REVITALIZING RAINFED AGRICULTURE NETWORK (RRA)-NATIONAL CONSORTIUM ON SRI (NCS) node

1. REVITALIZING RAINFED AGRICULTURE NETWORK (RRA)-NATIONAL CONSORTIUM ON SRI (NCS) node RRA Review Meeting New Delhi May 9-10, 2013 Supported by RRA Network Hivos

2. NCS: Motivation & Involvement • Mandate: • Improving food and livelihood security at household level, • developing strategy for Upscaling agro-ecological Innovations, • knowledge management and delivery in continuum • Mechanism: • Knowledge transfer and value among stakeholders • Institutional framework for spreading innovation • Long term perspectives

3. Household Food security: concern • Changing pattern of complex production system • Smallholder rural economy • Declining farm production • Defining and realizing of the critical role of Innovation for productivity improvement

4. Mechanism: • Consortium Approach: NCS can contribute lot to mainstream system through stakeholders interaction and policy dialogue in continuum • Knowledge delivery and value addition among stakeholders • Partnership and peer interaction • Combine/synergize SCIENCE OF SRI, PRACTICE AND POLICY • Networking for durable impacting of rural change (long term perspective) • Institutional framework for spreading innovation by converging various streams of implementation of innovation scheme

5. The National Consortium on SRI What is NCS? • It is an informal association of multiple stakeholders (CSOs, research and resource institutions and experts who have come together for taking forward the cause of SRI) having strength or competence in areas of scaling up practice and policy • NCS is in existence since 2006, which coincides with holding of the 1st National Conference on SRI followed by the participation in the International Rice Congress 2009 • Primary focus: Promoting /understanding • SRI science, • SRI practice and • SRI policy engagement, • which synergistically empower rice farmers to meet household and national food security even as they save water and other inputs.   • NCS believe that the quality knowledge of agro-ecological innovations help improving food security, enhancing farm incomes which is a sustainable, eco-friendly and resource conserving systems of crop intensification.

6. Several streams contributed to SRI success: mostly stand-alone

8. Current Activities of NCS • Governance and Upscaling of SRI: Understanding the State led SRI Scale Up processes – Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Tripura. • Quantify and compare performance of indigenous paddy varieties under SRI and Traditional practice (in 6 states in India, namely Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Meghalaya and Tamil Nadu) • Examining the trends in disadoption of SRI and identify the cause and effect relationship. The focus is to examine the performance of SRI in rainfed area; to assess the impact of SRI on household food security; and to analyze the farmer’s perception of the preference of the practice and derive policy imperatives

9. Activities undertaken by NCS…. • SWI pilot at IARI farm: Mainstream R & D system– An experiment was conducted at IARI under the PPP model where National Consortium on SRI collaborated with IARI for on-station scientific validation of SRI/SWI principles through intensive farmer-practitioner interaction. • (A) Policy advocacy and publications – • Continuous interaction with MOA and NFSM, GOI, NARS Institutes, NAC, GOI, NAAS (National Academy of Agricultural Sciences), State Govts, Farmers and other org. • Interacting dialogues with Researchers (National as well as International) and participates in various e-debate, e-dialogues and e-discussions.

10. Policy linkages - Organized policy consultations to update and create awareness about various activities among the stakeholders • A National Conference on Policy Consultation on SRI in India involving the, Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India, ICAR, NAC, Govt. of India, NAAS and civil Society organizations for developing Upscaling strategy for SRI/SCI. • During the year, the NCS, made significant achievements in the identified areas. • The support from the RRA network helped strengthening our effort and enables more linkages with the stakeholders and expand the consortium

11. (B) Publications by NCS • BOOKS and REPORTS: 5 (details available) • Journal papers: 7 • Technical and policy brief: 3

12. Findings: (1) Governance and Upscaling Strategy: State led SRI Scale Up processes – Key learning Bihar • Importance of grass root based institutions • Extension Mechanism can also be developed from Community • Hand holding at every level is a must • Small and marginal farmers can also be the leader • Non Input driven interventions can also be successful • Knowledge delivery through regular Communication essential Chhattisgarh • Financial resources of government, social resources of NGO’s and knowledge resources of scientific community need to be brought at same platform • timely awareness and skill development, training, support services, availability of farm implements and credit support can take the programme a long way • Technology needs to be simplified and made usable for the end user • There should be contingency plan like doing extra nursery, trying out community nursery

13. Governance and Upscaling ….. Jharkhand (NABARD Model ) • Quality CSOs can make great impacts • Benefits of working together • Long term commitment • Input support is just a myth • Large acceptance Odisha • Focus on capacity building, hand holding through on-site technical guidance and financial support to small and marginal farmers • Active engagement of Government machinery led to success of the programme • The CSO’s played important role in reaching out SRI programme to all districts by forging effective collaboration with government/funding agency Tripura (PRI model) • Engagement of PRI increased the program outreach • Focus on the training and capacity building of all Government and elected representatives • Observed the highest spread within a small span of time • Largely led by the Department of Agriculture

