SERP initiated Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture (CMSA) in
2004 as part of its mandate to eradicate poverty and to improve livelihoods of
the rural poor. CMSA was meant to support the poor farmers to adopt sustainable
agriculture practices, to reduce the costs of cultivation and increase net
incomes. This initiative aims to address the major causes of agriculture
distress - extensive use of chemical inputs, high costs of agriculture,
displacement of local knowledge, unsustainable agricultural practices like
monocropping, imperfect markets etc
CMSA is a paradigm shift in moving from input centric model to
knowledge and skill based model. It
involves making best use of locally available natural resources and takes best
advantage of the natural processes. The main objective of CMSA is to bring
sustainability to agricultural based livelihoods, with special focus on small
and marginal farmers, tenants, agriculture labour and women. Its major
objective is to making small farming viable.
The AP model of sustainable agriculture refers
to low external input agriculture called Community Managed Sustainable
Agriculture (CMSA) is now scaled up to 11,000 villages from 10 villages in 2004
and from one Mandal to 653 mandals in 22 districts of Andhra Pradesh. CMSA is
now practiced by 1.5 million farmers from 250 farmers and 400 Acres in 2004 to
3 million acres. Following graph shows the scaling up pattern:
Graph-1: Scaling up pattern of CMSA
Source: Internal MIS
The most important reason as to why the CMSA
programme has scaled up so fast is on account of the substantial financial
benefits that the participating farmers have realized. The cost of cultivation
on account of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has drastically reduced. The
range of savings varied from crop to crop. It ranges from Rs.4,124/ha in case
of Paddy to Rs.14500/ha in Cotton and Rs.40750/ha for Chillies.
Further certain best practices created
enabling environment for the massive scaling up. Using the existing SHG plot
farm, local resource based technology, decentralized extension system etc are
the some of the best practices enabled us for massive scaling up.
Usage of
existing Institutional plot farm:
SERP has organized 1.0 crore women into 8,
50,000 Self help groups, covering all
the villages in the state. The SHG network covers almost 68% rural
households in A.P and covers more than 90%
rural poor households. The uniqueness of the A.P model is the federated
structure of the SHGs. The SHGs are federated into 35,000 village level
federations, covering 15 – 25 SHGs (called Village organizations) and further
into 1098 mandal federations ( called Mandal samakhyas, covering 8,000 – 12,000
households) and 22 district federations, called Zilla samakhyas. It is this
federated structure which has enabled the scaling up of a variety of
interventions across the state, including the CMSA.
The SHGs and their federations provide a plot
farm to discuss the issues in agriculture and technologies available to address
these issues. The program management is in the hands of the women
organizations. Separate sub committees
with C.M.S.A practicing SHG women, farmers, at village, Mandal (Sub district)
and district level are formed to monitor the day to day activities. The
programme management is in the capable hands of 11,000 village level sub
committees, 653 Sub district level (Mandal) sub committees and 22 district
level sub committees were formed in 22 districts. All these sub committees meet
once in a month to review the program. Budget is provided for sub committee’s
field visits and review meetings.
Sub committees will review the performance of
Village activist (VA), cluster activist (CA) and District Project Manager on a
monthly basis. Their performance is reviewed by Samakhyas. The Samakhyas attend
FFS meetings, make field inspections, pay salaries of VA/CA. Communities are
involved in decision making process. The final word in programme management
lies with the VOs and MMSs.
Separate budgets were provided for the
subcommittee meetings and their visits. This budget provision enabled the
subcommittees to meet on specified date in a month and making 10 field visits
in a month. Further subcommittee members are using data uploaded through mobile
application for reviewing the performance of functionaries.
Best
Practices in technology:
Methods promoted under CMSA are blend of
scientifically proven technology, local wisdom, and, farmers’ innovations. Over
a period of time these methods are building good ecology where there is a
balance between friendly insects and crop pests, and this is leading to
reducing the costs on pest management to ‘zero’. Further, the focus is on
building life into the soil by adopting various recommended practices, such as
monocot - dicot crop combinations, multilayered poly crop system to harvest
maximum sun light, mulching, creating enabling environment for local deep
borrowing earth worms, efficient composting techniques and by using dung based
inoculants paving way to reduce and eventually eliminate chemical fertilizers.
Non
pesticide Management (NPM):
CMSA adopted Non pesticide management (NPM)
approach for plant protection. NPM is the first step in CMSA. The ultimate step
is natural and ecological farming, without any external chemical inputs. The
main principle underlying NPM is that pests can be managed by understanding
their behavior and lifecycle. The emphasis is on prevention rather than
control.
A comprehensive strategy is evolved for pest
management. These include: deep summer ploughing, community bonfires, seed
treatment, bird perches, border crops, trap crops, yellow and white plates,
intercrops, light traps, pheromone traps, delta traps in Ground nut, Alleys in
Paddy, Cutting of the tips in Paddy at the time of transplantation. The above
practices are called as ‘non-negotiables’ and are mandatory for all NPM
farmers. The application of botanical extracts is only as a last resort.
