Company: Tata Steel Limited

Company: Tata Steel Limited

Country: India

Project Name: "Improving the productivity of kharif paddy crop in Seraikela-Kharsawan district in Jharkhand, India, by utilizing the e-farming concept" (Kharif crops are usually sown with the beginning of the first rains in July in India.)

Category: Poverty

Website:

Objective:

The project aimed to increase food security and the income of farmers by improving the paddy yield from 1.8 tons per acre to 3 tons per acre (from 2008 to 2010).

Details of the project:

The Indian state of Jharkhand was abundant in natural resources. Average rainfall was around 1,300 mm. However, due to the undulating terrain and the lack of irrigation infrastructure, only 9 percent of the area was under irrigation, against the national average of 39 percent. About 80 percent of the population of the area was dependent on agriculture for livelihood but productivity in the region was amongst the lowest in the country at approximately 0.7 tons per acre, while the national average was 1.0 ton per acre. It was against this backdrop that the Tata Steel Rural Development Society (TSRDS), the community services arm of Tata Steel, initiated the project to increase paddy yield. The Jamshedpur unit-based team of TSRDS collaborated with the Agriculture Consultancy Management Foundation (ACMF) on this project.

In early 2008, TSRDS entered into an agreement with the ACMF to educate and train farmers on productivity improvements. Utilizing the concept of e-farming, ACMF educated farmers in scientific agricultural practices. At the core of this approach was the demonstration farm and what ACMF called its Pancha Karma (Five Principles): land preparation, soil testing and the balance of nutrients, selecting the right crop, quality seeds and a healthy nursery, and fertilization, farm mechanization and total management.

Representatives of ACMF visited several villages, interacted with farmers and advised them on these techniques. TSRDS brought together farmers in Kendua Village of the Seraikela-Kharsawan District and decided to implement the program with direct seedlings of rice. About 24 marginal farmers (those whose land holdings were less than an acre) adopted this practice for paddy crop in 2008, and were taught how to plough the soil to a particular depth. Once the soil was prepared, the villagers planted seeds directly into the soil using the row and furrow method, which diminished the need for water. Local varieties of paddy seeds were replaced with high-yielding ones.

Initiatives like soil testing, field preparation, the use of high-yield variety seeds and an improved method of transplantation were introduced for the first time in the area. As recommended by ACMF, fields near wells used the water from it to raise vegetables. Farmers were given on the job training. Their farms’ progress was constantly monitored through digital photographs transmitted to Chennai through the Internet, and then necessary corrections and improvements made.

TSRDS’s involvement with the tribal farmers was entirely participatory in nature. It was through consistent relationship building that tribal farmers were helped to give up older, less efficient practices, and to adopt new ones. To reinforce the sense of participation, TSRDS was careful not to give anything for free. Seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and saplings were all partly paid for by the villagers as a matter of principle.

The results were encouraging: yields averaging around 1800 kg/ acre increased to an average of 2250 kg/acre. Farmers were so appreciative of the improvements that several of them procured the drum seeder and used this in 2009. For the first time, crop diversification was introduced to increase the income of farmers even more.

One of the major unquantifiable outcomes of the project was the prevention of distress migration and the increase in the confidence level of farmers. This project showed that small plots, if managed well, could be very productive and could improve the economic and social status of the communities.

Many tribal farmers gave feedback on how helpful it was to be able to learn in actual practice what had to be done. The women were particularly happy: “We would not have been able to go on study tours. TSRDS came to our doorstep and taught us. Now we plan to plant tomatoes, gram, coriander, potatoes, wheat and mustard.”