Scaling the Distribution of Flood-tolerant Seeds for Rice Farmers in India

West Bengal Accelerated Development of Minor Irrigation Project (WBADMIP) and Precision Development (PxD) are collaborating in piloting successful interventions in promoting the adoption of flood-tolerant rice seeds (FTS). The interventions could enhance the livelihoods of up to two million rice farmers in flood-prone areas of West Bengal. This project pilots two interventions implemented by Dar et al. (2023) and Emerick & Dar (2021), which find a 56% and 40% increase in farmer adoption of FTS. In the first intervention, agro-dealers in randomly selected blocks received test seed packets, compared to blocks where farmers received trial packets from government agricultural extension. In the second intervention, farmers who received test seed packets held field demonstration days for other farmers, compared to farmers only receiving trial packets. WBADMIP has requested PxD to provide the following technical assistance: draw practical insights from existing evidence and advise WBADMIP on the design of FTS trial packet distribution programs; advise on design of monitoring systems for timely distribution of trial packets; investigate ways to leverage administrative and remote sensing data to monitor program outcomes for farmers; and prepare a scale-ready intervention of the FTS program for WBADMIP to implement in all flood-prone areas of West Bengal.
Co-funded with the Innovations in Government Initiative (IGI).