Transforming knowledge and disseminating new seeds through women’s networks

Rural women play a vital role in increasing in food production. Women farmers should have better access to varieties and resources to help mitigate the effects of climate change on their rice production. More importantly, instead of treating them as mere beneficiaries, they should be viewed as experts who possess the know-how that can complement experts’ formal knowledge.

Paddy cultivation is the main alternative livelihood for women in eastern India. This is part of changing landscape of agriculture across Asia. The traditional role of women in rice farming is rapidly changing, according to Dr. Samarendu Mohanty, head of the Social Sciences Division at the International Rice Research Institute. They are going from farm laborers to farm managers and owners because of the outmigration of male farmers to urban areas in search of better economic opportunities.

Despite the changes, the extension system in most developing countries has not made significant impact on small-scale farmers. Seed replacement rates remain very low, and access to new seeds continues to be problematic. Most farmers grow old varieties and use their own seeds. In order to address these challenges, new approaches based on community participation have come to the fore as a means of scaling up agricultural technologies to a wider audience.

The Stress-Tolerant Rice for Africa and South Asia (STRASA) project is initiating approaches that promote women farmers as principal agents of change in their communities. The new strategy focuses on enhancing their learning processes, capacity building, and empowerment to improve their ability to adapt and make better decisions. The project is also training women farmers—being the actual operatives of the most rice farming practices—to provide accurate feedback to researchers.

STRASA is using this approach to disseminate information and seeds of stress tolerant rice varieties in eastern India. It aims to reach all farmers in an entire village by working with members from existing women’s groups in the villages because most social networks, where interaction is greater, are found within these groups. The approach works on the premise that female farmers would facilitate the further spread of knowledge and seed of stress-tolerant rice varieties (STRVs) through their social networks thereby generating sustainable processes and practices. If a member of a self-help group successfully adopts a technology, other members may not only learn the innovation from her but also share it with others creating a multiplier effect. Moreover, in most of the stress prone areas with inadequate extension services available, women are taking the lead in all the operations of rice farming. They can be the best agents for extending the knowledge and seeds of STRVs.

Because stress-tolerant varieties are knowledge-intensive technologies, representative farmers go through a joint learning process with researchers and extensionists. It is necessary for them to understand the subject behind the practices before implementation. STRASA facilitates their interaction with researchers and provide hands-on trainings on quality seed production, seed testing, and safer storage. With the launch of phase 3 of STRASA, new lines developed by the International Rice Research Institute have been released in India for flood and drought stresses. These are Bina dhan11, Samba Mahsuri Sub1, DRR42 (IR64 Drought), DRR43, DRR39 and DRR44. Some of these varieties are already popular in many of the regions of eastern India, where they are being evaluated and promoted through private seed companies and other channels.
 
The importance of women in the promotion and dissemination of STRVs in the first season of their release can be clearly seen as these varieties have been disseminated through women's networks with the help of NGOs working with women’s self-help groups and women farmers.STRASA works with groups who have already an established base in these areas working for improving the livelihoods and empowering women through different interventions.

One organization, Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojana (RGMVP) organizes self-help groups for poor rural women each with ten to twenty members. RGMVP has developed a cost-effective, sustainable, and scalable poverty reduction and women’s empowerment model adopted by STRASA for the dissemination of knowledge and seeds of STRVs like IR64 Drought (DRR42), Samba Mahsuri Sub1 and Binadhan 11.

Farmers are initially educated about the basics of rice farming and made aware about the characteristics of the new varieties. Trainings are conducted for different operations from seeding to storage, to ensure that quality seed is produced which can be bought back from the farmers and sold/shared to others as a part of the RGMVP model.

Other NGOs which are engaged in the promotion of new STRVs through women’s networks are Vishwalok Jan Sewa Sansthan in eastern Uttar Pradesh,  Baster Sevak Mandal in Chhatisgarh, and Samekit Jan Vikas Kendra in Jharkhand in eastern India. A total of about 1,350 female farmers from different community groups across the four states were reached through this initiative.



