Plant breeding can be made more efficient by having fewer, better crosses

Background Crop yields have to increase to provide food security for the world’s growing population. To achieve these yield increases there will have to be a significant contribution from genetic gains made by conventional plant breeding. However, the breeding process is not efficient because crosses made between parental combinations that fail to produce useful varieties consume over 99% of the resources. Results We tested in a rice-breeding programme if its efficiency could be improved by using many fewer, but more judiciously chosen crosses than usual. In a 15-year programme in Nepal, with varietal testing also in India and Bangladesh, we made only six crosses that were stringently chosen on complementary parental performance. We evaluated their success by the adoption and official release of the varieties they produced. We then modelled optimum cross number using assumptions based on our experimental results. Four of the six crosses succeeded. This was a fifty-fold improvement over breeding programmes that employ many crosses where only about one, or fewer, crosses in 200 succeed. Based on these results, we modelled the optimum number of crosses by assuming there would be a decline in the reliability of the breeder’s prediction of the value of each cross as more crosses were made (because there is progressively less information on the traits of the parents). Fewer-cross programmes were more likely to succeed and did so using fewer resources. Making more crosses reduced the overall probability of success of the breeding programme. Conclusions The efficiency of national and international breeding programmes would be increased by making fewer crosses among more carefully chosen parents. This would increase the number of higher yielding varieties that are delivered to farmers and hence help to improve food security.

case differences in agro-ecological conditions influence impact. Two districts were selected in Jharkhand state because that is where most of the Ashoka work had been done. The survey methods are described below.
The structured survey comprised three methods (see Annex A1 for further details). First, village-level group discussions to determine the varietal composition of rice among upland and/or medium land rice growers, and the extent to which the Ashoka varieties were being grown. Second, group discussions in primary villages to identify the main secondary villages to which primary village rice growers had supplied Ashoka seed. Third, a questionnairebased household survey of current upland/medium land rice growers in the primary villages, comprising 10 current Ashoka users and five non-users per village.
In the qualitative (semi-structured) study all the 'primary' villages surveyed during the structured work, as well as a selection of 'secondary' villages were visited. Three methods were used in this study:  group discussions, including farmers growing Ashoka varieties, those who might have grown them and stopped and those who might want to grow it in the future;  in depth interviews of 'interesting' individual households if any, such as households having experienced dramatic changes in their livelihoods or farming systems or households that have tested the seeds for a few years and decided to stop;  cross-checking some data with other actors such as: primary health care nurse or health visitor, trader, extension worker, nearby research station.

CASE STUDY FINDINGS
This section synthesizes the findings from the structured survey (found in Part B) and the semi-structured, qualitative survey (Part C). By and large the two sets of findings are consistent and complementary: where discrepancies occur they have been noted.

Extent of Use
Within a household's rice-growing area The household survey found that farmers who grew the varieties adopted them on a high proportion of their suitable land (on average 75% of their upland and over 50% of their medium land). In contrast, the qualitative survey authors concluded that: " ..though the number of farmers who grow Ashoka has increased, the proportion of the potentially suitable land allocated by households to growing Ashoka remains small. In Kud (Hazaribagh district) for example only 25% of the suitable land is under Ashoka and in Benjara (Ranchi district) it is 20%". This study found that in all the FGDs across the 5 districts, farmers maintained that they will continue to grow their local Desi rice varieties. Farmers want to spread the risks by maintaining a variety diversity but also Desi rice still has some qualities valued by local people such as for example, those presented in Table C (in Annex C11) in the case of Benjara village.

Within and between survey villages
In the primary and secondary villages, 14 to 53% of households grew the Ashoka varieties on 2 to 24% of the total rice area, depending on the district and village. In the survey of individual farmers, over one third of those who grew an Ashoka variety distributed seed to other households from the 2007 harvest. In the structured group discussions farmers reported that, on average, farmers in every study village (i.e. primary village) had distributed seed to about two new villages (secondary villages). This process extended further as farmers had distributed seed to new (tertiary) villages from The household survey found that the Ashoka varieties were still being grown by the great majority of farmers (95%) who were first given seed 4 to 6 years earlier. This was despite little, or no, subsequent outside interventions for these varieties in their villages. Similarly, farmers that obtained seed from other farmers continued to grow the varieties once they had gained access to the seed.
The household survey found that the great majority of farmers who discontinued their use of Ashoka rice said it was because of lack of access to seed. This constraint was confirmed by the qualitative study. For example, in Bahja and Huktona villages (Hazaribagh district), farmers reported losing all their seeds after the drought in 2006. Not all farmers kept seeds for the following year, consuming what they had; and when they ran out there was no alternative seed supply.
The qualitative survey identified many cases of discontinuers and several other factors as being responsible. These included Bad early experience due to inappropriate practice, which led some farmers to stop growing Ashoka rice. In primary villages this happened because technical advice from GVT on the cultivation of Ashoka was limited: furthermore, some of the GVT staff employed for this work were non-agriculturists, hence they may not have always give appropriate advice. Farmers in secondary villages sometimes planted the seeds on the wrong type of land or followed inappropriate practices, leading to failure of the crop.
Other reasons given by farmers for ceasing to grow Ashoka varieties, included:  damage by elephants, which prefer Ashoka varieties to all others  prone to flies (Gandhi bug), one type of grain borer which destroys the crops.
According to farmers in Hulsi, Ranchi district, possible reasons why elephants prefer Ashoka varieties and why Ashoka fields tend to be the first point of attack by the elephants were: a) as the plants are tall it was easier to remove with their trunks b) softness and taste of the fodder and grains c) sweet smell from the matured plants.

Who are the innovators?
There was no significant difference in the poverty status of users and non users of the Ashoka varieties when they were compared using the poverty index developed for the study.
Of the 200 respondents in the household survey, 198 (99%) fell in the poor 1 class (defined as having a poverty score of less than 12.5): the highest score of any household was 14.
Using other poverty indicators, i.e. BPL status and NREGA card holder, slightly higher percentages of users than non-users would be classified as poor (see Table A?): however, as noted earlier, these indicators are not entirely reliable. Regarding ethnicity, a lower proportion of users belonged to scheduled tribes (see Table), and a higher proportion belonged to 'other backward castes'.
Overall, the findings suggest that the varieties are very well suited to the needs of resourcepoor farmers. The qualitative survey also identified some Ashoka users who would probably have been classified as better off if they had been scored against the poverty index.

Differential impact
Neither poverty/wealth status nor ethnicity have a differential effect on a household's capacity to grow the Ashoka varieties. The extent to which a household can benefit from them seems to depend primarily on the area of suitable land that it has for cultivating them; and also perhaps on the prevailing agro-ecological conditions, which may affect the yield.

Benefits
The household survey found that better quality grain was the benefit ranked highest by most farmers: there was a consistent high ranking of grain quality in all districts (Part B, Table 33). This was followed by earlier harvest and then better quality fodder, both of which were frequently mentioned in the qualitative survey. In addition, about half of the farmers identified 'more rice' (i.e. higher yield) as a benefit.
The vast majority of Ashoka grain was kept for home consumption, apparently due to: 1. the perceived high quality of Ashoka grain; and 2. because the early harvesting of the Ashoka grain takes place at a time when households are short of food grains generally.
The first point was mentioned in many FGDs in the qualitative survey, with repeated references to the tastiness of Ashoka rice. According to a FGD with women growers in Bhuyan Tola: "Even if they don't have any vegetables or pulses only rice can be consumed with a little salt. It is so tasty that even rice with soup can be taken without any side dish".
The second point was also reported in various villages covered by the qualitative survey, for example: Ashoka can be harvested "during the usual lean season… During Dusherra (the main festival of the Hindus), now at least they have some food to eat" (Kud village, Hazaribagh); the fact that it is an early maturing variety "ensure[s] food security during lean season" (Benjara, Ranchi).
In the household survey 83% of Ashoka users reported increases in rice availability, with a mean increase in rice self-sufficiency of almost one month, or 17%. The findings of the qualitative survey were similar: "The direct positive result of the introduction of Ashoka is an increase in grain production which extends the grain self-sufficiency of the household by 2 weeks to 1 month in Banswara district, for example ; and for up to 2 months even for marginalized farmers in Hazaribagh district, depending on the size of the land available".
The higher food availability reported by the majority of the farmers was reflected in the higher reported grain yield in a typical growing year of the Ashoka varieties compared with popular local ones (Part B, Table 32). In the questionnaire-based household survey farmers were only able to make this comparison for a typical growing year. The yield advantage would probably be greater in a drought year, due to the shorter growing period of the Ashoka varieties.
Respondents in the household survey were not able to make the comparison for a drought year, as the last one was 2002 and they had not experienced a drought year since they started growing Ashoka varieties. However, in the qualitative survey villages in Hazaribagh farmers were able to make this comparison. There was less rainfall here in 2006 and a drought was declared in the area. In Kherika village all crops were affected, and only those farmers who grew Ashoka got some paddy, which at least could be used as seed for the next season: but for other rice varieties there was no production. This village also experienced lower rainfall than usual in 2008: farmers reported that Ashoka's production was not affected, whereas production was less than usual for other varieties. In Hutkona village of Hazaribagh a drought was reported as having occurred in 2004, but in this case even the Ashoka crop failed.
The qualitative survey identified the short duration and the resistance to drought of the Ashoka varieties as two positive factors mentioned by all groups in the 5 districts. This survey also identified some other commonly perceived benefits of Ashoka varieties that were not picked up in the household survey, including:  Earlier maturity enables growing of a second crop  Requires less fertiliser  Requires less water  Requires less labour  Easier to cook and needs less fuel.

Impacts
The increase in yield, and hence grain self-sufficiency, has resulted in a decrease in grain related expenditure: this frees up funds for other uses. For example, one woman (in Kud village, Hazaribagh district) reported that this had enabled her to continue sending her children to school.
One positive impact women mentioned is that, as Ashoka matures earlier than other varieties, the period of harvesting and threshing rice is less intensive as it is more spread out. Women said that they felt less under pressure. Women in one village (Bhuyan Tola, Katkamsandi block) also reported that there had been an increase of agriculture wage labour by 15-20 days due to the longer duration of the rice harvest.
Improved nutritional status was also reported in some villages. However, it would be difficult to establish whether any such improvement was due to growing Ashoka rice or to other factors.

Grassroots innovation processes
Farmer to farmer spread This has been extensive and some details were given earlier in section 1.

Gender dimension
The qualitative study found that both men and women have been involved in innovating Ashoka varieties in their households and villages. In a number of the primary villages the seeds were distributed by GVT through women's self-help groups. In each of two secondary villages in Banswara district, the seeds were initially introduced through a woman. The two women both initially got seeds from relatives and after their first harvest distributed some seeds through their SHG. Another woman (in Kud, Hazaribagh district) convinced her in-laws of the benefits of Ashoka and they had been growing it since 2003; she said this success had improved her status within the family.
Growing Ashoka as a summer crop Farmers sometimes modify technological 'inventions' and come up with a different innovation, and this is one example. The qualitative survey brought to light the fact that some farmers were also growing Ashoka rice as a summer crop, planting it in February. The structured household survey also found cases of summer cultivation of Ashoka rice in the survey districts in Orissa and W. Bengal. Whereas the two varieties were developed by the plant breeders purely as a kharif crop.

The innovation process
The development and dissemination of the Ashoka varieties was made possible primarily by the contributions (financial and in-kind) made by DFID bilateral development projects; and subsequently by supplementary funding from PSP programme development (PD) funds. Participatory rice breeding in India began (in 1998) under the auspices of the EIRFP and WIRFP, with CAZS-NR researchers (Dr Virk and Professor Witcombe) working as consultants to the projects. The development of the varieties and their distribution to the 'primary' villages surveyed in this study was done during the period up to and including 2003; but it was only in 1999 that a related and fully funded PSP research project started, combining participatory breeding with the use of molecular markers.
The level of impact shown in this case study could not have been achieved with the level of funds (e.g. £150,000-200,000) typically provided for a RNRRS research project; nor in the period of time for which RNRRS funding was typically provided, i.e. three years, with possible extensions of 1-3 years.
The involvement of Dr Virk and Professor Witcombe as consultants to the projects stemmed from the fact that the University of Bangor was part of consortia to which DFID awarded the contract to manage consultancy inputs to the WIRFP from its inception in 1993 to 2005.
The PD funds were available to the CAZS-NR researchers because Professor John Witcombe was the manager of the PSP and therefore had considerable discretion over what these funds were used for.

Seed dissemination and extension
New varieties of an existing crop are probably the easiest new technology for farmers to start using, and there are many cases of new varieties spreading from farmer to farmers without any official extension campaign, and sometimes without them having been officially released. This case study has provided another example, documenting quite extensive and rapid farmer-to-farmer spread of Ashoka varieties.
Nevertheless, the fact that some farmers grew Ashoka varieties on inappropriate lands and had problems growing Ashoka rice points to weaknesses in the way in which seeds of the Ashoka varieties were disseminated -or conversely ways in which it could have been strengthened. GVT staff did not always give proper instructions to farmers while giving the seed for testing in the early (PVS) stages. This is partly/largely because the GVT was mostly targeting social issues in the EIRFP and WIRFP and most of its community workers (who distributed the seed to the farmers) had a social science background. There was a lack of literature with the Ashoka variety seed in the latter stages when dissemination started.
Several farmers or groups of farmers interviewed in the qualitative survey, including ones positive about Ashoka, argued that Ashoka use could have been more widespread and/or faster if seed distribution had been accompanied by, or followed up with, an extension campaign. One example is Litu Oraon (30), a very dynamic and highly respected individual in Hulsi village, Ranchi, through whom Ashoka seed was first introduced in the village in 2002: he was still growing Ashoka rice when interviewed in March 2009. He believed the villagers should have been given proper orientation on the process of growing Ashoka and said that in absence of it many farmers incurred a loss in the first year. He also felt that some follow up from GVT would have helped the farmers to gain confidence and the spread of Ashoka varieties in the village. Even after growing it for many years he felt there was scope for improvement with guidance; and even in 2009 he was not very comfortable in saying how much seed was required for 1 acre of land. According to him had there been some hand outs or pamphlets mentioning the selection of land, amount of seed required for a specific unit, methods to be followed, requirements of fertilisers and pesticides, sowing and harvest time, etc. the situation would have been much better and more people would have been benefitted from the variety.
Similar points were made by others, such as a group of farmers in Bajha village, Katkhamsandi, who suggested that "local farmers needed more counseling and advocacy and then only they would have shifted from hybrid varieties to Ashoka … There should be more campaign on benefits of Ashoka". The group pointed out that, in contrast, "There are local agents for hybrid varieties and even the dealers campaign for hybrid varieties".

The nature of the benefits
Conventional plant breeding tends to attach greater weight to increased yield than to any other crop trait. It is interesting, therefore, that, although Ashoka has this trait, the majority of Ashoka growers ranked other traits, particularly grain quality and taste, more highly… It is also interesting that Ashoka users identified many other positive characteristics of these varieties. This reinforces the case made repeatedly by advocates of PPB and COB that plant breeding should take account of multiple farmer-preferred crop traits.

ANNEX A1 The Study Methodology What kind of comparison? -'before and after' versus 'with and without'
Assessing the impact of any particular development intervention -be it a technology, policy or institutional change -is seldom straightforward. The context in which the intervention takes place is real life -dynamic, complex, uncontrolled and often spatially heterogeneousand this makes it difficult to separate the effects (if any) of the intervention from any other changes in people's lives that may have been taking place. There may be other contextual changes in rural study areas -such as electrification, development and roads and schoolsthat could have contributed to any general positive changes in local livelihoods that have taken place since the intervention was implemented or initiated.
In controlled experiments scientific researchers often make 'with and without' comparisons involving two or more very similar groups of people, livestock, crops or whatever is being studied and is expected to be affected by the 'intervention' or 'treatment'. Any differences that develop between the groups during the period of the experiment can then be plausibly attributed to the 'intervention'.
Use of a 'with and without' approach was considered in this impact assessment, and would have involved selecting 'project' villages to which seed of Ashoka varieties had been distributed and very similar non-project villages. This approach was not adopted for two reasons. First, it would have been difficult to ensure that any two villages involved in a comparison were sufficiently similar, and hence be confident that any differences subsequently identified between rice-growing farmers in the two villages were due to the Ashoka varieties. Second, the primary or project villages where the seed was distributed in 2002/2003 were ones that had previously been purposively selected by development projects as among the poorest in their block or district -hence other villages in the same block would probably not have been as poor.
For the above reasons the 'before and after' approach was considered to be more appropriate and was used. This approach has its own problems -for example, if we had been measuring impact in terms of changes in household income since Ashoka varieties had been 'adopted' by farmers then any increase in income could have been due to many other factors. Thus, the study team used a kind of 'results chain' approach to minimise this kind of problem. The before and after comparisons were based on farmer recall and focused on changes in variables like rice yield and self-sufficiency in rice (in months per year). The team examined the linkages between area of land planted to Ashoka rice, the yield obtained, the ways in which the rice was used and any benefits that farmers said they had experienced as a result of growing Ashoka rice.

Minimising bias
The senior staff of RIUP's MIL component decided that the structured survey would be implemented by staff of the organisations that had been involved in developing and distributing the Ashoka varieties, as they were familiar with the technology and with the locations where the seed had been distributed and the villagers living there. An independent Cluster Study Team Manager (Czech Conroy) was appointed to oversee the design and implementation of this case study and several others. He had the final say on survey methods, wording of questionnaires etc., and also carried out the (stratified) random selection of study districts and villages. In the structured survey household selection was also random (after stratification), but for practical reasons the selection was done by the field teams implementing the survey.
In the questionnaire used in the structured household survey almost all of the questions were closed (e.g. Yes/No) rather than open in order to avoid bias (sub-conscious as well as conscious) in the way that answers were recorded. The qualitative study, on the other hand, would be inherently semi-structured or unstructured, which would have increased the likelihood of bias among survey team members creeping in. For this reason, and also because of the special skills required to undertake qualitative work of this nature, it was decided that this study would be done by qualified independent researchers, under the supervision of the Study Team's social development advisor, Dr Marlene Buchy. The Indian researchers hired for this study were Dr Malika Basu and Dr Aniruddha Dey.
The use of two different sets of study methods by two different teams was also seen as advantageous in terms of triangulation -cross-checking -of survey findings.

Details of methods used in the structured survey
These are summarised in the table below.
Method 1 A Group Discussion to generate information about users and non-users of the Ashoka varieties, and information about the percentage of users and an approximate idea of the percentage of the land area on which the innovation was being practised 2 . The GD aimed to generate lists of users and non-users. Where possible the survey team would obtain Patwari records and use these to triangulate the GD lists (or consider alternative approaches to triangulation, such as facilitating villagers to prepare a social map showing all households), to avoid any households being omitted from the GD list. The concern here was that there might have been a possibility of systematic bias towards any omissions being primarily scheduled caste or other marginalised households.
Method 2 The purpose of this method was to find out how many 'secondary' villages had the new varieties and how distant they were from the primary ('project') village.

Method 3
In each project village 10 current users of Ashoka varieties were interviewed, of whom 5 were original (2002 or 2003) targeted receivers (TRs) of Ashoka seed and 5 non-TRs (i.e. farmers who did not receive seed directly from GVT). Thus, there were 200 respondents who were current growers or users of Ashoka varieties, 100 of whom would be TRs. The number of current non-users of Ashoka varieties was 5 per village, giving 100 altogether.

