Productivity and profitability of Rabi pulses in farmers fields under cluster frontline demonstrations in Chhattisgarh

Introduction

Remarkable progress has been made in India in respect of food crops such as wheat and rice in irrigated areas; however, performance has not been so good in case of other crops particularly pulses. Therefore, after achieving self-reliance in food grains, more attention is required towards enhancement of pulses production to fulfil the domestic demand. In the wake of Green Revolution, India has been able to prove the doomsayers wrong regarding their forecast of an imminent food crisis. But pulse production remains our weak area. Though some progress has been made in recent years, much has to be done to achieve self-sufficiency in pulses production. India is also a leading producer of pulses. Though India is a major pulse growing country in the world, it has faced the problem of supply-demand gap in respect of pulses since the midseventies. The country has been importing considerable quantities of pulses to meet the domestic demand. Pulse cultivation is faced with myriad problems. Once pulses were grown in irrigated areas prior to Green Revolution but have now been shifted to rain fed areas which accounts for 84 percent pulse production. Both organic and inorganic factors ranging from insects, high temperature and lack of irrigation are responsible for low productivity. They make pulse cultivation a risky proposition. Development and acceptance of new varieties is also very limited.

India is the largest producer, processor and importer of pulses in the world and also enjoys distinction of being largest consumer as well. The country is growing pulses in an area of about 24 to 25 million hectares of land with productivity of about 780 kg a hectare which is less than the global average and a major cause of concern. Currently, daily per capita availability of pulses is 37 gram which is considerably lower than the ICMR recommendation of 52 grams. Considering the current domestic production levels i.e. 25.46 million tonnes (Anonymous 2024), there is a huge gap that needs to be addressed if India has to become self-reliant in pulses. If we dream of a healthy India in 2050, the requirement of pulses will be 39 million tonnes which necessitates an annual growth rate of 2.14 percent. To meet the projected demand, productivity must be enhanced to a level of 1200 kg per hectare and about 3 to 5 million hectares additional area has to be brought under pulses across the country. But the pathway to achieve the target has many inherent technical and social challenges and problems. Presently, more than 92 percent of the area under pulses is confined to unirrigated areas where farming chiefly depends on monsoon rains. Drought or drought like conditions, coupled with heat stress may reduce seed yields by 50 percent, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. Most of the pulses are grown in low fertility and problematic soils struggling with salinity and alkalinity. In the current climatic change scenario, pulses are likely to be drastically affected by temperature extremes. Poor drainage and water logging during rainy season may cause heavy losses to pulses, especially in pigeon pea due to low plant stand and increased incidence of diseases. Pod borers, aphids, cutworm, powdery mildew, rust and wilt are the major pests and diseases affecting many pulses, especially lentil. According to experts, the richness of pulse legumes in nitrogen and phosphorous, makes them attractive and vulnerable to pests and diseases. Generally, pulses are grown mostly by resource poor farmers and treated as secondary crops with finest productivity to staple cereals and other cash crops. As a consequence, pulses are generally deprived of essential inputs, due care and latest technologies. Availability of quality seed of improved varieties is one of the major constraints in increasing productivity of pulses. More and more people becoming health cautious is another reason for growing demand for proteins and hence pulses. Pulses are usually cultivated as mixed crops along with crops such as cotton, mustard, or as catch crops between two cereal crops. Susceptibility to pests and diseases and low yield as compared to other grains etc. are some of the reasons that pulses have not been preferred crop for farmers. To boost pulses production, Government of India has started National Food Security Mission in 2013-14. Under NFSM, financial assistance is given for various interventions like demonstration of improved technology, distribution of quality seeds of new varieties, integrated pest management, water saving devices and capacity building of farmers. Steps are being taken to expand the scope of National Food Security Mission (NFSM) from 2016-17 so that additional interventions for increasing production of pulses may be initiated. Area under cereals, pulses and oilseeds has increased significantly in Chhattisgarh. In cereal crops the area under summer paddy and wheat has increased significantly, in case of pulses horse gram and green gram has increased significantly. Productivity of field pea, lathyrus and lentil has decreased over the years. Maize, horse gram, mustard are the major crops in Bastar plateau, while wheat, mustard, linseed & black gram are the major crops in northern hill zone. In case of Chhattisgarh Plains, lathyrus, horse gram, and lentil are the major crops. Sugarcane followed by groundnut and maize are the major Zaid (summer) crops in Chhattisgarh. Till date, the productivity level of pulses is not sufficient on account of several biotic and abiotic stresses besides unavailability of quality seeds of improved varieties in time and poor crop management practices due to unawareness and nonadoption of recommended production and plant protection technologies. Therefore, it is essential to demonstrate the high yielding varieties, resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses and other production technologies to which the farmers generally do not adopt. A wide gap exists between the available techniques and its actual implementation by the farmers which is reflected through poor yield in the farmers' fields. There are so many appropriate technologies generated at agricultural universities and research stations but the productivity of pulses and oilseeds is still very low due to poor transfer of technology from the points of its development to the points of its utilization and only a little new knowledge percolates to the farmers fields hence, a vast gap has been observed between knowledge production and knowledge utilization. To achieve target of additional production of pulses, Cluster Frontline Demonstration (CFLD) of pulses on farmer's field may be helpful. The basic objective of this programme is to demonstrate improved proven technologies of recently released, early maturing, high yielding, varieties in a clusters with nutrient management, weed management and pest management at farmers field to bring in enhanced application of modern technologies to show high yield. Keeping this in view, demonstrations were conducted in 0.4 ha each to assess technological gap and production gain on some selected oilseed and pulse crops as per the suitability of district needs and farmer's choice. Frontline Demonstrations in pulses under CFLD programme have been initiated involving all 27 KVKs working under Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya across the state. Farmers are realizing potential of pulse crops through these demonstrations and are adopting these remunerative crops in large scale.

