A long-term experiment continuing at ICRISAT, Patancheru, India, since June 1999, on a rainfed Vertisol compares four crop-husbandry systems to determine the yield levels a cash-poor(but knowledge-rich) farmer could harvest by using locally available, low-cost technologies andresources. Two of the four systems are low-cost (LC1 and LC2 or T1, T2). The third (Conventional Agriculture - CA or T3) is a control that receives input types and levels as recommended by research institutions for a given crop in the region, and the fourth (CA+biomass, or T4) receives all chemical inputs as applied to CA and biomass as applied to low-cost system 2 (T2).
Lessons from Nonchemical Input Treatments Based on Scientific and Traditional Knowledge in a Long-term Experiment
by O P Rupela, C L L Gowda, S P Wani, and G V Ranga Rao, ICRISAT, 01 January, 2008