The physical progress of the project is quite good. All the activities of the project have been carried out effectively with proper planning. About 26 partner NGOs from the identified district have been given training on various concepts of sustainable agriculture. More than 70 Farmer field schools have been conducted in the project villages. These Farmers Field School (FFS) were conducted on a weekly basis the project beneficiaries actively participated in FFS. In these FFS, the farmers were able to understand the pest and predators of cotton, their life cycle, along with economic components involved in pest control mechanism. etc. They also discussed about the actual problems that existed in the fields and also arrived at the necessary solutions.Apart from various learning?s and outcomes ?Live Museums? in each village were the significant output of FFS. Farmer?s mela was conducted in Hyderabad involving all the farmers, NGO Staff, and technical committee members. For the purpose of self-evaluation, IPM farmers meet, consultative committee meetings, technical committee meeting were held regularly during the project period. In these meetings, discussions were held regarding the findings and outcomes of FFS meetings. These outcomes were presented to a larger stake- holder groups in round table meetings for further discussions and draw conclusion. Educational material in local language(Telugu) has been brought out regarding IPM practices with respect to cotton that is helpful for the farmers.

The main objective of the project was to conserve agro-biodiversity and to improve the livelihood of small-scale cotton farmers. Farmers in the project areas were trained on various aspects of organic farming, IPM methods, etc. They were given the training on preparation of Bio-pesticides also. Weekly FFS were conducted and the farmers improved their knowledge on cotton eco-system. They also discussed the practical problems in the field and arrived at proper solutions. The farmers were backed by various experts from scientific community that facilitated in providing inputs to the farmers at the right time. By adopting the above practices, the cost of cultivation on cotton was reduced and the farmers were able to get additional income by growing trap crops and inter crops. Further, due to reduced pesticide usage by the farming community and also the type of chemicals applied to the cotton crops there was a decrease in pesticide related health problems. Farmers meet was conducted regularly in other villages providing the multiplier effects for project learnings / outcomes. During these meetings, the farmers involved in this project shared their experience with other farmers. Thus, there was transfer of technology to farmer of other villages/districts. Many of the Non-IPM farmers have shown interest in such programmes and are approached CEC for technical guidance so as to grow cotton organically in the next cropping season.

A good networking has been established with the partner NGOs and also the farmers of the project areas. Linkages have been developed with institutes and individuals of Agriculture Man Ecology, Krishi Vignan Kendras, Agriculture Universities, Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, International Crop Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics, Food and Agriculture Organization. Individuals from the above organizations provided expertise in various components of the project.
The project mainly focused on promotion of biodiversity along with betterment of socio- economic conditions of the local community. During the cultivation of cotton crop, the introduction of the border, inter & trap crops helped reducing the migration of the pests, leading to enhanced natural predator population. Thus, the natural predator population checked the growth of cotton pests. By applying organic manure, the moisture retaining capacity of soil increased. This favoured multiplication of micro- organisms (soil micro fauna) that decompose the dead and decaying matter into rich organic nutrients readily available for crops. All the above sustainable agricultural practices contributed in improving the microenvironment of cotton?ecosystem leading to the healthy growth of cotton crop. Further, the crop rotation adopted by farmers reduced pest load and increased nitrogen fixation in the soil. The farmers could realize the benefits of adopting organic farming techniques due to the drastic reduction in cost of cultivation of cotton.

The potential global benefits of this project would be the reduced pesticide usage by the farming community and also the kind of chemicals applied to the cotton crops. This ultimately resulted in decrease of pesticide related health problems in the farming community. Due to the reduced usage of pesticides, there is an improvement in the local biodiversity. The enhancement of knowledge validated through practices for strengthening sustainable agricultural livelihoods and also deepening of approaches to participatory technology development through farmer field schools have been helpful in building the local capacity of farmers and NGOs.

All the activities of the project were linked with the practices of sustainable livelihoods. The strategy employed technical staff along with NGO staff to conduct Farmers Field School weekly (FFS). Both men & women farmers participated in these FFS. The process of FFS involved field observation, scouting by farmers in the field during early morning hours, etc. Thus the farmers developed the skills of identifying the pests & beneficial insects of cotton. Farmers also collected the agronomic data of cotton, drew the pests and predators in charts, analysed and discussed the outcomes in smaller groups. Conclusions were drawn based on previous weeks charts & data. Finally, the data were presented to larger groups for technical committee members for decision-making. All the above practices led to decrease in cost of cultivation of cotton and also increased the returns thus contributing to improvement of livelihoods of farmers.

However, women participation in FFS during the morning hours was meager due to their house-hold works. Attendance of the farmers also varied during the peak agriculture season.