5-Practical Issues in Promotion of CASI

Transcript

Hello Friends! During this week, you got to know about Conservation Agriculture based Sustainable Intensification, Crop Diversification, Crop Residue Retention and Zero Tillage Technology. Since 2014, we are promoting conservation agriculture under SRFSI project in India, Nepal and Bangladesh. We faced a number of challenges during the promotion of conservation agriculture. Today, I will discuss about the key challenges we have faced during the promotion of conservation agriculture and how can we deal with them? Friends, when we talk about challenges, according to me an individual (farmer) is more important than a technology. Especially, perception and mood of a farmer is very important for technology adoption. A farmer who is sowing wheat and maize after a number of ploughing since their ancestors and suddenly, you reach there and suggest them to sow without ploughing obviously, it is quite difficult. If we talk about paddy, a farmerdoespuddling and after that they do transplanting. But, you say NO you have to go for mechanical sowing. This happens to be quite challenging. Second important thing is group dynamics. Farmer is not alone, (s)he has his family &neighbourhood and (s)he lives in a village. People who are associated with him also sometimes create hindrance in adoption process. We have an example, in2014 when we were promoting CASI,A lady farmer was ready to adopt CASI technology but her husband stopped in doing so and ploughed farm during night. Therefore, group dynamics is very important. Third important thing in adoption is small land holding. More than 90 per cent farmers of EGP are belonging to small and marginal category. They do not want to take risk. If you would say by spending one rupee you can earn 2 rupee, in such circumstances predicting the situation of loss aversion they do not wish to do so. Next issue is fragmented land, farmers are having small plots therefore it is difficult to use machines. This also causes difficulty for service providers. Next important issue is gender inequalities, especially in EGP male migration rate is quite high and women are managing farms. Although women do farming but farm related decisions are taken only after consulting their husbands. You can convince women through farm demonstration but it is quite difficult to convince their  husbands without technology demonstration. It furthercreates hindrance in the adoption process of a technology.

Another important factor is technological issue which affects the adoption process. Here, agronomical issues are quite important. In 2014, when we started promoting conservation agriculture of Maizeat that time there was an establishment problem in maize crop. Then, we saw farmers were sowing seed mixed with fertilizers through machine. Maize seed is very sensitive to fertilizers and which resulted in poor germination. You have to be very careful. If, machine is simply calibrated to 2 cm then fertilizers will be dropped first and then seeds. Definitely, germination of maize crop will be good. Second issue is, if you are using combine harvester, then there will be a heavy straw load in the field. Under this situation Zero Tillage machine will not be suitable, so you have to use happy seeder. If you will not be careful then there will be a poor germination. Moisture level is another critical point for germination. If you will be careful about proper moisture level and improper depth of sowing will also lead to poor germination. Especially in DSR, weed management is very critical; there is a chance of crop failure if you will not manage weeds. In addition, quality input is another critical factor for success not only in CASI but also for conventional farming.

Third important factor for CASI is weak value chain. Small farmers cannot purchase their own machines,they depend on other service providers. Mostly service providers use to sow their own fields first then they prefer large farmers over small or marginal land holders.Timely access to machines is an issue for small and marginal farmers. Lack of trained driver is another limiting factor for promotion of CASI. Custom hiring centre (CHC) and Service providers are having sufficient trained drivers to handle CASI machines or not, it is also a matter of consideration. There are some critical issues with CASI machines like operation, calibration and maintenance so we need trained drivers to deal with mechanical issues. Unavailability of parts of machineries and maintenance workshop is another importantneed for CASI. In India, CASI machines are being purchased from Punjab state, if any part of the machine got damaged then again we have to purchase it from Punjab. There is no local workshop for the same.

Apart from all these, lack of right information at the right time and lack of awareness are limiting factors due to which promotion of CASI has not reached to the highest level. However, there is another important cause which has affected the promotion of CASI,that is relative advantage.  Main focus of farmers aregetting high yield out of any technology. In this particular technology, the cost of cultivation definitely goes down, but the yield gain does not necessaryto go high, it increases by 5-10 percent only. In this technology it is not assured that the production will be drastically increased. Therefore, this becomes a matter of concern. Let’s look at its two dimensions; one is farmers’ felt need, when farmers feel the need of adopting a technology just  after coming to know about it, that is yield. However, CASI has other benefits, in order to bring  his technology in practice we need to work on farmers’ behaviour change. Like, this technique is time saving, it saves water, energy. It is environment friendly. How can you make the farmers understand all these facts in an easy way through communication is the biggest challenge.Other than this, we will also have to look at our policy issues. Government gives 50-75 per cent subsidy on purchase of many types of machinery. Most of the times, farmers do not tend to avail subsidy benefits. So we also need to improve our system in such a way that those farmers who are willing to purchase machinery could do so easily. We also need to provide proper training to the extension professionals who are working for promotion of CASI. This is very important. If they will not be properly trained how they can guide the farmers. We need to work on our complete value chain from buying machine to sowing to harvesting and packaging practice, government will also have to take initiative for the same.

Apart from this, as I have previously said women do not have their farms registered on their names. This causes trouble in getting credits from banks. Hence, credit access is also an important dimension of agriculture and sometimes it creates hindrance in adoption of CASI.

So, you will have to consider all these facts. Friends, we talked about the challenges and one more thing I must say, if you tell anyone about this technology, they will not believe you. To convince farmers more and more field demonstration is required. You will have to plan as many field days as you can, call as many farmers as you can and then demonstrate this technology. Only when they will see it, they will believe it. Secondly, to encourage the adoption of CASI you will also be required to ensure the availability of trained drivers and access to machines.

Thank You .