On-Farm Seed Priming in Semi-Arid Agriculture: Development and Evaluation in Maize, Rice and Chickpea in India Using Participatory Methods (original) (raw)

1999, Experimental Agriculture

Poor crop establishment was identi®ed as a major constraint on rainfed crop production by farmers in the tribal villages of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh served by the Krishak Bharati Cooperative (KRIBHCO) Indo-British Rainfed Farming Project (KRIBP). On-farm seed priming with water was chosen as a low cost, low risk intervention appropriate to the farmers' needs. In vitro screening of the eects of priming on the germination of seeds of local and improved varieties of maize, upland rice and chickpea provided`safe limits' ± the maximum length of time for which farmers should prime seeds and which, if exceeded, could lead to seed or seedling damage. Recommended safe limits were 24 h for maize and rice and 10 h for chickpea, with only minor varietal dierences. These recommendations were then tested in on-station trials in Dahod, Gujarat. Farmer-managed trials were conducted for chickpea in three villages in the rabi (post-monsoon) season in 1995±96; for maize and upland rice in eight villages in the kharif (monsoon) season in 1996; and for maize and chickpea in 15 villages in the 1996±97 rabi season. Farmers modi®ed these recommendations to`overnight' for all three crops. Evaluation of the technology by farmers involved focus group discussions, matrix ranking exercises and two workshops.

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