internal audit of all 9000 farmers had been completed. Further external audit also had been done with 4740 farmers from different villages of Agar (1490 farmers), Dhar (1121 farmers) and Ujjain (2129 farmers) Districts.