Under Farmers FIRST project interventions, 400 farm families were covered in five villages of Pudur Mandal namely, Gangupally, Rakamcharla, Devanoniguda, Medikonda and Pudugurthy in Vikarabad, Telangana. Nine different types of need-based implements have been identified, procured and demonstrated to the farmers during crop season. Livestock based intervention included promotion of backyard poultry variety, improved fodder production and management, salt lick to goats, mineral mixture to ruminants.

Extension efforts of state development agencies were observed to be less effective as compared to Coromandel Fertilizers Limited (CFL) and Watershed Support Services and Activities Network (WASSAN). Demonstrations and meetings were highly effective extension method followed by extension personnel in all the three agencies studied.

Fortification of Total Mixed Ration (TMR) by tamarind shells @ 30 per cent of the total weight when used for feeding Nellore sheep for 9 weeks, a significantly (p<0.05) improved body weight over non-fortified group was observed (ADG @ 65g per day vs 53g per day). This suggests that tamarind shell which is unutilized in the field can be scientifically used for improved growth rate in indigenous sheep.

A new measure for assessing the sustainability of treatments /practices evaluated in long term experiments was developed. A District level yield efficiency maps were developed for seven important rainfed crops. The improved version of the Yield Gap DSS is available at http://www.icar-crida.res.in:8129/.

An apportioned district database covering time series data on area sown, production and yield of crops for years 1966-67 to 2017-18 was built by including rice, sorghum, pearl millet, maize, pigeon pea, chickpea, black gram and green gram crops.

Current and future climate at district level were assessed and climatic shifts was observed in 24 districts in 2030s and 32 districts in 2050s as per Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP 4.5) and in 15 districts in 2030s and in 22 districts in 2050s as per RCP 6.0. Moisture index, by and large, is projected to rise indicating enhanced moisture availability in the future. The climate in the future is going to be less harsh but climatic shifts will be minimal.

The difference-in-difference model (DID) and stepwise multiple linear regression (MLR) were employed to quantify the impact of adopting climate-resilient technologies (CRTs) and factors influencing farm incomes during drought. Farmers reported that droughts decreased the income from crops by 54 per cent and income from livestock rearing by 40 per cent.

Yield and physiological characteristics were assessed in 22 horse gram genotypes. The genotype CRHG-22 recorded the highest yield and CRHG-4 recorded the lowest canopy temperature and highest SPAD value. Mutation was done using Ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) in three released varieties and M1 generation is harvested on a single plant basis. Advancement of 9 F1 and 12 F2 generations were carried out in horse gram. About 200 kg of breeder seed was produced this year.

Evaluation of low-cost approaches for the management of Fall Army Worm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda in maize indicated that the mean incidence larval population was lower in chemical and integrated treatments and was more evident in maize +cowpea intercropping system than sole crop of maize.

In an experiment, to assess the effect of different levels of moisture stress on soil microbial as well as plant growth and physiological parameter, it was found that population of phosphorus solubilizing bacteria, free-living nitrogen-fixing bacteria and Pseudomonas spp. decreased as the level of soil moisture content depleted from 20.6 to 4.9 per cent.

In a study to identify the sustainable fodder based cropping system, the higher system productivity of 69445 kg/ha was obtained with sorghum + pigeon pea/hedge lucerne, followed by castor + hedge lucerne (62762 kg/ha). These systems provided green fodder for at least 8-9 months without any supplementary irrigation.

Seventeen maize hybrids and four checks were evaluated under rainfed conditions for drought tolerance, out of which SNJ201126/RJR385, SNJ201126/Z10115, HKI7660/SNJ201126, Z10115/HKI161, HKI161/SNJ201126 and Z10115/HKI7660 performed at par in terms of yield compared to commercial hybrids.

An automated thematic map-generating web tool TmapGen+ based on user input was developed using Streamlit to create thematic map in three steps on the fly.

Among the twelve different multi-purpose tree species (MPTS) agroforestry-based systems with finger millet as intercrop established at CRIDA, Dalbergia latifolia with staggered trenches enhanced the finger millet (KMR 301) grain yield, and stylos grown under Dalbergia latifolia intra- spaces without trenches produced maximum green fodder yield under rainfed conditions.

In an experiment on quantification and valuation of ecosystem services from agroforestry systems in different rainfed agro ecologies. The estimated amount of biomass kg/tree/year was (2.74), amount of carbon was (1.28) kg/year/tree and carbon dioxide absorption was (4.73) kg/year/tree in Melia dubia based agroforestry systems.