The project promotes an FSN approach to improve the livelihood and nutrition status of small farm households. Covering 1575 households, it is being implemented in all 39 villages of Mathapada gram panchayat and 8 hamlets of Doraguda gram panchayat in Boipariguda block of Koraput district. Research reports based on the house listing survey of all 1575 households and baseline survey of 20 per cent sample households were finalized. These reports helped in the selection of farm households for undertaking different FSN interventions.
Crop Interventions: Interventions were promoted in kharif 2019 to enhance understanding of nutrition-sensitive agriculture among members of the community. Building on entry-point activities undertaken in 2018–19, cultivation of nutrient-dense crops, namely, finger millet, quality protein maize (QPM), pigeon pea, biofortified rice and orange flesh sweet potato (OFSP) crops, was promoted. The interventions are discussed in the following sections.
Finger Millet: Yield enhancement of finger millet through use of improved varieties (KMR-204, Chilika, Arjuna, GPU-66 and ML-365) and better agronomic practices covered 344 acres and involved 858 farmers. Seeds were provided to the farmers at 2 kg/acre and application of NPK fertilizers in the ratio of 40 kg:20 kg:20 kg per hectare along with guidance on improved agriculture practices, namely, nursery raising and transplanting with proper spacing as against broadcasting of seeds. Harvest data of the improved varieties promoted has been collected from four quadrates of 2 x 2 sq.m in fields of 35 farmers (7 farmers for each variety). Another data set following the same method was collected from the fields of 30 farmers who cultivated farmers’ varieties using traditional practices. The area and yield data under different varieties are shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Number of farmers, area and grain yield
| S. no. | Varieties | No. of farmers | Area (acre) | Yield (kg/ha) |
| 1 | KMR-204 | 184 | 75 | 1839 |
| 2 | Chilika | 250 | 98 | 1630 |
| 3 | Arjuna | 60 | 24 | 1236 |
| 4 | GPU-66 | 120 | 50 | 1683 |
| 5 | ML-365 | 244 | 97 | 1589 |
| Total | 858 | 344 | ||
| 6 | Farmers’ varieties | 30 | 14 | 1295 |
As shown in the table, the yield of all varieties except Arjuna was higher than that using farmers’ varieties at 1295 kg/ha, ranging from ML-365 variety at 23 per cent higher yield to KMR-204 at 42 per cent. In the case of Arjuna, it was about 5 per cent lower at 1236 kg/ha. Around 70 per cent of the produce was retained for home consumption, 3 per cent kept for seed purpose and remaining 27 per cent sold either at the local market at Rs 25/kg or at the mandiat Rs 31.50/kg. Sale at the mandi was done by a few farmers who had surplus production.
Intercropping of Pigeon Pea with Maize: Crop intensification was introduced through intercropping of pigeon pea with maize in a 1:1 ratio; aimed at increasing the availability of pulses, the intervention covered 112 acres and involved 825 farmers. Pigeon pea seed NTL-30 (Durga) was provided to farmers at 4 kg/acre and maize seed (HQM-1 and NMH-51) at 8 kg/acre. Improved agronomic practices included line sowing at 60 x 30 cm in case of maize and 60 x 60 cm in case of pigeon pea and recommended intercultural operations. Combining the normal fertilizer recommendation for maize and pigeon pea, a blanket recommendation was given for application of NPK in the ratio 50 kg:40 kg:30 kg per hectare; that is, sum of half the recommended dosage for each crop with basal application and at different phases of the crop. Harvest data has been collected from 20 farmers. Average production of maize green cob was 3856 kg/ha, maize (seed yield from matured cob) was 648 kg/ha; yield of pigeon pea tender pod was 458 kg/ha and seed yield from matured pod was 344 kg/ha. The bulk of maize green cob and pigeon pea, both as tender pod and grain, was used for home consumption. Details of the utilization of the produce are given in Table 2.
