According to a press release issued by ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics) here on Wednesday, initial assessments indicate that their grain yields rose by 40% and fodder yields by 20% on average over the past three seasons (2010-2012) due to improved sorghum varieties and crop management practices, along with improved market linkages.
The release added that about half of these farmers operate on a very small scale, with landholding size of two hectares or less. Net income (the income that farmers retain after their costs of cultivation are paid for) has increased by 50%, to an average of US$78 per hectare of sorghum grown.
HOPE is led by ICRISAT in close partnership with several state and national institutions on sorghum in India: Marathwada State Agricultural University, Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth State Agricultural University (MPKV), and the National Directorate of Sorghum Research.
HOPE focusses its efforts in six target areas in the Sorghum Bowl that contain especially large areas of post-rainy-season sorghum. About one-third of the targeted area is now sown to improved varieties, compared to just 10% before HOPE began its work. In a recent project planning meeting, Dr T A More, VC, MPKV, praised the results to date from HOPE, and stressed the need for a Green Revolution through major improvements like these in rainfed crops.
The cropping system in the Sorghum Bowl is unique. Instead of growing the crop in the warm summer rainy season it is sown after the rains end in September/October, and harvested in January/February. Farmers plant the crop on heavy clay soils that retain large amounts of the season's excess rainwater; the sorghum roots then extract that water to support plant growth. The new varieties have been especially taken up by the poorest farmers because they depend the most on rainfed cropping, being least able to afford irrigation water.
The sorghum varieties that are delivering these impressive gains were developed by Indian institutions by improving the traditional 'Maldandi' type of varieties cultivated in this area. These new varieties are well adapted to the cold temperatures and short daylength of the winter months, and are tolerant or resistant to drought and to the pests and diseases prevalent during this season such as aphids, shoot fly and charcoal rot.