Acknowledgements
A large number of staff members of Gramin Vikas Trust were involved in conducting the fieldwork for the structured survey. The fieldwork was coordinated by Dr JP Yadavendra. In eastern India the survey team was led by Dr. SC Prasad, and western India by Shri HK Tomar. Senior managers of GVT, Shri Amar Prasad and Shri KS Sandhu, attended a 10-day survey planning workshop in June 2008 and gave their general support to the study. We are extremely grateful to them all.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
 This report describes an assessment made on the impact of two rice varieties, Ashoka 200F and Ashoka 228. These varieties were bred through client-oriented breeding in DFID Renewable Natural Resource Strategy (RNRRS) supported projects of the Plant Sciences Research Programme. The history of the breeding of these varieties in an institutional context is described.  The impact assessment was done in five districts located in four states of India, Banswara, Rajasthan; Mayurbhanj, Orissa; W Midnapur, West Bengal; and, Ranchi and Hazaribag, Jharkhand. In twenty villages that received seed of these varieties (primary villages) group discussions were held and a total of nearly 300 farmers were interviewed who were randomly selected from users and non users of the varieties. Group discussions were held in 37 villages to which seed had spread from them (secondary or tertiary villages).

Benefits
 When specifically asked about benefits about half of the 200 farmers who grew an Ashoka rice variety reported increases in rice grain self sufficiency (by 17% or one month) or increases in grain sales (by 46% or 150 kg).  A much higher proportion reported increases in grain yield; most farmers reported from recall yield advantages over local alternatives, although average increases were lower than those recorded in actual participatory, on-farm experiments.  Farmers reported other benefits such as better eating quality and higher straw yield and earlier harvests.
Acceptability and adaptation to specific rice ecosystems  In 2007, the Ashoka varieties were still grown by the great majority of farmers (95%) who were first given seed 4 to 6 years earlier despite little, or no, subsequent outside interventions for these varieties in their villages. Similarly, farmers that obtained seed from other farmers continued to grow the varieties once they had gained access to the seed. The great majority of farmers who discontinued their adoption said it was because of lack of access to seed.  Farmers who grew the varieties adopted them on a high proportion of their suitable land (on average 75% of their upland and over 50% of their medium land).
 Adoption in upland and medium land differed greatly from district to district as in Rajasthan and Orissa little or no rice was grown in the uplands. Hence, in these two districts they were cultivated only in medium lands, but almost only in uplands in West Bengal and mostly in the uplands in Ranchi district, Jharkhand. Only in Hazaribag, Jharkhand, were they grown in both upland and medium land.  What varieties the Ashoka varieties replaced varied greatly by district and was influenced by the agro-ecological situation and by the extent of private-sector marketing of hybrid rice. o The Ashoka varieties were the only modern upland varieties with significant adoption in Hazaribag district, Jharkhand and Rajasthan so they replaced landraces. o In higher rainfall uplands of West Bengal and medium lands in Orissa, they partially replaced modern varieties that were of longer-duration. o In Ranchi district, Jharkhand, the only varieties in the uplands were private-sector hybrids and public-sector medium land varieties and over 90% of the area under them was replaced by the Ashoka varieties.  Only in Hazaribag district were public-sector upland varieties found to any significant extent and this was the district where the Central Upland Rice Research Station was located. Vandana was used on less than 5% of the area 16 years after its release compared with 40% of the area for the much more recently released Ashoka varieties. In W Midnapur Kalinga III was grown (16%) and could have led to the underestimation of the area of Ashoka varieties as it is easily confused with the Ashoka varieties. Kalinga III was introduced by GVT in nineties but no seed is now available in the market and farmers growing Ashoka varieties could be still calling it Kalinga III.
targeting villages having a high proportion of indigenous tribal people and with poor access to markets and other facilities. There were three socio-economic traits with small but significant differences between the users and non-users of the Ashoka varieties. The households that used the varieties had a higher number of farm workers per household, a higher proportion of heads holding a below the poverty line card, and a lower proportion of scheduled tribes. These differences were too small to suggest that social factors are a major factor in the upland rice innovation system.

INTRODUCTION
This report examines the uptake and impact of Ashoka 200F and Ashoka 228 varieties of upland rice that were developed and disseminated in the DFID Plant Sciences Research Programme RNRRS projects in India. These two varieties were produced using clientoriented breeding (COB) methods 3 that included participatory varietal selection (PVS). This was carried out jointly by Gramin Vikas Trust (GVT) and Birsa Agricultural University (BAU), Ranchi and CAZS-NR.
Before the initiation of the RNRRS project to breed the Ashoka varieties PVS had been used to identify parental varieties; Kalinga III in eastern and western India and IR 64 in eastern India.
During the development of the Ashoka varieties institutional arrangements varied greatly and many different partners were involved (Tables 1 and 2).
Plant breeding is a long-term process and the rice breeding programme was funded in a number of consecutive projects involving multiple partners (Tables 1, 2).
Client-oriented breeding can build on the results of PVS as it can identify suitable parental varieties for crossing. PVS in upland rice was carried out in eastern and western India by GVT in DFID-funded bilateral projects (EIRFP and WIRFP) with CAZS-NR as DFID consultants from 1994. These participatory trials identified Kalinga III to be the most farmerpreferred variety in the marginal rainfed uplands as it had a higher grain quality than all other varieties released for the uplands. Subsequently Kalinga III was disseminated by GVT in the WIRFP and EIRFP. Despite its popularity with farmers, Kalinga III has weak stems that make it prone to lodging under heavy rains and high fertility. Its early maturation allows it to escape terminal drought but its inherent drought tolerance is low because of its poorly developed root system. Therefore, a breeding programme was started to improve Kalinga III and to develop earlier maturing, high yielding, good grain quality variety with high adaptation to drought and low fertility soils of the rainfed uplands. COB methods were used in this breeding programme as they fitted both with the participatory development approach of the bilateral projects as well as the research objectives of the PSP. Participatory approaches were considered to be more efficient for rapidly delivering sustainable benefits to farmers. 3 Participatory plant breeding (PPB) is still in common use but describes the activity of involving farmers rather than its purpose of improving client orientation. Hence, the term client-oriented breeding (COB) has been suggested as more appropriate and less divisive and is used here (Witcombe et al., 2005).
2 It is common to change the name of a variety from that under which it is tested at the time of release. The names of Ashoka varieties were changed by the Research Evaluation Council of BAU to reflect Birsa from BAU and Vikas from GVT. It should also be noted that only BAU could propose these varieties for release since NGOs are not allowed to do so for state releases in India. The GVT used both names during seed dissemination since farmers were more familiar with Ashoka names. We use 'Ashoka varieties' to refer to both Ashoka 200F and Ashoka 228 in this document.  Under RF funding including seed produced in this project and sold to CRS for distribution in many states A training course funded under the WIRFP and EIRFP was led by CAZS-NR in Bangor in the spring of 1997. GVT and BAU staff participated and widely accepted the suggested strategy of CAZS-NR of using a large population size breeding programme that used only a few crosses made with PVS-identified varieties as parents. Selection was delayed to the later generations in the target environment of farmers' fields or conditions similar to farmers' management (Table 3; Witcombe and Virk, 2001). To hasten the breeding process generations were grown in the main seasons and in the off-seasons and BAU were allowed, under the ICAR system, to pay for use of the necessary facilities for off season growing at the Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack. Farmers were involved in selection either in a collaborative or consultative mode in the segregating generations and immediately tested new varieties in PVS trials (Virk et al., 2003; Table 3). The collaborative method produced Ashoka 200F and the consultative method Ashoka 228 (Table 3).
Seed of these two Ashoka varieties have been widely distributed to farmers in eastern and western states of India (Fig. 1)

METHODS
In July to September/October 2008, field surveys were carried out by the Gramin Vikas Trist (GVT) in 20 primary villages (Table 4) with assistance from CAZS-NR and the Case Study Teams of MIL component 2.2. The surveys were conducted in villages selected from those where GVT had worked in either the Western or the Eastern Rainfed Farming Projects. The selection procedure is described below and can be summarised as:  Districts were selected on the basis of the earliest seed distribution.  Primary villages within districts were randomly selected from those where seed distribution had taken place in 2002 or 2003 Jhalaria - †Found to be in adjacent Binpur-2 block when GD was conducted.

Selection of states and districts
The focus of DFID funded projects was states, districts and villages with extreme poverty and where the people were largely resource-poor tribal smallholders.
The EIRFP worked in Jharkhand (previously southern Bihar), West Bengal and Orissa states. The village surveys by GVT in the beginning of EIRFP in 1995 reported that rice was the most important crop of farmers of rainfed uplands and that resource-poor tribal farmers had smallholdings (0.4 to 0.8 ha) of sloping, poor-fertility, drought-prone land comprising of some 40% of largely degraded upland. Similarly, the WIRFP worked in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh predominantly with smallholder tribal farmers.
For the study in EIRFP states all three were selected but in the WIRFP only district Banswara in Rajasthan was selected because this was considered to have more upland rice than any of the other districts in which the WIRFP worked.
Blocks within states were selected where seed of the Ashoka varieties had been distributed in 2002 or 2003 by GVT as this allowed enough time for any possible impact to have taken place. These were three blocks in Banswara district and villages were randomly selected from all three blocks, Rajasthan (Table 4), one block in Mayurbhanj district, Orissa, one block in West Midnapur district, W. Bengal, and two blocks in Ranchi district (from which one was selected) and one in Hazaribag district in Jharkhand. Two districts were selected in Jharkhand because this was the state for which the Ashoka varieties had been released and where most seed distribution had been made. Ranchi was near the GVT headquarters and Hazaribag near a station of ICAR's Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack. i.e., the Central Rainfed Upland Rice Research Station (CRURRS), Hazaribag. This was intentionally selected to enable a comparison of the extent of use of the CRURRS upland rice variety Vandana (released in 1992) with that of the Ashoka varieties.

Selection of villages
To select the villages GVT and CAZS-NR compiled a complete inventory of seed distribution of the Ashoka varieties by organisation, state, district and village in eastern and western India. From this inventory lists for seed distribution made in 2002-03 were drawn up. The Case Study Team Leader then selected blocks within states where there was a sufficiently large number of farmers who had been given seed. Villages within blocks were selected at random from among all those where seed had been supplied. Two subsequent changes to the selection of villages were required because in village Masu in Bero block of Ranchi district the inhabitants were not cooperative so this was changed to village Nihalu in Bero block) and Ambakul in Baripada block of Mayurbhanj district could not be found (perhaps it was actually the name of a self-help group in another village) and was changed to village Barbilla).
The location of the districts is shown in

Selection of households for interview
Households in the selected villages were selected randomly from list of rice growers that was prepared in group discussions (see below).

Group discussions
In all villages the same structure for the group discussion was followed: 1. Identifying Ashoka users and non-users among the rice users in the village that allowed an estimate of the proportion of households in the village using Ashoka varieties. 2. In the primary villages only identifying Ashoka variety users who were target and non-target (these terms are defined below). 3. Identifying villages to which farmers had distributed seed. 4. Estimating the proportion of the rice land in the upland and medium land devoted to the Ashoka varieties on a village basis. 5. Learning how farmers came to know about Ashoka varieties. 6. Finding how they got the seed of them e.g. from relatives or friends or market 7. What was the situation regarding accessibility of seed.
For full details of the group discussion see Annex 1.
A list of rice growers was compiled which was divided into: current Ashoka variety users, who were either 'target' (i.e., who received seed from GVT) or 'non-target' (who received seed from some other source); and current non-users of Ashoka varieties. In each of the 20 initial, randomly selected villages, termed 'primary villages', farmers were asked the most important villages to which they had distributed seed to others and these were termed 'secondary villages' (Table 4). All villages which had received seed of the Ashoka varieties were identified and marked on a block map. Two secondary villages per primary village were selected, if possible, though in some cases there were less than two (Table 4), for a group discussion. In Hazaribag district, only four secondary villages were identified. To increase the sample size from only four, a group discussion was held in two villages, termed tertiary villages, that were identified in a group discussion in one of the four secondary villages as having received seed from that village ( Table 4).

Household survey
The objectives of the household surveys included: 1. Compare the household characteristics of user and non-users of the Ashoka varieties. 2. Estimate the benefits of the Ashoka varieties and impact on food availability of users 3. Estimate the trends and extent of use by area and household numbers 4. Varietal replacement trends by Ashoka varieties 5. Persistence of use of Ashoka varieties 6. Seed exchange dynamics

Selection of households
The group discussion provided the list of current Ashoka users and in each village 15 farmers were interviewed; 5 target and 5 non-target users and 5 non-users (Table 5). A random selection was made from the list because it allowed generalisation of results -it gives confidence that they are representative. However, across all districts four non-user respondents were not available during the visits of the enumerators and so could not be interviewed. To avoid bias (available replacements could be systematically different to those not available depending on the specific reasons for being available or not) no replacements were made.
To randomly select farmers the random function was used in the relevant Excel spreadsheets to produce lists of selected farmers in each category i.e. target user, nontarget user and non-user.  CAZS-NR in 2004 (Virk andWitcombe, 2007). The questionnaire for users of Ashoka varieties had 52 questions and the questionnaire for non users of Ashoka varieties but growers of rice had 39 (Annexes 2 and 3). The information common to both questionnaires concerned: basic information about the household; agricultural information including livestock, crops and varieties grown for the last three years; and livelihood information including job holders, government scheme employment, number of farm workers and migration. The user questionnaire asked additional information about the Ashoka varieties.

Poverty index
Poverty index was calculated according to the method decided in Dhulikhel, Nepal meeting from 23 to 29 January 2009 (Annex 4). The overall poverty score of a household was the sum of six component scores (Table 6). The maximum possible total score was 25, and the poverty line was drawn at 12.5.

Administration of questionnaires
The questionnaires were piloted with farmers in Komboi and Jada villages in Dahod district (Gujarat) in WIRFP and in Mehru village of Ranchi district (Jharkhand) in EIRFP between last week of February and early March 2008. The aim of piloting was to assess the time taken to fill-up a questionnaire, the clarity of the wording and to identify any other limitations. The questionnaires were subsequently revised in June in Ratlam meeting.
Four teams of two enumerators each were formed by the GVT. All four teams worked together in one primary village in Banswara from 16 to 24 July 2008, under the supervision of Dr J.P. Yadvendra of GVT and Dr D.S. Virk of CAZS-NR, to pilot the revised questionnaires and to ensure that the group discussion methods and use of the household questionnaires would be consistently applied across the teams. One team continued until the end of August 2008 in Banswara district to complete the group discussions and household surveys in all of the villages there.
The three other teams undertook group discussions and household surveys from 1 August to 15 September with one team per district: Mayurbhanj (Orissa), W. Midnapur (W. Bengal) and Ranchi (Jharkhand). Work in Hazaribag district (Jharkhand) was undertaken by one of these three teams from 15-30 September 2008.
After the data collection each team entered the data of the group discussions and the household surveys in Excel sheets. The data were checked for discrepancies by GVT and CAZS-NR staff and corrected.

Seed spread
Passing of seed from farmer to farmer is the most important mechanism in the spread of a new variety when formal seed supply is limited, as is the case with the Ashoka varieties. Hence, we first examine the extent of this process.

Seed spread estimated from group discussions
In the group discussions the total seed transactions, from the previous harvest in 2007, for both within the village and to other villages were recorded (Table 7). In many cases all of the transactions reported by the group were with farmers from other villages. However, at least from harvests prior to 2007, there must have been many within-village transactions; by definition, non-target users of the Ashoka varieties had to get seed from sources other than GVT; and neighbours in the same village are the most obvious source of seed. Hence, the very high proportion of transactions to other villages is either a result of under-recording of within-village transactions -perhaps because the key informants took more notice of distribution to outsiders -or the process of seed dissemination by within-village transactions was complete. However, the household survey revealed much higher within-village transactions than were found in the group discussions (see below "seed spread estimated from survey of households") so under reporting by key informants seems the correct explanation. The group discussions collected data on the number of villages to which the seed was distributed from each of the four primary villages in each district. In the study districts of Mayurbhanj, W. Midnapur, and Ranchi, farmers in the primary villages distributed seed of the Ashoka varieties to a total of 8, 14 and 12 secondary villages, respectively; and in Banswara to 7 and in Hazaribag to 5 secondary villages (Table 7). The number of secondary villages will be underestimates of the total number of villages as the group was only asked about the main villages to which seed was distributed (Annex 1) and not for details of all of them. Moreover, the members of the group would not have been aware of all of the seed transactions by all of the households in the village.
Only one secondary village was identified in Bhojapra primary village, Banswara: in this village rice was little grown and farmers preferred to cultivate maize or soybean. Another exception was in Hazaribag district where three villages had either no secondary village (one case) or only one secondary village (two cases). As was the case in Rajasthan, they were also located in an area where upland rice is little grown.
Farmers in the secondary villages distributed seed to yet more villages that we term as tertiary villages ( Table 8). As for the primary villages, the majority of seed transactions from farmers in the secondary villages were reported as being to outside villages and the reasons for this were discussed above. Farmers in the primary village of Kherika, Hazaribag distributed seed to the secondary village Uridiri. It was found that farmers in Uridiri had distributed seed to two quite-distant tertiary villages where upland cultivation was more important. One of these was village Lakhnu. Farmers were interviewed there and included Mr Tousif Khan who received seed from Uridiri village in 2007 and produced a harvest of 1.4 t some of which he distributed to other farmers in the village. In 2008, he produced 2.4 t and intends to sell 1.8 t as seed through a local seed trader who will sell to yet more villages. Hence the process is an ever expanding pattern but for practical reasons this study was designed not to go beyond the tertiary level.
As has been recorded in previous studies in India, e.g. Witcombe et al. (1999), some of the seed transactions were to distant villages, in this case up to 60 km away from the secondary villages and up to 35 km away from the primary villages. Nonetheless, there would be a greater likelihood of seed being distributed to nearby villages, as was the case for Banswara (Figs. 3 and 4).

Seed spread estimated from survey of households
The household surveys confirmed that farmers were distributing seed and, given that only 10 users were interviewed per primary village and the number of transactions (Table 9) was higher than in the group discussions (Tables 7, 8), the seed distribution appears to be under estimated in the latter case. Apart from the case of Ranchi district, at least a third of farmers that grew the Ashoka varieties distributed seed of them with at least half of the transactions being to outside villages (Table 9). In three of the districts the surprising result was that 100% of the farmers only distributed seed to one recipient. This seems unlikely in this relatively large sample (37 households), as in the remaining two districts, and other studies (Witcombe et al., 1999), the frequency of multiple distribution was high.
Seed quantities distributed were sufficient, on average, to plant over a tenth of a hectare (assuming 100 kg ha -1 for broadcast upland sowing). This represents a reasonable proportion of the rice land (Table 10).
Most of the seed was distributed as an exchange or a gift with only 12% of transactions being by sale (Table 11). Most recipients were relatives or neighbouring farmers illustrating the reliance on the informal sector in the farmer rice innovation system.

Seed spread estimated from non-target users in household survey
In each primary village non-target users were identified. By definition, they would not have received seed from GVT and must have obtained the seed from other farmers within their village, a neighbouring village or an informal commercial source 4 . All of these farmers (apart from three in Ranchi district) grew the Ashoka varieties one or more years after their first introduction to target farmers (Table 12). Summarising these data across all the districts the adoption curve for the non-target users approximates to a classic S-shaped adoption curve (Fig. 5) indicating that adoption levels in the primary villages were reaching their ceiling of maximum adoption.

Group discussions
Having considered the extensive spread from farmer to farmer both within and across villages, the next indicator of the acceptability of this agricultural technology is whether farmers, once they gain access to seed, continue to use it or not. In the group discussions (for preparing the list of Ashoka users) in the primary villages in four of the five districts all of the target farmers that first had access to seed of an Ashoka variety in 2002 or 2003 were still growing it in the kharif of 2007 (Table 13). Only in Ranchi district, Jharkhand, had some farmers discontinued: 77% of those that received seed of an Ashoka variety continued to grow it, and all farmers that had discontinued cited the non-availability of seed of Ashoka varieties as the reason for not growing them. However, we have no explanation as to why this should apply to Ranchi district and not to other districts other than the speculation that there is greater competition from private-sector hybrids. However, in Muramo primary village, Ranchi district, and its secondary villages, farmers also mentioned damage to the Ashoka varieties from elephants. They said these varieties attract elephants more than other varieties and landraces because of their earlier growth and more palatable straw.

