Across Asia, farmers struggle to cultivate very small and marginal parcels of land. Many are tenant farmers, who are expected to hand over half of what they produce to their landlord. Knowing that they will not benefit fully from any investments they make, farmers have little incentive to purchase fertilizer, irrigation equipment or high-quality seeds. This stifles production and encourages farmers to reject agriculture in favor of finding work in far-off cities. Those left behind, who are often women, struggle to continue cultivation due to shortages of labor.

Farmers join forces

Since 2014, IWMI has been working on a project in India and Nepal that aims to overcome such challenges by encouraging farmers to join forces. The Institute is jointly leading the project (Improving Dry Season Irrigation for Marginal and Tenant Farmers in the Eastern Gangetic Plains) with the University of Southern Queensland, Australia; additional support comes from the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), Nepal’s Department of Irrigation, North Bengal Agricultural University and local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Five farming groups have been established in the Indian state of Bihar; a further six are up and running in West Bengal; and six have been set up in Nepal.

“We’re piloting different models, so some groups are pure collectives, which means that all the labor and profits are shared,” explains Fraser Sugden, a senior researcher with IWMI. “Others are cooperating, in that they’re leasing the same piece of land, but they’re cultivating it individually. IWMI has supported each group by providing irrigation technology and training.

The groups have learned about using surface water and groundwater, different kinds of drip systems, more efficient ways of distributing water and the best kinds of crops to grow given their specific conditions.” The groups in Bihar and Nepal mostly comprise women farmers and are women-led, while those in West Bengal are more mixed. Before the project, most farmers were only producing one crop of paddy rice a year. However, in addition to monsoon paddy, they now cultivate wheat, pulses and vegetables in the dry season. Having access to irrigation and better knowledge of what crops to grow has enabled one of the West Bengal groups to grow three crops a year – a 300% increase in cropping intensity.

Building a business case

The year 2016 was a turning point for the project, as it was the first full year of production for the groups. IWMI is monitoring crop yields, the use of fertilizers and pesticides, productivity, water use, water-use efficiency, income per household, functioning of the groups and resolution of conflicts. The idea is that, by monitoring the groups and resolving any issues that arise, researchers can develop a business case for establishing successful farming groups and collectives elsewhere.

“One thing we’ve learned is that it’s better if the groups are completely homogenous,” says Sugden. “Originally, one of the groups was a mixture of landless farmers and landowners. The farmers with land were voluntarily giving it to the group. Although they were all farming it together, there was a definite feeling of inequity between those who had land and those who didn’t. We’re trying to set up a separate group for landless farmers. More positively, one of the main things the farmers bring up is that they’re using labor more efficiently through the collectives.”

Irrigation with a difference

Sugden and his colleagues are exploring ways to ensure the groups are sustained after the project ends in 2018. One possibility is to set up a federation through which the farmers can remain in contact with each other and share their experiences. The hope in the long term is to scale up the project, using the lessons learned on which kinds of groups function best.

Collective farming has often been written off as irrelevant in the 21st century. However, this project shows that it may still have the potential to empower women and revolutionize smallholder farming on the Gangetic Plains and elsewhere. “This is the first project that explicitly combines collective farming with a strong irrigation component,” says Sugden. “In some other collectives in south Bihar, farmers are working together, but otherwise they’re largely carrying on agriculture as they did before. What’s different about this project is that we’re using the collectives as a development tool to increase the use of irrigation and boost cropping intensity.”