Land Resource Cards: An Innovative Approach to Empower Farmers for Site-Specific Farm Resource Management

The paper investigates an innovative extension approach of generation and distribution ofLand Resource Cards, developed from Land Resource Inventory database, used for site-specific farm resource management in watersheds adopted under World Bank funded Sujala-III project. Extent of reach, satisfaction level and training status of Land Resource Cardsin 12 model micro-watersheds located in different agro-climatic regions of Karnataka witha sample size of 720 farmers was assessed. The Land Resource Cards reached only 18 percent of farmers while 22 per cent of farmers were trained for its utilization. However, 77per cent were satisfied with the information provided and 23 per cent suggested for furtherimprovement in cards for greater utility. The overall farmer’s perception on capacity buildingon land resource cards revealed that they were very useful in farm-level resourcemanagement. Hence, need for replication of similar approach in all database drivenwatersheds to be implemented in the future with adoption of modifications is suggested.