Household surveys -users
In all districts, except Hazaribag and one case in Mayurbhanj, the farmers identified in the group discussions as current users, who were randomly selected for individual interview, were confirmed by the household survey interviews as users. However, in Hazaribag, 35% of those identified as users and subsequently interviewed were found to be discontinuers. All had been users in 2006 and many had been users in 2007, but had been misidentified as current users in 2008 in the group discussions. Two of the discontinuing users were target farmers while 6 were non-target farmers (Fig. 6). As these farmers were interviewed using the user questionnaire no questions were asked about the reasons as to why they were no longer growing an Ashoka variety.

Household survey -current non-users
In the household survey in primary villages the non-users were asked why they were not growing the Ashoka varieties. Overall most of the non users (60%) had not heard of them and this was particularly true in three districts -Ranchi and Hazaribag in Jharkhand and Mayurbhanj, Orissa (Table 14). This lack of knowledge applied even though they were in the same villages as users. In some villages the households are widely dispersed and there may be less than what might be expected to be high communication between hamlets in the same village. In two districts, Banswara and W. Midnapur, about 60% of the non-users of the Ashoka varieties had heard of them (Table 14).
Overall, about 23% of those that had heard of an Ashoka variety had actually grown one of them previously (Table 14) a result that differs from the target farmers in the group discussion where 95% of target farmers were reported to have continued adoption (Table  13). The current non-users would mainly be non-target farmers and, hence, they may find it more difficult to procure seed than target users who were always members of a self help group and always knew other farmers from whom they might get seed. Difficulty in obtaining seed was supported by 73% of the non-users that had grown an Ashoka variety responding that they would grow it if they could gain access to seed (Table 15).
Whether those that had heard of the Ashoka varieties had previously tried them or not the reasons for currently not using them remained the same. The great majority (80%) said they could not get seed, while the remainder either said that they did not cultivate upland or did not have suitable land (Table 15). This raises the question as to why the majority had not asked for seed from the users of these varieties in their village; but it implies that improved access to seed could significantly increase adoption levels.

Use by land type and by area within the study villages
The breeding programme was planned in the RNRRS project to specifically target upland rice farmers, as EIRFP and WIRFP DFID bilateral projects had shown that these more often belonged to disadvantaged communities compared with farmers that only cultivated medium and lowlands. The varieties were bred to be of short duration to make them ideally suited to rainfed uplands. However, the survey showed that upland rice was not grown in all of the districts (Table 16) even though there was cultivated upland. There was even a large difference between the proportion of upland devoted to rice between the tertiary villages in Hazaribag compared with both the primary and secondary villages. It appears as if through village-to-village spread the Ashoka varieties eventually arrive in favourable areas where there is more suitable area for them.
In the study districts of Rajasthan and Orissa where the group discussions had revealed that there was no upland rice, the Ashoka varieties would only be grown if they replaced other crops. These were reported to be: predominantly maize in Rajasthan, mainly Sabai grass, Ischaemum augustifolium, grown for paper making, in Orissa; and, in Hazaribag, a wide variety of crops with Niger, Guizotia abyssinica, the most important.
All districts, however, had medium rice land where the Ashoka varieties could be grown as a transplanted crop (Table 17).  In the three districts where farmers grew the varieties in the upland many chose to do so and the use of the Ashoka varieties was by 19 to 53% of the households (Table 18). In the four districts where they were used in the medium lands they were grown by 11 to 54% of the households. The only district where it was not grown in the medium lands was W Midnapur, where perhaps farmers had better alternatives for this situation.
When farmers chose to grow Ashoka they did so on a high proportion of their available rice land (Table 19, Figs. 7 and 8). In the upland the minimum average area in the household survey ranged from 57% of the rice upland in W Midnapur to 91% in Ranchi district (Table  19, Fig. 7). In the medium land farmers devoted 9 to 46% of what were larger areas of medium land (

Estimated use by area and households in the study villages by combining group discussion and household survey data
The proportion of total rice area devoted to the Ashoka varieties in the primary and secondary villages was estimated both from the data collected in the group discussions and the data collected in the household survey using the method described in Box 1. The use of the Ashoka varieties by area varied from 1.8 to 24% of total rice area depending on the category of village and the district (Table 20). A combination of group discussion and household survey data also allowed the areas under the Ashoka varieties in each village to be estimated (Table 21). The villages in many cases were not villages as such but hamlets known as tollas (in eastern India) or falias (in western India). Hence, when extrapolating to the village level we have used somewhat higher values.

Estimated Extent of Use Beyond the Survey Areas
The data in Tables 20 and 21 were then used to extrapolate adoption at different levels:  the blocks where the study villages were located,  Jharkhand state as a whole,  blocks outside of Jharkhand where seed had been distributed and,  finally, to estimate the potential area that the Ashoka varieties could cover.

Box 1. Extrapolating use in the nine states from the group discussions and the survey data four states
The best overall estimate of the use of Ashoka varieties in the whole of the 3355 rice growing households identified in the group discussions in all 53 villages (16 primary, 35 secondary and 2 tertiary) can be obtained using a combination of the group discussion and the household survey data. The latter is considered more reliable as each sampled household reported on their own experiences.  †Reduced by 35% to account for the 35% of users who were found to be current non-users in the household survey.

Estimated use by area and households in the blocks of the study villages
The area under the Ashoka varieties was estimated in the blocks where the study took place (Table 22). About 30,000 ha of rice were estimated to be grown in these blocks by dividing the available data for the rice area of the district by the number of blocks in the district. In the absence of block-level data this was the best approximation possible. Adoption in the blocks of the study villages was assumed to be similar to the study villages themselves. This is a reasonable assumption given that about 10% of the villages in each block were sampled, the high village-to-village spread, and the fact that non-study villages where seed had been distributed in later years received more seed than the early-interaction villages. This was because in 2002, seed was distributed in limited quantities mainly for trial purposes, whereas from 2006 seed was distributed in the Rockefeller Foundation project for scaling up. Given the above assumptions, over 1.5 thousand hectares were under the Ashoka varieties in these six blocks and they would be grown by over 11 thousand households. Table 22. Extrapolated area (ha) of use in the six blocks in which the surveys were done using the lowest estimates obtained for the proportion of area devoted to the Ashoka varieties in the study villages.

District
Total rice land in district ('000 ha)

Number of blocks in district
Average rice land per block (ha)

Estimated use by area and households in Jharkhand
Jharkhand has had by far the greatest activity in seed dissemination of the Ashoka varieties of all the states, and is the one where it is most reasonable to extrapolate from the block to the state level. We have used the lowest adoption level that was found (2.6% of the area) to be conservative even though later villages received more seed (Table 23). Over 30,000 ha and over 200,000 households grew the Ashoka varieties in Jharkhand if these assumptions are correct. For triangulation, another set of assumptions was used based on the data that were available for the number of villages to which seed was distributed. The Ashoka variety areas per village in Jharkhand varied from 1.6 ha in Hazaribag to 3.2 ha in Ranchi district (Table  24) but these survey areas excluded the neighbouring areas within the same village to which spread could reasonably assume to have occurred. Hence, for extrapolation in the primary villages an area of 4 ha is used as a reasonable estimate. We assumed lower use than this in the secondary villages and even lower use in the tertiary ones. The number of primary villages reached by the DoA was derived from the known distribution of a total of 300 t over a period of three years by assuming that an average of 120 kg was distributed per village. This fits with the general practice of the DoA. If seed distribution was repeatedly made to the same villages over years this would result in an estimate of seed distribution to 1000 villages. If the distribution was not repeated in any village but was always to new villages, 3000 villages would have received seed. The numbers of secondary and tertiary villages were extrapolated from the group discussions (which were known to be underestimates as each group was only asked to identify the principal secondary villages). Hence, this method may be an underestimate, particularly as an estimate of only one tertiary village per secondary village is used. Using these various assumptions the estimated use of the Ashoka varieties in Jharkhand varied from 13,000 to 33,000 ha using this method (Table 24); and was in agreement with the other, whole-district, method (Table 23). Table 24. Extrapolated household use and area (ha) in Jharkhand using the estimated number of villages to which Ashoka seed has been distributed and a conservative and realistic range for the estimate of the number of secondary and tertiary villages and estimates for the area (ha) of Ashoka varieties in each village.

Estimated use by area and households in blocks outside of Jharkhand where seed of the Ashoka varieties had been distributed
The combined seed distribution of the Ashoka varieties by GVT and CRS outside of Jharkhand covered 94 blocks (Table 25). If we assume that these blocks have an average of around 6000 ha of rice (this is the mean of the blocks in the five study districts) and the lowest use found in the study of 2% of the area then there are 11,280 ha of Ashoka varieties in these blocks grown by 75,200 households. This disregards seed distribution to other villages outside of these blocks.
Whatever the errors in the estimates for Jharkhand, when all of the states of India where seed has been distributed are added then the use in these states has to at least compensate for any possible overestimate in the realistic scenario for Jharkhand. Hence, the minimum use of the Ashoka varieties is expected to be by at least 194,000 households who grow the variety on a total of over 33,000 ha.

Estimated potential use in the four study states by area and households
Using the data from the group discussion and the household surveys the potential adoption of the Ashoka varieties can be estimated in the study districts and the five states in which they were located (Table 26). Even though the impact at each individual household may be small when taken in any single year the potential for the overall combined impact of the varieties is very large and, assuming a sustainable seed supply, could be measured in hundreds of thousands of hectares each year and by millions of households (Table 26). The financial value of the additional grain yield from over 400,000 ha of Ashoka varieties is high. Even if we assume a low average yield on this entire area of 700 kg ha -1 , growing the Ashoka varieties instead of those currently grown produces an additional 15% of grain with a value of around £17 million. This assumes the rice grain price is £400 t -1 , wich is a typical local price based on the authors' knowledge This benefit accrues every year and does not include other benefits such as better eating quality, early harvest and a more assured yield in drought years.
The maximum costs are easy to estimate for the PSP Research and the RF funded project. The total cost of PSP the research projects that relate at all to producing the Ashoka varieties (R7122, R7434 and R8099 -see Introduction) was £466,000 from 1998 to 2006. This is an overestimate as the Ashoka varieties were already released by 2003. The RF funded project from 2005 to 2009 had a total of budget of £382,000 but at most one third of this was spent on scaling out Ashoka varieties. It is more difficult to estimate expenditure in the GVT EIRFP but the total expenditure on supporting all the plant breeding activities in BAU by GVT from 1997 to 2000 did not exceed £10,000.
These estimates of benefits and costs illustrate that a more detailed and comprehensive economic or financial analysis, using constant rather than mixed pounds, is likely to show a high return on the investment in breeding these varieties.

What rice varieties do the Ashoka varieties replace?
In the uplands The Ashoka varieties were targeted specifically for the uplands so we estimated from the survey how successful they have been compared to other breeding efforts by the public and private sector. There were three districts where the Ashoka varieties were adopted in the uplands (Table 27) and the varietal adoption among the 120 users and 60 non-users was analysed 4 . Many of these farmers did not grow rice in the uplands so the sample sizes are lower (Table 27). Farmers were asked to give the varieties and areas for three years (2008, 2007 and 2006) but there were no significant differences between the years -users had already adopted the varieties on significant areas of land by 2006 -so only data for 2008 are shown. Table 27. Overall proportion of upland rice area allocated by Ashoka users and non-users to modern varieties (private and public sector) and landraces in 2008 in the three districts where Ashoka varieties were grown in the uplands. From a survey of 120 user households and 60 non-user households in 12 primary villages in 3 districts and 2 states in 2008.  In Ranchi district, Jharkhand, there were only four non users and they grew modern varieties (Suruchi, Shankar, JK and Advanta mostly recommended for medium lands) on all of their land. Shankar and Surichi are medium-land public-sector varieties from Orissa but the others appear to be hybrids from the private sector although not all of the variety names could be traced. Farmers that had access to the Ashoka varieties opted to predominantly grow Ashoka varieties rather than hybrids and one of the reasons could be the high cost of purchasing hybrid seed. From personal communication with private-sector scientists, Jharkhand is the state in India with the highest adoption of hybrid rice and somewhat surprisingly some (perhaps most) of the hybrids are targeted at the upland and medium land. The 12% of the land of the Ashoka users that was devoted to MVs was of Suruchi, Rasmi (released 1986) and Lalat (released 1988), the latter two being very old public-sector medium land varieties.
In Hazaribag, Jharkhand, the situation was very different. Perhaps hybrid seed marketing is less effective further from the state capital of Ranchi and no hybrids were grown by the sampled farmers and medium land public-sector varieties were also not grown so nearly all of the land was devoted to landraces. The public sector non-hybrid variety, Vandana (released in 1992) had a total of about 5% of the upland area many years after its release compared with over 40% of the area under the Ashoka varieties only seven years after the first distribution of seed and only a few years after their release. Hence, in this district the comparative success of the Ashoka varieties compared with past alternatives was clear.
In West Bengal adoption levels of the Ashoka varieties were higher (44%) than other MVs (31%) or all upland varieties (21%) even though the Ashoka varieties had been released much more recently. The extent of Ashoka varieties may be underestimated as there is a possible confusion between it and Kalinga III (released in 1983). This was the most commonly grown of the two public-sector upland varieties as only a few farmers grew Annapurna (released in 1968).It was earlier distributed by GVT in the EIRFP from 1995 to 2001 on a large scale and due to phenotypic similarities farmers can easily confuse it with the Ashoka varieties. Many of the reported cases of Kalinga III are very likely to be cases of an Ashoka variety because no seed of the former has been distributed for many years and it is known that farmers replace Kalinga III with Ashoka varieties (Virk and Witcombe, 2007). Among modern varieties (MVs) the most frequent were Lalat and Bullet. Lalat (released in 1988) is an old variety from Orissa recommended for medium lands and has poor grain quality but its seed is widely available. Bullet is an unknown variety perhaps from a private company. Very infrequently some farmers also grew hybrids of private seed companies and the old Orissa varieties Supriya (released in 1973) and Parijat (released in 1976). That the public-sector varieties grown in West Bengal were all from Orissa perhaps reflects the more successful breeding programme in that state.
The high adoption of modern varieties in the uplands in West Bengal is unsurprising as it is possible to grow longer-duration, medium-land varieties in this situation as the duration of the monsoon is longer (Table 28). There are five months of significant rainfall in West Bengal compared with 3 to 4 months in Jharkhand and other more westerly districts (data not shown).  (1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005); National Information Centre of Department of Information and Technology, Government of India.
Box 2. Changes in replacement over years.
Varietal replacement of Kalinga III and Vandana over time by the Ashoka varieties cannot be seen in the present analysis as the trends for adoption from 2006 to 2008 were static across the three years. Virk and Witcombe (2007) and Witcombe et al., (2007) reported on an earlier stage of adoption than in this study where the areas under the Ashoka varieties were increasing and the areas under Kalinga III and Vandana (where they were adopted) decreasing.

In the medium lands
In Rajasthan, the Ashoka varieties were grown in medium lands as there was no rice grown in the uplands. Existing varietal diversity was high but restricted to longer-duration landraces adapted to medium lands that, inevitably, had a higher yield potential than the Ashoka varieties. However, after the introduction of seed in 2002 or 2003 farmers had replaced these with the Ashoka varieties for their better grain quality and earlier maturity. They were the only modern varieties that have been adopted (Fig. 9). Orissa was the other state in which the Ashoka varieties were only grown in medium lands. In this state non users of Ashoka grow both MVs (about 58%) and landraces (36%). The Ashoka growers mainly replace MVs as the frequency of these is halved to 29% while landraces are reduced from 36% to 30%. The Ashoka varieties again were much more widely used than other upland MVs. There adoption was 33% compared with a combined total of 8% for released upland varieties Kalinga III and Khandagiri (released in Orissa in 1993).

Environmental impact
The use of the Ashoka varieties does reduce agricultural biodiversity when measured as the number of landraces that are grown (Virk and Witcombe, 2007). However, this analysis is not at a genetic level -only at the level of the names farmers have given to landraces. When genetic dissimilarities are considered, Steele at al. (2009) have shown that the introduction of modern varieties into areas where only landraces are grown can increase genetic diversity even when up to 60% of the land is devoted to the new varieties. Hence, the environmental impact on agro-biodiversity is complex and unresolved.
Other environmental impacts will be largely favourable as the new varieties produce more grain without requiring additional inputs. There are clear benefits from higher yield per cultivated area as the total land and inputs needed per unit of production are reduced. There may be dis-benefits if it encourages farmers to continue to cultivate uplands that could be converted to perennial plantations crops. However, much of the area under the Ashoka varieties was in the medium lands where annual crops are likely to persist.

Benefits to Users
That the majority of the farmers reported increases in food availability was in agreement with the benefits farmers reported from growing the Ashoka varieties where about half of the farmers said they grew the varieties to get more rice (Table 29). Other benefits were also important with better quality grain being ranked highest by most farmers followed by earlier harvest and then better quality straw (Table 29). Farmers preferred the Ashoka varieties for their good grain quality. This was almost certainly because, with the sole exception of Kalinga III, all previously released rice varieties for the direct-seeded uplands were coarse grained as, indeed, are also all the landraces grown in the uplands. It was commonly believed by plant breeders that upland farmers preferred coarse grained varieties. Even if the Ashoka varieties gave no yield increases, which may be the case in the medium lands where longer-duration rice varieties can be grown, farmers traded off the quality of the Ashoka grain and other desirable traits such as earliness and better quality straw against yield.
The relevant question (37) was designed as an open-ended one, rather than one with a fixed list of possible answers, in order to minimise the possibility of unanticipated answers not being given, or not being recorded. There was a list of possible benefits in the questionnaire, to facilitate recording of answers, but enumerators were instructed not to read out this list to respondents.
There was a consistent high ranking of grain quality in all districts (Table 29). The ranking of other benefits differed across districts and the authors have not been able to identify any social or physical factors that could satisfactorily explain these differences other than differences in the local varieties to which the Ashoka varieties were compared. For example, in Banswara district the local varieties may have superior fodder quality resulting in a lower appreciation of this trait in the Ashoka varieties. . Respondents could have been influenced by prompting from the enumerators (if they did not follow the spirit of the instruction), who also differed from district to district. When farmers were asked about changes following the use of the Ashoka varieties in rice grain self sufficiency and rice grain sales none reported a decrease hence all of the results are reported as increases. The majority (83%) of the farmers reported increases in food availability but fewer farmers (18%) reported an increase in grain sales (Table 30). This proportion did not differ greatly across the study districts or between target and non-target farmers.
Farmers who reported an increase in rice self sufficiency said that on average the increase was nearly one month: this represented an average increase of 17% which was highly significant (P<0.001) ( Table 31). The differences in increase in rice self sufficiency were not significant among districts, gender of household head and farmer type (target user or nontarget user).
The increase in rice grain sales averaged about 150 kg per year (a 46% increase) for those farmers who reported an increase (Table 32). To minimise inter-annual variability farmers were asked to give this information for a 'normal' year. There were large differences in the average percentage increase between districts -37 to 93% -and also in the absolute size of the increase. Table 30. Proportions of farmers among the Ashoka users who report increases in food grain availability, rice sales, or no increase in either after the adoption of an Ashoka variety, from the household survey.  Farmers were asked if they had ever grown the variety in a drought year and all replied that they had not although the qualitative survey did reveal localised instances. Farmers were thus only able to make this comparison for a typical growing year and reported a higher grain yield from the Ashoka varieties compared with the popular local 4 ones (a 15% increase, P<0.001) (Table 33) and this was reflected in the higher food grain availability reported by the majority of the farmers (Table 30).
The yield advantage of the Ashoka variety over the local variety varied significantly among districts (there was a significant difference for the interaction between varieties and district (P<0.001) and the reported advantage varied from 10 to 21%. This probably reflects the differing degrees of abiotic stresses across districts. The yield advantage would probably be greater in a drought year, due to the shorter growing period of the Ashoka varieties. The differences between gender of household head and farmer type (i.e., target recipient or not) were not significant.

