Colours out of grey

A year ago, the fields would have been almost uniformly grey. Today they are coloured like a giant paintbox. In this flat, low-lying part of Nepal, the eastern Terai, farmers harvest their rice and then leave the plots fallow during the dry winter - the rabi season - until it is time to plant the next rice crop. The land dries out, leaving it dusty and grey, and unused except by a few cattle and goats that take what little remains from the rice harvest. Yet the people in this region have the time and the energy to make more productive use of this land and indeed could do so given practical advice. And it is practical advice and experiment that has brought colour to the landscape.

Instead of grey, the plots are now a painter's paradise of pink (buckwheat), blue (linseed), yellow (niger), white (coriander) and green (chickpea). The idea is to choose a quick maturing, drought tolerant crop that will establish and survive on residual soil moisture. Furthermore it must resist pests and diseases, require little or no input cost and produce a useful product. Chickpea is almost perfect - but not quite. Its great advantages are that there is always a market for the crop, it fulfils the requirement for short duration and drought tolerance and, being leguminous, it fixes nitrogen. This is especially beneficial in soils which have little residual fertility after generations of rice harvesting. Farmers here cannot afford chemical fertilizers, nor do they practise fertility restoration with manure. One can see flat round pancakes of dung drying on hard surfaces but this is fuel for cooking rather than for returning to the field. Rice straw is used for many purposes but, even when it is put back on the field, it has little nutritive benefit after being left unshaded from the sun where it loses much of its nitrogen.

If it is so good, why is no one using it already?
Chickpea's nitrogen fixing properties are of great value. But, as with all development ideas, one should ask - if it is so good, why is no one using it already? It is not as if chickpea is an exotic crop that is totally new to Nepal. Huge quantities are grown in many parts of the country. So why not here in the eastern Terai? Here lies the disadvantage to chickpea. In this region it is prone to botrytis (grey mould) and to pod borer. Farmers became so discouraged by diseased, pest-ridden crops in the past that they gave up growing chickpea. So why try again?

Several factors have come together to make the attempt worthwhile. One is that there are new, resistant varieties that farmers can try. Another is that more is now understood about non-chemical means of pest management. For example, one potential route to pest resistance is companion planting. Crops grown on soils that have the right levels of micro-nutrients to ensure strong cell structure are better able to withstand pest attack. And often it is pest attack that provides the entry point for disease. Ensuring that the right micronutrients are in place, in particular, zinc, boron and molybdenum, is a relatively low cost route to pest resistance. Another is to cheat nature on timing.

A bucket of water is all it takes
If farmers soak their chickpea seed in a bucket of water for a few hours, leave it to surface dry in the shade, and then sow the 'primed' seed as usual, they can win a week or more. This gives the primed chickpea seed a head start with uniform germination and stronger plants that can outgrow weeds and resist pests. The benefits are clear and this is exactly what farmers in the Jhapa district in the eastern Terai can see with their own eyes in their own fields. Through collaboration with a local NGO - FORWARD, the Plant Sciences Programme of the UK Government's Department for International Development (DFID) and ICRISAT, farmers are trying new varieties of chickpea in 'mother and baby' trials (see New Agriculturist 00-6 Developments: Turning the wheels of technology). They are seeing the benefits of different fertilizer regimes and they are trying out companion planting with, for example, coriander.

This is the first season so it is too early to say whether chickpea is the answer - but it was definitely worth attempting, not least because farmers have developed a taste for trial and innovation that will stand them in good stead as they turn to the next challenge that farming always has in store.

FORWARD forward@mail.com.np
DFID Plant Sciences Research Programme www.dfid-psp.org
ICRISAT www.icrisat.org