Update on Magadi as of 28.03.2007

I. Torepalya:

We did continue with our earlier years and we wanted to consolidate our results of last year and revalidate the same.

a)Biomass collection – 360 days
Composting – 76 days
Sowing , Reaping, preparation of natural pesticides and other activities – 118 days
More Biomass was collected this year and the intervention was expanded to more crop area. The Biomass collected has resulted in additional 6 ½ gunthas of composted plot for this year.

b) The first crop of Beans was a moderate success after which Green guard was sown. But there was widespread pest infestation (because of lack of rain) and when we sprayed some natural pesticides the crops were burnt out. This was when we sought out the services of Mr. Krishna Prasad of Green Foundation. The problems were identified and all the women from the 3 places ( Torepalya, Motaganahalli and Katanpalya) were given a formal training on Multicropping, natural pesticides, composting methods etc.,

c) The rains were a total failure in Magadi this year. Since there was some backup water available at this place we could take 3 more crops in a mixed fashion and all were consistently very good

II. Motaganahalli (MG Halli) :

Microplanning:

a) One of the first activities at the beginning of the season was to conduct the Microplanning activity in the neighborhood of Motaganahalli to understand the existing practices, outputs, cropping patterns etc.,

b) It was done in the form of household surveys by the local youth group who were given an orientation about the intervention.

c) A format was designed on the lines of the Marathi format devised by Sandhya Edlabadkar in Maharashtra. The youth were then trained to do this survey with Prasanna accompanying them in the initial stages.

d) Some of the Highlights are:

Total number of houses covered: 286

Number of land owners : 116 (40.5 %)
Number of the landless : 170 (59.5 %)
Number of farmers with irrigation facility (only landowners):13
(11.2 % of the land owning households)
Number of farmers with no irrigation facilities (only landowners) : 103 (88.8 %)

Total land possession:
Number of farmers who possess less than 1 acre : 50
Number of farmers who possess with 1- 2 acres : 37
Number of farmers who possess with 2- 5 acres : 18
Number of farmers who possess with more than 5 acre : 11

Number of landowners with cattle : 38
Number of landless with cattle : 17

Number of households with toilets : 131 (45.8 %)
Number of households who use LPG for cooking : 70 (24.5 %)

Crop yield details for Ragi and Toor :

Ragi: Average yield : 6 – 7 Q/Acre (The Avg expense: 2000 – 3000 Rs/Acre)
Maximum yield : 14 Q/Acre
Minimum yield : 3 Q/Acre

Toor : Average yield : 1 T/acre (as green vegetable)
Maximum yield : N/A
Minimum yield : 300-400 kg/acre
(The data is inconclusive as there is a lot of disparity in the data and some confusion with local terminologies for quantities. The survey should be re-conducted with specific farmers to confirm the data about the average/maximum/minimum yields.)

Total number of farmers who possess fallow/unused land: 7
(A total of 7 farmers (17 ½ acres) have left their land fallow. These lands can be used by AID for its interventions)

The number of households covered (286) is only a fraction of the total houses in the village (above 900). We are still considering whether we should cover all the houses or move ahead with our program based on the data of this sample survey.

The labour input of the 5 women since Feb-2006 is as follows:
Biomass Collection – 344 Women Days
Composting – 101 Days
Weeding – 35 days
Sowing , Reaping, preparation of natural pesticides and other activities – 122 days
Total – 602 days
More Biomass was collected this year and the intervention here also was expanded to more crop area. The Biomass collected has resulted in additional 5 ½ gunthas of composted plot for this year
There was a moderate success with Cowpea immediately taken after the first rains
Some of the problems of Torepalya were also seen here after cowpea and then got rectified after the training
We had 2 more vegetable crops taken and very good yield observed. But by the time of Dec 2006, since there was total failure of rains, the borewell of the neighbouring farmer from whom we were borrowing water got dried up and hence we could not continue the work there

III. Katanpalya:

Biomass collection– 341 Days
Weeding – 40 days.
More Biomass was collected this year. The Biomass collected would have been sufficient for an additional 8-10 gunthas.

We also had got the checkdam, which is adjoining the plot, desilted and also deepened to hold more water for protective irrigation but due to the total failure of rains not even a drop of water got collected there which was very unfortunate

There was no access to getting water from anywhere (not even water tanker) and hence nothing could be done at this place this year

Crops Taken up at the 3 places:

a) MG Halli – Cowpea, Beans, Tomato, Bitter Gourd and Chillies. Tomato, chillies and bittergaurd were grown in the composted area prepared last year (Planted in august). About 188kg of bittergaurd has been harvested so far (in about 90 days). Tomato and chilli have started yielding but the final outputs are awaited. (One sad thing is that there has been some theft of crop yield on couple of days). One special point to be noted is that unlike last year this year the produce has been bought over by the local people themselves at a good price without us having to intervene and search for a market in Bangalore.
Cowpea and beans were grown basically as green manure or nitrogen fixers in between the beds of biomass laid for composting or in the uncomposted area (before composting) on an area of 14 guntas. The yield from these was a good bonus (149.5kg fresh vegetable and about 50 kg of dry grains of cowpea and 295 kgs of beans).

b) Katanpalya – Nothing has been sown this year

c) Torepalya – Ridge Gourd, Beans, cluster beans were sown in the 3 guntas of composted land prepared last year in August. There was heavy pest investation in the early stages of the crop itself which we could not manage with organic pesticides, and could not get help from experts at the right time. We had to abandon beans and ridge guard crops.

CROPS SOWN in DECEMBER

In Torepalya, we could grow one more crop in December. Three different varieties of beans, carrot and beet root, cucumber and some 3 varieties of greens were grown each in 1 gunta of area. Biopesticides prepared by the women locally was used right from the beginning and there was no pest infestation for any crop. The growth and yield of all the crops were quite good.
Carrot and beet root were sown as mixed crops in alternate rows over an area of 2 guntas together. These seeds were bought from commercial market in Bangalore. The germination of seeds was very bad (beetroot totally off, carrot moderate). In spite of that, about 120kg of carrot was harvested (effectively) from 1 gunta.

One of the beans varieties (bush beans) yielded 73 kg of fresh vegetables and another 2.15 kg of seeds from 1 gunta. Common beans yield was about 22 kg fresh and 1.75 kg of seeds. Double beans variety was all left for seeds because the seed suppliers wanted to buy back the seeds. The final dry weight of seeds is yet to be measured. Cucumber yield was also very good, but most of it was consumed by the labourers themselves even without weighing. Only about 19.5 kg was available for weighing. From the greens, the best yield was of Methi, about 24.5 kgs from a area of one part out of six parts of a gunta (effectively about 120 sft). All these vegetable outputs are in matching comparison with the Chemical method of farming