Interventions

Chamba represents hilly regions of the Himalayas where fodder availability during off season is a major issue for livestock owners. Most of the available grazing lands are already degraded and devoid of tree cover. In order to promote fodder cultivation on hill slopes, KVK Chamba has embarked on a large-scale tree planting on the hill slopes. Plantation of fodder trees (Robinia and Morus alba) has been taken up with community participation covering over 200 farmers (Each 0.5ac).

In the recent years, early withdrawal of monsoon has been challenge to farmers in Bijapur district, Karnataka.  This poses serious concerns for raising successful chickpea, a prominent rabi crop in this area.  Keeping this in view, in-situ rainwater harvesting was promoted through compartment bunding over 32 ha (75 acres) covering 30 farmers in Koulagi village under NICRA Project.  Out of the 30 farmers, 18 were small, 8 were marginal and 4 were medium holders.  Cycle operated seed drill and cycle operated weeders were used in 8 and 10 ha respectively.  Bio-fertilizers and improved varieties of chickpea (JG-11) were also promoted in these fields.  Yield realised by farmers with compartment bunds was 20 percent higher.  This practice has been widely accepted as a climate resilient measure by chick pea farmers of the village.

National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture was launched in April, 2011 at Village Sitara of Bharatpur district, Rajasthan. This village is situated in low lying area due to which kharif crops often get damaged as a result of inundation. Hence, the major cropping season is rabi. Rabi crops are sustained by irrigation through shallow tube wells. As the number of shallow tube wells has increased during the last 10 years, the required quantity of water is not available for irrigation leading to low productivity of rabi crops. Keeping these in view, the KVK, Bharatpur has initiated recharging of bore wells by a simple technique. The runoff is collected in a filter pit allowing the sediment to settle. Later, sediment free water is delivered into the tube well through a tube.

Mesocosm pilot study conducted at International Centre for Ecological Engineering, University of Kalyani, Kalyani, Nadia-741 235, West Bengal by Dr. B. B.Jana and team within and outside the polyhouse showed about 124 % increase in chlorophyll and phytocarbon content of microalgae due to 3oC rise in water temperature (32oC; light intensity- 20400 ± 17300 lux) in tanks placed within the polyhouse compared to those outside the polyhouse (29.oC; light intensity -12300 ± 7900 lux) An exciting observation was that

the fish tilapia held in closed polyhouse tanks bred and produced offspring , whereas no such breeding activities were noticed in their counterparts held outside the polyhouse. However, fishes like rohu, bata and paku were not found suitable as their growth was reduced with rise in temperature in the closed polyhouse. The outcome of the study i.e., the benefit of the closed polyhouse may be profitably used by the fish farmer for enhancing the hatching rate of common carp spawn in hatcheries during winter as well as for enhancing the growth of carp and other tropical fish during winter and colder region of the country in general.

Extreme cyclonic weather conditions are quite common in the coastal district of South 24 Parganas, West Bengal and there is every possibility of ingression of saline water in the main land particularly during high tides. Cyclones occur occasionally in this area and render most of the land saline. Even after 2-3 seasons of monsoon, the salinity problem continues to persist resulting in leading lands uncultivated. The NICRA village of Bongheri of the district is situated close to the brackish water river Matla. On the 25th of May, 2009 the super cyclone “Aila” hit this village as well and rendered the cultivable area saline and the problem persist even today.

The region being low lying, water stagnates up to 3 to 4 feet. Therefore this area is traditionally mono-cropped with paddy. Due to high precipitation (1600 to 1800 mm) during monsoon the entire region becomes inundated with fresh rainwater which in absence of proper harvesting technique, mostly drains down into the brackish water river. Due to high evaporation and seepage rate, fresh water availability is scarce during the winter season. In the post “Aila” period, it has been observed that with evaporation of water the salinity in the land has increased.

In order to overcome the salinity problem and augment availability of fresh water during the rabi season, an engineering solution was promoted by KVK, Nimpith. In this, 1/5th portion of the low laying land is excavated up to a depth of 9 feet. The excavated soil is then spread over the adjacent land so that it is elevated by about 1.5 feet. And on this elevated patch, paddy is cultivated during kharif and different types of vegetables are grown during rabi season. The excavated pond becomes a source of fresh rainwater in which fish culture can also be practiced. Vegetables are also cultivated on the main land, land embankment and on pond embankment during the winter months.