Table 2: Utilization of produce (in percentage)
| Food grain types | Household consumption | Distribution to neighbours and relatives | Saved for seed purpose | Sale |
| Maize green cob | 73 | 11 | 0 | 16 |
| Maize grain | 30 | 8 | 0 | 62 |
| Pigeon pea tender pod | 65 | 7 | 0 | 28 |
| Pigeon pea grain | 94 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
On-Farm Demonstration of Performance of Biofortified Rice: Demonstration of high-protein rice varieties developed by Indian Council of Agricultural Research – National Institute of Rice Research (ICAR-NRRI), Cuttack (CR Dhan-310 on 0.52 acres and CR Dhan-311 on 0.36 acre), and high-zinc variety developed by ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research (IIRR), Hyderabad (DRR Dhan-45 on 0.27 acres), was undertaken in a farmer’s field at Musapadar village, covering 1.15 acres in all. Pratikshya, a non-fortified high-yielding rice variety, was cultivated by the farmer in the remaining 4.85 acres of lowland. Seed, fertilizer and pesticides were supported from the project along with technical guidance. Other inputs, such as farmyard manure and labour for land preparation, nursery preparation, transplanting, weeding and harvesting, were taken care of by the farmer.
Fertilizer application of NPK at 80 kg:40 kg:40 kg per hectare, recommended by the Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), was adopted. Basic agronomic data on plant height, number of tillers/hill, number of panicles/hill and 1000 grain weight were recorded (see Table 3). Crop-cutting data from four quadrates (2 x 2 sq.m) from each of the varieties were recorded. Grain yield was recorded after sun drying for 36 hours.
Table 3: Morphological and yield data of different rice varieties
| Variety | Plant height (cm) | No. of tillers/hill | No. of panicles/hill | 1000 grain weight (g) | Grain yield (kg/ha) |
| CR Dhan-310 | 117.2 | 21 | 15 | 24 | 3240 |
| CR Dhan-311 | 119.8 | 19 | 13 | 27 | 2544 |
| DRR Dhan-45 | 107.7 | 14 | 11 | 28 | 1850 |
| Pratikshya | 112.5 | 22 | 16 | 25 | 3020 |
The yield of the biofortified varieties was not satisfactory compared with a yield of 3020 kg/ha from the farmers’ variety; this was due to attacks of blast, stem borer and stem rot. The farmers’ variety Pratikshya was less affected compared with the biofortified varieties; DRR Dhan-45 was also affected by false smut; it was the first time that biofortified rice varieties were demonstrated in Koraput district. Farmers were made aware of the nutritional importance of these varieties through organization of farmer’s field day. Moreover, 1150 kg of seeds (665 kg of CR Dhan-310, 350 kg of CR Dhan-311 and 135 kg of DRR Dhan-45) have been procured from the farmers for the next cropping season.
Orange Flesh Sweet Potato Cultivation: Six OFSP nurseries were established to supply planting material to farmers for cultivation either in their nutrition gardens or in their farm lands. Around 100000 cuttings (planting materials) were supplied to 156 households for growing in their backyard area or farm lands at a cost of Rs 0.30/cutting. Harvest data from four quadrates (2 x 2 square metres) from 10 farmers were recorded; average yield of OFSP tuber in this local condition was 7.68 ton/ha. Data on utilization collected from 50 farmers revealed that around 58 per cent of the produce was used for home consumption, 5 per cent distributed to relatives and neighbours and remaining 37 per cent sold in the local market at Rs 10–15/kg.
Pre-rabi and Rabi Crop Interventions: Horse gram (a high-protein local variety pulse crop of 100–110 days) was promoted as a pre-rabi crop covering 136 acres and involving 640 farmers. Each farmer on average cultivated 0.2 acre and the yield was 1364 kg/ha. Green gram cultivation was undertaken in an area of 60 acres and involved 77 farmers with Nayagarh Local variety. Harvesting of the crop has been completed and threshing and cleaning are in progress.
Nutrition Garden Intervention: Fruit-bearing plants, such as guava, custard apple and amla, procured from the forest department at Rs 1/plant, was distributed to 450 farmers. Seedlings of papaya and drumstick were distributed to 785 and 648 farmers, respectively. Apart from fruit-bearing plants, seeds of seasonal vegetables, such as amaranthus, spinach, coriander, Indian spinach, bitter gourd, broad bean, cluster bean, ridge gourd and cucumber, were distributed to 150 households to grow in their nutrition garden during the rabi season wherever water facility is available.
Fish Farming: Freshwater fish farming was promoted in 78 ponds (68 individual and 10 community ponds involving 265 farmers (68 individual and 197 in community pond)). Out of the 78 ponds, 24 were renovated through participatory approach, with support from the project and farmers providing labour. Apart from technical support, lime, fish yearlings and floating fish were also supplied to the farmers. The community ponds are managed by women’s self-help groups (SHGs), youth clubs and so on. Also, the first round of harvest has been completed in 71 ponds (62 individual and 9 community ponds). Harvest and utilization data have been recorded. From these 71 ponds, 3437 kg of fish have been harvested, out of which 1008 kg (29 per cent) was used for home consumption, 165 kg (5 per cent) distributed to neighbours and relatives and the remaining 2264 kg (66 per cent) sold within the village at an average rate of Rs 150/kg.
