Farmers and Researchers Find
Common Ground in South Asia

Long before university-trained breeders arrived on the scene, farmers were the world’s experts in plant improvement, but today the professional divide between them seems wider than ever. There are ways to bridge the divide—as researchers in South Asia are doing.

 

At a meeting in Nepal’s Lallitpur District, three groups of farmers, mostly women, talk about their experiences with the new wheat varieties they chose through participatory varietal selection (PVS). “We’ve gotten a 100% increase in yields—from one ton to two,” says Saru Godar, who heads one of the groups. “The new wheats germinate better and are resistant to diseases.”

Other farmers hasten to point out that a yield of two tons is very good on their tired soils, and that now they work half as much because the new varieties are easier to harvest and thresh. As the session continues, the participants discuss the problems they still face. For example, they have to break up clods of soil by hand after plowing, or the clods will limit nutrient absorption. “Our group is planning to buy a tractor and a power tiller to break the clods. Our yields could go up to maybe three tons,” says Maya Devi Silwal, leader of another farmer group.

Listening attentively are Guillermo Ortiz-Ferrara, CIMMYT wheat breeder, and Binod Sharma, head of extension at Nepal’s Agriculture Department Organization (ADO) in Lallitpur District. They like what they hear. “Participatory varietal selection is a new approach for ADO,” comments Sharma, “but we think it should be applied to other crops in other areas of Nepal. With PVS, farmers participate in research. There’s less chance of failure and more accountability.”

This interaction is one of many promoted by a CIMMYT-coordinated project on PVS that involves partners in the national agricultural research programs of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. In its sixth year, the project helps farmers replace their older wheat varieties with new ones that resist disease and yield better. This new line of defense is important. If epidemics gain a foothold in South Asia, they will bring disaster to millions of farmers. The varieties that are integral to PVS are developed through strong collaboration between regional researchers and CIMMYT.

Members of the same
club in Varanasi

Near Varanasi, in eastern Uttar Pradesh, India, some of the world’s poorest farmers survive by growing rice and wheat in rotation. Five years ago, the Banares Hindu University team of A.K. Joshi, breeder, Ramesh Chand, pathologist, and V.K. Chandola, agriculturalist and water and machine specialist, decided to try PVS.

Prior to PVS, the team’s closest contact with farmers was through on-farm trials, in which farmers tested technology as directed by the researchers. Ortiz-Ferrara suggested that PVS would give the researchers twoway communication with farmers. Before PVS, researchers were sometimes apprehensive about such interaction. Farmers might take them to task if a technology failed. Breeders ended their involvement once a new variety was developed and left technology transfer to the extension agents.

With Ortiz-Ferrara, the Varanasi team set up PVS trials in a few villages. Says Joshi, “We started building friendship bridges between us and the farmers, setting up linkages aimed at giving them options.” The farmers compared their favorite variety, HUW234, and their usual practice, conventional tillage, with a technology package that included new wheat cultivars and zero tillage.

Farmers have been growing HUW234 for decades. They like its “bold” (large) grain. The variety yields less than newer varieties, but it matures early and tolerates heat. In many places, HUW234 covers as much as 90% of the wheat area, which dramatically increases the risk of a widespread epidemic if HUW234’s disease resistance breaks down.

During the PVS trials, farmers identified two varieties that they liked better than their old one. The new varieties have bold grain and mature as rapidly as HUW234, but they can yield up to six tons per hectare.

As for zero tillage, the team obtained five specially adapted zero-tillage planters from the Directorate of Wheat Research in Karnal. Farmers could plant wheat 20 days earlier because they could prepare their fields faster. Farmers further reduced the time between the rice harvest and wheat sowing by growing an earlier maturing rice variety and sowing it 15 days earlier. The result: lower production costs and higher yields.

The information provided by farmers was an eye-opener for Joshi, Chand, and Chandola. Based on farmers’ feedback, researchers felt they proposed more relevant solutions to local problems. The farmers were more willing to try the proposed solutions. As word of the benefits of PVS spread, the team set up similar trials in other communities. Soon the researchers were working 365 days a year to keep up with farmers’ demand for PVS.

“Farmers gained confidence in themselves,” says Chand. “As for us, instead of telling farmers to just take a technology, our message now is ‘take only what’s good, what suits your needs.’” The team gives high marks to Ortiz-Ferrara for promoting PVS. “Our entire institute has adopted the concept,” says Chandola. “Today, farmers and researchers are members of the same club.”

Bangladesh: On the
brink of an epidemic

The biggest worry for wheat researchers in Bangladesh comes from a tremendous success: Kanchan, a variety released in 1972, occupies about 70% of the wheat area. Kanchan has become susceptible to potentially serious diseases such as leaf rust and foliar blight, so the risk of a devastating epidemic is high.

A few years ago, researchers set out to replace Kanchan with four new, disease resistant varieties derived from CIMMYT wheats. They had heard about PVS through Ortiz-Ferrara, and it struck them as a promising way for farmers to choose whether to try something new. The Bangladeshi team initiated PVS in four locations with farmers from eight villages. In the first year, farmers identified several varieties they preferred over their beloved Kanchan. The researchers are obtaining seed of these varieties to distribute to farmers in the coming season. Next year they plan to repeat the experience in other locations.

Research and funding
partners

This project is funded by the Department for International Development–UK. Major partners are NARC, CEAPRED, LI-BIRD (two agricultural CSOs active in the area), the Center for Arid Zone Studies of the University of Bangore, the Rice-Wheat Consortium, the Indian Council for Agricultural Research, the Directorate of Wheat Research, and several CGIAR Centers.

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February, 2004