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Strategic public and private partnership help accelerate dissemination of new varieties in eastern India

It could take between 3 to 6 years from initial evaluation of a breeding line to the release of a new rice variety. Add to that the slow rate of varietal adoption by farmers, because of problems with the seed industry and extensions services, and you have a system with low production, productivity and farm incomes. Now, the dissemination of newly released stress-tolerant rice varieties (STRVs) in eastern India is getting a boost through the partnership between public and private seed producers.

The Stress-Tolerant Rice for Africa and South Asia (STRASA) project has been working with partners in the region to spearhead initiatives to accelerate the adoption and dissemination of stress-tolerant varieties so they can reach farmers’ fields much quicker. STRASA is using this strategy to create awareness among the farming communities in 50 districts in the states of Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. These districts mostly have marginal farmers without access to quality seed of new varieties. The strategy also promotes proper channels as seed sources to ensure a sustainable seed system in the future.

STRASA facilitated the activities in which public and private formal seed sectors and extension systems participate in the promotion and multiplication of the flood-tolerant BINA dhan 11 and Sambha Mahsuri Sub 1, the drought-tolerant DRR42, DRR 43, DRR44, and salinity tolerant DRR 39. These are suitable for areas where farmers suffer heavy losses due to floods and drought and salinity. The varieties are early maturing and have characteristics and traits preferred by most farmers and consumers.

Farmers evaluate the varieties in multi-location field trials through the extension system. Extension agencies collect the feedback from the farmers then convey the information to seed producers. The feedback from these demonstrations help the national system to determine which new varieties for improving the rice yields in rainfed conditions are suitable for large-scale promotion and seed upscaling. The seed production sector engages in the upscaling and the comparison of the new varieties with existing varieties.

Farmer seed systems and formal seed systems have complementary tasks in supporting agricultural development. STRASA is strengthening both systems to expedite the upscaling and adoption of new varieties in the pipeline. The project is developing a promotion roadmap by linking public, private, and state seed corporations with institutions that produce breeder seeds.  This will allow new varieties to enter the formal seed chain as early as the first year of their release.

For example, the Seed Association of Bengal, a group of more than 45 seed companies which supplies seeds to several states in eastern India, has taken up the multiplication of DRR42 seed in the first year of its release. This will speed up the replacement of high-yielding, but short-rooted and drought-prone commercial rice variety, IR64.

STRASA supports these small seed companies by creating awareness of the varieties by providing technical information about the varieties and conducting small demonstrations through their dealers’ network.

These partnerships are gaining momentum in the seed sector, allowing for fast-track commercialization of STRV seeds that enable large-scale distribution so more farmers benefit. STRVs is a top priority of breeder seed indent from different agencies across the states submitted to the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture.

In 2014, STRASA facilitated the production of 5 tons of breeder seed of the new rice varieties allocated to public and private seed companies. This will produce about 400 tons of foundation seeds in 2015 and is sufficient to produce more than 25,000 tons in next two years. The seed will be commercially available to farmers.

In target areas where farmers traditionally use their own seeds and depend on their own varieties, the foundation seed will be used in demonstration areas to generate further awareness and demand through multiple channels. STRASA is demonstrating the STRVS with support from the states and partners (mostly NGOs) in collaboration with scientists and extension workers. These demonstration areas are in small clusters to cover more areas. Quality seed-production training and meetings are conducted to increase awareness of STRV varieties and accelerate the informal seed diffusion.

The governments of Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand joined IRRI in establishing demonstration areas of STRVs to improve and stabilize rice productivity in 15 target districts. There are 40 demonstration areas (50 hectares each) in Uttar Pradesh and 12 demonstrations (100 hectares each) in Jharkhand. The demonstration areas are linked to producers to make the seeds available to farmers.  Along with STRVS, the improved management practices are also shown. More than 8000 farmers, many of them registered as seed growers, are participating in these activities. The target producing more than 1500 tons certified seed of these varieties.



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