Section - XVII - The Magadi Intervention near Bangalore

After the conceptual Framework explained in the previous sections, it is time to move out to actually what has been done till now. So this brings us to the actual work that has happened in Magadi last year in the direction of the framework explained.

The Actual work at Magadi

1. We had taken 3 experimental plots in Magadi Taluk of Bangalore Rural District. The 3 plots were

Motaganahalli - 1 plot of 20 guntas (1/2 an acre)
Cottonpalya - 1 plot of 20 guntas
Torepalya - 1 plot of 20 guntas

2. We started working on these 3 plots after negotiating with the farmers to partake 20 guntas of land

3. Ideally for this intervention to have come up to the potential, we should have started the work by Feb 2005. Unfortunately by the time we streamlined all the activities last year it was beyond May 2005 and we did not get enough time to prepare the soil etc for all the 20 guntas of land. So we had a restricted intervention.

4. The first year of intervention has given some phenomenal results.

Report of the work in Magadi (Aug-2005-Feb-2006)

As stated in the earlier sections experimental plots were prepared according to Mr. Renke’s method in all the 3 farms (4 guntas in Thorepalya, ~2.5 guntas in MG halli and ~3.75 guntas in K.Palya. The plots were ready for raising crops with well humified compost by Aug-Sept 2005. Unfortunately, the unusually heavy rains this year extending right upto Oct-Nov, never allowed any possible or suitable time for plouging or sowing. Earlier also, the rains were quite untimely, i.e., very much delayed until late july which also disturbed the cropping to some extent.

Crops raised

Ragi was grown in about 16 guntas in MGhalli and in 15 guntas in KPalya. The crop was started in mid Aug. But the crop was totally washed out in K.Palya as there was heavy rain immediately after transplanting. (Attempt was made to sow a second time, but never came up due to heavy rains there after). The crop grew very well in MGHalli (luckily started a week before the rains).

Two options of nutrient inputs were tried for Ragi. Initially 120 kg of FYM was used per gunta during ploughing for the entire land. Subsequently, as option 1, 2kg/ gunta urea was supplied, as this is the normal practice adapted by farmers. 2 kgs of urea was administered in split dosages, 1 kg initially added to the soil and remaining 1 kg as foliar spray once a week, 4 times (to minimize wastage of urea and also soil pollution). As option 2, 30 kgs/gunta of vermicompost was used instead of urea.

Vegetable crops were grown in all the specially prepared (Renke method) plots. Greens (Methi, Dantu, Palak), raddish, and bottle gourd were the chosen varieties. For comparison, the same crops were also grown in control plots (without the special Renke input but with limited or normal inputs). Sowing was done on 15th Nov. in MGHalli and on 6th Dec. in Thorepalya and K.Palya.

For the control plots, 120 kgs/gunta of FYM was used. Only in Thorepalya, 3 different additional control plots were tried for Radish, one with 80kg and one with 120 kgs of vermicomopost per gunta, and the other with 150 kgs of FYM.

For the Renke plots, as reported earlier, the input in the form of compost is 1.2 T of dry biomass. In addition 500kg/gunta of FYM has been used. (This was on the advise of Mr. Renke, as an one-time-input initially not to take chance in case the compost is not fully digested since the objective was to demonstrate the high productivity with organic inputs alone).

In ThorePalya, banana saplings (brought from Mr Renke’s farm) had been planted in 1 gunta of compost-prepared land in July-2005 itself. Mr.Renke, when he visited the farm about 3 weeks later, was not happy with the level of growth and had asked us to discontinue the crop. Accordingly, it was planned to replace this area also with some vegetable crop but because of the heavy rains, the vegetable sowing could not be done till December by which time the banana had grown very well. We didn’t feel like removing them. The yield from this is yet to be seen.

Observed productivity

The growth in the experimental plots was exceptionally good in Thorepalya and MGHalli. Only in K.Palya it was not uniformly good as the composted area was quite disturbed by the overflowing stream throwing lot of sand and washing off the compost. The difference between the special Renke plots and the control plots was also markedly visible. (Table showing all the data will be attached).

Just to note as example, 310.5 kg of radish (fresh wt, total biomass including green leaves) was harvested from 1 gunta in Thorepalya. This is about 45-55 days crop. A very conservative extrapolation—4 crops in a year, 1200kg/yr—48T/acre/yr (of total biomass). Total biomass to radish ratio was measured to be about 3:2. This means about 32T of salable Raddish per year per acre.