Poverty status
The household characteristics of the users and non-users were compared (Tables 34 and  35). There was no significant difference between users and non-users of Ashoka varieties for any of the six individual traits that were used to compute the poverty index (indicated by *** in Tables34, 35). Among the other individual socio-economic indicators only a few minor differences were found. There were no significant differences for any socio-economic variable relating to natural and physical capital; and there were three variables for social characteristics where there were small but significant differences between users and nonusers. Users had:  a higher average number of household members who regularly work on farm  a higher proportion of households having a card for being below the poverty line (and this was verified by seeing the card) and  a lower representation of scheduled tribes (and hence a higher representation of other backward classes).
However, these differences were too small to suggest that social factors are a major factor in the upland rice innovation system. They contrast with the importance of, for example, rainfall in the type of modern variety that is adopted in the uplands (Table 28). The poverty indexes for the users and non users were not significantly different (Fig. 10).
Although the maximum possible poverty index was 25the highest was 14 and 99% of the 296 respondents were in the poor class when defined as having a poverty score of less than 12.5. The only two cases where the poverty score was above 12.5 were for users. One was in Jainagar primary village in W. Midnapur where the household had a concrete roof, high per capita food availability, one full time job holder and no migration. The second case was in Hazaribag village Rajhar where the household had 4 full time job holders and so had a score of 6 for this one component.
As was expected from the non-significant differences in the six components (Tables 34 and  35), the index that resulted from the sum of the scores of these components also showed a non-significant difference between users and non users. The high levels of poverty was in accordance with the targeting of villages by GVT in the DFID-supported EIRFP and WIRFP bilateral projects. The villages were chosen to have a high proportion of indigenous tribal people and comparatively poor access to markets and other institutional support. Furthermore, the sampled states and districts are among the poorest in India.
There were significant differences among the districts for all the individual component indexes and the total index (Table 36). The surveyed households in Mayurbhanj district, Orissa, were significantly the poorest followed by the households in Banswara district, Rajasthan.

ANNEXES Annex B1 Group Discussion in primary villages
Group discussions (GDs) were held in all 20 primary villages that included:  Procuring of district wall map  Procuring of block map of selected block/s where P villages were located  Informing the villagers a day before that a team would come for discussions  Explaining the purpose of visit in the beginning without raising expectations.  GDs included adopters from all the wealth categories, ethnic groups and gender.
(i) Primary information about the village: In the GD primary statistics of the village in terms of total land, cultivated land and classification of land area by ecology and crop profiling was done. This way the total rice area by ecology was found in the village. This process was facilitated by using a Revenue Map of the village procured before the GD.
(ii) Identification of rice adopters: The survey team compiled a list of all households (and their ethnicity/caste) involved in rice production in the uplands, medium and low lands. The list also gave the identity of Ashoka rice adopters and non-adopters and those who were target Ashoka seed recipients from GVT in the earlier years or were non-target Ashoka adopters following receipt of seed from secondary sources.
This list was either prepared in the GDs or procured from the village revenue official (Patwari).
(iii) Varietal composition of rice: Varietal spectrum of rice in the uplands and medium land was prepared and apportioned in terms of areas of rice allocated to them and the number of households growing them. This led to the preparation of two pie charts or Tables constructed on the basis of areas and number of households growing different varieties of rice. This information was helpful in finding out the relative area of Ashoka varieties and proportion of households growing them in the village.
(iv) Reasons for growing or not growing Ashoka: Reasons as to why farmers prefer to grow Ashoka or why the non-adopters or droppers did not adopt them were asked in the group discussions and a summary prepared.
(v) Dissemination of Ashoka from primary villages: The survey team procured a block-level map beforehand and located on it, during the discussion, the villages mentioned by the group members.  Mark the S villages on block or district map where people indicate that rice seed has travelled from the P village.  Indicate on district/block map to show major physical barriers between P and S villages with Ashoka (mountain, river, dense forest).
Groups in the primary villages were asked  To which village, if any, they had distributed Ashoka seed;  If they know of any villages nearby in which Ashoka is grown. If so prepared a list of villages where Ashoka was grown and indicated on the block map;  To which villages they are well connected in relation to various factors, including: Farm Profile:

Rice grain sales (income)
THIS APPLIES TO THE WHOLE QUESTIONNAIRE.

The purpose of the index
The poverty index was constructed to enable the study to distinguish wealthier households from the rest of the households among those surveyed. Its use will allow the study to assess the extent to what projects have worked with the poor in the areas of intervention. The poverty index does not attempt to place households in relation to the poverty line established by the government of the State or country where the intervention took place. The data demands for such exercise are too big in relation to the resources and information needs of the projects. The number of animals owned of each type was multiplied by the corresponding weight and the products added up to obtain the "Livestock Units". Thresholds for this indicator index were derived from consultation of secondary sources (NSS Report No. 493(59/18.1/1), Maltsoglou, I and Taniguchi, K., 2004) and consultations with key informants from the partner organisations participating in the study.

Development of the index
Food production per capita This was the total quantity of all food grains produced in the season 2007-2008 per capita and included the weight (kg) of grains (cereals and legumes) produced in the 2007-2008 season. The indicator included grain that is produced for consumption as well as that that is produced for sale.
For the calculation of the indicator, the total production was divided by the number of adult equivalents per household. Adult equivalents per household were calculated as a weighted sum suing the following weights: Adults = 1 ; 10 -17 years = 1; children under 10 = 0.1. The contribution of this indicator to the overall index was based on a scale that increases in accordance to the increase of food production. At the lower end of the scale are those households with production less than 180 kg grain per capita, roughly equivalent to 0.5 kg per day. Households with more than 730 kg per capita (roughly 2 kg per day per capita) are at the higher end of the scale.

Other indicators
The other indicators were derived directly from the corresponding questions included in the questionnaire and did not require specific calculations.   (Bourai et al 2002). In 2003 GVT also distributed seeds in Jharkhand to the Government and the Birsa Agricultural University, to 6 NGOs and 1 private seed grower. In Orissa the seeds were distributed to the department of Agriculture in 4 locations and to at least 4 NGOs (Virk et al. 2003). The farmers received seeds for testing in PVS trials along with other varieties. This was a research project which explains the relative small quantity of seeds distributed.

Scores for the poverty indexes of India
This report presents the results of the qualitative survey conducted in 5 districts in the 4 states of Rajasthan, West Bengal, Orissa and Jharkhand between September 2008 and March 2009. Originally the qualitative survey, labelled as 'Method 4' in the overall case study methodology of the Monitoring and Learning component of the Research Into Use programme, was conceived as a tool to complement the analysis of 3 structured methods applied by the case study team. The overall aim of the study is to document and explain impacts of the introduction of Ashoka rice varieties in the districts on livelihoods and agriculture practices; and to the extent possible get a measure of the impacts for the poorest sections of the community. It does not seek to measure the extent of use of the varieties in the districts.

METHODOLOGY
It was originally envisaged that this study would be conducted by one independent academic researcher, as part of a wider contract. The first person (M Basu) withdrew her services after conducting field work in 3 districts (Banswara in Rajasthan, Mayurbhanj (Baripada block in Orissa) and W. Midnapur (Jhargram block in West Bengal) and the study was then completed by another person (A Dey) in 2 other districts (Hazaribagh (Katkamsandi block in Jharkand) and Ranchi (Bero block). The original plan was that the qualitative field work would follow the structured survey so that the latter would focus on issues identified in the former. It was envisaged that during the first week of qualitative work, enumerators who had been involved in the structured survey work would be able to share with the qualitative researchers their insights and knowledge of possible emerging issues as a result of their survey work. However in practice this did not happen as the timing was tight and by the time the qualitative survey started no analysis of the quantitative data had started. In September 2008 M. Buchy joined M. Basu for initial field work in the district of Banswara, Rajasthan in order to develop and test the best approach for the qualitative survey. A discussion in Banswara with GVT staff revealed that little information to guide the qualitative work was available and that only one GVT staff member was allocated to accompany the team to the field to facilitate the logistics. This meant that the qualitative work had to start with 2 days of field work dedicated to generic discussions with villagers in order for the researchers to familiarise themselves with the context and the issues and hopefully to try to see emerging patterns in order to develop the methodology to follow in all the subsequent districts.
Based on the work in Banswara we identified a list of core areas to investigate in each of the villages (see box 1).

Box 1: Core topics for the group discussions and interviews
a. The proportion of Ashoka acreage in relation to suitable land and other crops and possible yields and how the production was used; b. Farmers' choices and strategies as well as other aspects like the use of irrigation, quality of land, market value of crops, impact of the job card scheme (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) and changes in labour from a gender perspective; c. A discussion on changes 'after Ashoka'. Are farmer able to clearly identify the impact Ashoka has had on their lives and livelihoods? is there extra cash being generated and what do households do with this money? Is there a variation between categories of farmers? (ie do small farmers and medium farmers have the same needs or priorities in spending their extra cash?) for eg. if more money is spent on education who in the family is the money spent on? Does it mean an extension of schooling? Is the money making a difference between sending a child to school or not? d. Differential impact: ie is there a social differentiation influencing the beneficial impact, and also do the improved seeds encourage social differentiation? Are some categories of farmers benefitting more? e. A discussion on the spread of the seeds: accessibility of seeds, dissemination, but also information available; f. A discussion on possible organisational changes in the village traceable to Ashoka, including community groups, increased access to services These questions were asked in all the visited villages, to farmers who had received seeds initially through the project as well as to farmers who had decided to try the crop of their own initiative. We were also interested to meet farmers (if any) who had stopped growing Ashoka. In all the villages we wanted to interview women to get their views but also to try to assess whether women had seen specific impacts on their work load or the household income following the introduction of Ashoka.
Three methods were used: -The group discussion, including farmers growing Ashoka varieties, those who might have grown it and stopped and those who might want to grow it in the future. -In depth interviews of 'interesting' individual households if any. These typically could be households having experienced dramatic changes in their livelihoods or farming systems or households that have tested the seeds for a few years and decided to stop; -Cross checking some data with other actors such as: primary health care nurse or health visitor, trader, extension worker, nearby research station.
In each district all the 'primary' villages surveyed during the structured work, as well as a selection of 'secondary' villages have been visited. A primary village is a village where GVT distributed the seeds originally and secondary villages are villages where farmers who grow Ashoka acquired the seeds through personal means (though seed swaps, barter, family and friends) from someone in a primary village. Tables 1 and 2 give details of the number of group and individual interviews conducted. Organising women meetings was not always possible or easy, but we made sure that at least in one of the primary villages in each district (except Jhargram) only women growers would be called to the meeting.
X 1 (14+3) 2 (Men) *Jaria was neither a primary, secondary or tertiary village Note: Numbers in bracket indicate number of persons attending the meeting and where two numbers are indicated the first one indicates the number of men followed by the number of women.

Extent of innovation within survey villages
There is no doubt from the discussions that the qualities of Ashoka rice are appreciated by the farmers who have grown the seeds (see Box 2): the short duration and the resistance to drought are the two main positive factors mentioned by all groups in the 5 districts. Improved taste is also an appreciated characteristic. Thanks to the shorter duration food grain becomes available at a time in the year when grain stocks are low and it will also facilitate the growing of a follow on crop. Women also commented that the early maturing of Ashoka eases the bottle neck period for threshing rice so it reduces the intensity of their work during this period. Ashoka also requires less cooking time which reduces the amount of firewood needed (as mentioned by women in Kherika and Udiri for example) Box 2: Qualities of Ashoka as identified by farmers  Shorter duration, which allows a better spread of harvest, earlier food production and possibility of second crop;  Need of less fertiliser and water  Less prone to disease, also in some places the only variety that will grow  Higher yields than desi varieties and in case of drought still more yield than local varieties Branching more -six to eight branches from one seed , the bunch of stems are developed and thick. The pinnacle is taller and there is more grains in the pinnacle;  Palatable straw thus increased livestock food security  Easier to cook and reduced amount of fuel needed  Better taste, long white grains and used for important social events like weddings  Higher market price Yet, though the number of farmers who grow Ashoka has increased, the proportion of the potentially suitable land allocated by households to growing Ashoka remains small. In Kud (Hazaribagh district) for example only 25% of the suitable land is under Ashoka and in Benjara (Ranchi district) it is 20%. In all the groups across the 5 districts, farmers maintained that they will continue to grow their local Desi rice varieties. Farmers want to spread the risks by maintaining a variety diversity but also Desi rice still has some qualities valued by local people such as for example, those presented in

Who are the innovators?
Based on the qualitative survey there is no straight answer to this question. First of all the way the seeds were distributed initially would have played a major role in determining who got seeds or not. Unfortunately there is no information from the initial growers as to what motivated them to test the seeds. GVT approached a number of villages mostly through self help groups or community groups with a given quantity of seeds to be shared equally between volunteer farmers to do PVS trials on Ashoka varieties. Typically in the villages we visited farmers got 2 kilograms per household (but in Jaria as only 2 volunteers showed interest they each received 15 kg). Then, some farmers who saw the crop growing in someone's field would have shown interest in the seeds and some of them would have been able to access seeds through relatives or friends from the original set of growers. In this process it is difficult to see whether some socio-economic characteristics would make a farmer more likely to want to try the seeds her/himself.
The structured survey (Part B) found that there is no significant difference between the people who grow or don't grow the seeds in terms of poverty levels -and that the vast majority of growers are poor. The study also concluded that "3 social traits with small but significant differences were the number of farm workers in the household, the proportion of households having a card for being below the poverty line and a lower representation of scheduled tribes". Yet in Patharchakuli and Bhudurbani (Baripada block) for example, the farmers identified as selling surplus rice, were families who had been grain secure before the introduction of Ashoka. In Bajha (Hazaribagh district) one of the growers interviewed (see Annex C4) is educated and owns a business. In the tertiary village of Lakhnu (Hazaribagh district) the seed was introduced by a farmer who owns 25 acres of land which is a large land holding for the region (Annex C9). He approached a grower when he saw his crop in field and they agreed to swap seeds of Ashoka for seeds of another crop after the harvest.
Though these examples may not be representative of the farmers in the area this would suggest that examples of 'success' stories are found in households with substantial assets.
As another example of a non-representative grower, in Hulsi (Ranchi district) the seeds were initially given to one farmer Litu Oraon to distribute amongst the interested self help group members (Annex C13). Litu himself had grown the seeds since 2002 and he is known for his dynamism and his personal connection with various government agencies. So he probably is an innovating farmer. These examples encountered during the qualitative work do not necessarily contradict the findings of the quantitative survey but perhaps they remind us that even amongst poor communities there are social, economic and possibly cultural differentiations which may be subtle but which no doubt play a role in increasing the capacity to innovate.
The role of women in innovation is not very clear and seems to vary between places. In a number of the villages visited the seeds were initially distributed through the women's self help group. This was the case for example in Kud and Hutkona (Hazaribagh district) and Jaria (Ranchi district). In Jaria men claimed that women contributed to decision making on the farm but in Muramu (Ranchi district) women reported that they have little say in decision making and though they contribute quite heavily to the farm work they do what they are asked to do. In Haldupara and Macchharasath, both secondary villages in Banswara district, the seeds were initially introduced through a woman. The two women both initially got seeds from relatives and after their first harvest distributed some seeds through their SHG.

Impact of innovations
The direct positive result of the introduction of Ashoka is an increase in grain production which extends the grain self-sufficiency of the household by 2 weeks to 1 month in Banswara district, for example ; and for up to 2 months even for marginalized farmers in Hazaribagh district, depending on the size of the land available. This may sound trivial but for a household below the poverty line, this increase is not negligible. Yet this amount will not change the level of dependency on off farm income through seasonal migration and if some groups have noted a decrease in migration it is linked to the NREGA card scheme which guarantees 100 days of work per annum in the village or close vicinity. The yield increase has resulted in a decrease in grain related expenditure rather than an increase in income.
There are other contextual changes such as electrification, development and roads and schools which have been reported in the discussions: these would also have contributed to the overall positive changes in local livelihoods which cannot be linked to Ashoka. Impact can also not be meaningfully visible in most secondary villages, where Ashoka has been grown only since 2006.
One technical impact that was mentioned by villagers is related to increased knowledge of better agriculture practices, in particular the benefit of transplanting rather than broadcasting of rice. (However, Ashoka varieties are not meant to be transplanted on uplands, so this is something that they presumably learned from other sources.) One positive impact women have mentioned is that as Ashoka matures earlier than other varieties the period of harvesting and the threshing of rice is less intensive as it is more spread out. Women have said that they felt less under pressure. At the same time, women in Bhuyan Tola (Katkamsandi block) also reported that there had been an increase by 15-20 days of agriculture paid work due to the spread of rice harvest.
One woman in Kud (Hazaribagh district) reported that she had been able to convince her inlaws of the benefits of Ashoka and they had been growing it since 2003 without a loss; she said this success had improved her status within the family but also the extra production had increased the food self-sufficiency by 2 months and had allowed her to continue sending the children to school. She has 24 katthas of suitable land.

