Increasing the productivity of rainfed agriculture, which still supplies about 60 per cent of the world's food, would make a significant impact on the global food production. This will be discussed at the annual meeting of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) grant programme, “Sustainable Management of Crop-based Production Systems for Raising Agricultural Productivity in Rainfed Asia”, which is slated to take place in Vientiane, the People's Democratic Republic (PDR) of Laos, between May 16 and 18, 2013.
The objective of the programme, led by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), is to improve the well-being of poor rural women and men engaged in rainfed agriculture in India, Laos, Nepal and Vietnam through sustainable, enhanced productivity and diversified income-generating opportunities. The annual meeting seeks to bring together partners from the participating countries to discuss and deliberate on how, through the programme, new technologies, improved crops and innovative management practices can help rainfed agricultural communities achieve food security and improved livelihoods.
Phet Phomphephak, Laos PDR's vice-minister, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Vice-Minister, will deliver a message at the meeting’s opening session. The IFAD grant programme started in 2012 for a four-year implementation, combining both research and developmental activities, primarily to transform existing low-productivity rainfed cropping systems in the target regions of partner countries into resilient, productive cropping systems by deploying appropriate farmer-friendly agricultural technological innovations.
The outputs of this programme are expected to enhance the overall productivity of rainfed agriculture in the target regions by 20-25 per cent and to substantially reduce the variation in yield stability, resulting in a 15-20 per cent increase in net returns from rainfed agriculture. At least 40,000 farmers in each project area are envisioned to benefit directly through adopting project innovations. The enhanced availability of legumes will add to the food and nutritional security of smallholder farm families. Increased availability of protein-rich legume fodder will enhance livestock productivity.
The cumulative gains from the programme outputs will have a significant impact on improving the livelihoods of poor farmers engaged in rainfed agriculture. The IFAD grant programme focusses on pro-poor research addressing emerging challenges that increase risks and vulnerability of smallholder farmers, particularly in the semi-arid tropics (SAT). Of the 1.4 billion people living in the SAT region worldwide, 560 million (40 per cent) are classified as poor and 70 per cent of the poor reside in rural areas. To be eliminated, it is imperative to improve overall productivity and sustainability of rainfed agriculture.
IFAD-supported grant projects implemented by ICRISAT in the past have either generated new or improved agricultural technologies suitable to semi-arid areas. These include drought-tolerant crop varieties; low-cost production technologies; introduction of new cropping seasons; introduction of new crops, and new cropping systems that have been enthusiastically adopted and scaled up by partner non-government organisations (NGOs) and farmers.
The IFAD grant programme's target group consists of poor and marginal farmers engaged in rainfed agriculture in the Indian states of Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan; the northern and southern areas of the People’s Democratic Republic of Laos; the western mid-level hilly region of Nepal, and the Vietnamese provinces of Ha Tinh and Cao Bang.
The programme activities are being implemented by the Jharkhand Tribal Development Society (JTDS) and Birsa Agricultural University (BAU) in Jharkhand; the Rajamata Vijayaraje Scindia Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya (RVSKVV) in Madhya Pradesh; the State Project Management Unit of Mitigating Poverty (MPOWER) in Western Rajasthan; the Sustainable Natural Resource Management and Productivity Enhancement Project (SNRMPEP) in Laos; the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) in Nepal; and the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences (VAAS) in Vietnam.
