Front Line Demonstrations’: Scripting Food security under Water Scarcity

Dr. Parveen Kumar, Dr. Raj Kumar

Ji, Ji…., Janaab…, was the prompt reply by Mr. Rajinder Singh from village Champa in district Ramban when asked whether Hybrid Maize varieties provided by KVK-Ramban had made any difference in the yield as compared to the local varieties they grow. This year our area did not have sufficient rainfall so local varieties have not come up to our expectations. The farming community here was apprehensive of a drought like situation due to deficient rainfall, but some rainfall later on prevented that situation. Breathing a great sigh of relief, Mr. Singh further told that it would have been a condition of food scarcity for the farming community of the region, had they not received the varieties by KVK-Ramban. This is not the story of Rajinder Singh only, but most of the farming families in this region from different villages where KVK-Ramban had laid out FLDs on Farmer fields with Hybrid maize varieties. The varieties provided were climate resilient able to withstand the moisture stress resulting in a production with which they can at least feed their families. They are now worried that they will not have to purchase the commodity from the market.

Dr. Parveen Kumar SMS (Ag. Extension) at KVK-Ramban states that Agriculture landscape in this hilly region has some peculiar issues which include mono-cropping and low yield. The size of land holdings here is small and land holdings lay as small fragments at many places. Mechanization here is a difficult task given the topography and terrain of land in this mountainous tract. Peoples can be seen manually ploughing their small fields with spades. Farmers are still using outdated varieties which give very low yields. Besides climatic vagaries, the farming community here also is confronted with lack of quality seeds/seedlings, lack of credit facilities, lack of marketing support, absence of linkages, low yield of livestock and much more. The problems are further compounded by the vulnerability of these regions to rising temperature. The district is almost rainfed with a negligible 5% under irrigation. Further due to very small size of land holdings accompanied by mono-cropping in this district, the cost of cultivation of different crops often exceeds the net returns and thus farming community feels betrayed and want to quit farming community. Pertinent to mention that the rain fed regions are very vital for ensuring food and nutritional security of the masses living in the country. Farming thus needs to be protected, productive and profitable in these regions.

In this IKharifK season, such was the plight of farmers that due to poor rainfall and consequent moisture stress, farming community had to go for resowing three times particularly in the lower belts of the district. Being a Kharif crop, it grows best in the rainy season with wet and hot climates and sufficient soil moisture. In this district, it is grown once in a year and sowing here starts in the month of June with the onset of pre-monsoon showers that give it the necessary moisture to germinate. The lack of pre-monsoon showers resulted in moisture stress and hence farmers had to go for resowing. Also, the productivity of the crop in the farmer fields in the district is not at par with the national average.

A farm women showing maize cobs kept for sun drying to team KVK-Ramban 

According to Dr. Raj Kumar, the farming community here has been using old local varieties of maize whose productivity is too less. The crude methods of sowing and cultivation of these crops further worsened the things. Since the establishment of KVK-Ramban at Dhalwas in the year 2022, High yielding and Hybrid varieties of different crops including fruits and vegetables  like Maize, French beans, Peas, Radish, Lady finger, Cabbage, Cauliflowers, Tomato, Knolhol and millets specific to the climatic conditions of the region are being provided to the farmers

of this region. The Front Line Demonstrations (FLDs) programme of KVK-Ramban aims to further augment the production of different crops in this district. The FLDs establish the production potential of new varieties in the farmer fields. KVK Ramban has been providing FLDs to the farming community on different crops like Maize, French bean and Strawberry. The high quality Maize seed like Kanchan-517, Star Gagan Gold and Super Heera 909 provided to them have given a yield which is 40-50% more than the traditional varieties grown by the farmers here.

Dr. Parveen Kumar further told that in the previous Kharif season too, farmers were provided hybrid seeds like Kanchan-517 Super, Star Gagan Gold for laying FLDs on 0.5 acre of land/farmer. Four kilogram of seed was given to them at the rate of one kilogram per kanal. Dr. Parveen Kumar SMS (Ag. Extension) while highlighting the importance of these varieties told that various demonstrations have been laid out on farmer fields with these varieties. The previous results on the yield and economics of FLDs provided by KVK-Ramban revealed that average yield of demo plots was 26.5 qtls/ha as compared to 18.2 qtls/ha of local varieties grow by the farmers. Accordingly the benefit cost ratio calculated was much higher for FLDs (1.9) as compared to check (1.6).  Besides providing seed, the farmers were also sensitized on various aspects of their cultivation like land preparation, seed rate, control of weeds, time of sowing, appropriate dosage of fertilizers/manures, right time for various inter-culture operations, right time of harvesting and storage of produce and precautions to be taken during harvesting and its storage.

Ms. Rani Devi, a farm women told KVK-Ramban team that the no. of cobs per plant of hybrid varieties are more than one unlike the local varieties which had only one cob per plant. The size of cobs and that of grains in the cobs is also bigger. The plant attains a greater height, has more biomass and thus an excellent source of nutrition as animal fodder. The adoption of scientific cultivation practices such as line sowing has also reduced their seed requirement per unit area to one third. The increase in production coupled with the reduction in the cost of cultivation has resulted in considerable increase in their income. Owing to the positive feedback obtained from the farming community of this region, KVK-Ramban is aiming at bringing more and more area under hybrid and high yielding varieties by ensuring that the seed of these varieties is made available to them well in time and in more quantity. The farming community has expressed satisfaction over the efforts of KVK-Ramban and thanked HonMble Vice Chancellor, SKUAST-J Prof. B. N. Tripathi and Director Extension Prof. Amrish Vaid under whose mentorship and guidance the KVKs of region are working for the upliftment of farming community.

*The authors can be reached at pkumar6674@gmail.com