INTEGRATING SMALLHOLDER FARMERS INTO MARKET SYSTEMS (ISHFMAS)
ANDHRA PRADESH : QUICK FACTS 62% Population dependent on agriculture
| Annual growth rate of agriculture at 17%
15.65% contribution of agriculture added to State Gross Value Added
NEED FOR THE PROGRAM PROBLEM STATEMENT Water Access and Control: to a large extent the poor,
Poor soil health management: agricultural
small and marginal farmers get excluded or receive inadequate and unreliable service from different irrigation schemes. Without access to water for irrigation year-round cultivation continues to be a distant dream for these farmers.
intensification has created negative effects at different scales, such as, increased soil erosion, soil fertility decline and reduced biodiversity at the local level, depletion and pollution of groundwater and eutrophication of surface waters at the regional level.
Low Agricultural R&D specifically targeting the small and marginal farmers: Most of the R&D is
Low water use productivity: use of conventional
targeting the ten percent of farmers who own large lands however the other ninety percent continue to suffer as no R&D is conducted for them. Some of the key factors such as affordability which means low investment and operating cost, customized for use on small land size, aspect of divisibility and high return of investment need to be considered for undertaking any R&D for small and marginal farmers.
Low productivity: There are multiple reasons for low productivity. These include traditional methods of cultivation such as manual ploughing and single or two crop pattern.
irrigation technologies such as furrow irrigation leads to increased water consumption in agriculture. Absence of opportunities to access other affordable irrigating technologies is contributing to continued increased water use productivity.
Increasing inflation: increasing inflation has a direct impact on the farmers. Prices paid by farmers for various inputs increase faster than the prices they receive for their products, thereby the terms of trade for farmers deteriorate as the rate of inflation rises.