A STUDY ON PATHWAYS FOR SPREAD OF CLIMATE RESILIENT TECHNOLOGIES
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Date
2023-03-13
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PROFFESSOR JAYASHANKAR TELANGANA STATE AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY
Abstract
The present study entitled “A study on pathways for spread of climate resilient
technologies” was undertaken to study the pathways of various extension systems used
for spread of climate resilient technologies, to delineate the factors affecting the spread
of climate resilient technologies and to find out relationship between factors affecting
farmer to farmer spread of climate resilient technologies. An attempt is made to analyze
the constraints affecting spread of climate resilient technologies among the farming
communities.
Climate resilient agriculture is fairly flexible if farmers are provided with right
information, right tools, they can make necessary adaptations of their own. But some
farmers will find it difficult because of unavailability of technology, poor soil quality,
lack of irrigation, lack of funds in addition to institutional or cultural barriers. To achieve
climate resilient agriculture, the collaboration of farmers, extension system and research
system is prerequisite. For technology spread agricultural extension system needs various
players like public, private, CBO, farmers. At each stage of dissemination, factors
affecting the spread of technology varies with type of organization. Management of all
these factors and understanding elements of technology pathway leads to successful
spread of technology among farmers.
Documentation using case study approach and Ex-post facto research design was adopted
for the investigation. Telangana state was chosen for the study. Public extension system
and private extension system were selected for the documentation. For ex-post facto
design Khammam district was selected purposively keeping in the view of more spread
of climate resilient technologies in the district. Enkoor mandal was selected purposively
as the spread of climate resilient technologies is observed in the mandal. Two NICRA
villages and two NON-NICRA villages were selected from the mandal. Thus, total of four
villages were selected for the study. 30 farmers were selected at random from each village
to create a sample of 60 respondents from NICRA-adopted villages and 60 respondents
from non-NICRA villages for the study. Thus, total of 120 farmers were selected.
The technology selected from DAATTC Rangareddy to study the documentation
of technology spread is millets intercropping with red gram. Pigeon pea and sorghum
intercropping is a common practice in many sorghum-growing regions. The adaptation
of millets like sorghum to higher temperature, a lack of rainfall, depleted soil fertility,
etc., are factors that influence climate change impact. Even in the midst of the drought,
the farmers in red gram who grew high-yielding sorghum and pearl millets as intercrops
were able to produce good yields in the event of failure of main crop.
The technology selected from KVK Rangareddy to study the documentation of
technology spread is perennial fodder system. The majority of cattle rely on crop residues
such as cotton stalks, maize stovers, sorghum stalks, paddy straw, and other crop residues
during the summer which have low nutritional content. Due to small fragmented land
holdings very, few farmers were engaged in fodder cultivation. The KVK- Rangareddy
(CRIDA-ICAR) initiated perennial fodder technology demonstrations in the form of
front-line demonstrations fodder jowar (Var. MP Chari). The perennial fodder varieties
were high yielding and drought tolerant even in the summer under water scarcity
conditions.
The technology selected from DoA to study the documentation of technology
spread is resilient households. The Telangana state's farming communities lack the
technical expertise and financial resources necessary to adopt climate resilient practices.
By providing a variety of climate-resilient farming system interventions, the DoA aims
to improve the smallholder farmers in Telangana the ability to adapt to climate change
scenarios through these resilient households.
The technology selected from Syngenta under private extension system to study
the documentation of technology spread is solar powered lift irrigation. Farmers were
relying on an irrigation system that worked and used a diesel pump. Solar-powered
irrigation systems (SPIS) are a clean technology option for irrigation, allowing the use of
solar energy for water pumping, replacing fossil fuels as energy source, and reducing
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from irrigated agriculture which causes harmful effects
like global warming.
The technology selected from Watershed trust organization (WOTR) under
private extension system to study the documentation of technology spread is community
micro irrigation. The emphasis was on sharing water resources through drip irrigation,
pooling water resources, and assisting farmers with better agricultural methods. The areas
experiencing climatic events such as drought and dry spells, to combat these climate
stresses, to overcome the crop failure, and use available limited water to cultivate larger
areas of land with greater water-use efficiency community micro irrigation is utilized.
From the documentation the factors affecting the spread of climate resilient
technologies were delineated revealing that the stakeholders involved, end user, source
of technology, no of trial, communication channels used, extension strategies followed,
time taken, schemes and incentives involved in upscaling and monitoring etc., were the
major factors affecting the spread of the climate resilient technologies.
The relationship analysis between factors affecting farmer to farmer spread of
climate resilient technologies regarding NICRA farmers out of 18 variables 9 variables
namely farm size, annual income, irrigation, information seeking behaviour, extension
contact, participation in extension activities and relative advantage, trialability and access
to technology showed significant correlation at 1 per cent and 5 per cent level of
probability with technology spread. And 8 out of 18 variables namely education, family
type, farming experience, compatibility, complexity, availability of infrastructure,
affordability and need for technology are positively correlated with technology spread but
not significant. The variable Age is negatively related to technology spread. Where as in
NON NICRA respondents out of 18 variables 2 variables namely irrigation, access to
technology were positively correlated at 0.05 level of significance. The 15 out of 18
variables namely education, farm size, family-type, farming experience, annual income,
information seeking behaviour, extension contact, participation in extension activities,
relative advantage, trialability, compatibility, complexity, affordability, need for
technology and availability of infrastructure were positively correlated but not significant.
The variable age was negatively correlated but not significant.
The major constraints observed in pathways were climate change, market forces
convincing farmers for co-investment, collecting farmers contribution, forming a water
user group, selection of area, after sale service for solar panels, etc were observed as
constraints. In farmer to farmer spread under socio-psychological constraints, resistance
to change the conventional practices, under economic constraints inadequate finance and
lack of assets like land, under technical constraints small size land holding, lack of
awareness and lack of own resources were the constraints observed in the study