Conservation Agriculture Among Tribal Societies In India and Nepal.

This project utilized indigenous conservation agriculture production system (CAPS) approach to improve subsistence agriculture practice of marginalized tribal farmers in India and Nepal. Project utilized conservation tillage, intercropping and cover crop management to improve crop yield, soil quality, household income and gender equity. Result for the initial years suggested that intercropping improves yield and food and nutritional security. The effect of tillage is not significant. Conservation practices improved cover crop growth and yield in India. Analysis shows that there are no differences in labor requirement by conservation practices in Nepal, but in India there was substantial increase in land preparation, weeding and harvesting labor associated with intercropping. Conservation tillage provided some labor saving in both countries. Conservation practices has not resulted any significant changes in soil properties after one year. However, trend suggests improvement in bulk density and organic carbon. Project plans to use innovative in-field measure of water stable aggregates as key indicator for soil quality. Multivariate analysis of soil parameters suggests micronutrients deficiencies are important in Nepal. Farmer preference survey identified yield and environmental quality as most important factors for willingness to try conservation agriculture in India and Nepal, respectively. In Nepal, cognitive mapping of farmers perception indicated that soil moisture, and soil nutrition was perceived as being important for crop yield and adoption however significantly different among the villages due perhaps to their ecological environmental condition such as soil type. Inter-disciplinary approach is important for developing effective research strategies. Multi stakeholder participation for getting farmers and extension staff perception is important for developing effective interventions as shown by their different perceptions of the benefits of CAPS.