Farmers test new crops for replacing rice fallows. Validated RNRRS Output.
Abstract
This is one of 280 summaries describing key outputs from the projects run by DFID's 10-year Renewable Natural Resources Research Strategy (RNRRS) programmes.
Summary for Project title: R8221: Promotion of rainfed rabi cropping in rice fallows of eastern India and Nepal: Phase 2.
In Nepal, farmers played a key role in choosing and testing new crops to grow on land that previously lay fallow for part of the year. Growing more crops per year means more food, more income and better nutrition. Nearly two-thirds of the land used to be left fallow after the rice harvest because farmers only had seed that was unsuitable, poor, or prone to disease. Farmers tested mungbean, chickpea, lentil, pigeonpea and field peas. To make sure that the overall cropping system worked they also trialled the rice strains that would be planted before the legumes. Now, data from their on-farm trials are being accepted by the official seed registration system. This has major potential for fruitful partnerships between farmers and seed companies.
The CD has the following information for this output: Description, Validation, Current Situation, Current Promotion, Impacts On Poverty, Environmental Impact, Annex. Attached PDF (21 pp.) taken from the CD.
Citation
PSP01, New technologies, new processes, new policies: tried-and-tested and ready-to-use results from DFID-funded research, Research Into Use Programme, Aylesford, Kent, UK, ISBN 978-0-9552595-6-2, p 37.