Improving Yield, Profitability and Water Productivity of Crops in Arid Fringes through Farmers Participatory Action Research

Abstract

Arid fringes have a comparative advantage of higher rainfall than the core desert leading to diverse micro-farming situations. Hence tailoring the technologies to local situations is required for their fast dissemination. Thirty eight farmers’ participatory trials were conducted in four representative villages of Pali district, Rajasthan. Crop wise constraints were identified of which the most conspicuous were the lack of short duration varieties and improper nutrient application. In mung bean, the response of fertilizers was 5-16%. But the combined effect of varieties and fertilizers was 16-148%.Clusterbean variety RGC 936 yielded 79% higher over local and 25% over RGC 1003. Dual purpose sorghum (CSV 15) + fertilizers increased dry fodder yield by 1.75-2.75 times over farmers’ practice and in grain purpose sorghum (CSV 17) yield improved by 140%. Sesame variety RT 127 increased the yields between 62-68%. Amongst the salinity tolerant mustard varieties GM 3 and CS 54, the former produced 22.4% higher grain yield over the latter variety and 33% over established variety Bio 902. Farmers’ preferred wheat variety Raj 4037 for its chapatti making quality gave additional yields of 20-30%. Improvement in yields was ultimately reflected in improved water productivity. The water productivity in different kharif crops varied between 0.085-0.417 kg grain m-3 due to improved practices. In the irrigated rabi crops i.e. wheat and mustard, the water productivity ranged between 0.80-0.60 and 0.228-0.279 kg grain m-3, respectively. The impact of technologies was clearly visible even after two years of their withdrawal.
Key words: Farmers’ participatory research, arid fringes, nutrient management, improved varieties.