14. (2) Performance of indigenous paddy varieties under SRI • Studied 24 organizations across 6 states ( namely- Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal) • 200 Indigenous Paddy Varieties (IPV) were identified and evaluated • Av. yield of 94 IPVs was 5.08 t/ha; while another 54 IPVs reported above 4 t/ha under SRI management across different locations in 2011-12 • Odisha reported the highest yield of 6.1 t/ha followed by Chhattisgarh of 4.9 t/ha and Maharashtra at 4.5 t/ha It has been observed that the IPV perform potentially as good as modern varieties, under crop intensification

15. Factors affecting SRI Dis adoption

16. Mainstream R&D and Practicing Farmer Collaboration: SWI farmers from Rajasthan, Uttarkand and Bihar participated at On-station experiment SWI (Healthy start) SWI Jan 24 SWI-Lodging resistance

17. NCS-IARI SWI Experiment (2011-12)

18. Inter-Year variation in wheat yield Treatment Effect on yield of SWI with Conv. expt. method, IARI t/h 2012 (Favourable year)

19. Long term perspectives • Refining and defining outcome and activities • Expand the scope of core group of experienced and interested researchers, policy managers and practitioners. • Working on deriving strategy to engage the regional forums in innovation promotion • Develop vibrant pathway for food and livelihood security (spill over effect)

20. Future Road Map • Mainstreaming R&D system and civil Society Organization (NGO). A synergistic relationship developed by forging collaborative between IARI –NCS on SWI pilot research during 2011-12 and 2012-2013 • Unfinished tasks: • Analysis of farm survey data of 1500 farmers on study of adoption dynamics • Improving and interpreting the findings of the study of the process of state-engagement for SRI upscaling • Analysis of the study of the evaluation of IPV in the rainfed areas • Further works on Innovative Institutional Architecture or upscaling technologies • Strengthening CP engagements

21. THANK YOU

22. Achievements and deliverables • Research • Mainstream R&D and NCS collaboration: Made significant contribution and mindset • Review of SRI Research in India, emphasizing on comprehensive clarity on Science of SRI or how SRI works • Adoption dynamics: Understanding dis-adoption of SRI (research project mode) • SRI governance and State : • Performance evaluation of Indigenous Varieties under SRI • Practice • SRI resource book and learning modules • Knowledge delivery and constraint Identification • Invite members to develop relevant research and development work and other contemporary issues of SRI to be pursued by NCS • Documentation of comprehensive compendium of farmers’ experiences, programs, research publications etc. and development of a website • As a core mandate, NCS will strive to promote and support state level consortia and enable active exchange of strategies, experiences and synthesis of lessons across the state • Policy • Synthesizing recommendations of various Sub-Groups on SRI for the 12th Five Year Plan constituted by the Planning Commission and organizing advocacy events on the emerging strategic framework • To organize interface meetings with the Ministry of Agriculture, NABARD and other agencies at national and state levels on appropriate strategic framework for strengthening SRI.

23. Details-(B) Publications by NCS BOOKS and REPORTS: • A book titled “Transforming Rice Production with SRI (System of Rice Intensification) Knowledge and Practice” was published by NCS. This book has been co authored by Dr T M Thiyagarajan and MrBikshamGujja • A SRI manual has also been developed in Asomiya language by NCS to be used by farmers in Assam • In promoting and documenting scientific evidences on SRI, the NCS brought out a book on Synthesis on Scientific Experiments and experiences on SRI in India . • A handbook on SRI and MNREGA under the NCS initiatives • Prepared a multilingual Farmers’ Handbook manual on SRI in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telegu and Assamese.

24. Details- Publications by NCS Journal articles and research papers: • Barah BC, 2012,:Feeding India’s Growing Billions: Inclusive production growth indispensible, in No One Killed Agriculture, INCLUSION, April-June 2012 • Barah BC , System of Rice Intensification- A pro-poor option for food Security: An professional Interview with Prof. Norman Uphoff, Cornell University, NY, USA, pp 6-19, NewsReach, March-April, 2012 • Barah BC, Agricultural Risk, poverty and food security , paper presented at the International conference on Poverty Reduction, in Colombo, July 11-13 2012 • A policy brief on Adoption Dynamic of System of Rice Intensification for household food security and climate resilience: a small farmer friendly option, Division of Agricultural Economics, IARI, New Delhi, 2013

25. Details- Publications by NCS…. • Shambu Prasad and B C Barah; paper on Upscaling SRI: Unpacking Innovation, investment and institutions, LEISA India, Vol 15, No. March 2013, pp 16-23 • Barah BC 2012, System of Rice Intensification: a pro-poor options for Enhancing Rice Productivity in smallholder farms, Conference souvenir, IARI, New Delhi • Barah BC, Rahul Kumar, Sanjay Kumar and Amit Kumar, Why do farmers adopt or disadopt SRI? A short report from the fields, NewsReach, Vol 12 (11), Nov-Dec 2012, pp 14-27 • Barah BC 2012; The role of risk and vulnerability in Agriculture and Food Security in India, in SOIL, PLANT and ANIMAL Health for Enhanced And Sustained Agricultural Productivity (ed R B Singh et. al), National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi.

