Theme

Title: Multi locational Action pilot study on the impact of regenerative farming practices on crop yield, income, soil health and produce quality vis a vis the conventional practices.

Background:The agriculture in India is at the cross road now. The wide spread chemical intensive practices have brought this farming into crisis. Three pillars of farming such as (1) the farming community, (2) the farm resources (land, water, trees etc.) and (3) the farm produces are getting into the negative trap. Though this is known widely, the credibility of the possible alternative i.e., regenerative farming approach is yet to be stablished especially for the small holder poorer farmers. It is widely believed that the poor farmers cannot afford to adopt this alternative approach as it is difficult to ensure comparable productivity especially in the initial few years of its adoption till the soil regains its health which is often a slow process. So, there is a need to establish a contextual model which can possibly ensure a good economic return from the first year itself while improving the natural ecosystem.

The goal:The primary goal of this action pilot is establishing a few regenerative models which can ensure a comparable economic return to the small holder while regenerate the soil health and producing the quality of the produces simultaneously. The pilot aims at establishing this by generating data in a systematic and scientific manner in three broad assessment areas such as

• a) Economic return to the farmer.
• b) Soil health improvement
• c) Quality of theproduces

The parameters around the above broad three domains can be captured as below.
• 1. Economic domain: Investment, total production, Net return, Gross Return, B: C ratio
• 2. Soil health domain: Soil organic carbon percentage, Microbial population and ratio, water infiltration rate, Water holding capacity, Bulk Density, N, P, K, pH, EC, earth worm population
• 3. Produce quality domain: Nutritional density, shelf-life, Taste etc. Plant growth parameters and yield attributing characters (Crop specific).

Locations: Nine locations have been identified to conduct this action pilots from different zones of the state. All together we will cover 60 farmers. The block and district list are given below along with the CSOs working in this location.

Table of locations and farmers details:

Name of the CSO	No of Families	Operational District
Agragati	10	Ramgarh
Arouse	21	Gumla
Badlao Foundation	2	Jamtara
Gramika India	3	Giridih
Jharkhand Jungle BachaoAndolan	2	Ranchi
Lokdeep	2	Jamtara
Lokprerna	10	Dumka
Tagore Society for Rural Development	20	East Singhbhum
Vikash Sahyog Kendra	10	Palamu
Mahila Mandal	120	Chatra

Technical package: The practices to be adopted in the research pilots will be completely based on the principles of regenerative agriculture. Care will be taken to ensure the use of local materials. Based on past few years of experience,PRADAN has develop an operational model to adopt the regenerative agriculture in both the multilayer and focused vegetable production system. This model can be tried here with due modification after incorporating the technical suggestions from the institution. The Package can be broadly presented as below:

The key strategy we will follow to work around the above domains are. As a developmental organisation we need to attain three simultaneous goals:

Models to cover in the research pilot: Looking at the possible cropping system in the area, the study will cover broadly two cropping systems such as “Round the year multi multilayer model “and “Single layer seasonal Vegetable model”. Both these models will be tried in all the villages. While the multilayer model will be carried out with all the participating farmers, the seasonal vegetable trial will be conducted with only 1-2 selective farmers from these hamlets. Looking at the time constraint the model-1 (multi-layer trial) will be carried out from the current Kharif season where as the model -2 (single layer trial)will be carried out from coming Rabi season onward.

Round the year multi multilayer model: The objective here is to check how the adopted model/regenerative package is performing vis a vis the earlier approach followed by the farmer in the same plot around three broad performance domains such as economic gain, soil health and produce quality.
In this trial 60 farmers belong to 5 different zones will be participated. Each of these farmers will adopt this multi-layer model in about 15 decimal plots in their homestead. A part of this area will be covered under horizontal trellis and other half will be under vertical trellis.
A sample crop plan for the multilayer model with different crop combinations is given below. In consultation with farmers, we will freeze this crop plan.

Table-1: Proposed model with different crop combinations for horizontal trellis.

Table-2: Proposed model with different crop combinations for vertical trellis.