Catalyzed and supported by Department of Science and Technology, Science Society Division

5. Existing farm resource mapping: This will also help us to understand the existing farm status and linkages between different subsystems. Later on after intervention we will draw linkage lines to compare the changes. Here is an example from CERD, Pondichery.  
 

6. Those who intend to take vegetable garden as a major intervention, should do a seasonal vegetable calendar. Where vegetable sold from the market, and vegetable grown in the field through out the seasons to be described through seasonal calendar. Our intervention will try to make the farmers independent of market in terms of vegetable consumption.

 

 
B. Planning of intervention

According to the seasonal calendar, existing resource flow, baseline and macrosite data, we need to plan our intervention that suits the socio-cultural background of the farmer and the location. Here is a detailed list of techniques that can be considered during planning. This list will vary zone wise, you are requested to prepare a list for your agro-climatic zone, this will open up our vision for intervention planning. 

  Diversity at species level
 

 Multistory kitchen garden, Mixed cropping, Relay cropping, Alley cropping, Living/productive fences, Local   seed preservation

  B. Utilisation of permanent/seasonal
   fallow lands.

 Trench, Bunds, Deepening of pond, Rice-duck-fish-azolla farming, Local breed of livestock rearing for milk/meat/manure, Insect rearing (bees/termite as chicken and fish feed…)

 Generating CPR, Mulching, Cover crops, Fruit Orchard

 Adding biomass to the soil, Cultivation of leguminous crops,  Relay cropping,  Cover cropping, Composting, Vermicomposting, Green Manure, Liquid Manure, Biofertiliser (Ajotobactor, Ajosperilum, rhizobium, Blue green algae etc.)

 Field bunds, Terrace across the slope, Cover crop, Mulching, Contour Bunding, Plantation of trees across the bunds of flowing water bodies

 Water is collected where it falls, Field bund, Trench, Deepening of Pond, Contour Bunding, Cover crop, Mulch, Plantation across the slope, Rain water harvesting, Water recycling, Drip irrigation, Pitcher Irrigation

 Biodigestor, Measures to prevent extra mining of ground water, Promotion of paddle pump, Water recycling, Minimising external input in the field and house hold.

 PRA, Discussion with the Farmers regarding the intervention plans, Participatory seasonal plans, Selection of crops and trees based on local and cultural practices.

 Processing of waste materials, Nursery for multipurpose trees, Seed bank and seed exchange, SHG, Value added food products, Grain bank, Medicinal plantation, Insect culture

 Excess vermin from vermin compost as feed to hen, Hen shed over the pond, Leguminous crop residue ploughed back within the soil, Wastes into compost pit or biogas plant, Mixed cropping of leguminous crops with nitrogen demanding other crops, Kitchen waste recycling through Vermicompost, Intelligent usage of crop residue, Using biogas slurry through vermicomposting

 
C. Intervention
- Seasonal planning with farmer according to the intervention plan
- Farm design, Land shaping to achieve system diversity 
- Implementation

D. Trial Data collection
A database has been designed in MS Access for collecting farm data, economics data, soil data and nutritional data. To download that format, please visit resource page.

E. Trial Data Analysis 

1. Resource flow mapping: This will be done on the resource flow diagram before intervention, to indicate the flow of energy and nutrient among different subsystems. Here is an example from CERD, pondichery.

2. Calculation of indicators: There are standard method of calculating the following indicators-
- Flexibility
- Productivity
- Profitability
- Biodiversity
- Stability

Resource Flow mapping after intervention
 

 
3. Season wise farmer wise web diagram

Explanation

(a) Here the no. of subsystems possessed by the farm are indicated.

(b) A farm should be graded in terms of the diversity elements present in it. The ranking will be as follows: 
VERY HIGH- 4    HIGH- 3    FAIR- 2    LOW- 1    VERY LOW- 0

Qualitative basis
- Is the farmer practicing the techniques like mixed cropping/alley cropping/relay cropping etc.?
- Does the farmer have trees within the field?
- Are the trees planted by him? If yes reasons, if no, then our interventions
- Are the perennials and semi perennials diversified (medicinal/fruit/fuel)?
- Do they have Kitchen gardens? Is the kitchen garden multistoried? Does it have prductive fences?
- Is there any application of aquatic weeds?
- Is the aqua system well managed or naturally diversified?
- How well the pond is used?
- How many types of compost are there?
- How many types of livestock are there among regionally available ones.