Thus, this technology of land shaping is offered as a model for harvesting rainwater for fresh water fish culture and vegetable cultivation in the coastal saline belt of South 24 Parganas. This is also expected to gradually convert mono-cropped land into a diversified land use for enhanced profitability and reducing risk.

This intervention was taken up in the affected fields of 10 farmers. The cost of this intervention depends upon the size of the pond. However, it is recommended that 20% of the area is treated with the excavated soil so that the farm families can engage in some productive activity soon after the cyclone. The cost of digging and land shaping (apprx. 20 m X 20 m size) is about 40000-50000.

Land was prepared during April-May on receipt of pre monsoon showers. Seed was sown by dry seeding method at the mid of June with desi wooden plough by hand dibbling at 10-12 cm depth. Seeds germinated 10-12 days after sowing by utilizing sub soil moisture. The crop got the benefit of 4-5 drizzling rains until mid August when there were sufficient rains. The crop establishment is around 75%. Had the farmers waited for enough rains before taking up sowing, they would not have been able to take up groundnut, as it would be too late.
The risk can be avoided if one can provide life saving irrigation with the help of sprinkler 10-15 days after sowing.

Open wells serve as one of the major sources of water for irrigation in Jalgaon (K.P.) in Baramati Taluk of Pune District. There are 74 farmers having open wells as main source of irrigation which further depend upon 6 rainwater harvesting structures for recharge. These recharge structures have become defunct over the years due to heavy siltation. As a result, the water table in the open wells started declining and the farmer’s ability to meet crop water needs was seriously affected. Sensing the vulnerability of the farmers, the NICRA project mobilized the community for desilting of the water bodies. The average size of renovated defunct water structures was 123.00 X 61.53 X 1.21 m and total quantity of silt excavated from these structures was around 13559.05 Cu.m. Farmers participated in this initiative by hauling 2722 trips (tractor loads) of silt to their fields. The excavated silt was applied to 11 ha area contributing to improve soil fertility and water holding capacity.

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NICRA village level awareness campaign was organized on 16-09-2011 at Kattusiviri village near KVK Tindivanam, Villupuram, Tamil Nadu. The campaign was inaugurated by Dr. P. Murugesa Boopathi, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor of TNAU. The Joint Director of Agriculture, Deputy Director (Horticulture), Deputy Director (Farmers Training Centre), Deputy Director (Planning and Monitoring), Assistant Executive Engineer (Department of Agril. Engineering), Block level officers of the Department of Agriculture, Officers of the District Collectorate and Panchayataraj Institution representatives, and almost all the households of the village participated in the campaign.

1. Involving farmers of the surrounding villages of the NICRA project village

2. Ensuring the participation of the Officers of Line Departments and village Panchayat members.

3. Giving prominence to the peoples’ representatives ie., the MLA of the constituency and the elected representatives of village Panchayat.

4. Putting up an exhibition of all the material including the farm machinery, implements and improved seeds and livestock at the venue of the meeting so that the villagers physically see all the procurements. This is a way of bringing in transparency and social audit into practice.

5. Release of the Project Information Brochure in vernacular language during the meet.

6. Issuing of certificates to vocational trainees of the village as part of trust building and recognition exercise during the meet.

7. Giving a head start, all the interventions were initiated in a symbolic way on the occasion of awareness campaign.

8. Using local publicity traditions such as the local band (Nadhaswaram and Mathalam) and traditional arathi to welcome the dignitaries and taking them around the village. This created an interest among the villagers and many of them came to the streets and joined the meeting.

9. The various committees and VCRMC were formally instituted by the Vice Chancellor during the course of the meeting.

Sakroraha is the village selected by KVK, Jehanabad, Bihar, Zone II under NICRA project. It falls under south-west Agro climatic zone of Bihar state. Climate of Jehanabad district is extreme in nature i.e. extremely hot in summers and extremely cold in winters. Average annual rainfall in this area is around 1074.5 mm. The soils are fertile alluvial plains, which are highly suitable for the cultivation of rice-wheat, pulses, potato etc. The major climate variability challenge faced here is drought and delayed onset of monsoon.

The KVK Jehanabad introduced an improved variety Rajendra Suwasini known for its short duration and drought tolerance. Nearly 90 farmers were provided with the seeds of R Suwasini for taking up trials in 35 hectares. Farmers took up sowing with R Suwasini during 3rd week of July with the receipt of rainfall. They used single seedling method of transplanting in 1st week of August when plenty of rainfall was received (350 mm approx). The crop stand is normal now (Mid September) with 30-40 healthy tillers per plant and no incidence of diseases/pests.

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