26. SRI Heralding Change: Making significant difference in smallholder farms & livelihoods in rainfed areas –

27. SRI an Agro-ecological innovation Benefits accrued: satisfying needs of the hour • SRI gives 20–90 % more rice from same piece of land • Higher net incomes (86 – 165 %) • Lower costs (11 – 20 %), less labour use after acquired skill • Sustainable NRM: SRI uses 22–72 % less water, • Reduced dependency on external inputs • seeds (less by 80 – 90 %), fertilizers, pesticide • Climate change resilience & adaptability (drought tolerance, resistance to storm, reduced pest damage) • Conserving of Biodiversity (even indigenous varieties respond well) • SRI is ‘Pro-poor’ – auto fit for small and marginal farmers who operate on own labour

28. SRI practices spreading in Other Crops: Innovation spillover WHEAT RAJMA SUGAR CANE MAIZE FINGER MILLET SOY BEAN

29. Demand for scale up • SRI/SCI has achieved a scale relatively in a short span of time with speed faster than that of Green Revolution • Need to scale up (for breaking 2 million farmers mark) • About 13 m ha of rice production area (incl 9 million rice-fallow) where SRI scale up immediately possible; even a ton of extra production can make millions food secure • This needs paradigm shift in policies, streamlining and strengthening practice and deepening research to inform practice • Innovative Institutional architecture needed emphasis on capacity building and knowledge delivery

30. Shifting to SRI means.. • Reorientation of farmers in rice agronomy • Nursery management (farmer) • Organic matter addition and soil health improvement • Land preparation: leveling and marking (farmer) • Timely inter‐cultivation (weeding ) (farmer + labor) • Water management (farmer + irrigation system agencies) • Management of pests and diseases / agro‐ecological knowledge • New farm management routines & knowledge transfer • Reorientation in skills • New transplantation methods • Mechanical weeding, in place of manual weeding • Ensuring control on moisture • Better irrigation systems management where it exists • Directing investments (through convergence) to soil moisture conservation

31. Shift in focus on extension required

32. Goals & Functional Domain of NCS • Enhance scientific understanding of SRI through • Establishing a research network for sharing and learning about the science of SRI • Encouraging collaborative research; both experimental (research station) and on-farm research (Farmers fields) on SRI and its principles • Building partnership with national and international research agencies, individuals, and networks • Improve understanding on current status of the practice by • promoting innovations • synthesizing experiences from the field in different states • facilitating and supporting establishment of knowledge sharing platforms at national and state levels • Connecting various actors to promote partnership for developing capacities and competencies on SRI at various levels (Resource pool) • Promote policy engagement at national level • supporting participatory Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning • encouraging policy discourses and advocacy on promotion of institutional mechanisms that can further agro-ecological innovations at state and national levels. • Supporting large scale mainstream experiences on promotion of SRI in collaboration/ convergence with Government programs

33. Governance • Secretariat • To enable NCS to achieve its purpose and objectives it is envisaged that one of the organisations active in the Consortium would anchor its Secretariat • Currently Secretariat is anchored by PRADAN • Anchorage of Secretariat to rotate over time • Core Group: • A Core Group consisting of not more than 5 individuals to provide an intensive oversight and support to Secretariat • Responsible to nurture engagement of larger network/and evolve operational agenda for NCS from time to time • Discourse with other networks to evolve future agenda for the NCS

34. NCS over the years: Policy, Advocacy and SRI upscaling Regular state‐level workshops/ learning alliances in Orissa, Bengal, Uttarakhand, AP, etc

35. Long term strategy for SRI scale up • Transform selected areas into sustainable SRI hubs over a period of time • Paradigm shift from conventional demonstration approach to an area focused approach • Lobby for convergence to attract investments in natural resource management. Need planning for bettering past investment record • Adopt a cluster based strategy to address issues of knowledge and behavioral changes in farmers • Changes and adaptations to be embedded/ habituated into local economies. • Enhancing the economic status of the rice farmer. Therefore, recognize the importance of SRI-plus strategy for livelihood security

36. Main challenges for upscaling policy on SRI • Re‐orienting farmers towards management and increasing farmer knowledge on rice agro‐ecology • Converge investments for developing land and water resources in large scale • Establishing decentralised manufacturing of SRI implements and appropriate distribution system • Build up cadres of SRI resource farmers • Mobilise organic matter and resources for improving soil productivity • Establish research back‐up and support

37. SRI- substantial coverage Today an estimated three million farmers in not less than a million hectares have adopted SRI partially or fully in India SRI map draft Aug 2010 ICRISAT