Nadep
composting:
Nadep composting is an efficient aerobic composting
method developed by a farmer from Maharstra called Narayan Deotao
Pandharipande. Compost can be prepared from a wide range of organic materials
viz dead plant material such as crop residues, weeds, forest litter and Kitchen
waste etc which are biodegradable. Compost making is an efficient way of
converting all kinds of biomass into high value fertilizers that serve as a
good alternative to farm yard manure, especially for crop growing households
with little live stock. For every 4 Kg
of dung 40 Kg of compost can be prepared. This method of composting solved many
problems in meeting fertilizer requirements.
Multistoried
cropping system:
Multi storied cropping system for house
hold Nutritional security Model (36*36 models) have been promoted by CMSA as a
tool to achieve nutritional security at the households level. This model is
unique as it promotes nutritional security and round the year income to the
family, in the smallest land extent possible.
This model is developed based on the following principles:
1. Different
plants require different Photo candle light
2. Monocot
– Dicot crop combination to maintain equilibrium for soil fertility
3. Companion
crops
4. Multi
storied structure to harvest maximum sun light
5. Crop
diversity to manage pests
The crops are arranged in seven tiers based on the canopy
and photo candle requirements. As the
crops diversity ranges from tuber crops to fruit crops, from vegetables to
pulses, all the nutritional requirements for a family are met.
First tier: Root or tuber crops such as
carrot, beetroot, zinger etc comes under this category. These plants require
minimal sunlight.
Second tier: Creepers, which cover the
soil such as bottle gourd, cucumber etc. Creepers will act as live mulch.
Third tier: Leafy vegetables such as
surrel leaves, spinach, coriander, amaranthus etc.
Fourth tier: Vegetables such as
Brinjal, Tomato, chillies etc
Fifth tier: Perennial Castor and
Perennial Red gram etc
Sixth tier: papaya, drumstick,
clustered apple, guava etc
Seventh tier: Fruit crops such as
Mango, cashew etc . These plants require maximum sunlight.
Rain fed
Sustainable Agriculture (RFSA):
Radical soil and moisture conservation works which include
Conservation furrows for every four mts, trenches all around the field, farm
pond, trees on conservation furrows etc. The main objective is to harvest rain
water in-situ. Mounting cropping pattern in these fields with 5:1 and 7:1
ratio, including perennial Red gram, Castor, leafy vegetables, fruit plants and
trees on conservation furrows. In convergence with NREGS, RFSA is implemented
in 21 districts. So far works executed for
Rs.185.18 crores Improved cropping pattern to increase production is
adopted in 61,247 Acres in RFSA fields. Farmer wise Income assessment from poly
crops is under progress. The data received so far is very encouraging. Increase
in incremental incomes per acre range from Rs.8,000 /- to 18,000/-. Most of
these lands kept fallow or subsistence farming under Jowar etc.
System of Rice Intensification (SRI):
System of Rice Intensification is a cost effective and resource
efficient method of cultivation of Paddy.
This has been promoted by CMSA extensively. SRI
enabled the farmers in reducing ground water exploitation. Further SRI has
potential for increasing yields. Following are the main principles of SRI:
A.
Early, quick and healthy plant establishment
B. Reduced plant density
C. Improved soil condition through enrichment
with organic matter
D. Reduced and controlled water application
Organic
certification through Participatory Guarantee System:
Participatory Guarantee System (PGS)
is a process in which people in similar situations assess, inspect, and verify
the production practices of each other and collectively declare the entire
holding of the group as organic.
PGS introduced in India in 2005 by
Organic Farmers India Association (OFAI). PGS is managed by PGS council of
India. PGS council formed by a OFAI, IIRD, DDS,Key stone foundation and
Timbaktu collectives. National Center for Organic Farming, Ghaziabhad supported
PGS council.
Guiding principles:
- Participation
- Shared
vision
- Transparency
- Trust
- Horizontality
Advantages of PGS:
• The
procedures are simple; documents are basic and use the local language
understandable to farmers
• Farm
inspectors are among the group and live in the same village, therefore have
better access to surveillance
• Peer
appraisal instead of third party inspections reduces cost
• Random
residue testing at regular intervals ensures the integrity and increase the
trust
Poorest of
the Poor strategy:
The PoP
Strategy in CMSA is to facilitate the land lease to the landless laborers and
promote CMSA in these lands. 0.5 acre
land will be leased in to these PoP, and they shall do SRI Paddy cultivation in
0.25 acre and 36*36 model or poly crops in the remaining 0.25 acres. The main
objective of this strategy is to convert “Net
wage seekers” to “Food producers”
It was
thus designed to achieve two objectives. One is that the PoP family should earn
a net income of Rs.50,000 in a year and second one is by growing all crops
,i.e. paddy, vegetables and pulses , the PoP family shall have food
security. Apart from selling the produce, they can save something for their own
consumption.
