Abstract:
Sustainable food production for the future should incorporate crop management
practices to reduce the environmental cost by lowering the use of synthetic pesticides
and inorganic fertilizers. Such practices also need to be successful in a future
environment of higher temperatures and more variable rainfall. Crucially, crop
management packages designed by researchers to address the above challenges
should be accepted by farmers. Therefore, adaptive research forms an important step in
the process of transferring new crop production technology from researchers to farmers.
Here, we tested the performance of an eco-friendly, climate-adaptive crop management
package (adaptation package - AP) which was developed, tested and validated in multi locational research experiments, in farmer-participatory adaptive research in the
Northern Province of Sri Lanka, a region of high vulnerability to climate change. The AP
was tested on five crops (tomato, chilli, maize, mungbean, potato) over two seasons
among 67 farmers in three locations (Nilavarai, Thiruvaiyaru, Mulankavil) with the
existing crop management (existing practice - EP) as the control. The AP included
integrated pest management (IPM), site-specific fertilizer management (SSFM) and soil
moisture conservation through mulching. The EP did not have mulching while crop
protection was predominantly through pesticides and fertilizer application based on
farmer-dependent doses. Among 73% of crop x location x season combinations, yields
under AP were significantly (p<0.05) greater than those under EP, while in the rest there
was no significant difference. The yield advantages for the adoption of AP ranged from
16-40% (tomato), 6-38% (chilli), 10-113% (maize), 16-31% (mungbean) and 0-19%
(potato). Except in potato, where pesticides are heavily used in EP, AP was expensive
than EP. However, this was offset by the greater income of AP in 82% of tested plots.
The adverse environmental impact, as quantified by the Field Environmental Impact
Quotient (FEIQ), was 76-92% lower for AP than EP.
