Agricultural universities/ Institutions:

The universities and the research institutions are supplementing ICRISAT's role in the exchange of information on cultivars, production requirements, sorghum and pearl millet poultry feed value. They are also assist in interfacing with farmer groups that are to be engaged in the project.This group includes,

1.Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU)
2.Sri venkateshwar Veterinary university Tiprupati, Andhra Pradesh ,
3. Marathwada Agricultural University, Parbhani,
4.Sorghum Research Institute (SRI), LiaoningAcademy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenyang (LAAS) , China .
5.Field Crops Research institute, Bangkok, Thailand .

In year 3, the activities were extended in the state of Karnataka inIndia, where in University of Agricultural Sciences Dharwad is also involved.
Farmers Federations
The Federation of Farmers Association of Andhra Pradesh is representing farmers' groups and mainly responsible for farmers interests within the project, and assist in fostering more effective linkages amongst farmers, and between farmers and the marketing chain.
Farmer groups/associations
One of the important activities of the project has been to form farmer groups with an aim to develop them as strong farmers associations to participate in the project and take the project activities beyond project period. There are seven farmers associations one in each cluster.

1.CFC-FAO-ICRISAT Project Farmers Association Udityal, Balanagar Mandal, Mehbubnagar District , Andhra Pradesh State , India

2.CFC-FAO-ICRISAT Project Farmers Association Palvai, Maldkal Mandal, Mehbubnagar District , Andhra Pradesh State , India

3.CFC-FAO-ICRISAT Project Farmers Association Koke, Jintur Taluk ,Parabhani District , Maharashtra State , India

4.CFC-FAO-ICRISAT Project Farmers Association Anjanpur, Ambajogai taluk, Beed District , Maharashtra State , Ind ia

5.CFC-FAO-ICRISAT Project Farmers Association Rphatwadi cluster, Beed District , Maharastra State , Ind ia

6.CFC-FAO-ICRISAT Project Farmers Association, LiaoningProvince , PR China.

7.CFC-FAO-ICRISAT Project Farmers Association Thailand

NGO's

NGO's (Deen Dayal Shodha Samsthan's Krishi Vigyan Kendra ) are playing an important role in interface between farmer groups,research institutes and the private sector organisations. They are facilitating input supply components for grain production and also supporting the farmers in linking the farmers with credit institutions . They are also facilitating the development of marketing systems, especially improved handling, bulking up and storage of produce.They are supporting the project in liaising with seed companies and market intermediaries and the feed manufacturing companies and poultry producers.
Private sector companies and organizations
Seed companies and others

Seed companies(especially JK Agri genetics) are interfacing with NGOs and farmer associations to identify improved inputs (seed, crop management practices etc.) required to raise productivity.
Another market research based institution Foretell business solutions (P) Ltd., is extending support to the project in market research and linkages.

Feed manufacturers, poultry producers and the poultry federation

Feed manufacturers such as Janaki Feeds Pvt Limited, Hyderabad ; Sri Venkateshwara Hatcheries pvt Ltd Pune and poultry producers and the poultry federation are working with other coalition partners, notably NGOs, in the identification of appropriate improvements in marketing chains. This has been useful in enhancing the scope for developing more extensive networks of purchasing agents coupled with storage and transportation capacity. The presence of the Andhra Pradesh Poultry Federation has been helpful in protecting the interests of both large and small-scale poultry producers.



Work plans, roles and responsibilities of the partners:
The project has been able to develop interesting process oriented approach to develop work plans based on the review of activities and the field level constraints. the partners in the project. The work plans developed in the group exercises are further discussed in the plenary for finalization. These exercises are carried out in each country with the same process and are facilitated by the representatives of ICRISAT. The final plans thus developed are further submitted to the Steering Committee for its approval.

The PEA's coordination unit further facilitates the development of detailed monthly work plans for all partners including ICRISAT for each year .These plans will be developed based on the approved annual work plans for the year .usually these exercises will be completed through mutual discussions with the partners.
Identification of villages and farmers:

The project villages have been identified in year one and some more new villages have been added this year. These were identified through gram sabhas/village meetings where in the experienced farmers from the year one villages participated and shared their experiences and encouraged the farmers to come under the project umbrella.
There have been five clusters in India (two in Andhra Pradesh and three in Maharashtra state) and each cluster on an average has about ten villages and more than 1000 farmers as the members of the association. There are two clusters in China and Thailand (one each).

Base line survey:

A base line survey was conducted With an objective of establishing a benchmark on income and livelihood of the target farmers and to understand the factors affecting them, survey was carried out as a first step to assess the impact of the project. In this survey, attempts were made to understand the livelihood pattern of the people in the study area that serves as the basis for comparison and a guiding tool to avoid un-warranted shift in the present livelihood pattern as a result of intervention.