Nutrition Awareness and Community Hunger Fighters: Nutrition awareness and building community capacity are core components of the project. During the reporting period, several awareness programmes were organized, starting with a programme on ‘Basics of Nutrition’ for staff on 7 June 2019; 10 staff members and 14 volunteers participated. Programmes to observe World Breast Feeding Week were organized in four locations covering the project villages in August 2019. The importance of immediate initiation of breastfeeding in the first hour after birth, value of feeding colostrum and exclusive breastfeeding for first 6 months after birth were emphasized in these meetings; a total of 66 mothers participated. National Nutrition Week was observed in collaboration with the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Project, Boipariguda, Dalapur village, on 7 September 2019; 14 ICDS workers and 92 mothers participated. An awareness programme on the importance of OFSP was organized in Miluguda village on 20 November 2019. The benefits of consumption of OFSP and also how it can be consumed were explained.
As part of building community-level understanding and uptake, community hunger fighters (CHFs), an adult nutrition literacy programme with people’s participation at its core, developed by MSSRF, is underway. People working on the project were oriented on the concept of CHFs through a workshop in Chennai in September 2019. Several meetings were then held across all 47 villages to engage with the community, explain the CHF concept and request them to identify suitable men/women to undergo training to become CHFs. A total of 96 men and women were selected by the community from these villages for the training. Residential training workshop on concept and practice of CHFs was organized during 3–11 November 2019 and 23–24 December 2019 at MSSRF, Jeypore, to train the identified men and women in batches; 92 CHFs participated in the programme and were trained on concepts such as good health, dietary diversity, role of different nutrients in maintaining good health, nutritive value of various food groups, agricultural planning with various types of land for dietary diversity, infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices, shortlisting key messages and ways of taking them forward in the community.
A second module of a 3-day residential training programme, was organized from 22 to 30 January 2020 and 72 CHFs were trained in three 3-day sessions. The module began with a refreshing of the concepts discussed in the first module; participants were then asked to make a quantitative estimation of the food requirement of a family of five and list bottlenecks in agricultural production and challenges in accessing government entitlements.
An awareness programme on accessing government entitlements was organized on 31 January 2020 for all the CHFs, in which 66 CHFs participated. Mr Loaknath Dalabehera, OAS (SB), sub-collector, Jeypore, was the chief guest and government officials from different departments, such as Agriculture, Fishery, Animal Husbandry, Women and Child Development, Health and Family Welfare, Panchayati Raj and District Industrial Centre, participated in the programme and explained about accessing different schemes and entitlements. As a follow-up, MSSRF is working with the CHFs to develop village-wise plans and facilitate approaching different departments for access to entitlements.
Training and Other Support: An FSN demonstration model has been established at the MSSRF campus in Jeypore covering an area of 0.4 acre as a demonstration to increase and spread awareness among farmers. Cycle weeders have been provided to the community across all the project villages to reduce drudgery and save time of women farmers in weeding of different field crops – 39 such weeders have been provided to 32 cluster locations, to be accessible to farmers from all 47 villages. The importance of the crops and vegetables being promoted was explained to the farmers at the household level, at the time of giving of seed/seedling and follow-up action. A farmer’s field day was organized to create awareness on the importance of biofortified rice CR Dhan-310 and CR Dhan-311 (both high-protein varieties) and DRRDhan-45 (high-zinc rice variety) in the demonstration field at Musapadar on 20 November 2019; 70 farmers (male: 57; female: 13) from 19 project villages participated. A training programme on ‘Nutrition Gardening’ was organized on 13 January 2020 at MSSRF, Jeypore, to train farmers on the importance of nutrition garden and different aspects of the maintenance of the gardens; 48 farmers attended the training session.
Five short video films documenting success stories for dissemination among farmers and other stakeholders have been developed: Orange Flesh Sweet Potato for Food and Nutrition Security, Fresh Water Fish Farming for Nutrition and Livelihood Security, Demonstration on Biofortified Rice, and Budra Murjia and Madana Murjia (a famer couple successfully practicing FSN in Semiliguda model village for FSN).