Corporate social responsibility: win-win propositions for communities, corporates and agriculture.

Chapter 8 (Page no: 145)

Scaling-up of science-led development - Sir Dorabji Tata Trust initiative.

Soil health mapping in Sir Dorabji Tata Trust-supported initiative across 16 districts of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, India showed widespread deficiencies of sulfur, boron, zinc and phosphorus. Soil test-based balanced nutrient management recorded yield benefit of 10-40%, while the integrated nutrient approach recorded still higher yield up to 20-50% along with 25-50% saving in chemical fertilizers through promotion of on-farm vermicomposting. Maximum yield advantage (90-200%) was realized with improved varieties and nutrient management. Other advantages included food/fodder nutrition, rainwater use efficiency, more food per kg of nitrogen or phosphorus, and residual benefits of micro/secondary nutrients and vermicompost. Promoting landform management enabled farmers to cultivate rainy season fallows and harvest 1270-1700 kg/ha soybean. In-situ and ex-situ rainwater management interventions improved surface and groundwater availability and irrigated area with marked reduction in crop failures in the catchment areas. Women mainstreaming was targeted through livelihood options like nutri-kitchen gardens, fodder promotion for livestock, seed banks, composting and dal-processing. The initiative built capacities of about 30,000 farmers through direct interventions and of around 4-5 times more farmers through information dissemination.

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