Through this survey, the constraints in the production systems have been documented with a view to identifying the important constraints, which will help in analyzing the further course of action to eliminate them. Apart from this, the present level of involvement of family women in various operations is studied to plan the methods to ensure increased participation of women in critical farming operations and project implementation.

Field level Support:

The partners teams along with ICRISAT undertake regular field visits in respective clusters and participated in village level meetings/ formal/informal discussions regarding the field level activities especially the crop management along with actions required for strengthening the association s and for the promotion of group behavior among the farmers. The response from the farmers has been very well in all clusters.

Identification of improved cultivars:

A major desk research was done in year one. This work was followed by field surveys to identify livelihood patterns and constraints in the production systems, by a multidisciplinary team in the target regions. These surveys used a combination of formal and informal techniques. Crop management practices followed traditionally differ from cluster to cluster. The surveys enabled the project to identify appropriate improved cultivars suitable for each cluster. Farmers choices were given prime importance in selection of the cultivars.


Strengthening of farmers' associations:

In order to strengthen the farmers associations several joint meetings were organized with partners and the farmers to assess the needs of strengthening the farmers associations. The farmers' associations which have been formed in all clusters have been supported based on these needs. The farmers' associations in all clusters were guided through several field exposure visits and training programs to further enhance their knowledge and skills in various aspects of the project related activities.

The management committees for the farmers' associations were given special inputs in managing the financial accounts and decision making in India. These committees in India shouldered the responsibilities of the construction of storage structures and have successfully managed the completion of the construction with lot of cooperation among themselves.
On-farm advice and field support has been extended to the farmers groups during the entire cropping season in all clusters in both regions. Periodic field visits by the experts, training programs and exposure visits were useful in building confidence among the farmers. ICRISAT scientists also visit China and Thailand during the cropping period and provide field level inputs and visited the field of the farmers and interacted with the partners

Training and capacity building:

This activity is related to development of monitoring skills of farmer groups in areas such as crop production, improved seed/fertilizer/chemical and credit accessibility, and grains bulking, storing, grading and marketing within the target regions. It involves training of farmer groups, representatives of input supply companies, feed and poultry companies, and transportation network facilitated by NGOs and other experts in related fields.
Field demonstrations and field days for technology/information dissemination:
Demonstrations were laid in the project villages to demonstrate the improved technologies for enhancing the yield levels. The farmers took lot of interest in planning and laying out the demonstrations in their fields. During the field visits to the project villages the farmers were gathered in these fields for sharing of the results.

Field days were organized in each cluster to share the experiences of the improved package of practices adopted by the farmers with other farmers. The farmers whose field had the demonstrations shared their experiences with other farmers. These events were also used as forums for interactions between farmers and scientists.
Developing infrastructure at the villages: storage structures and earhead driers


The farmers are resorting to distress sale of grain soon after the harvest due to lack of adequate storage facilities. Farmers seldom use the storage facilities of the wholesale market yards as they are far away and the transaction cost of storing and selling small quantities is high. On the other hand, industrial users demand bulk quantities of grain in a single transaction. To overcome these constraints, the project has explored and implemented the construction of storage structures adequate to bulk, grade and store the grain collected from all neighboring villages of the clusters. For this purpose, experts in the field of construction and grain grading and storing have provided inputs for the construction of the structures.
Storage structures and drier sheds:
The storage structures and the drier sheds have been able to facilitate safe, scientific and cost effective storage of sorghum and pearl millet grains. The farmers associations have played an important role in completing these structures.
The operation and management guidelines for the storage structures and the driers have been developed jointly with partners and the farmers.

Installation of community driers:


The driers have been installed in all clusters of India and China and these driers are already in use.
The community drier designed very simple and easy to operate and work on simple principle; heating the air in the combustion chamber and blown to drier chamber to remove excess moisture in the grain with out hampering the germination. The air is heated by burning agricultural waste like dried cotton stems, maize stems or pegionpea stems after harvest. Hence, the farmer need not invest additional amount to buy the fire wood for drying his produce.

Promoting Linkages: Linking farmer to input, credit and markets:


The traditional food marketing chain is not effectively geared to meet the demand for raw material for the industrial users. Agricultural input retailers are able to exercise a great deal of influence over the farmers as they provide inputs on credit, and exploit the low level of awareness among farmers about new technologies, brands, etc. On the output side, marketing costs are high due to proliferation of middlemen. In recent years, to overcome these constraints, a number of innovations in supply-chain management are being tried for crops like sugarcane, cotton, maize, oilseeds etc. The supply-chain management is being increasingly stressed as holistic solution to create a win-win situation for the team as a whole rather than trying to exploit individual members within the supply chain. This project has done a extensive study of these innovations and are documented and used in identifying appropriate input supply and marketing systems suitable to the current project are be identified.