What are factors influencing the growing of Ashoka?
There are a number of factors which can help explain the level of use, but it is difficult to be categorical about their importance except for the access to bigger areas of suitable land. It is also difficult to know why in some places more people have been willing to try than in other places. These factors can be put into 2 categories: those linked to the dissemination of the technology and those linked to broader contextual issues.
-The dissemination: the picture we got from discussions with farmers across the districts is that the NGO, GVT, approached villagers with some seeds which were to be distributed in equal weight between volunteer farmers. Some farmers recall being told what to do with the seeds but not all farmers recall the same information. This could be because they don't remember exactly or because they were indeed told different things by different field workers. It is also possible that some of the GVT staff employed for this work were non agriculturists as at the time GVT was managing a livelihood project and so they may have been less able to give proper advice. In Muramu for example farmers claimed that they received the seeds from GVT without any advice. Farmers were explained that the variety was suitable for upland but some farmers said that they were told the seeds had to be broadcasted whilst others said it had to be transplanted. After the initial seed distribution there was it seems no monitoring, no follow up and GVT staff did not come to visit the fields (though according to project reports there were some subsequent field visits by the research team). Individual farmers in Bahja or Uridiri (Hazaribagh district) specifically commented on the need to have more information available. Farmers in secondary villages who got the seeds through friends or relatives, often planted the seeds in the wrong type of land or following inappropriate practices leading to failure of the crop. It seems in many cases when farmers passed the seeds on they did not pass on the technical information they had initially received. However we met one farmer in Banswara who had been advised what to do, but he said that as he 'did not believe' it was an upland variety he planted the seeds on the wrong type of land and the crop failed. In the villages in Ranchi district it seems many farmers reported initial failure because of delayed transplanting. (However, this does not make sense, given that Ashoka varieties are not meant to be transplanted.) So clearly a lack of postdistribution support by the project has played an important part in limiting the success of the technology transfer. The project was a research project and therefore no funds were available for further technical support and extension.
The availability of, or rather the lack of seeds also limits the scale of uptake. In Bahja and Huktona (Hazaribagh district), farmers reported losing all their seeds after the drought in 2006. Not all farmers kept seeds for the following year, for example; and when they ran out there was no alternative seed supply. Many farmers told that they ate all their seeds after the first harvest and many did not have an answer to the question as to why they did not keep seeds for the following year. They simply ate the seeds. In one household in Kherika (Hazaribagh district), all the Ashoka seeds were boiled by mistake. Farmers also complained that after a while the seeds get mixed with other varieties and as they lose their purity the yield also decreases. Aspects such as planning for the future or maintaining high quality seeds could also have been part of a supportive extension package if funds had been available for this purpose.
-The context: The broader context brings a number of entangled issues. Here we are in a context of extreme poverty where most households are dependent on off-farm income for the greatest part of the year. Farmers are interested in a rice variety that increases food self sufficiency but farmers have very limited land and therefore the scale of the increase of production remains too small to lift anyone out of poverty. This can explain partly why the interest in the variety remains relatively low. There is no doubt that farmers like Ashoka. However, as its introduction has not revolutionised their livelihood system, farmers will grow it if they get the opportunity and it is the best option available at the time, but most of them will not go out of their way to grow it if they encounter difficulties.
Farmers will also grasp any opportunity for development that comes their way. In Jaria (Ranchi district) for example, high yielding rice varieties have been introduced by the government services and compete with Ashoka; in this village there has also been another NGO supporting different livelihoods activities such as flower growing which provide further opportunities; vegetable farming too has been developed on upland plots in the kharif season as well. In Hutkona (Hazaribagh district) people reported stopping growing Ashoka because growing vegetables upland was more profitable and also because, as vegetables mature gradually, the production extends over a longer period and so does the period of selling at the market, ensuring a longer stream of income. In Baripada, many farmers use their upland to grow sabay grass for rope making, which secures a good market price, and Ashoka is not competitive. Banswara is a maize growing district so rice remains comparatively marginal any way. This would tend to show that farmers will take advantage of any opportunity to improve their livelihoods rather than any one specific type of intervention.
The level of literacy and education is low which possibly also influences people's individual capacity to take risks or to be willing to experiment. One also cannot underestimate the influence of emulation on decisions to grow a particular variety. For example in Nehalu (Ranchi district) farmers initially grew the seed because one of the villagers experimented with it. However they stopped in their second year because they reported this man had stopped after his fourth year. There was no other reason given for stopping growing the seeds than the fact that one of the users had stopped. In Kherika (Hazaribagh district) it was reported that some farmers did not volunteer initially because they felt that if the seeds were distributed for free they would probably not be valuable.

INSIGHTS
This survey was designed to contribute to understand the field reality from a qualitative perspective, to try to unpack some subtleties which may not always be captured by quantitative surveys. Whilst there is no doubt that interviewed farmers have been very positive about Ashoka and that Ashoka has spread geographically, farmers have still been keen to reserve some of their limited land available to their local varieties. Farmers have always preserved diversity on their land to spread risks but also farmers value other qualities beyond higher yields. Though rice remains the main staple crop in most of our area of study (except for Banswara where maize is more important), farmers are also keen to seek other opportunities to increase their income. As we have seen across the sample there are other crops that farmers will grow instead of Ashoka, because of their market value, where the ecology makes it possible. (In most upland the main alternative to rice is maize and that has a lower market value.) Discussions with farmers also highlighted that perhaps the delivery mechanism of the seeds was not as supportive of farmers as it could have been and it feels as if farmers were left to get on with the job. Naturally, technical support was non-existent in the secondary villages, as GVT was not working in these villages and would not have known if Ashoka use had spread to them. The project intended to provide support to PVS trials farmers only. More support might have helped in conserving seeds or avoided crop failures which then discouraged some farmers and decreased the level of use.
Though the study did have a gender dimension and tried to assess the level and nature of impact on women, the data does not show a strong differentiation between genders. Women did not highlight problems related to the introduction of Ashoka in terms of increased workload and they seemed to share men's views about the positive attributes of Ashoka. As overall the impact of Ashoka has been relatively small, increased benefits have not altered dramatically livelihoods and gender relations.
Perhaps another limiting factor for Ashoka expansion is its target group. By definition poor small famers have only limited land available and any increase in production per unit of land can only have a relatively minimal impact overall if the household has access to only a small number of units of land. And though for one household an increase of 2 months grain self sufficiency is important globally the impact will be limited. An increase of 20 days of labour available for women is important for these women but it remains too little to change dependency on migration. This highlights the difficulty to measure impact in an absolute way: for example women mention that Ashoka has reduced the intensity of the harvesting period, which may go unnoticed by scientists or economists but which is an important change for these women. However at the same time this change does not revolutionise women's life and hence it remains difficult to measure the impact of these changes. The example of the introduction of Ashoka in rainfed upland areas also reminds us that improved technology can only have as much impact as allowed by the context: the green revolution in Punjab did not create the dynamic wealthy landowners. Improved technology targeted at poor small farmers on marginal dry land is important for these communities but cannot produce miracles.

ANNEXES -FIELD REPORTS by Dr. M. BASU and Dr A. DEY
The fieldwork for the qualitative study was undertaken by social scientists with limited knowledge of technical aspects of agriculture, and it appears that in some parts of the village reports in these annexes there may have been technical misunderstandings. For example, reference is made in some to farmers recounting their experiences of growing the Ashoka varieties under transplanted conditions -which is not the primary situation for which these varieties were targeted. Also, reference is made in some to high value crops (e.g. vegetables) replacing upland rice. This would only be possible if irrigation water was available and this would not generally be the case.
Location: Banswara-Udaipur/Rajasthan, with GVT (West) team Planned Tasks: Meet the GVT (West) team to get an overview of the quantitative survey they had undertaken earlier and identify any emerging issues or trends; to decide upon a methodology (to follow in Banswara and subsequently in other districts) to conduct the qualitative study on the impact of 'Ashoka variety' on farmers' livelihoods.
Actual: Accomplished the planned tasks above with guidance and inputs from Dr.
Marlene Buchy, Social Advisor to the IA study. (Detailed description and findings from the field stated below). Manna) and Jeharpara (Primary source: Bhojapara).

5.
In both the primary and secondary villages, we raised and discussed some key questions/issues which depending upon the farmers' response had other supplementary questions. The issues or questions we raised involved A) On how much acreage is Ashoka grown; whether following the first time distribution of seeds, the farmers have increased the acreage to grow Ashoka.
If yes, what has been the motivating factor; if not, then what has been dissuading them from growing Ashoka on a larger scale. (Farmers who had discontinued after growing Ashoka were specifically asked the reason for their discontinuance). B) As farmers were keenly drawing comparisons between the desi variety of rice and the Ashoka they were asked whether this has influenced them to produce more Ashoka than the desi variety. C) Farmers were asked as to what they do with the Ashoka produce and whether producing Ashoka added to their food self-sufficiency D) The focus was also on existing livelihood patterns of the farmers wherein they were asked to draw a yearly calendar highlighting their agricultural and other activities in a year.
The question was whether growing Ashoka has in any ways affected this livelihood pattern thereby increasing/improving their income or restricting migration E) Other than asking farmers to state any differences they see in the desi variety and Ashoka, the discussion was also on the 'before and after' situation (asking whether farmers can mark any differences in the family/household situations from the time they started growing Ashoka). F) Women were specifically asked whether Ashoka has made any difference to them with regards to their agricultural activities and also owing to Ashoka whether they would like to attribute any change/s in gender roles within the family.
6. The non-growers and also those who discontinued growing Ashoka were asked what impedes them to grow Ashoka or is there any demotivating factor? Further, whether they see any marked change in their fellow farmers' lives and livelihoods who were growing Ashoka. Similarly, the non-targeted growers (Adopters) were asked as to what made them adopt Ashoka in the first place and what difference they see it has made.
7. Initially, we had hoped that atleast for the primary villages, we would conduct separate meetings for men and women. As per GVT, it would not have been possible to organise such separate meetings. Hence, in the primary villages, meetings or group discussions were conducted jointly with men and women.
However, on insistence, in two secondary villages, GVT organised the women only. Interestingly, in both these villages, the starting source for Ashoka was a woman -in one case it was an Aganwadi worker and in another, a panchayat leader. These women later distributed seeds to other farmers in the village from their produce of the first year.
8. As part of our methodology, we met a health worker in Sundripada area. She had not heard anything specific about Ashoka in the village/s. According to her, in general the health status of the villages she was visiting in the area has improved. The reasons behind this were general awareness through TV and also NGO activities plus sustained government efforts through organising various camps.
9. During our visit, we also met one plant breeder, Mr. Rajesh, from GVT.
According to him, Banswara being a Maize prone area, the concerned government officers have not shown interest to certify a rice variety. If a seed is certified then awareness is created regarding the seed and it is also available in the market. Mr. Rajesh was also of the opinion that the farmers to whom the Ashoka was targeted did not own enough land hence growing Ashoka was not an incentive for them.
10. It took some time for the GVT team to realise that as part of our qualitative study, we were concerned not merely with 'outcomes' but also with "impact" of any outcome/s. For instance, for GVT staff, the dissemination of seeds from primary to secondary was an impact; they did not easily differentiate between outcome and impact. By the end of the trip nonetheless, they appeared quite convinced and also interested in our methods of carrying out in-depth discussions with the farmers.

Highlights from Primary Villages
1. In each of the primary villages: Bhuripara, Sundripada, Rohniya Manna and Bhojapara, five targeted growers, five non-targeted growers (adopters) and five non-growers were administered the questionnaires by GVT under quantitative survey. In the village meetings conducted under qualitative survey therefore, these 15 were primarily our targets, though other villagers also turned up to take part. Amongst these, some were those who were growing Ashoka but their names did not come up under random selection for questionnaire administration.

In all the villages, farmers were quick to draw the comparison between
Ashoka rice and the desi variety. Other than the fact that Ashoka, grown in the Kharif season, is ready for harvest within 3 months, two other points were mentioned. First, unlike the desi variety, Ashoka depends on less rainfall and second, the quality of produce is much finer for Ashoka, with its taste being the 'talk of the village'. Desi, on the other hand, would take 3 months to grow; it also feels heavy after consumption and is not as tasty as Ashoka

In neither of the villages people showed tremendous interest in growing
Ashoka. Rather farmers felt that it would not affect their livelihood patterns if they were to stop growing Ashoka now or after couple of years. Also, seed being not available in the market, it makes it difficult for them to access it.
Further, farmers were themselves not careful in saving the seeds. For instance, a farmer in Bhojapara said that whatever he grew, the family consumed it all and they neither saved seeds for themselves nor did they give to anyone else in the village. So in the current year he could not grow any Ashoka. In another village, a farmer said he just did not grow it though if he wanted he could have got the seeds from a fellow farmer growing it. By not growing Ashoka he did not feel he missed something.

Most farmers said that they started growing Ashoka in 2003-04 when GVT
gave them some seeds saying that this is a new variety, it would take less time to mature and that it was to be grown on medium type of land (called Rabi season; what we also wanted to get an idea was -which months saw an increase in migration in the village; the months which farmers feel they suffer more from illness; how many months they have food shortages; what were the other multiple livelihoods they may be engaged in other than agriculture.
Note: The above information depicted is from village Bhojapara. At Bhojapara, amongst all primary villages, diversification of crops was most evident. Here, as compared to other villages, migration was also reported less.
6. Regarding Migration, villagers were of the opinion that with the introduction of the job card scheme (ensuring minimum 100 days work for the rural poor), the rate of migration has somewhat been arrested though not completely stopped. Macchharasath (Primary source: Rohniya Manna) and Jeharpara (Primary source: Bhojapara), in two of these -Haldupara and Macchharasath, it was possible to hold meeting with women. Interestingly, in both these villages the primary source i.e. the person who got/introduced the Ashoka seed first was a woman. In both the villages, the women had visited their relatives (in primary villages) where they also had eaten the rice. They quite liked it and hence got around 10 kg to sow it on their own land. After their first produce, they distributed the seeds to others in their respective villages. The seeds were distributed to members of SHG group to which these women belonged.
2. It was difficult to showcase the impact of Ashoka in the secondary villages.
Moreso, as here the primary source had been growing Ashoka only for two years on a limited scale. The current -3 rd year -it had not been harvested yet. In secondary villages where seeds had been distributed, at the time of the field work, it was only their 2 nd year (yet to harvest). So, other than saying that they liked the taste of Ashoka, Ashoka growers felt it was difficult to talk about impact.
3. In one of the secondary villages, Jeharpara, two people had brought the seeds. Unfortunately though they lost their crop as they grew it on low land. Also, they had not spoken about the new seed in their village. Hence, the meeting with these two farmers did not yield any answers on Ashoka. Such cases appeared in the secondary villages i.e. lack of information leading to loss of crop.
4. In the secondary villages, the amount of Ashoka seeds distributed from the primary source (the person who got it into the village first) to others was minimal -not more than 2 kilos and to a maximum of 10 members. The 10 however had not distributed further the seeds.
5. Like in primary villages, in secondary villages too farmers cited the same differences between the desi variety and Ashoka.
6. Some of the non-growers sitting in the village meetings stated that they would like to grow Ashoka but how to get the seeds?

Other Observations
During the field visits, a lot of issues came up from the farmers' side that made the discussions move beyond just outcomes and impacts. These issues relate to the process of innovation itself and how it engages community participation; it relates to issues of dissemination, upscaling and sustainability.
1. Issues of Upscaling: Talking to GVT members, it was clear that in their understanding 'upscaling of the Ashoka variety' meant increasing the number of growers (especially the non-targeted growers). What was interesting to note in the field was that while upscaling in terms of number of farmers may have taken place somewhat, there has been no significant upscaling in terms of increase in (individual farmers' interest to upscale) the acreage in which s/he was growing Ashoka. The point is, even if a farmer has 1-2 acres of medium land conducive to Ashoka growing, s/he would not prefer to grow it on more than 40-60 decimals. There were very few cases of the farmers who said that they have increased the acreage in terms of growing Ashoka One prime reason cited was that Banswara region was a maize growing area.
2. Issues of Dissemination: This became more apparent in the secondary villages. For GVT, 'dissemination' is taken more as 'passing of seeds' from one farmer to another; from one village to another. However, what was caught lacking in the secondary villages was the dissemination of information that goes with the growing of Asoka seeds. The result of such lack of dissemination was farmers lost their crop by growing it on lowlands or spreading unwarranted pesticides.

5.
Be it in the primary or the secondary villages, farmers cited the same differences between the Ashoka and the desi variety. Desi in particular has one quality, which is lacking in Ashoka and i.e. it gives more fodder to the farmers to feed its cattle.
6. Issues of Livelihood: meeting the farmers one could not draw a clear and direct impact of Ashoka on farmers' livelihoods. If some changes were mentioned with regards to Ashoka it related to food consumption of farmers.
Following Ashoka, the farmers feel that owing to the fact that Ashoka tastes better and also is easy to digest, it is possible that when they eat rice, they consume more of it. Also, since Ashoka gives more produce per kilo as compared to other variety of rice and matures early, the farmers have more rice to eat for longer months but it has not had a tremendous effect on the food self-sufficiency. The margin of food shortage may have got reduced from 15 days to 1 month.

A point excitedly made by farmers in all villages was that Ashoka being good
quality rice, it was served with much pride during weddings. It added to getting complemented by fellow villagers for feeding the guests with good rice. There were occasions when even if a farmer was not growing Ashoka he requested on such special occasions to borrow from fellow farmers in exchange of something else.

A point that was pointed out by GVT was that Asoka is not a recognised
variety in the state. Sustained efforts have also not been made to certify it. It being a Maize-growing region, where farmers grow maize both in Kharif and Rabi season, the farmers too in the meetings spoke of introducing variety in Maize crop rather than pointing out any improvements in Ashoka.
9. Issues of Sustainability: this could be a cause of concern, moreso, as farmers presently do not show that they are making efforts to save the seed for future planting. If at all seeds are being saved and re-planted, it is because farmers at an individual level are saving it. There is as yet no concept of seed bank or any other method so that access could be made easier for other farmers and also that seeds are available for the future. One woman in a meeting laughingly said, she had saved some seeds but then she went out of village for work and by the time she returned she saw the family had consumed it all -since all like the taste of Ashoka. That was the end of Ashoka growing for her; she did not ask seeds again from anyone else nor was it available anywhere.

IA Qualitative Study -Field Visit Report: Baripada District
Malika Basu/LFC-India 3. It may be mentioned that due to time management issues on the part of GVT staff and also difficulties faced by the staff in organising village meetings, the first two days were not as productive as one had hoped. One had to wait long in the villages before the meeting could be arranged. In one place, despite the long waiting, we could not gather and meet the farmers. Given the time lost, it was not possible to cover, in the remaining days, all the secondary villages.
GVT suggested that the lack of village cooperation was due to the fact that a few years previously GVT had suddenly withdrawn activities in the villages (owing to withdrawal of a DFID project). When the quantitative study for Ashoka was conceived, GVT team tried to re-establish contacts in these villages, which apparently proved difficult.

Though the team cited no specific trends, they did mention that in Baripada,
Ashoka was grown on the medium land. In the upland people were growing Sibai grass. This was a major source of livelihood for the villagers. Sibai grass is primarily used for making ropes -found very useful for doing multiple things (e.g. cot making, to fasten and secure things, etc.) 5. As per GVT, given their efforts, Ashoka will soon be a certified seed in Orissa.
It has already gone through all the formalities of registration. Certifying a crop, as GVT said, ensures its quality control.
6. In the Baripada region, GVT has also opened a seed production unit. Under this, it has identified a number of farmers, who are promoted to produce Ashoka on a large scale. All these are big farmers from whom at the end of the harvest period, GVT buys the seed back.
7. Under the RIU project, GVT has recently distributed Ashoka seeds (2 kilos each) to. 900 farmers. As per GVT, all their secondary villages got covered under this new distribution scheme. It appears that the seeds are given randomly to farmers (who show interest to grow Ashoka) and also no documentation is being carried out at this stage regarding the farmer who is receiving the seed. The field officer told me that they go to a village and for record, only write down the name of the person to whom the seed is being given.

All the four primary villages: Patharchakuli, Bhudurbani, Badbila and
Badputika -were covered. In Bhudurbani, it was possible to conduct a meeting with the women. Apparently, in all these villages, GVT had targeted the existing men's groups in 2003-04. The secretary of the group was given the seeds (2 Bags= 60 kilos); then in a group meeting the members decided it amongst themselves as to who should receive the seeds or who was interested to experiment with the new seeds. As per the farmers, during the disbursement, GVT gave them the basic information regarding Ashoka -its characteristics, its benefits and how/when to transplant. Roughly 6-7 farmers received the seed in the first instance. Following their first harvest, the farmers distributed the seeds further.
2. In Badbila, the group was most vocal regarding their experiment with Ashoka and its benefits. But they also added that it would benefit more if it could be grown on a larger area.

8.
Few farmers in the primary villages noted that they find the straw of Ashoka very useful in making the roof of their houses.

9.
As mentioned, rope making from Sibai grass is a very popular activity in Baripada region. There were hardly any households in the village, which did not engage itself with this activity. Depending on whether the rope is made thick or thin, price is fixed but as farmers said that this rope making activity -it could easily fetch them Rs.150 per week. It seems, 80% of the upland is used to grow Sibai grass. People even buy this grass in the market, as this business is found lucrative.

From the Secondary Villages
1. Two secondary villages: Mundripal (primary source: Bhudurbani) and Badputika (primary source: Badbila) were covered. In Badputika, the meeting could be held with the women.

2.
From the FGD reports of GVT, it was interesting to know that quite a number of farmers were engaged in growing Ashoka. During the meetings however it came out that only one-two persons got the seeds from the primary village and following his first harvest gave seeds to couple of others. But beyond that the seeds were not further disseminated. In the records, the reason for the increased number of farmers growing Ashoka was that last year, GVT had again given seeds to farmers under the RIU project. GVT team said that in 31 villages (which also included all the secondary villages) around 900 farmers were given 2 kilos each. So this year when the team came to do the FGDs before the quantitative survey all these farmers (who received the 2 kilos of seed) put their names.