OR, the other way, 310.5 kg/gunta in 50 days --- 6.2kg/day --- with a conservative 10% of dry matter ---- 0.62 kg dry matter production per day per gunta. (Best yard stick in vegetable growing being Mr. Sharma from Yavatmal, who is a very successful organic farmer growing vegetables on 30 acres of land for more than 5-6 years, his average is 20T of salable vegetables/acre/year. Considering 240 days of effective growth days in a year, and about 40% useful vegetables---50T of total biomass/acre/240 days, which means 5.2 kg/gunta /day. Considering again 10% as the dry matter, 0.5-0.6 kg dry matter production/day/gunta). To give a comparative picture of the compost plot and the control plot, 6 plants weighed 823 gms in Compost Area and 368 gms in Control Area at the same number of growth days.

The total yield of Methi was 47.5 kgs in 1 gunta (actual crop area is 680sft leaving of the walking paths etc). The growth was not uniformly good in all the beds. (there was shadow of trees on one side). The best growth was 3.43 kgs in a bed of 8’X3.5’ = 28 sft area. (This being a 30 days crop, rough extrapolation would give 123kg/gunta per crop or about 28T/acre/6 crops in a year. Considering about 30% of walking path etc and only 70% actual crop area, this would be about 21T/acre/year. In MGHalli, the yield of Methi was 5.12kg from 2X10’X4’= 80sft and another variety of greens was 7.18kgs again from 80sft.

Only in MGHalli about 80 kg of gourd has been harvested till the time this report was written. But the comparison between compost area and the control area is very clearly seen here. While already 80 kg of gourd has been harvested from the compost area, the fruits have just started appearing after flowering in the control area. Initial measurements during the early growth days also had shown this difference clearly. The growth after 38 days in the control area was not even 40% as that of in the compost area (weight of 3 plants in the control area was 191.8gms as against 549 gms in the compost area). The same was observed even with Radish crop. The control area reached harvest stage about 2 weeks slower than the compost area.

The ragi crop had grown very well (farmers in the neighbourhood were all appreciating). Heavy rains towards the harvest period affected the yield. The final yield was 223kg of Ragi from the 8 guntas of vermicompost area (~ 10 quitals/acre) and 165 kg from 8 guntas of control (urea) area. Initial growth measurements had shown a weight of 423gms/4 plants in vermic area as against 216.5 gms in urea plot after 33 days of growth. (With a plant spacing of 1’X1’ this means 34X34 plants in a gunta, -- 423.5X34X34/4/ 33 days--- 3.51kg/day/gunta growth. Considering about 20% dry matter --- 0.7 kg/day/gunta dry matter production. The grain to husk ratio was also better in the case of vermicompost. (198/101 gms in vermic. Area and 182/116 mgs in urea plot). The total plant wt to the top thene ratio was 1332/350 gms and 1437/330 gms in the two cases. The weight of ragi grains per unit volume was also better in case of vermicompost plot (1115gms/seru and 985gms/seru)

The Social Mobilisation

The Social Mobilisation which is a very important component of this intervention. Actually the intervention started about 3 yrs back but due to lack of social mobilisation and personnel problems we were not able to make any head way. Also it took all of us sometime to understand the overall picture. One important development was the identification of Ravi Kumar of Motaganahalli. Thanks to ICRA and Gayathri we were able to identify a community leader who was involved in various developmental activities in MGhalli. So this intervention caught the imagination of the whole village once we started it as Ravi is being watched closely by the village

Microplanning

A detailed Microplanning on the Natural Resources and its management was done in the second year of the intervention once people were able to see these results and could tally the survey to the field work we have been doing in the village. As I say vry often, a Village survey is the most abused instrument in the communities with all and sundry doing surveys for everything. So a Survey is always a bad idea to start with and thats why we started this Microplanning activity in the second year when we were able to show some results. Actually even this was done in a particpative way. The Local Youth group ( again who are behind Ravi in his community development activities) were given an orientation of the whole intervention and they were made to understand as to where all these would fit-in in the overall context of the intervention and then given a small training on how to go about doing the Microplanning. The Microplanning data so collected has thrown some important observations ( pls. visit this section for more details on this).

Documentation

A detailed documentation has been done on the various inputs and outputs. This would be sent to interested people on request.

A video recording of the initiative has also be done which can be sent in a CD form to the interested people

The photographs of the intervention taken by many people would be put it in this section shortly. Some of them are uploaded on the AID photogallery by Bisu. They would soon be available here