Materials and Methods

Economy of India is dominated by agriculture. However, Indian agriculture fiercely depends on monsoons to yield sufficient agricultural returns. India's major food crops rice and wheat have been heavily incentivized with MSP in addition to preferential treatment of Public Distribution System to benefit the Indian poor. Hence, Indian farmers are motivated to grow either these crops or cash crops like cotton, sugarcane etc. Pulses and oilseeds have been a second choice for the farmers for cultivation. Over a period of time, a number of improved pulse varieties and production technologies have been developed, but full potential of these varieties as well as technologies could not be exploited due to low rate of adoption and low yields. Thus, factors limiting the productivity cannot be overlooked. It may emphasize on quality attributes, adoption and popularization of new agro technology, evolving better varieties for stress conditions and improving present yield potential. The aim of these demonstrations in general is to raise production through transfer of farm technology. Cluster front line demonstrations (CFLDs) is one of the most powerful tool of extension because farmers, in general, are driven by the perception that "Seeing is believing". Cluster Front Line demonstrations (CFLDs) is a unique approach to provide direct interface between scientist and farmers as the scientists are directly involved in planning, execution and monitoring of the demonstrations for the technologies developed by them and get direct feedback from the farmers about the crops in general and technology being demonstrated in particular. This enables the scientists to improvise upon the research programme accordingly. CFLDs provide an opportunity to researchers and extension personnel for understanding the farmer's resources and requirement to fine tune and/or modify the technologies for easy adaptability at farmers' fields. Frontline Demonstration is a form of applied research through university system on latest released varieties along with critical inputs on selected farmers' fields with a view to demonstrate the potentiality of the technologies to (a) participating farmers (b) neighbouring farmers and other agencies; (c) to analyse the production (d) performance of the technologies for scientific feedback.

Objectives

The main objective of cluster frontline demonstrations is to demonstrate newly released crop production and protection technologies and its management practices in the farmer's field under the micro-farming situation.

Selection of Site and Beneficiary

 The sites of demonstrations selected were easily accessible to attract large number of farmers for more impact, easy monitoring and feedback.  Technologies selected were of paramount importance and preferred by farmers.  To create better and visible impact of a technology, the demonstrations were conducted in cluster approach of at least cluster of 10.0 hectares. One demonstration at individual farmer was not less than 0. Results on the basis of average of five years data indicated that highest average yield was 7.24 q/ha and lowest yield of 5.02 q/ha was found in control plot. The average yield increase was 47%. Highest average net return was Rs 20012/-in demonstration plot whereas lowest was Rs. 8072/-ha for control plot. Highest average benefit cost ratio for demonstration and control was 2.31 and 1.68, respectively. The average yield gap over the years was 27.61%. Horizontal spread of lentil varieties ranged between 18 to 71 ha for different varieties.

Acknowledgement

AcknowledgementsAuthors are grateful to the Director, ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute, Zone 9, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Director Extension Services, IGKV, Raipur for encouragements and assistance to complete the study and All Senior Scientist & Heads, S.M.S. and Programme Assistants of KVKs of Chhattisgarh for conducting the demonstrations successfully.

References

1. Sumathi P. Role of front-line demonstrations on transfer of pulses production technologies in Vellore district of Tamil Nadu Agriculture Update 2012;7(2):147-150.
2. Singh RP, Singh AK, Singh RP, Singh RK, Singh M. Impact of cluster frontline demonstrations on pulses productivity and profitability in farmer's field. Indian Journal of Extension Education. 2020;56(1):134-141.