Major Activities under JANA KRISHI

• Chain Completion
• Complete Recycling Model
• Organic Farming
• Intensified Integrated Farming System (IIFS)
• Low Cost Irrigation
• Soil Health Management
• Low External Inputs Sustainable Agriculture (LEISA)
• Participatory Technology Development (PTD)
• Farmers Field School (FFS)
• Need Based Package (PAPR)
• Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
• Integrated Nutrient Management (INM)

Problem Analysis: The central & major cause of prevailing poverty in Indian villages is agriculture becoming loss-making enterprise. Land is the only source of income and it needs to be preserved for the future generations too. All tail ends of irrigation projects are exposed to a peculiar problem i.e. two extremes of water availability. During rainy season, when the upper reach farmers don’t want water for irrigation and also the runoff gets generated out of excess rain, they leave it through the canal which inundates the standing crops of tail end farmers. In the peak season, when the water is seriously in need by the tail end farmers, it is being completely used by the upper reach farmers leaving inadequate quantum after satisfying their needs, thereby causing drying up of standing crops again at the tail end.

 

 

Secondly, chemical-heavy agriculture caused pests immunization and has left degraded soil with salinity & alkalinity issues for the farmers. Under this circumstance, whatever is grown by the farmers faces least value in the market.

 

Can pukur be an alternative? If a farm-pond (Pukur in Bengali) is constructed to store surplus water, which inundates cropped-land in rainy season & is otherwise a waste, may be applied for Life-saving irrigation in peak season to avoid both the losses stated earlier.

 

 

Intensified Integrated Farming System (IIFS) – an answer: But then question came into our mind whether such a Pukur can irrigate all the five acres of land? Our experience is that the whole farm (4-5 Acres) can not be irrigated in the peak season, if planted with agricultural crops.  What could the way be out was the next question and the answer to the same is finally got from the experiment is as under-

 

Excavate a multipurpose Pukur for fisheries, duck rearing and use bund for tree crops	¾ acre
Grow subsistence crop like paddy with SRI method to meet the food requirement	1 acre
Grow dry crops for family consumption such as food grain, cereals and pulses	1 acre
Establish orchard with horticulture crops & vegetables which requires less irrigation	½ acre
Grow fodder for Ccows which will give manure for soil          health improvement	¼ acre
Adopt dry land agriculture crops to avoid fallow land and make effective use of land	Rest

 

Organic Agriculture: Degradation of soil is the result of over-dozes of fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation water and need to be checked at the earliest to reduce national wastes. The farmers need to be educated about appropriate method of cultivation preferably organically, which may assist them to reclaim and retain fertility of soil with optimum yield; thus Janakalyan has developed Total Recycling Model to address these issues. 

 

Responding to these issues and also to leave the land in good condition for future generations, Janakalyan started Participatory Technology Development in Agriculture (PTDA) to promote organic farming for soil health management. Farmers’ Field School (FFS) is another tool used to demonstrate Integrated Pest Management which is for soil & water conservation through Intensified Integrated Farming Systems (IIFS).

 

Poverty Alleviation Package for Refugees: PAPR is another approach whereby attempt has been made to develop a habit of integrated farming inclusive of horticulture, fisheries, dairy, vegetables growing, fodder cultivation, dry land agriculture and subsistence crops, etc. Here emphasis has been given on judicious utilization of the water. 

Thus, basically this intervention is trying to address the twin problems of livelihood of these refugees i.e. optimizing profit in agriculture (soil fertility, salinity / alkalinity, pest immunization, chemical heavy cultivation practices, etc.) and providing adequate irrigation. 

 System of Rice Intensification (SRI): Janakalyan has mastered the concept of SRI through field experiments and extension activities. SRI is not used only as a tool to enhance productivity of the land but also as a water-saving method and thereby increasing the area under irrigation.

 

Strengths: Agriculture is an area of expertise of Janakalyan; it has a set of qualified & trained personnel to innovate technologies for cultivation of various crops with Low External Inputs Sustainable Agriculture (LEISA) concept through Participatory Technology Development in Agriculture (PTDA) approach. It has involved in the FAO supported Farmers Field School (FFS) and successfully completed its implementation.

 

 Sri L Narayana Reddy, a renown progressive farmer and promoter of SRI in Karnataka visits Janakalyan every fortnight to provide on-farm technical support to the farmers. Sri Subhash Palekar,Father of Zero Cultivation, has also visited the organic farming experiments of Janakalyan and congratulated the team about the success it has achieved in natural farming.