The ANMAT project (Adapting Nutrient Management Technologies) has been in progress since 1999. The goal of the project is to increase paddy yields from less use of chemicals, particularly fertilizers. The beneficiaries are resource-poor farmers in selected areas of Bangladesh, Nepal and Vietnam. IFDC provides technical assistance and coordination of activities of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that work directly with farmers to evaluate and adapt promising nutrient management practices for adoption by farmers. The focus of the project is on environmentally friendly and efficient nutrient management technologies. The principal components of the project are:

• Training of farmers in nutrient management,

• Applied agronomic research consisting of farmer conducted field trials/demonstrations comparing management practices and

• Socioeconomic research to determine level of adoption, identify household characteristics that influence adoption of the introduced practices and determine other changes related to project activities.

For paddy cultivation, losses of nitrogen (N) are great; typically about 30% plant recovery is obtained from the broadcast applications of urea, but research has proven that placement into submerged soils eliminates much of the gaseous and runoff losses. Urea deep placement (UDP) using urea briquettes or USG is labor intensive, provides high yields from less fertilizer (a negative investment technology), is environmentally friendly and appears to be feasible for use by small-scale resource-poor farmers. With the initiative of IFDC the practice was introduced to farmers in Bangladesh through the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in 1996. Small, sturdy, low-maintenance machines were developed that produce 0.9-2.7-g briquettes from commercial urea at rates of from 250- to 1,000kg/hr. Through June 2001, private machine shops manufactured and sold 650 briquette-producing machines to private entrepreneurs. DAE reported that UDP was performed for 379,000 hectares of paddy during FY 2000-2001.

With a grant from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), IFDC chose UDP as the principal nutrient management practice to promote through technical assistance and funding by ANMAT for NGOs to guide farmers in participatory evaluation and adaptation of the practice to satisfy their conditions. The practice is being introduced to farmers in selected pilot areas for the first time in Nepal and Vietnam and in areas with little or no usage in Bangladesh. Other practices, such as supplementing chemical fertilizers with green manure from otherwise unused land and using animal manure, are being promoted. Additionally, combining other nutrients with N to form multinutrient briquettes is being evaluated. Both the coordinating staffs from the project and NGOs consult frequently with DAE at all levels within each country.

During the first year of the project (July 1999-June 2000), a socioeconomic survey was administered by the IFDC sociologist to a sample of 100 users and 100 nonusers of USG in Bangladesh. That survey data provided a comprehensive field test of the questionnaire, data, conceptual clarification and a basis to improve the questionnaire for use in project pilot areas to obtain baseline data from which project impact may be estimated. Six NGOs in Bangladesh, two in Nepal and one in Vietnam are now collaborators in the project. Baseline data have been collected from a total of 1,242 households within 11 pilot areas. Through June 2001, 5,000 farmers have received training and 600 of them have implemented trials and demonstrations involving UDP. In general during dry seasons, farmers obtain about 1,000 kg/ha more paddy from UDP than from their broadcast urea applications and use 20%-30% less urea. The six NGO collaborators in Bangladesh reported that 1,038 farmers purchased 45.6 mt of urea briquettes and performed UDP for 264 ha of paddy during the 2001 dry season.

(For more information regarding this project, contact Dr. Ray B. Diamond— anmat@bdmail.net or rdiamond@ifdc.org)