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Non- Pesticidal Management in Crops: Community Managed Extension, Processes and Impacts

KrishiKosh

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Title Non- Pesticidal Management in Crops: Community Managed Extension, Processes and Impacts
 
Creator Mahesh Malgatti
 
Contributor D.U.M. Rao
 
Subject carbon, harvesting, forest management, land resources, layering, wood, farming systems, fractionation, nitrogen, organic soils
 
Description t-7933
In response to the agrarian crisis of
raising cost of cultivation, unsustainable
agricultural technologies, depletion of natural
resources, especially water, in the state
of Andhra Pradesh, a new programme was in
itiated by the Society for Elimination of
Rural Poverty (SERP) with the collaborati
on of Centre for Sustainable Agriculture
(CSA) called Indira Kranti Patham – Non-
Pesticidal Management of Crops in 12
districts of the state in 2005-06. This progr
amme has been perceived as a panacea for
the problems that farmers faced. Some of the unique features of the programme
involved community manage extension work with active participation of women’s
self help groups and their federations, comple
te elimination of chemical pesticides in
crop cultivation, sustainable agricultural practices and adequate organizational
support with management linkages at villa
ge, mandal and district levels. These
features, being innovative called for the res
earcher’s attention and a study was taken
up to assess the evolution of the concept of NPM, processes and linkages in upscaling
of these NPM practices, sustainability and im
pact of these NPM practices on health of
soil, crops, agro-ecology, human beings, animals and birds in the village ecosystem.
The study was conducted in Khammam a
nd Anantapur districts of Andhra
Pradesh. Two villages from each district were
selected for case study analysis. Fifteen
respondents from each village totaling up to
sixty formed the sample for data
collection, which was done in January – February 2008.
The concept of non-pesticidal management, NPM came into existence over
long years of informal research work
done by the NGOs for controlling red hairy
caterpillar in groundnut dating back to late
eighties. The NPM practices have been
tried by several NGOs working for sustainable agriculture and all the practices were
well proven and accepted by the farmers.
For upscaling, IKP-NPM programme has
roped in the technical expertise of CSA a
nd used its own women self help groups in
the villages and mandals. Local NGOs working at
district level were also roped into
the organizational framework for implementation of the programme. The study shows
that the NPM practices and strategies for pesticide-free cultivation are diffused
through the processes involved in organi
zing community mobilization. The findings
reflect that all NPM practices were sustai
nable with respect to ecological, economic
148
and socio-cultural dimensions of sust
ainability. Ninety-five per cent of the
respondents perceived that the overall
impact of NPM practices was high on
improvement in crop health, ecological health, human health, and health of animal
and birds. Farmers faced constraints in ge
tting seeds of traditional varieties, and found
that NPM practices were labour consum
ing, and the NPM produce does not fetch
premium prices. Among the suggestions fo
r further upscaling of NPM practices,
prominent were: introducing NPM strategies
in degree curriculum, certification and
better price for NPM products. NPM farmi
ng is a viable alternative because it
conserves the soil, strengthens the natural resource base and sustains biological
production. It is part of a culture that valu
es conservation of nature and life on earth
for attaining harmony with nature.
 
Date 2017-01-25T11:30:02Z
2017-01-25T11:30:02Z
2008
 
Type Thesis
 
Identifier http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/97512
 
Format application/pdf