3.
In Badputika in particular, people said it was too soon to talk about impact, as here it was only a year that the people had experimented with Ashoka. This was their second year in running.

Women both in Badputika and
Bhudurbani made a pertinent point. As per them since Ashoka matures early, it gives them more time to undertake the threshing work thus distributing their workload over a period of time. Earlier all the crops were maturing at the same time; it meant too much work at the same time -and threshing work is also quite tiresome.

A common point that was made by farmers, both in the primary and
secondary villages, was that with Ashoka they are atleast assured of some yield. Also, whether they sell paddy or not, the farmers felt that Ashoka is likely to fetch them more money as compared to other varieties. Farmers, if they want to sell do not generally sell paddy at on go; they sell as and when faced with any emergency/difficult situation. Having Ashoka at home could help them get a higher price when in need. But they also added that problem with Ashoka is that, if not stored well it is likely to get spoilt.
6. In the secondary villages, farmers said that they did not receive any information on Ashoka from GVT. If they got to know anything about the nature of the crop then it was from amongst themselves. The farmers who had grown it and seen the harvest shared their experiences with those who were interested to grow. It was however added that because farmers did not have adequate information, they did not want to take the risk with this new variety, especially those who had very less land. But when GVT came again giving 2 kilos to each farmer, more farmers showed interest (hence the number has increased).

Other Observations
1. Apart from rope making, be it in the primary or secondary villages, people were engaged in multiple activities, which included collecting and selling of Mahua and Tendu leaves. Selling of Bamboo was also common.
2. Almost all those who came for the village meetings said that they had job cards. Villagers noted that issuing of job cards was a positive step towards ensuring work during lean periods but this must not suggest that the migration flow has been completely arrested. Members from different households, especially the landless or ones with very less land, still go out of their villages for work.
3. What was mentioned in all the villages was that though people liked Ashoka, they could not still grow it. The reason being, Ashoka was said to be conducive to medium land and such land was limited in the village. All the villages had far more upland than they had medium land. Medium land roughly amounted to 20% of total land type. In the upland almost all in the villages were growing the Sibai grass.
4. On recommendation of GVT, I met one farmer who has achieved tremendous success by growing Ashoka. Meeting him rather reconfirmed the fact that Ashoka is likely to benefit large farmers than small and marginal ones. In this case in particular, the farmer was initially given some seeds on an experimental basis. He was to try it out on his 10 decimal land. From 10 decimal he is now growing Ashoka in 3 acres and more and receives 30 quintals of which 28 is sold back to GVT at the rate of Rs8/per kilo. This farmer did not belong to any primary or secondary villages. (Such cases were also not visible in the villages visited by us, though there were couple of cases wherein the farmer particularly mentioned doing well by selling Ashoka like the targeted farmer in Badbila). As mentioned earlier, GVT is running a seed production unit in Baripada for which it is promoting selected farmers to grow Ashoka on a large scale. The farmer in question is a promoted farmer.
5. Following the qualitative study, the programme officer who was accompanying me was of the opinion that their quantitative survey could have added some additional questions, which would have facilitated our qualitative study. The findings from the field made him feel that the following two questions should have been included in the questionnaire. First, apart from knowing the three distinct land types the farmer owns, there should have been a question regarding the distinctions within each land type (he has). The reason being, farmers said that they were not growing Ashoka not only because medium land was limited but also because within the medium land, the lower side of it was more conducive to grow Ashoka and not many may have that. Second, a question should have been dedicated to the multiple activities a farmer was engaged in which allowed him/his household a source of income other than agriculture. The reason for this question to be included was that in all the villages, farmers opined that if they did not have these other multiple activities, it would be extremely difficult for them to survive and sustain themselves.
These activities brought money in hand by which they could meet their daily and other needs.
6. GVT also organised meetings with two agricultural officers in Baripada. It turned out that the two had extreme views on Ashoka. One of them felt that information regarding Ashoka was not correctly disseminated. As per him, Ashoka was a not a genetically pure variety; also, it was not meant for kharif season but more conducive to medium land during Rabi season. The maintenance of Ashoka seeds was also difficult. Also, Ashoka does not take 90 days to mature as propagated but actually takes 100-110 days. He said his source of information were the farmers themselves. He felt that for any new variety seed, the following is most essential -field demonstration; training with proper guidelines to ensure timely application; certification for quality control. The other officer however was of the opinion that as far as his knowledge goes Ashoka has been a good variety that is helping farmers to a large extent to meet/overcome their food deficit.
7. Finally, one health worker met in the area who visits couple of primary villages, said that in her opinion, people are much more informed these days in terms of health issues. She however has not heard of Ashoka hence could state if it had had any impact on farmers lives.

IA Qualitative Study -Field Visit Report: Jhargram District
Malika Basu/LFC-India

5.
The questions asked in the village meetings were also on the same lines as Banswara (Refer to Banswara report).

6.
In one primary and one secondary village, meetings could be conducted with women only. In one secondary village, Kherikabad, women appeared very well informed on Ashoka (and this was not via any training or information they received formally or through GVT).

7.
In Jhargram, people do not grow Ashoka on medium land. Here, upland is found conducive to grow Ashoka. Also, while no paddy is grown during Rabi season; other than the Kharif season, some people (like in Baripada) also talked of a "summer season" (Jan-Feb to April-May) when they grow paddy.
(It seems during this season, those who grow Ashoka -though the number is very few -they benefit from it in terms of better yield as compared to Kharif season).

8.
Two farmers -one each in two primary villages were also interviewed separately as they were the rare cases who, since they first started growing Ashoka in 2003-04, had been growing it in consecutive years, without a break.
And both strongly felt that their situation has improved from growing Ashoka.

In Jhargram, except in one village, farmers preferred calling Ashoka as
Khandagiri. While most could not cite the reason as to why it is called so; one farmer said that there is a variety called Khandagiri -its seed is sold in the market and the paddy also resembles Ashoka. Some farmers who had received seeds directly from GVT however knew that the name was Ashoka.

From the Primary Villages
1. In all the four primary villages: Jainagar, Choto Purulia, Bhagabandh and Amakuli, meetings could be conducted. In Bhagabandh, an adivasi (tribal) village, it was possible to conduct the meeting with the women (female members primarily from those households constituting targeted and nontargeted farmers). These women were also part of SHG.
2. In all the primary villages, two points were common. First, in all the villages, farmers said that after growing Ashoka for 2-3 consecutive years; it was quite natural for them to change the variety crop. Hence, following Ashoka, farmers were growing other varieties such as 'Bullet', 'Culture'. Apparently, these varieties -though their yield was comparatively less -were also sowed and harvested more or less during the same time as Ashoka. Second, in all the villages, farmers were engaged in activities other than agriculture, which also allowed them to earn some money either on weekly/monthly basis.
3. As for Ashoka, an interesting fact was mentioned. Almost all farmers were growing a variety called 'Swarna' on their medium land. It was stated that if people had to sell paddy they preferred to eat Ashoka and sell Swarna. Other than the fact that Ashoka is tastier and easy to digest, there were two reasons cited: one, Ashoka is harvested early so households do not have to wait for Swarna to mature to feed themselves, they start consuming Ashoka (and it is also liked); second, since Ashoka yields more as compared to other varieties, the food shortage is reduced. Earlier with the local varieties grown on uplandthe yield being comparatively less than Ashoka -households had to eat into their stock of medium land (variety) produce. That stock is now better saved so people use it (or at least have the option) to sell in the market.

As in Banswara and Baripada, farmers were quick to cite the benefits of
Ashoka. These included -Ashoka requires less input and incurs less cost; it is infected less with diseases; less spray is required over its crop; its paddy fetches more price than other varieties.

5.
In no village did farmers say that they did not like Ashoka. However despite this, not all -having some amount of upland -were found growing Ashoka.
The farmers stated that if they were not growing Ashoka it was because they had limited upland; also, it was possible that some farmers who had grown Ashoka earlier were now growing something else as farmers preferred to diversify their crops rather than sticking to one variety.
6. There were many farmers who indeed had stopped growing Ashoka. While some of them cited less water as a problem that could affect any rice cultivation; some categorically stated that since Ashoka is grown on the upland and it matures faster; during its harvest, farmers have to walk through their standing crops on the medium land. This adds to the difficulty of transporting Ashoka and also since farmers carry it on their shoulders, that too is quite tiresome.
7. No one as such reported any decline in the produce of Ashoka i.e. if farmers used 5-6 kilos of Ashoka seeds and received nearly 1.5-2 quintals, according to them, this ratio has remained more or less the same in the last 3 years.
Though, few farmers pointed out that they feel the seed has reduced its size. 3. In Kehrikabad in particular, where the meeting was conducted with women (also part of SHGs), they appeared well informed regarding Ashoka. For instance, women were clear that they need to transplant Ashoka within 21 days; that it is an upland crop needing less inputs and it yields more than other varieties. Women said that the person who had got the seed first in the village had told them these facts; also, they witnessed the harvest.
Kherikabad was also one village where women stated that they preferred to eat other varieties of rice than Ashoka. They said Ashoka is 'thin and slender'; whereas they were used to the 'thick and heavy' grains. Thus, in Kherikabad, if people have to sell paddy after covering their food deficit, then they would prefer to sell Ashoka. However cases of selling paddy in the village were rare.
4. In the secondary villages too, some farmers noted that seed after 2-3 years appears marginally smaller than the original seed.

5.
Here too, farmers cited benefits of Ashoka amongst which they noted that due to Ashoka they could now grow better (quality) vegetables (on the same land).
6. Other than agriculture, farmers' households were engaged in other activities, which yielded some income. These activities (also in primary villages) included mattress making, vegetable selling and leaf selling. Migration was common in secondary villages as well.

Other Observations
1. One of the health workers met in the area made an important observation.
She was initially surprised that I had come to speak to her regarding the health situation in the villages she covered (one of them being a primary village of GVT). While she noted a general improvement in health in the villages, she had not heard of Ashoka in particular. Rather upon hearing the purpose of our visit to conduct a qualitative study, she had a suggestion. She felt that at the time Ashoka seed was introduced, if the organisers had also informed the village health worker, Aganwadi worker, schoolteacher, then they too would have kept themselves informed regarding the farmers who received the Ashoka seed. As per this health worker, the villagers know people like her or the Aganwadi worker; so it would be easier for them to communicate with the villagers and be aware of their situation.
2. In Jhargram, people said they were growing Ashoka on their upland area.
(The medium land was used for growing a popular variety called Swarna). In the FGDs conducted by GVT in the villages, it showed that villages had more upland than medium land. But when it came to growing Ashoka not even 20 percent of the upland was being used to grow Ashoka. On asking why more of upland was not being used, farmers noted that even in upland there are differences. That is, people were growing Ashoka on the 'low-side' of uplandand not all may have land like that.
3. In Jhargram area, people were growing paddy under Kharif season and a " summer season" (Jan-May). In the Rabi season primarily wheat and mustard were grown. Alongside paddy in the Kharif and summer season, farmers were growing maize, vegetables, groundnut and peas. Some were even growing cashew.

In all the villages we visited, the number of Ashoka growers has been
fluctuating. When farmers were asked that when they stop growing Ashoka for a year or two, from where do they expect to get the seeds when they wish to grow again -farmers said that 'someone or the other in the village is growing Ashoka, we can easily ask the seeds from him'. However, it was not denied that saving seeds might gradually become a problem if people do not start thinking about saving them. One farmer in fact said that he thinks the risk of not having access to Ashoka seeds is more for two main reasons: first, it is not accessible in the market so if a farmer loses his crop then he may not have any seed to save. Second, the storing of Ashoka He cited his own example. It seems he lost the seeds he had saved for the next season, as he did not store it properly. He said that his way of storing is still very 'traditional' (putting in a big earthen pot) and Ashoka requires proper packing for a better storage.
5. Even in Jhargram it was the big farmers with 10-12 Bigha who spoke highly of Ashoka (and tend to benefit more, even monetarily).
6. Farmers noted that those who gave Ashoka seeds to others to grow they did that in exchange of other variety seeds (Swarna). Crops grown in up land along with sowing and harvesting time:

Knowledge
He said they were informed that it could be grown only in medium land, no fertilizer required and after harvest to share seeds with relatives and other willing villagers to increase the number of growers. Seed bed should be prepared by the July end and then transplantation within 20 to 25 days required.

Seed priming
Seeds to be soaked in water for whole night and taken out in the morning and then to be covered during the day and to be broadcasted in the evening. However sometimes they allowed the seeds to germinate and in the next morning broadcasted.  Own seeds can be grown repeatedly Own seeds can be grown repeatedly

Gender issues
If everything goes right then in 1 acre of land production of Ashoka will be 7 quintals (700kg).
He wants to continue but he will not grow in more than 1.5 acres.
Seeds spread from him -2 people in the same village 10 kg each in 2004 against Lal Gandhari seed. In Bajha 8-10 farmers have been cultivating Ashoka. Its not spreading because the growers cannot give seeds to others as for them its even less.

Concerns
 He feels that "hum logo ka hi laparwahi tha, jaisa humko mila tha pahale yisahi dusro ko bhi hum dete apne se to thik raihata. Uske badle me hum to khud hi pura kha gaye hai" [Means it did not spread because of their negligence and as they got seed from GVT they should have shared with others after harvest so that number of Ashoka growers would have been more, instead most of the original growers consumed it entirely]. and 'Charkha' because of white grains. No irrigation / watering required. There was no other exotic rice variety to grow in the Tanr Jamin. Earlier they used to grow "Lalka Goda" (indigenous species), grains of which were red in colour. But when Ashoka was introduced it was also of the same duration and similar in terms of process of growing but different in terms of colour and taste. So they started growing Ashoka.
Upland is known as Tanr  (Though two persons reported to have experimented but one person informed that later on he realized that by mistake he put some other variety).
In 2006 less rainfall and all crops affected, drought (akal) was declared in the area.
Only those who grew Ashoka got some amount of paddy, which at least could be used as seed for the next season. But in other varieties there was no production.
In 2006 Ashoka was not grown in February because of the problem of grazingsince all land remain fallow people allow free grazing during that time and the farmers who had experimented it earlier could not repeat as they were unable to sort out the problem of animals to eat the crop. Production was good and more than satisfactory. In February again they did not grow because other land was fallow and free grazing of animals was the problem hence they dropped.
In 2008 less rain fall but Ashoka's production was not affected. Mainathori, Anjali, Bera Kabar, Karhani varieties production was less.
Since Ashoka gets matured early so climate did not affect the production much.  Better quality fodder, fodder soft and smooth, animals prefer to eat much.

Number of Ashoka growers
In 2004 they received from GVT 30 kg seed in a packet. 15 members of male SHG distributed the seed amongst themselves and all of them got 2 kgs each. Almost 50 percent of the recipients gave their seeds to other members, who were willing to experiment and the willing farmers got more seed to grow. Lajrush Tuti said he got 4 kgs extra from Vijay Yadav and another member (could not remember the name).
According to Lajrush Tuti since the seeds was supplied free of cost some of the members were not convinced about the potentials and they were not willing to grow and at the same time the farmers who were willing to grow the new variety took this as an opportunity as they could grow more seed in their land. Later on in 2007 some of those same SHG members took seed from the original growers as they saw the result that even in 2006 when the area was declared as drought hit area only Ashoka growers got some yield (eg. Same Vijay Yadav took seed from Lajrush Tuti), similarly some other non-growers also adopted Ashoka and took seed from the fellow villagers. However, some of the regular growers could not save sufficient seed in 2006 and they took seed from the fellow villagers (eg. Sunil Munda got 5 kg seed from Anil Tuti and production was 1 qtl. However, it was confirmed that none of the villagers of Kherika got seed from outside.

Distribution
Name of the

Concerns
GVT stopped project. Now they are not getting any suggestions beneficial for other livelihood support. They are not empowered and not very confident to liaise with bank and other agencies. For example pigs were purchased through bank loan last time pigs died and bank is pressing them to repay loan. When GVT was there they went to other places for exposure visits. GVT as a facilitating agency they feel is still required.

Production
In this village without fertiliser Ashoka grown in 1 Katha = 65 kgs Lalka Goda in 1 Katha = 30 kgs Lalka Goda remains red even after milling.
Rice soup of Ashoka is also tasty and people like it most after hard work in the field.
Almost all of them said that even if they don't have other vegetables irrespective of their age people like to take cooked Ashoka rice with soup and it is less expensive as pulses are not required.
They have never tried transplanting Ashoka but some of them said they have seen in other villages farmers have done this and they will try this once, because then weeding will not be required.

DROP OUT -Lajrush Tuti (56), non matric, working as a mason and also doing
farming. Own land 4 acres: Tanr -1 acre, Medium -2 acres and Low -1 acre Started growing Ashoka in 2004 in 0.6 acre medium land and production was 1.8 qtls.

Kins Age Sex Education Occupation Staying at
In 2005 in 1.5 acre medium land and production was approximately 12 qtl.
He wanted to grow in February and accordingly low land was prepared but by mistake grew another variety since seed he could not identify and it was Taichun, which was brought by him from Jori village in exchange of other local varieties.
In 2006 again in 1.5 acre, but there was a drought and only got double the seed sown. He tried in February again but there was no germination as it was very cold.
He brought Anjali, because he felt that growing the same variety in the consecutive years would led to less yield and hence started growing Anjali. Anjali's production is also good but not as good as Ashoka in comparison to taste, but Anjali is laborious. But he will again shift to Ashoka after 2 years.
Anil Tuti informed that in 2003 a very small amount of seeds was distributed as a trial only by GVT. Anil Tuti (32) had experimented with that and he was satisfied with the production. By using only 500 g seed he got approximately 65 kgs paddy. He has used the same seed till 2007 and there has been no change in the production. In 2007 by mistake all grains were boiled and no seed could be saved. In 2008 12 kg Ashoka seed in exchange of 12kg Anjali seed from Deyali Yadav of Uridiri (neighbouring village) was brought.
After seeing the result Anil Tuti started experimenting Ashoka for the second time in low land, which was sown at the end of February and harvested in May. It was an extra crop which was not possible with other varieties. Production was more than usual, grains were matured and no of false grains (Khakhri) were less. His uncle Lajruish Tuti also did the experiment but by mistake he put another seed.
In 2006 he did not grow Ashoka in February because of the problem of grazingsince all land remained fallow, people allowed free grazing during that time and he could not repeat as he was unable to sort out the problem of animals to eat the crop.
He said time was required for other varieties, otherwise there would be no germination but Ashoka was harvested in October and again sown in February end and germination was proper -very good observation.

Apni atma se main kahe sakta hun ki koi bhi kisan ise pasand karega aur akal mein
bhi kuch na kuch fasal milega (He said from the core of heart I believe that any farmer would like this variety as even in droughts also people would get some yield).. Before this they used to grow Dehati -Lalka Goda variety and production of which was less than half of Ashoka (they have not measured). Ashoka is tastier, fine grains and they have liked it.
Grown in upper part of medium land, applied broadcasting method.

Non Grower: Chander Yadav (50)
Own land 10 katha 50% Tanr land and 50% Tarkha land (upper portion of medium   land) He grew only Lalka Goda in Tanr land and production was 18-20 kgs per katha He has seen Ashoka in Kaila Yadav's land and was impressed after seeing the growth and health of pinnacle but he did not know the variety and never asked Kaila because of enmity. He also did not know how to get the variety. In the meeting he could share with other growers and expressed interest.

Division of Labour:
Seed priming -women [Process -soaked in water for the whole night/ remove water in the morning/ allow for germination -(Bora Jhapi method -keep the soaked seeds in basket which then covered with sack), germination starts after two days.