(c) Here the percentage of total non-surplus farm production (that includes staple food, pulses, other food/fruit crops, livestock products) sold in the market is indicated. 
- Zero Score : 100% of the non surplus being sold.
- One : 99%-75% of the non surplus being sold.
- Two : 74%-50% of the non surplus being sold.
- Three : 49%-25% of the non surplus being sold. 
- Four : 24%-1% of the non surplus being sold.
- Five: No surplus production.

Qualitative basis
- Self sufficient as he gets his yearly requirement fulfilled from his field or garden itself.
- Enough availability of cash from other sources of income, so selling is not required.
- Poor quality vegetable which cant be sold in the market?
- No surplus production because large number of family member?
- Any value addition?

(d) The Inter Subsystem Resource Flow can be estimated by counting the no. of linkages (that indicates the integration) between the different subsystems present. This has to be calculated by dividing the factorial of total linkages present divided by the factorial of total possible linkages. Depending on the values obtained, ranking can be done as follows:
- Very High: If the value is towards 1.
- High: If the value is between 1-0.75
- Fair: If the value is between 0.74-0.25
- Low: If the value is between 0.24-0.01
- Very low: If there is no linkage present.

Qualitative basis
- Subsystems present but not utilized due to lack of awareness and may be due to cultural practice.
- Leguminous leaves are used or not?
- Whether using vermi compost?
- Components of Biogas slurry
- Whether they use cow urine or not.
- Pond silt is used in farm?
- How the droppings of duck and hen is collected?
- Do they get animal feed from the field?

(e) The proportion of the components to which water is recycled with respect to the total no. of components has to be calculated. The ranking should be as per (c).

Qualitative basis
- Whether water gets recycled to all the components of the subsystems present.
- Whether at least the water used for domestic purposes gets recycled or not?
- Is there any cover crop/mulching?
- Do they take a second crop using residual moisture?

(f) The intra subsystem linkages should be counted which must also include the functional linkages (e.g. ducks aerating the paddy fields) and the ranking should be done according to (b).

Qualitative basis
- Are there more than two components within each subsystem?
- Can the components sustain themselves without market?
- From where do they get animal feed?
- What is the portion of animal feed that are bought?
- Is there any fish-duck-azolla system?

(g) The external farm inputs bought from the market should be calculated as percentage and the ranking should be done as follows: 

- Five: No farm inputs bought from the market.
- Four: Upto 25% bought from the market
- Three: Upto 50% bought from the market
- Two: Upto 75% bought from the market
- One: Upto 100% bought from the market
- Zero: All the farm inputs are bought.

Qualitative basis
- Farmer doesn't have enough money to buy from the market
- He can fulfill his requirement from what is available in the farm and so there is no need to buy
- Has access to collect the same from other sources

(h) Ranking of the Bio digester should be done as follows:
Options are: Biogas Plant, Vermicompost Pit, Compost Pit, Farm Yard Manure, No bio digester 
- Four: Farmer has all four kinds
- Three: Any three
- Two: Any two
- One: Any one
- Zero: None present

Qualitative basis
- How many types of compost are there?
- Leguminous leaves are used or not?
- Whether using vermin compost?
- Components of Biogas slurry

(i) The external vegetable inputs bought from the market is calculated in percentage and is ranked according to (g)

Qualitative basis
- Farmer doesn't have enough money to buy from the market
- He can fulfill his requirement from what is available in the farm and so there is no need to buy
- Has access to collect the same from other sources
- Farmer doesn't eat vegetable.
- Farmer doesn't eat vegetable whatever cultivated.
- What types of vegetable he requires which are not there in his field?
- What is the stress period of vegetable?
- What kind malnutrition is there? What kind of vegetable can supplement that?

(j) The external animal protein inputs bought from the market should also be calculated in percentage and ranked according to (g)

Qualitative basis
- Farmer doesn't have enough money to buy from the market
- He can fulfill his requirement from what is available in the farm and so there is no need to buy
- Cultural/religious practices.

(k) No External Labour

Qualitative basis
- Farmer doesn't have enough money to buy from the market
- He can fulfill his requirement from what is available in the farm and so there is no need to buy
- Not cost effective
- Availability of farm machinery
- Excess labour available and so disguised un-N

(l) No soil or nutrient loss

Qualitative basis
- Filed bunds
- Contours
- Land shaping
- Terraces
- Cover crop
- Mulching
- Not kept fallow for any part of the year
- Alley cropping
- Relay cropping
- Trenches
- Trees on the bunds
- Soil analysis report

(m) Positive links to common
- Indirect benefit direct contribution
- Indirect benefit direct contribution
- Direct benefit direct contribution
- Direct benefit indirect contribution
- No links to the common.