The HUF-SAMUHA Partnership believes that the present flood-irrigated HEIDA (High External Inputs Destructive Agriculture) paddy cultivation practices consumes undesirable levels of water, and which introduces unacceptable levels of systemic chemicals and synthetics into the food chain needs to be shifted to NPM (non-pesticide management) SRI (System of Rice Intensification) or wet/dry paddy cultivation practices. This would allow the food chain to feed without poisoning, and will contribute to the single largest factor that can result in reduced water usage in Indian agriculture.

Project Results

The HUF-SAMUHA Partnership completed 10 months in March 2015. The project was built on the premise that it could help farmers in flood-irrigated paddy cultivation save up to 2 million litres of water per acre/crop. It has just facilitated 488 farmers in 22 villages in the Deodurg taluk under the Upper Krishna command area cultivate NPM (non-pesticide management) paddy in 1298 acres. It used 2 reference plots each for conventional paddy and NPM paddy in 22 villages of Deodurg taluk to establish a baseline. It has established an average water savings of 2.4 million litres per ac during the Kharif season. As a result, against the targeted saving of 2.4 billion litres, it helped our farmers save 2.7 billion litres. The methodology for calculating this saving is still under review, both internally and externally, but the project is confident that it will be able to surpass its goal saving 178 billion litres by the end of the 5th year over 180 villages and 36,650 crop acres of flood-irrigated NPM paddy.