Ploughing and levelling -men
Broadcasting -men

Milling -men
In comparison to Lal Goda though process remains the same but husking Ashoka in the traditional method is easier. Boiling time for Lal Goda is also more, hence more time and fuel required.
In upland Ashoka is the best. In medium land mostly they grow Mainathori, because only that variety seed was available at home. They have related Ashoka as "Bin Pani ka Dhan" -Rice variety with less water required.
also prefer Ashoka rice. They don't want to take other variety and say "ghar mein bhi to mota chawl khate hai, mehman banke aaya tab bhi ohi mota chawl khilayenge?
(guests expect Ashoka rice as they eat other coarse varieties when they are at home).
Those families grow different varieties they consume other varieties everyday and keep Ashoka for lien periods. In this village rice production is less and they don't sell and only consume.
Since last year transplanting started, production is more and requirement of seeds less. Uridiri was also not selected as a village for conducting the qualitative study but since we found one GVT woman staff, who was deeply involved in the process, the Approach: There was a system. In the area all animators used to meet with the supervisor once in a month. There were 2 way interactions in the meetings. Best result from Uridiri because of more amounts of suitable land then Gardoha.

Uridiri, GP Uridiri, Block Katkamsandi, District Hazaribagh, Jharkhand
It was asked whether there was any relation with education level of the farmers in accepting the variety. In response she said uneducated farmers know more about farming then educated people.
She also grew Ashoka rice by broadcasting in the following years: Years Area In the low land hybrids rice varieties are grown also sold at same price. Like, Lalat they grow but other varieties in mid land yield less with less value in the market (@ Rs 5 to 6 per kg). Rests are same in taste and other things.

Was it beneficial to poor? And if so how?
Earlier people used to grow Lalka goda but production was very less (50 kg in 4 decimal) and in the same amount and type of land (4 decimel) Ashoka's yield was almost 4 quintiles. It implies that food sufficiency increased to those who have suitable land.
Species grown in low land were more expensive as it required more fertilizer and pesticide. In comparison to Lalka goda in mid land Ashoka grown well if same amount of DAP and urea used. There are 4 types of land which are as follows: A. Tanr jamin, which is also referred as 4 number jamin (type 4 is the upper part of the up land, which is situated in the foot hills and non-cultivable).
B. Tarkha jamin, which is lower part of the up land and referred as 3 number jamin (type 3 and rainfed).
C. Medium land, which is also referred as 2 number jamin (type 2 land). It is though rainfed but irrigation can be possible and from this place kshet (cultivable land) starts.
D. Low land, which is also referred as 1 number jamin (type 1 land) because of its water retention capacity, where they can grow rice, which is their staple food and at the same time by growing HYVs in such land they could generate surplus for sale in the market.
Although as per record it was a secondary village of Bajha but it was confirmed by the participants in the FGD that in 2003 seeds of Ashoka rice were distributed to 17 women SHG members of Bhuian Tola. It was informed that poorest of the poor families were given importance and first seed as sample was given to Bhuiyans (  Ashoka rice required less time to cook and hence economic, as it saves fuel.
 In type 3 land Ashoka can be grown without any fertilizer but in type 4 land fertilizer [DAP+urea] required.
 Straw of Ashoka is soft and light then Lal Goda dhan and animals prefer it.
 The seeds of Ashoka are reusable. People said that they have been using their own seeds since 2004 and it has not change the production.
 It's also a drought resistant variety.

Cultivation of Ashoka rice and Traditional upland variety (in percentage) since 2003
Ashoka Rice Lalka Goda - However, the participants have suggested a few points for poverty eradication, which are as follows:  More emphasis on vegetables as cash crop should be taken.
 Selected farmers should be given intensive training and they should be treated as the task force in agricultural development activities in the village. Other would take lessons from them.  Ashoka seed distribution was one activity but other livelihood resources and activities should also be identified and introduced simultaneously for poverty reduction.  Facilities on agricultural counseling and Integrated Paste Management (IPM) should be considered seriously.  Watershed development activities should also be taken.
 Farmers should be facilitated to access formal credit, which would help them expand their agriculture activities.
The members informed that Ashoka has spread in the village through relatives, friends and neighbors but it was difficult for them to say specifically who has given to whom and how much, but it was sure that Ashoka has spread over in all the nearby villages.
Prakash Rana informed that he has seen the tribals were selling Ashoka seeds in Dato (10 km from the village) market. He asked the vendors and confirmed that it was Ashoka.
It was also reported that some people have stopped growing Ashoka and when asked one such farmer, Ganesh Rana (35 yrs) informed that they have 5 acres family land (1.5 acre type 4 land and 3.5 acre type 1 land) and for two reasons they have stopped growing Ashoka. Firstly, all the adult males are carpenters (traditional activity) and work outside. They work in their agricultural land only in monsoon and put all efforts in growing HYV in type 1 land. Since carpentry is more profitable they definitely never considered growing Ashoka in the Rabi season and Secondly, from the type 1 land they get enough yield to meet their consumption needs.

FGD with Women growers (12) of Bhuyan Tola
They have 17 members in the Mahila Mandal. In 2003 members of the group shared 30 kg seeds among themselves and broadcasted in type 4 land. Their land was in cluster and actually it was the ancestral property and divided later among the successors. All members have sown in one plot. Finally they produced 360 kg [15 mon and 1 mon = 24 kg]. Grains were accumulated in one place after harvesting and then taken their individual share. All of them first taken out the seeds for the next year and consumed the remaining part. Only Kaliya Devi gave seed to three other women (Sarita -6 kg, Kusuma -3 kg and Kapurua -9 kg) of the village in exchange of assurance of labour and sold only 24 kg in market @ 150/-mon = 150.00 and purchased other essential ingredients for cooking. Some women also took land on lease for cultivation in exchange of one-third of their production. Besides this, these women go to work in others field as agricultural labor and in turn they get only 6 kg of paddy per day and no cash.
In type 3 land farmers grew through transplantation and production was 5% more even though seeds were sown less -only 2-3 seedlings were transplanted together.
Differences felt after the introduction of Ashoka rice  Tasty  Early variety  Little effort gives more production  Only Rice which can be grown in Tanr land  Even if they don't have any vegetables or pulses only rice can be consumed with a little salt. It is so tasty that even rice with soup can be taken without any side dish.
 Cooking time is less hence they don't have to wait for long before going for the day's work, moreover, fuel consumption is also less.
 It grows at a time when most of the families do not have anything to eat and mostly they buy everything. Since they get their harvest during the usual lean period they feel very happy.
 This helps in increasing their number of working days as agricultural labors -at least 15-20 days.
 Even the marginalized farmers also get food for at least 2 more months. Three members said earlier they used to buy rice for 6-7 months and after the introduction of Ashoka it has reduced and now they are buying rice for maximum 3-4 months.
 Farmers can grow another crop after harvesting Ashoka. It was informed that After Ashoka they can grow two crops -intercropping wheat plus chana (gram) to meet their consumption needs.
 There is a change in their status in the family. Seeds were given to the members of the women SHGs and they got a very good result is the most important thing.
However, they said that all the male members of the Bhuyan Tola migrate as industrial labor to different cosmopolitan towns and its common in the entire village. People generally starts leaving in the middle of January and again come back in June -before monsoon and participate in the agricultural activities with other family members. She was very keen to follow the instructions and also led other women members. She said Ashoka helped to increase her confidence and she is now in a position to convince her family members and can decide what to grow when. Before she took the initiatives her inlaws never cultivated the type 4 land, rather they used to go for wage earning, collection of forest produce, etc.

SN Relationship
Age Education Occupation They saw the result in others fields and both the husband and wife decided to grow Ashoka rice in their upland in 2003. They were aware of the seeds availability.
Husband went for land preparation and by the time Mundrika went to collect seeds.
She offered money to Damyanti in exchange of Ashoka seeds but Damayanti accepted only Dudh Kandar seeds in exchange of Ashoka seeds. Mundrika took 2 kg seeds from Damyanti (her neighbour) and grew in more than 1 katha (4 decimal) and production was 70 kg.  (200kg). This was unexpected and they thought that as they have grown their own seeds so production reduced since this generally happen in high yielding varieties.

Division of work between genders:
Since then they stopped growing Ashoka and started growing cash crops [vegetables -brinjal, tomatoes], which gives them return of Rs 5000 in one season from only 8 decimal land. It was found difficult to get any information on Ashoka rice from them as they were unable to remember Ashoka rice, but after repeating the type of paddy, GVTs role in distribution, name of the animator and GVT staff worked in those days and distributed one type of upland paddy etc. they could finally remember and relate their activities almost ended some 5 years back.

Reasons to stop growing Ashoka rice and opinion about Ashoka
 There was no other reason but growing vegetables was more beneficial which could be grown in Upland (Tanr jamin) hence they have switched over to vegetable cultivation. During rainy season there upland becomes suitable for vegetables.
 Vegetable cultivation is beneficial because of its harvest period is prolonged and they could sell in weekly markets and got regular returns.
 According to them rice was white but not as good as the varieties produced in low land. Although they said that among the upland varieties Ashoka was the best and it was far better than Lal Goda.
 More time consuming in husking using traditional device.

 Tasty
 Less time consumption in boiling of paddy to make rice.
 No seed was distributed, all consumed.

FGD with Bhokta Bikash Mahila Mandel
Below is the list of members of Mahila Mandel. They all started growing vegetables as they could see the immediate result. It was decided by the male members. Women did not play any role in decision making. They practice share cropping also.
In this village Babulal Sing Bhokta started cultivating vegetables and seeing the production and huge return others also felt attracted and switched over to vegetable cultivation. Basu Mahato was another villager who introduced the cultivation of cucumber in the village first and that knowledge has been transferred, as a result now all farmers have started growing cucumber during rainy seasons.
However, they said that they have started realizing the fact that to earn more they have started using more fertilizers and pesticides with which land quality has started deteriorating.
The team could also interact with a few men and below is the list of male members present during the interaction: 1. Naresh Sing Nath Bhogta -first year he had sown Ashoka seeds in 3 katha (12 decimal) and got 70 kg yield. Depends on rainfall, if there is good rain production is also good. However, since its tasty its prone to flies (Gandhi bug), one type of grain borer which destroy the crops.

Sreenath Sing
However, it was confirmed that nobody was growing Ashoka Rice in the village. In fact they all have stopped growing upland paddy varieties after the introduction of vegetables ciultivation in a large scale.
They are growing only vegetables now.
In the uplands they grow the following crops:  Those who don't have low land buy rice using the money earned through selling vegetables. He was a matriculate and including his children and wife they were 6 in numbers, owned 25 acres of land. In 2007 while going to Parbatori via Uridri he saw very good production of Ashoka dhan in one field, he stopped and contacted the owner of the land and enquired about the seed, availability, techniques, etc. and also requested the owner to give him some seeds. The farmer agreed to give him Ashoka seeds in exchange of Sadma Dhan (another traditional variety). Accordingly after harvest he was given 6 kgs Ashoka seeds, which was sown in the end of the July in 3.5 katha [14 decimal] land in lower part of Tanr jamin through broadcasting.

Process followed:
 1 st plough -after 1 st plough land remained fallow for 2 months in order to destroy weeds. No fertilizer was used. During summer they put fire on the dry cow dung, which was spread over the plot before ploughing.
 2 nd plough -ploughing the plot in both horizontally and vertically and leveling done immediately.
 3 rd plough -after 3 to 4 days 3 rd plough required. As soon as ploughing got over seeds were broadcasted and leveling was done.
 After 8 to 10 days germination took place.
 After 30 days weeding was done.
 After 60 to 65 days they do harvest [Oct end]  Production was 4 mon (approximate one quintal).
No seed priming was done because there was already moisture in the soil. He was the first person in the village, who had grown Ashoka rice in the village. Farmers of the neighbouring villages saw his yield in the field and requested him not to consume it rather to use as seed. Almost 15 to 20 people made this request to him. Demands were from -Katkamsandi, Ratrua, Hutkona and Lukhnu.
In 2008 he had grown in 2 acres. It was slightly upper portion of the land used in the previous year. Sown 48 kg Ashoka seed and from this he got 16 to 17 quintiles rice.
He had distributed seeds to his neighbors: He said still there were 8 to 9 quintiles of Ashoka dhan with him even after consumption and he was thinking of selling them as seeds through which he would earn @ 12 /-per kg, which was higher than selling rice.

Perception of Ashoka qualities
 Even the land was dry but it grew and gave good yield  Deep rooted, enlarged pinnacle, more grain holding  It grows at a time which actually considered as lean season -for animal there was lack of fodder, people have to buy rice, only Ashoka growers are saved  Animals like straw and according to him he saw some difference in milk production.
 Rice very tasty  Rice soup is also very tasty.
 He wants to grow in 7 to 8 acres of land in the next year. And this year he will sell seeds in the market. He is confident that all the seeds will be sold.
 He felt he was more beneficial because of having maximum upland.

Jaria, GP Jaria, Block Bero, District Ranchi, Jharkhand
Dr Dey develop an understanding about the agricultural practices prevailed in the locality.
Accordingly the GVT staff accompanying the study team selected Jaria, which was not in their list but the SHG members were distributed Ashoka seeds in 2003 by the GVT field staff from Katarpali village.
First we met and interacted with Shrimati Devi (29) Once the discussion was started a few other villagers (12 nos.) joined the meeting.
From the discussion it could be revealed that since last two years there was no GVT staff and when they got the message there was a ray of hope that they might get associated with new livelihood development schemes. When the purpose of visit was made clear to them they started looking at each other helplessly as they all were non-growers. However it was known from the group discussion that lots of changes have taken place in the last couple of years. They have got electricity, village roads were good and well connected with Ranchi road (3 kms The villagers said they have adopted new agricultural practices and no farmer was using broadcasting method in paddy cultivation. In fact it was informed that they were facing labour problems during transplantation and harvest since broadcasting method has been replaced with transplanting method everywhere in the region and with the introduction of HYVs. They have started using chemical fertilisers and pesticides but they said they were totally dependent on the dealers or distributors of fertilisers and pesticides as they did not have adequate knowledge on requirements for different crops and in different situations.
Almost 80 per cent participants could not remember Ashoka rice and the rest of the participants could remember with a little clue and they in the first year only two families did the experiment and result was not satisfactory. Moreover, Ashoka rice was not a replacement of vegetables, hence they did not show any interest.

Different activities of paddy cultivation and division of labour of men and women:
Steps Major Activities Male / Female Thereafter the members of each group distributed the seed amongst themselves in equal quantity. One SHG of Jaria village received one packet (30 kg) of which only two members took that seeds @15 kg each as the other members, who had land were not interested to do an experiment and some of them were landless [5][6] members in the group].

Decision of growing Ashoka
When the information about seed distribution was disseminated first by GVT she had discussed this with her father and brother. Her brother was also aware and was also a member of another SHG, opted for some other livelihood development scheme.
After the consensus at home to make a trial she brought the seed home.

Knowledge about growing Ashoka and process followed
It took time for the respondent to recapitulate the discussion held in 2003. It was more difficult for her as there was no discussion and follow up once the seed distribution was over. However, what she could remember was the GVT staff said it was for trial and after successful implementation they should grow it on their own and distribute seeds to their neighbours on demand. Her brother, who was also present during the seed distribution, said they were advised for broadcasting and told that no fertilisers and pesticides would be required. He could also remember that they were suggested to grow this variety in the upland.
However, they took a decision to grow this in the lower part of the upland and accordingly selected 0.20 acres land for 15 kg seeds. In response to the basis of selection of land they said that it was also suitable for other HYVs like 'Pioneer', 'JK' etc. and since they were informed that Ashoka was an upland variety, they thought it proper to grow in the same area where they grew HYVs before. It was confirmed that three members were involved in the trial and her father was not convinced in the broadcasting method as for all rice varieties they had adopted transplanting method.
Accordingly, they took a decision to prepare a seed bed for which approximately 5 kg DAP and cow dung were used. By the end of first week of July seed bed was prepared. In reply to the question why did they use DAP, while they were advised not to use any fertiliser, they said it was a common practice for all the varieties and since there was no specific training on how to grow Ashoka they had applied their knowledge from experience. Seeds were soaked in the evening and in the next morning, after approximately 12 hours sown in the seed bed. Removal of seedlings took place approximately after 25-30 days and by then flowering started. 2-3 seedlings were planted together but did not follow any line. However, they could remove only 50 percent of the seedlings as they took a decision to grow only in 0.20 acres land. In response to the excess seedlings issue and whether there was any second thought to increase the area of land for Ashoka, they said they were experimenting and did not want to take risk in the first year. They required very little weeding after 3 weeks of transplantation. Harvesting was done in mid October and they got approximately 2 quintal (200 kg) paddy. Actually they generally keep the grains in jute bags (bora) in which approximately 70 kg paddy can be stored and from their memory they could say that Ashoka grains were stored in three such bags.

Observations, if any
 Plants were not as tall as the plants of other traditional upland rice varieties (Goda dhan).
 2-3 seedlings planted together of which when one plant was matured others were not  Harvesting got delayed and when harvested grains from the early matured varieties fell on the ground by then.
 Pinnacles were smaller than other traditional upland rice varieties, but number of grains in one pinnacle was more than traditional upland rice varieties.
 Animals preferred Ashoka fodders might be because of softness and taste. It was a tribal village and they were Munda tribe. There were 20 families (two women headed households) with 140 total population. The village was surrounded by forests and there were three types of land -up (50%), medium (30%) and low land (20%).
Most of the land situated in the eastern part of the village. They call the upland as Tanr jamin, which is also referred as 4 & 3 number jamin (type 4 is the upper part of the up land, which is situated in the foot hills and non-cultivable, type 3 is lower part of the up land); medium land as Chaonra jamin, which is also referred as 2 number jamin (type 2 as rainfed agriculture is possible there and they can grow more crops in such land in comparison to up land) and low land as Gadda jamin, which is also referred as 1 number jamin because of its water retention capacity, where they can grow rice, which is their staple food and at the same time by growing HYVs in such land they could generate surplus for sale in the market. In 3 number jamin they grow pulses, oil seeds and some traditional varieties of rice, namely Charka Goda, Karia Ashoka seed was supplied to Boda village. Three farmers of Benjara were advised to try this new variety and then distribute seeds to other farmers. But they said there was no demand in the next year hence they did not give seeds to other villagers, They were also told that it was a better crop for 3 number jamin as it was an early variety and the production would be more in comparison to other traditional rice varieties. Since transplantation was adopted they were suggested to go for seed bed preparation and removal of seedlings within 15 days. The farmers could remember that they were cautioned for not to allow the seedlings in the seedbed beyond 20 days, and they were told that "bija budha ho jane se upaj kam hota hai" (once the seedlings were older production would be affected). They were also suggested not to transplant more than three seedlings together and advocated to manure with cow dung.
However, in the first year all three of them grew in the medium land (type 3 land) as they did not want to take any risk because from their experience they knew that requirement of water was high in paddy cultivation and since their agriculture was totally rain fed they were vulnerable. Dipu were present and Dipu said because of shortage of man power in the family they followed broadcasting method and finally production of paddy was approximately 2 qtl (200 kg). Ashoka rice was grown in medium land. They followed the same process and used same amount of seed in 2007 but production was approximately 3 qtl (300 kg). They said the difference was mainly due to good rain fall in 2007 and another perceived reason for low yield in 2006 was less efforts in weeding.
In 2007, another farmer, Lachhu Munda took 30 kg Ashoka seed from Karma Munda as he was fascinated after seeing the result. He also grew Ashoka rice in medium land and used transplanting method and yield was approximately 4 qtl (400 kg).
According to Karma Munda's son Marwari Munda production was more because they followed transplanting method. However, in 2008 Lachhu Munda wanted to experiment in type 2 land and his experience was very bad. According to Marwari, who actually cultivated the land informed that seed bed was prepared but for transplanting they had to wait because of lack of sufficient water in the field required for transplanting. As time passed away seedlings became older and flowering started in the seed bed, which could not be transplanted and they had to grow Karia Goda, a traditional variety. As seedlings matured in the seed bed itself they could save only seeds.
Both Dipu and Marwari informed that they had applied 3kg DAP and 2 kg Urea in Kerhani, which were as follows: Jagannath Sahu also stopped growing from fourth year. He however, distributed seeds to two other villagers -one in Nehalu (3.5 kg) and the other one in Lathia (5.5 kg). There was a club in the village having 20-25 members and GVT staffs hold a meeting in the first year and distributed Ashoka seeds to the willing members 2 kg each. The participants could remember that only 15 members were given equal amount of seeds from a 30 kg packet and rest of the members did not show any interest. However, a few of them further exchanged their share with other farmers, hence the number of original recipients of Ashoka seeds became less and a few people grew more Ashoka seed in the first year. At the time of seed distribution the process of growing Ashoka and its benefits were also discussed, they could remember some points which were as follows: -Both broadcasting and transplanting methods could be adopted.
-Broadcasting was suitable for upland -For broadcasting they were advised to first plough then sow seeds in line and then for levelling.
-Transplanting should be done in medium land -Very little water required -Seedlings should be removed within 15-20 days -After harvest the farmers should deposit at least 10 times of the seed received at the club.
Except one participant all others had deposited seeds from their yield to the club and in the second year all the deposited seeds were distributed from the club and there were new Ashoka growers in the second year, while some of the farmers grew Ashoka in the first year had left.
Some of the participants informed that false grains (khakhri) were more in the pinnacles which to their understanding was due to pest infestation and they were not in a position to afford to spray pesticides. According to them they did not have any complain against the seed but there might be other reasons like the absence of adequate attention and labour during cultivation, inadequate weeding and absence of any pest control measure as perceived by them for low yield. According to Mr Jagannath Sahu -Production was a little less in the second year -Production was further less in third year because of inadequate rain fall, grains could not mature and he could not even save the seeds.
-Though he wanted to continue but there was no seed available, which compelled him to switch over to traditional upland rice varieties again. Originally two primary villages and one secondary village were selected for the qualitative study and Hulsi was not in the initial selection. Since response was not satisfactory in Nehalu, which was selected as the high impact village under Primary village category based on the quantitative study report and whatever information collected did not match with the quantitative survey report, the team then selected Hulsi (the next high impact village) as another primary village in consultation with the GVT representatives. In the quantitative study report this was shown as a primary village (P3), where Ashoka rice was grown in 5.4 acre of the 12 acre total rice area in upland, meaning 42 percent upland was under Ashoka rice and the report also mentioned that 42.8 percent households were growing Ashoka.