Input and credit linkages:


To facilitate the timely availability of the farm credit to the farmers under the project various credit supply agencies were approached in the previous year.Some of the farmers also got crop loans during this year. In all the countries ( India , China and Thailand ) these institutions are mostly the government owned banks, with little role of the private sector banks in rural areas. The local lead bankers (the banks designated as the main credit suppliers to the farmers in the respective districts) which were consulted in India in year one have been finalized in India .Several meetings and discussions were held between the bankers and ICRISAT team and finally two joint meetings were organized at ICRISAT with State Bank of India and State Bank of Hyderabd where in all partners and the farmers participated and action plans for formalizing the linkages were finalized.The process of issue of Kisan Credit Cards has already begun and will be completed in a months time. Similar consultations are made in China, with the Agriculture Bank of China and in Thailand, with different sources of credit (Bank of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Grameen Bank of Savings etc)

Marketing of the produce:

a) Facilitating bulking and grading:

Timely harvest and drying of grain to 12% moisture level enhances the quality of grain and in turn, economic returns to farmers. Proper grading, bulking and storing of the grain collected from different farmers will further enhance the collective bargaining power of farmer groups vis-à-vis feed manufacturers who procure the grain. In this activity, grains produced under the project will be graded and bulked from farmer groups and stored in the storage structures with appropriate pest control measures. Appropriate mechanisms for management of the storage structures and safe storage of grain will be worked out with farmer groups. Women farmers play an important role in bulking, grading, and storing of the harvest. Under this project the role of women related to these activities will be documented and benefits acquiring to them will be quantified.

The systems of bulking and grading which were introduced to the farmers in last year have been given priority in this year. In order to emphasize the importance, advantages and the requirements of grading bulking and storing, refresher training programs are being organized for the farmers in the clusters with support from the partners and external expert organizations. These trainings in the last year were help full in changing the mindset of the farmers positively towards bulking practices. In Anjanpur cluster in India, where a truck load of sorghum grains were bulked and marketed by the farmers association gave a boost to the farmers to practice bulking. The prices for the produce are being negotiated by the farmers association, partners and ICRISAT in the similar lines of last year. Meetings with two; lead partners have been successful in getting the assurance of the procurement of the grains in bulk.

b) Developing agreements between farmers associations and feed manufacturers:

Vertical integration is prescribed to overcome the marketing problems of small farmers and also to encourage processing. This activity relates to linking farmer groups and feed and poultry producers for bulk purchase of grain. Formal/informal agreements will be worked out to protect the interests of both farmer groups and poultry feed industry (see Appendix 1).
There will, of course, be continuous fine-tuning by the coalition of both input and marketing components, based on feedback from farmer groups and commercial partners. NGOs, in collaboration with farmer groups, farmers' federations and the poultry feed industry, will sustain these activities beyond the project duration.
The meetings with feed manufacturers were helpful in initiating the process of entering into formal and informal agreements between the sorghum and pearl millet farmers and the (i) poultry feed manufacturers .Since the maize production levels have fallen drastically in this year there has been increased demand for the produce. Many of small and medium scale poultry farmers and feed manufacturers, apart from the project stakeholders, have shown interest in procuring the produce in India.
In case of China, as in year one formal agreements have not taken place except the oral agreements. Besides feed manufacturing companies alcohol, and food sorghum processing industries are other potential buyers here. It was felt that the linkage should be tailored to meet existing supply chain systems. The efforts for similar agreements are in progress in Thailand. However, here the middlemen are quite well equipped with the storage and transport facilities and the negotiations would have to involve them also. Inputs have been provided to Thailandand china in strengthening the marketing linkages.

Out puts of CFC-FAO Project
Output 1. Coalition of institutions to implement project activity 
To develop an effective coalition among partner institutions (including farmer groups, NGOs and the private sector) to implement project activities and assure sustainable project outputs

Output 2. Cultural practices and cultivars identified for sorghum and pearl millet for the target regions.
To document constraints of sorghum and pearl millet production, and to identify desirable cultivars and optimum agronomic practices for sorghum and pearl millet for each of the target areas.

Output 3. Constraints to input supply and product-marketing chains identified, and innovative systems of input supply and marketing chains identified and strengthened
To strengthen input systems for sorghum and pearl millet production and the supply chains to stimulate the use of these crops as raw material for commercial poultry feed production

Output 4. Effectiveness of project activities assessed and project's findings disseminated outside target regions.