POP
identification process:
VO NPM
subcommittee members will identify POP beneficiaries by participating in SHG
meetings. After identification of POP beneficiaries, Subcommittee will approach
MMS for funds required by POP beneficiaries. Lease amounts (Rs.10-15,000/- per
acre) and working capital (Rs2-3000/-) are required by POP beneficiaries. The
amounts are met from POP revolving fund available with VO. Entire amount is in
the form of loan only.
Decentralised
extension system for Transfer of Technology:
The transfer of technology in Decentralised
extension system is through community based local best practicing farmers. The
key benefits of the decentralized extension system, led by practicing farmers
and women SHGs, are that the adoption rates of sustainable agriculture practices
are very high (above 90%) resulting in drastic reduction in pesticide and
fertilizer consumption leading to Low External Input Sustainable Agriculture
and Eco-agriculture.
The key investment in CMSA is not
subsidising external inputs but to build the knowledge base of the farmers. The
key is in moving from the mainstream external input based model to a model
based on local resources and knowledge. The knowledge investment refers to
knowledge and understanding of local natural resources and how they can be used
for seed treatment, pest management, soil fertility management practices, etc.
Knowledge also refers to understanding sustainable agronomical practices,
revisiting or rediscovering traditional wisdom, etc.
In this paradigm, the farmers are encouraged
to experiment, innovate and their innovations are shared among other farmers.
Respect is accorded to farmers own initiatives. This approach is different from
the mainstream attitude where the farmer is a passive recipient of ‘knowledge’
produced in formal agriculture research stations or universities. It is a very
liberating approach and the momentum in our programme is fuelled by countless
innovations of farmers and the pride they take in their ‘research’ efforts.
Since the entire effort is based on local, natural and renewable resources, a
key by product is that the farmers are performing valuable environmental
services. These are as of now ‘unpaid’ services. In the context of Climate
change they have the potential of mitigating climate change and also enabling
them to adapt to climate change.
A. Best
Practitioners as change agents:
Best practicing farmer in the village is
identified as village activist and best practicing farmer is identified for five
villages as a cluster activist. These farmers are actively working with other
farmers for spreading messages. Capacity building is the key component in CMSA
and the subsidy is for capacity building only not for external inputs. They
were trained intensively on various components of CMSA. Capacity building
components includes pest life cycle,
enabling conditions for disease spread, Non pesticide management, sustainable
usage of resources, maximizing output from a unit land, conservation of natural
resources, rain water harvesting and organizing farmer field schools.
B. Community Resource Persons (CRP):
CRPs are farmers who practice (best
practitioners) CMSA and demonstrate that it is profitable and practicable to
other farmers. They provide capacity
building support to other farmers and act as consultants to other farmers on
implementing sustainable agriculture practices. Today the program nurtured more
than 200 CRPs. CRPs are positioned in the villages where we are taking up
special projects like POP strategy, SRI, PGS etc.
C. Farmer
field schools:
The transfer of technology is through
community based local best practicing farmers.
Farmers field school (FFS) is the key activity for transfer of
technology and sharing of best practices.
Farmers upgrade knowledge by sharing, observations and experiments.
20-25 farm families formed into a group known as “Sasyamithra Sanghas” and
these sanghas are assisted by a Village activist (a practicing farmer) and a
Cluster activist (for a group of five villages, he is also a practicing farmer)
who facilitate the knowledge sharing processes. They are paid by the S.H.G
federations, the V.Os and the M.Ss to work as para extension workers, and, they
are completely accountable to them.
D. Community
Video films as tool for transfer technology:
SHG members are trained in video film making
and dissemination of video films. Video films are using for amplifying the
effectiveness of extension efforts. This system combines technology and social
organization to improve the cost effectiveness and broaden the community
participation of existing agriculture extension system. The unique components
include:
A. Participatory process for local video
production
B. Human mediated instruction model for video
dissemination and training
C. An iterative
model to progressively better address the needs and interests of the community
with analytical tools and interactive phone-based feedback channels
This system combines technology
and social organization to maximize the potential of building the capacity of
farmers on improved, sustainable agriculture and allied livelihood
interventions. The videos that are produced by farmers, of farmers, and for
farmers across our field locations are periodically synchronized with our
global library of videos on public domain.
Data associated with the videos,
including their reach, the feedback of viewers, and the ultimate take up of the
featured practices or techniques, is also aggregated and analyzed in near
real-time on our analytics dashboards. These analytics dashboards are built
upon an data management framework, called COCO, which allows even remote areas
with limited Internet and electrical connectivity to exchange data with the
world.
The model has decreased the cost of field level expenses on training of the
farmers through live demonstrations and field level trainings. Since all the
practices are captured through videos and shown on regularly intervals. The
cost of training has reduced drastically and at the same time there is an
increase of reach out to the farmers as well. As the PICO projector used for
the dissemination is mobile and can be used at the convenient time of farmers.