Hulsi, GP Hulsi, Block Bero, District Ranchi, Jharkhand
Two FGDs were conducted in the village. In the first FGD both Ashoka growers and non-growers were present. It was a mixed group of men (10) and women (2) Information collected on demographic profile, socio economic status of the people, livelihood issues and programmes, etc. by using different PRA tools and techniques like social mapping, Venn diagram, matrix analysis, seasonal mapping, cohort analysis, etc. Another FGD was conducted with the Ashoka growers (8)  the upper part of the up land, which is situated in the foot hills and non-cultivable, type 3 is lower part of the upland, which is also known as Tanr muha); medium land as Chaonra jamin, which is also referred as 2 number jamin (type 2 as rain fed agriculture is possible there and they can grow more crops in such land in comparison to up land) and low land as Gadda Don, which is also referred as 1 number jamin because of its water retention capacity, where they can grow rice, which is their staple food and at the same time by growing HYVs in such land they could generate surplus for sale in the market. In 4 number jamin they grow Millet, pulses, oil seeds, vegetables (for their own consumption) and wheat during monsoon. However, lots of changes have taken place in the area and lots of job opportunities were also created in the locality. It was informed that before 1990 agriculture also was not improved and people did not have access to knowledge and information about the new technologies introduced for improved agricultural practices. The scenario has changed and with improved agricultural practices people have started investing in pump-sets and irrigation wells. They have shifted to HYVs from the traditional low yielding varieties. From the block level also farmers get information about new varieties and technologies and they get seeds and fertilisers at subsidised rates. Different organisations also started entering into the villages and working with the villagers for improving the quality of life. It was informed that even the villagers were facing problems of shortage of labour during peak agricultural seasons. During peak seasons they used to hire agriculture labourers for transplantation from the nearby villages like Saheda Taber, Muramu and Dola. Similarly villagers of Hulsi also used to get employment as agricultural labour in the nearby villages during peak seasons. However, it seemed the traditional customs of exchange labour system was an important reason for labour crisis. It was informed that if one villager required the services from his neighbour for ploughing his land then he would have to fed all the family members of his neighbour including rice beer. But priorities have changed and people were looking for hard cash in exchange of labour, therefore most of the villagers would like to work outside the village.
There was discrimination in the wage rate in the entire region. While a man was paid INR 60 for his services as transplantation labour, for the same work a women was paid INR 30.
With the improvement in the livelihood areas people have started giving importance in children's education. There was a primary school in the village and all children were enrolled. After class V children go to Masu (5km) for studying upto class VIII.
Five boys and one girl appeared in first School Board examination (class X) this year from Bero High School (10 km), next 3 boys and 2 girls would appear in School Board examination (class X) from Bero High School.
Although there was a Forest Protection Committee formed with the participatory forest management concept and people have access to non-timber forest process (NTFP) like kend, piar, ranoo, imli, karanj, kathal, jamun etc. for their own consumption as well as for sale, almost every family was engaged in selling fuel wood in the market. Ten families were engaged in making agricultural implements from forest wood. Now almost 30 households have their own pump sets and there were 15 irrigation wells. There were 3 hand pumps and 5 wells in the village used as the main source of drinking water for the villagers. There was no electricity.
Ashoka rice was first distributed in the year 2002. Litu Oraon, one of the participants in the FGD said one GVT staff first gave a 30 kg packet of Ashoka seeds to Litu for distribution through the Mahila Mandal (women Self Help Group). He then distributed to 10 willing SHG members @ 3 kg per farmer. He had prepared the list of farmers to whom the seed was distributed and handed over the list to the concerned GVT staff.
There was no instruction on the process, selection of land, etc. and never there was any follow up and counselling for the growers organised. It was interesting to note that some of the growers did not know the name of the variety but they could relate when they were referred that some years back seeds were distributed by Litu.
Farmers accepted it as it looked like one of their traditional varieties, Bala Goda and grew in type 2 land (Tanr Muha) from their experience. In the first year most of the farmers incurred loss as flowering started before removal of seedlings from the seed bed because of delay in transplanting. However, from the next year yield was good and till 2004 there was a demand. Somru Oraon, Mangra, Bande, Mohan and Rijervan Toppo of the same village adopted Ashoka in 2003 after seeing the benefits of this variety. They could remember that the seed spread to only three farmers, who were relatives of the Ashoka growers, outside the village to a maximum distance of 25 km. It was informed that only four farmers continued with Ashoka till 2008. Others left mainly because since last few years elephants started destroying their crops.
The participants said they have observed that Ashoka fields were the first point of attack by the elephants, might be for several reasons like: d) the plants were tall and it was easier to remove with their trunks e) softness and taste of the fodders and grains f) sweet smell from the matured plants It was told that those who were continuing had land in the safer zone, otherwise all other farmers had to incur loss due to elephants.
Participants informed the following benefits of Ashoka: -Early variety, it means securing their requirement for food during the crisis period. In fact, during monsoon the farmers mainly consume from their stock, and it depends on the size of land, investment capacity, knowledge, etc. of the farmer. In Hulsi village as the number of such elite farmers was less and most of the farmers were not food secure beyond six months period, the Ashoka growers could gain for at least two months depending on their family size, area of land under Ashoka and yield.
-Long pinnacles and more number of grains.
-Similarly it ensured food security of animals. They have observed that animals also have a preference for its fodder, might be because of its softness and taste.
-Tastier than other local varieties.
They have noticed one demerit of this variety that because of the height plants cannot stand in winds and the pinnacles touch the soil for which the grains get damaged. One of the participants said in Sadri that "iss dhankar mahek haik aur mithas bhi ahhe, sekrele hathi badhia khaila, aur kisankar nuksan karela" (it has sweet smell, which attracts elephant and farmers incur loss).
Goyo Oraon (40), read upto class VIII in Masu School and took agriculture as his primary occupation and the primary earning member of his 10 members' family. Only 3.5 acre cultivable land (low land 2.5 acre and 1 acre medium land) was the main livelihood resource of the family. He has 5 acre more land, which he referred as parti, meaning fallow as that land was situated in the foot hills and no cultivation could be possible there. To cater to the basic minimum requirements of the family members he also does share cropping, his wife works as an agricultural labour and the eldest daughter has migrated to Kolkata to work in a brickyard. He was willing and a recipient of 3 kg Ashoka seed from Litu in 2002 and grew them in medium land adopting transplanting method. Finally they got approximately 1.2 qtl paddy (he said so far he remembered in the first year they stored in three plastic sacks and each sack had a capacity to store 40 kg paddy), which they consumed in 35 to 40 days period. He had compared this with previous years and said earlier they used to buy because during that time they did not have any stock of rice. Their expectation was more as production of Bala Goda was more. However they realized that low yield was not related to grain quality rather it was more because of late removal and delayed rain fall. Next year also they grew Ashoka and used 15 kg seed, removal of seedlings were in time and applied cow dung, DAP and urea and they did not have to buy rice for more than 45 days (after that harvest of other varieties start). However, since 2005 he had left growing Ashoka because in 2004 the entire crop was spoilt by elephant and even seeds could not be saved.
Samru Oraon (30) can only sign and agriculture as the primary occupation. They have 8 acre family land of which 5.5 acre was cultivable (1.17 acre low land, 1 acre medium land, 3.3 acre Tanr Muha). He had adopted this new variety in the second year. He said he was interested to grow Ashoka in the first year itself but as there was no seed left he had to give up. Next year he took 30 kg seed from Litu Oraon and grown Ashoka rice in 0.5 acre Tanr muha land. He had followed transplanting method but because of labour problem removal of seedlings was delayed as there was no agricultural labour available and he with her wife could remove only 1/3 seedlings and transplanted. Finally they got approximately 2 qtl (200 kg) from the cultivated land and approximately 30 kg from the left over seedlings. He said Litu also did not inform him anything about the process of growing Ashoka.
Samru continued with Ashoka rice for two years and in the second year (2004) he also faced the similar problem like Goyo Oraon. His crops were badly damaged by the elephants and there was no seed left. In response to the issue of the fate of other crops he said Deshi Goda (traditional upland rice) varieties were dwarf and there might be some problems for the elephants to grip those smaller plants. Moreover, the pinnacles were also smaller and they have experienced that those varieties were less attractive to the elephants and damage was comparatively much less. However, the traditional varieties also got damaged because of the movements of the elephants on the plot. He said the situation has improved since last two years as the number of elephants decreased.
About its benefit he said in Sadri "Je bera kharcha pani sirai jaila sehi bera Ashoka dhan paik jaila" (Ashoka matures at a time when the farmers' stock of rice get exhausted) and hence it was really beneficial as they could save their hard earned cash.
Since 2005 he had shifted to another traditional rice variety -Geruanthod and compared Ashoka with it, which were as follows:

Geruanthod Ashoka
Coarse grains Fine grains land he got 4 qtl (400kg) yield. During transplantation he had applied 5 kg DAP and also did weeding well. He did not spray any pesticides nor used urea for Ashoka rice.
Next year he had given 3 kg Ashoka seed to one of his neighbours and rest of the Ashoka rice was consumed in the family. In 2003 he again changed the variety as he felt changing variety would produce more yield. He grew another traditional upland variety -Bachha Kalma in the same plots and by using 40 kg seeds he got 4 qtl yield.
When asked which one was better, he replied Ashoka was better than any other traditional upland rice variety as he had experienced 3 months food sufficiency because it was an early variety and saved his hard earned cash. However, he did not want to continue growing Ashoka as HYVs were available by that time and he had shifted to IR 64, which could be sold in the market.
Litu Oraon (30) was very dynamic and social. He had contacts with outside agencies and had a tendency to generate resources external resources. For his social activities he was highly respected in the village. In 2002 Ashoka seed was first introduced in the village through him. He had distributed to 9 other villagers and experimented in his own land. He was continuing with Ashoka rice but he felt the villagers should have been given proper orientation on the process of growing Ashoka and in absence of it many farmers incurred loss in the first year. He also felt that some follow up from GVT would have helped the farmers to gain confidence and its spread in the village. Regarding the potential they were convinced but even after growing it for so many years he felt there was scope for improvement with guidance.
He said even after so many years he was not very comfortable in saying how much seed required for 1 acre of land. According to him had there been some hand outs or pamphlets mentioning the selection of land, amount of seed required for a specific unit, methods to be followed, requirements of fertilisers and pesticides, sowing and from the FGD two growers but drop outs were identified for in-depth interviews.
Second FGD was with the tribal women (12) of both grower and non-grower families, where primarily gender issues, awareness on Ashoka rice, decision making, migration, education of the children etc. were emphasised.
It was a heterogeneous village having 130 households of Oraon (Scheduled tribes-60%), Mahato (30%), Rajput (5 HHs), Weaver (6HHs) and Lohar (1 HH). Though it was a heterogeneous village but they were united and there were a few very active members and under their leadership village development works were in progress.
During the study we saw the young adults remained busy in digging soil. The villagers said it was to erect the electric poles. They also said electric poles were there since last 20 years without cables. A sum of INR 1500 was collected from villagers' contribution and deposited to the State Electricity Board and they the villagers were assured of getting electricity very soon. To expedite the matter they took up the digging work for erecting the poles in their hands for which at least INR 12000 would be back to the same village as wages of the village youth worked for 60 poles, for which rate was fixed @ INR 200. This small piece of information helped the team members to understand the quality of leadership, spirit and involvement of the villagers to join hands for common causes, togetherness, etc.
It was informed that only two men from the Oraon community were in service. From almost all Oraon HHs at least 1-2 members and almost from 10-12 Mahato families work in brickyards in and around Kolkata. They take their kids also with them those are not in school. In the families where elderly members present they become the custodians of the school going children. Generally they migrate in November-December and come back in June-July and again work as agricultural labour in the region. It was reported that since last 2-3 years such migration has been reduced in 20 percent cases. Rest of the members of the Mahato families work in various trades like wage labour, porter, rickshaw puller etc. in Ranchi. Rajputs do not migrate but the Weavers neither have sufficient land nor there is any demand for their skills, hence they also migrate to other states. The Lohar family (black smith) makes agricultural implements for others.

Food sufficiency in %
 Whole year food sufficiency = 5%  Eight months food sufficiency = 20%  6 months food sufficiency = 50%  3 months food sufficiency = 25%  Only one family was completely landless. Oroans have maximum land in the village.

Education
There was a primary school in the village where children can study upto class V, which was established in 2006 and till then the nearest primary schools were at Masu (1 km) and Jaria (2km). After class V still the children are going to Masu School for their studies upto class VIII and after that to pursue further they have to go to Bero (4 km). This year only six girls' were in class X and 5 boys' were studying in Bero College.
10 to 15 years beck girls' used to get marry at the age of 10 to 12 years and boys' at 15 years of age. Now girls' are getting married at the age of 18 to 22 years and boys' at the age of 21 to 25 years.

Prevailing diseases in the village
Malaria, fever, cold and cough are the common ailments. Almost all of them go to the PHC at Bero for treatment with modern medicine and 20 years beck the scenario was completely different when they used call ethno medicine men or faith healers.

Source of water in the village
Since 1990 the villagers started using hand pumps for potable water and there were three hand pumps at different locations. However, because of insufficient number of hand pumps many people still use water from the wells for drinking and for other household activities.

Social groups
Three Mahila Mandals and one Forest Protection Committee (FPC) exist in the village and FPC consists of both men and women. The first Mahila Mandal was formed 8-9 years back with only Oraon women. Then the number of members increased and the second group was formed after 5-6 years and the third group was formed very recently. There are two other clubs for men, namely Junior Club, Muramu and Football Club, Muramu. Most of the village women remain busy in gainful employment during July-August as its the time for transplantation and women are preferred for this job. For this work in other villages as agricultural labour they earn @ INR 40/-per day and for the same job in the village they earn @INR 30/-per day. Very few men do this but they get just double the amont in both within the village and outside. Similar scope for gainful employment comes during harvest season in November-December. With the introduction of HYVs scope of work for the women in both the seasons has increased and at least 4 months works are ensured.

Agriculture and Division of labour
Birsa Dhan / Ashoka rice was first introduced in 2002. Seeds were distributed first to ten farmers through the Junior Club, Muramu. One packet (30 kg) was handed over to the group by the GVT field staff and the members were requested to distribute them amongst 10 willing members equally. Accordingly 10 farmers received seeds 3 kg each and they grew it in 3 no. land. However, GVT's role was only as a carrier as apart from bringing the seed packet they did not play any further role like, there was no interaction with the farmers on why they were introducing the new seed, benefits of the new variety, selection of land, process of cultivation, etc. In the first year all growers incurred loss because of delay in the removal of seedlings and flowering started in the seedbed and there was a negative impact among others. Six farmers dropped in the second year. Of the four growers, who wanted to grow, only Charoan Oraon continued till 2007, two farmers grew Ashoka for 3 years and one for 2 years.
It was informed that only because of lack of knowledge they lost their crop in the first year but the variety was good because those who grew it they did not incur any further loss due to lack of knowledge but they became victims of elephants. Others could have experimented but they said since it was a rain fed crop and seedlings matured very early they could not take further risk as transplanting might get further delayed because of inadequate rain fall.
Jena Oraon, though continued for 3 consecutive years said that had there been minimum information on time of removal of seedlings they would have got very good yield as in the first year there was adequate rain fall. From his experience he said if transplanting got delayed beyond 25 days then there would be no production. From his experience he has seen that because the plants are tall and pinnacles long with more grains they are susceptible to wind and fall on the ground, which affects the yield and grains become black.
Filman Tigga was another grower who was interested to continue but left after second year, because first year transplanting got delayed and flowering started in the seed bed and in the second year again got delayed not because of knowledge but there was insufficient water in the field and seedlings damaged for the second time. From third year Ashoka was replaced with IR64, for which they have adequate knowledge and production was good.
Charoan Oraon said he was continuing till 2007 but since 2005 production was not upto the expectation though from experience they could solve and address all the problems, but they have experienced that pest infestations were more. In 2007 he had sprayed pesticides of about INR 700 but could not save much. According to him sweet smell of Ashoka rice might be one of the reasons of pest infestation.
Sadho Oraon referred Ashoka rice as "Hathi Khane wala dhan" -the rice variety most preferred and consumed by elephants. He also said "hathi iska mithas ke karan isiko pasand karta hai, isika poal bhi naram hota hai" -it has a sweet taste hence elephants like it more, moreover, its fodders are also soft. These are all perceptions of the victims who have lost very heavily as elephants destroyed their crops. They have observed that elephants do not like HYVs to eat but HYV crops are also destroyed mainly because of elephant's movements in those plots. People perceive that use of fertilisers and pesticides might be the reason for aversion.
It was interesting to note that the women were not well conversant on the agricultural issues, though they are the main work force. They said they simply follow the instructions and they don't have any role in decision making either in the agricultural practices or in other family related issues. For family related issues they are simply consulted and it depends on whether the adult males like their suggestions or not.
Regarding payment as agricultural labour the women get only INR 30 per day while for the same work one man gets INR 60 per day.