Every year, the low-lying area is subject to deep flooding due to monsoons that cause the overflow of the Brahmaputra and Bhogdai rivers. For centuries, rice has been the major crop of the area, the staple of the local population.
During the kharif (wet) season, farmers monocrop sali rice; their next crop consists of seasonal vegetables, oilseeds, and pulses. Most farmers in the village are either marginal, having less than 1 hectare of farmland, or small, with a farm size of 12 hectares.
Most farmers have a primary education. The average yield of sali rice is only about 2 tons per hectare. The combination of small farms and poor yields is a formula for poverty in this area. Compounding this, the Brahmaputra and Bhogdai often cause flood damage to the Sali rice, contributing further to food insecurity and poverty for the local farmers. To improve livelihoods in such areas, farmers wanted to grow rice during the dry (boro) season.
Monsoons bring too much water but the dry season brings too little. Therefore, irrigation is a must for boro rice. To encourage boro rice cropping, the Assam state government started providing subsidies for low-lift pumps in the year 2000.
Five farms began boro rice cropping for the first time during the 2002-03 season, irrigating about 2.5 hectares of land using the pumps to lift water from the Bhogdai River. Although they had water for irrigation, the farmers lacked an appropriate variety of boro rice.
In their first boro season, they grew an unknown variety, the so-called No. 9, and two sali varietiesLuit and Lachit. No. 9 yielded about 5 tons per hectare; the sali varieties yielded about half that. From 2003 to 2004, Assam Agricultural University (AAU) at Jorhat initiated efforts to intensify boro cropping at Ganakabari, in cooperation with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)-funded project TAG 634: Accelerating technology adoption to improve rural livelihoods in the rainfed eastern Gangetic Plains.
The AAU research team provided farmers with modern boro varieties developed by AAU Kanaklata, Joymati, and Jyotiprasadand offered information and technical support. In the 2003-04 season, 24 farmers cropped boro rice in a 27.5-hectare area. The AAU team promoted biofertilizer-based integrated nutrient management (BINM), which reduces the use of inorganic fertilizers and thus lowers production costs and water pollution. In the 004-05 season, 33 armers grew boro rice on 39 hectares nd, in the 2005-06 season, 25 armers cropped boro rice on 20 ectares.
The decrease in 2005- 6 was caused by severe rought, hich raised the cost of fuel and, onsequently, irrigation. Most armers who grew hese modern arieties harvested more than 5 ons per hectare, compared with the -tons-per hectare yield of sali rice, hich was often damaged by floods.
Most farmers have not abandoned sali rice; rather, they have adopted a borosali system. Boro rice is currently grown on about 30% of rice lands in Ganakabari. About 70% of the land is now under the saliboro system; the other 30% is planted to boro only. Among the three introduced boro varieties, Kanaklata has become the most popular. Rajib Neog is a young farmer from Ganakabari village.
With a secondary education, he has more schooling than many farmers. His brother, a school teacher, has settled with his family in the nearby suburban town of Dergaon. His three sisters are all married and have settled in other villages with their families. Rajib, the youngest sibling, remained at the family house in Ganakabari village to look after his elderly parents and their 2-hectare farm. Cultivating mostly rice and seasonal vegetables, his family's life was difficult.
A receptive and technology-savvy farmer, Rajib saw the potential of boro cropping. In 2002-03, he was one of five farmers who cultivated boro rice for the first time in the village. In 2003-04, he adopted the Kanaklata and Joymati varieties, and BINM, on 1.2 hectares. Later, he increased the coverage to 1.5 hectares75%
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