To assess the improvement in livelihoods of small-scale sorghum and pearl millet producers in project areas in India and sorghum producers in project areas of target region 2 and to disseminate project findings and approaches to other non-target areas in participating countries.

Output 5. Project management and monitoring system in place  
To coordinate all aspects of project implementation with coalition partners and monitoring of the project activities to ensure effectiveness and projected output deliveries.

IMPACTS
1. Impact of coalition of institutions in effective implementation of the
project activities:

The project adopted the approach of coalition of different institutions based on the principle of mutual synergistic support which can be defined as the process in which these distinct and independent institutions( partners) from different background and expertise joining together for various planned activities for a common goal with synergistic effect , without compromising on their individual focus. The project has the coalition of around more than ten partner institutions involving agricultural and veterinary universities, NGOs, Farm Knowledge Centers (KVKs), Private companies, farmers associations and National agriculture Research Centers in all project countries. The participation of these partners in the project activities has given significantly good results in extending the support to the farmers in increasing the farm productivity and ultimately improving the income and the livelihoods. These partners will continue to extend handholding support in addressing the farmers needs even after completion of the project period because of mutual benefits which is seen as one of the element in addressing the sustainable issues. The coalition approach has proved to be a great success in the project with clear impact.

The following flow chart shows the details of the coalition approach adopted in the project.
1.Flow diagram of Coalition approach for enhancing sorghum and pearl millet production for poultry feed industry

productivity increase was 80 and 20 per cent in Andhra Pradesh andMaharashtra clusters respectively.

3. Impact of developing and strengthening input supply and marketing chain

The farmers associations which were formed in the project clusters were strengthened through enhanced capacities through a series of need based trainings, exposures, discussions etc. The farmers associations were linked to different input agencies through direct interaction meetings .The linkages were institutionalized over a period of three years. Now the farmers associations are directly dealing with these companies for the supply of quality inputs at discounted prices. The bulk purchase of the inputs have brought down the individual expenses over that of individual purchases , quality of the inputs is assured, farmers are getting the discount on the bulk purchase, and the inputs are delivered at the farmers place well in advance of the sowing season..

The farmers association management committee members were also trained in bulking and bulk marketing and the advantages associated with this practices. Awareness about market trends in prices, reasons for price variation , relative pricing of sorghum grain, international export influence on local markets, quality of grain(mold effected grain) and pricing. The linkages with various alternative end users increased the basket of options for the farmers associations for a better negotiation and better price. This has also brought down the all transactional costs associated with the sale of the farm produce without any intermediaries.

Farmers have realized the benefits of bulking, storing and sale to poultry feed industry

4. Impact of institutional linkages for farm credit

The project also facilitated the farmers linkages for farm credit which was found to be major hitch in planning all farm activities by the farmers. The linkages developed between farmer and credit agencies for timely availability of farm credit at low interest for procuring inputs and other agricultural operations have been beneficial in several ways. The farmers need not depend on private money lenders , a considerable decrease in the interest rates, no obligation for the farmers to sell the produce to the private money lender after the harvest of the crop, easy processing, insurance coverage for the crop failure, and issue of credit cards which need to be renewed once in three years. Smallholder farmers were linked to the credit agencies for better access.

Credit facilities availed by the project farmers in Region 1: India:

S.No	cluster	Number of farmers availed crop loans				Total
		SBI	SBH	Cooperatives/Other banks	Loan applications under process
1	Andhra Pradesh	166	424	789	264	1643
2	Maharastra	-	507	671	345	1523
	Total	166	931	1460	609	3166

5. Impact of dissemination of experiences and achievements to large populations and wider areas

To disseminate the project finding and experiences to non-target regions and wider areas and large groups of farmers , the project has taken up various activities to reach the unreached small holder farmers in SAT regions.
To improve the livelihoods of small-scale sorghum and pearl millet producers in project areas in region 1 India and sorghum producers in project areas of target region 2, China and Thailand several efforts have been made. Several publications for the farmers have been brought out in local languages and the project has also launched a web site for the benefit of the outer world to learn about the project experiences and achievements.



Methods adopted for dissemination of project experiences and findings

Clusters	No. of events
Television	Local Daily News paper	Articles in Popular magazines	Radio talks	Journal articles	Seminars/workshop	Bulletins/flyers in local languages
Andhra Pradesh	1	9	3	2	2	3	4
Maharashtra	1	3	2	2	1	-	7
Karnataka	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	3	12	5	4	3	3	11