OCP – AES Project in Karnataka

Excellent yield levels of pigeonpea have been obtained by all the
project farmers in OCP-AES Project in Karnatika. The rain has been good
this kharif season and has impacted all farmers in the three districts
where the project is being implemented. The average farmer of this
geography has achieved an increase of about 30 % as compared to last
year. However, the yield increase obtained by project farmers in the
same territory has been more than 60%, because it is not just rain that
made the difference, but they adopted the suggested interventions to
raise the pigeonpea yields. In fact, the best farmers (not necessarily
the lead farmers) were able to get phenomenal yield levels unheard of in
the area – upto 4 tonnes/ha. Not only the farmers have gained by
yield increases, but the project intervention towards market linkages
have helped some of the farmers ( who were able to hold their produce
for about 3 weeks) to get a much better market price for their produce
(Rs 40 / kg) as against Rs 32-34 received by farmers who sold their
produce immediately after harvest. In order to assign genuine scientific
basis to the kind of yields obtained by the various farmers having farms
with different soil types soil samples at harvest as well as samples of
crop plant at harvest (500 representative samples) are being analyzed
for nutrient status. Coupled with the original soil nutrient status,
nutrients applied, the balance left in the soil and that taken up by the
plants (nutrient balance sheet) will help analyze the factors that to
explain different levels of yield obtained by different farmers in
different types of soils.