Friday, December 6, 2013
WATCH : Agricultural Machinery (Part 1 English, Hindi, Kannada & Part 2 in English) by ShramaJeevi
Published on Dec 5, 2013
Full length documentary film 'Agricultural Machinery - part 1' by Shramajeevi.
Published on Dec 8, 2013
Sample clip of Documentary 'Agricultural Machinery part 1 (Hindi)' sample clip by Shramajeevi.
SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kgDjDymlck
Published on Dec 9, 2013
SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntly8t4G8Ww-----
Published on Dec 5, 2013
Full length documentary film 'Agricultural Machinery - part 2' (ENGLISH) by Shramajeevi.
http://www.shramajeevi.com Also visit http://images.shramajeevi.com for agricultural and rural images and http://contacts.shramajeevi.com for farming related contacts.
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
EVENT: Organic Terrace gardening one day workshop on 21.12.2013 at AME Foundation
Kind Attention : Already attended can ignore this mail (Help to attend who are interested in the same)
Dear All,
As you may aware of the organic terrace gardening workshop is being conducted by Dr. B N Viswanath who is pioneering this since 2 decades.
AME Foundation organizes one day workshop on Organic Terrace Gardening - 21st Dec 2013 (third Saturday).
Please see below flyer for details and registration. Process has been begun already please confirm you participation on or before 15th Dec 2013
For any clarifications write to me and leave your full details (email, contact no. place).
Please confirm your participation/registration by replying to this email
Thanks and regards
Arun and OTG Team
PS: If already attended workshop please ignore this mail
Assuring best servicesCreating a transparent market for cotton growers
FIRST INITIATIVE: A price fixing committee by farmers decides on the price for their own commodity. Photo: Special Arrangement
SCI-TECH » AGRICULTURE
December 5, 2013
Updated: December 5, 2013 03:09 IST
Appachi eco-logic cotton project is a unique organic cotton contract farm model in the Western Ghats region of Kabini Reservoir.
The project covers nearly 1,200 farmers spread over 1,875 acres. Over 17 per cent of the area comes under reserve forests of both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and exposing the cultivation fields to wild animal attacks is forcing farmers to start cotton cultivation on a mono cropping basis instead of food crops.
Past story
For growing cotton the farmers for a long time were using only chemical fertilizers and pesticides extensively, thus destroying the soil fertility and the ecology besides paying a huge amount to buy the inputs.
“To begin with, the process, right from procuring seeds to selling the harvested produce, proved a nightmare for them since seeds would not be available on time and local moneylenders and middlemen used to fleece them since most of the farmers were either small, marginal or tribal growers,” says Mr. Arun Balamatti, Programme Coordinator, JSS Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Suttur, Nanjanagud Taluk, Mysore.
These inherent problems opened up a tremendous opportunity for Appachi cotton to try to bridge this gap, and carry the farmers through a value chain that would ultimately improve their lifestyle.
The firm entered into a contract with the growers and registered it with the Agriculture Marketing Department, Govt. of Karnataka. It tied up with selected seed companies for exclusively supplying non Bt cotton seeds, as very few companies provide non Bt seeds separately for organic farming purpose.
Advance payment
“For this, we had to pay 100 per cent advance money to the companies to secure non Bt cotton seeds. Each farmer was supplied one packet of seeds on an interest free credit. Many farmers do not own cattle, hence they needed support in sourcing organic inputs such as FYM, neem oil, bio pesticides etc.
We sourced all the critical inputs and distributed them on credit basis to the participating farmers,” says Mr. Mani Chinnaswamy, Managing Director, Appachi Eco-Logic Cotton Pvt. Ltd.
Apart from providing timely inputs, the firm regularly conducted training and hands-on workshops for capacity building among the farmers.
Selected farmers’ representatives were taken on exposure visit to Pollachi, Tamil Nadu to show them the ginning, spinning and weaving process and to make them understand the value of production and supply of clean cotton which ultimately decides the quality of the end product (the fabric).
Appachi sources its purchases from the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC), five days a week. This is the only APMC in India where organic cotton is traded.
A price fixing committee is formed with farmer representatives who decide on the weekly prices every Saturday. This is a first initiative of its kind in India, where farmers have a say in deciding the price for their own commodity.
Fixed price
The price fixed by the committee is valid for the ensuing week; the price so fixed is communicated through voice SMS and bulk SMS to all the registered farmers. Best quality Bt cotton has been sold for Rs.5,500 a quintal.
“We have tried to bring in transparency at all levels; an exclusive cotton bag is designed to avoid contamination and to enable easy transportation; weighing is done with an electronic scale An organic premium of five per cent is offered for in-conversion fields for the first and second year farmers and a 10 per cent premium for third year growers. We ensure cash and carry system for all purchases,” explains Mr. Mani.
520 tons
As many as 52 truck loads (about 520 tons) of pure organic cotton has been supplied by farmers this season in the last two months, despite heavy rains affecting the crop at harvesting season.
“Appachi is aware that organic cotton alone would not be enough to ensure livelihood improvement of the small and marginal farmers. organic cotton apart, it encourages farmers to grow other organic crops such as ragi, maize, pulses and vegetables, which will be bought after the end of cotton season. We are lending technical assistance to the project,” says Mr. Arun.
For more details interested readers can contact Mr. Mani Chinnaswamy, Managing Director, Appachi Eco-Logic Cotton Pvt. Ltd.,46, Meenkarai Road, Zamin Uthukuli, Pollachi, Tamil Nadu - 642 004, phone: 4259 234666 and mobile: 096880 44000.
SOURCE: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/agriculture/creating-a-transparent-market-for-cotton-growers/article5422115.ece
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Seed is sovereignty
SANGEETA BAROOAH PISHAROTY } November 29, 2013
Source: http://www.thehindu.com/
The HinduSuman Sahay, activist and founder of Gene Campaign, in New Delhi . Photo: V. Sudershan
New Delhi-based Gene Campaign works for conservation of genetic resources of the Global South. Its founder Suman Sahay says it’s time to take the debate on genetically modified food to the people
Call it my bias or a run through reality, after snaking through an urbane farmhouse colony of the country’s First Capital — strewn with plush houses of the well-heeled and their posh cars swishing by – the last thing you expect to hear is a resident talking doggedly about farmers’ rights. Well, set aside the moneyed, who is really interested in making farmers’ condition any better? The policymakers in their air-conditioned offices? The votehungry politicos? The mall-savvy middle-class? The industry with the huge advantage of a sizeable cheap migrant labour population?
Look at the media. Isn’t it sometime now that news about farmers’ suicides slipped from newspaper page one? Such news, if at all covered on news television, is for non-peak hours certainly. Simply because there would not be enough ‘eyeballs’. So what are we talking about here!
Sainik Farms resident Suman Sahay seems resolute. Point by point, she touches the objectives of Gene Campaign, an advocacy organisation she founded 20 years ago for the conservation of genetic resources of our crops and indigenous knowledge of agriculture by keeping farmers of this country, and the Global South, at the head of the table while decision-making. An unbridled conversation with Sahay, a Padma Shri-accorded genetic scientist, leads you to a string of hard questions to dwell on and seek answers for yourself.
The conversation begins far above the ground. “You know, India is the only country in the world to have given legal rights to farmers,” she begins. Completion of 20 years in the field is naturally a time to look back and Sahay counts this legislation — the Farmers’ Rights Act — as one of Gene Campaign’s key achievements. “It was during the GATT-WTO days (early 1990s). We picked up the issue and went to the barricades. We said, if you have to have intellectual property rights, there is no way you can have patents. We organised a nation-wide campaign of farmers without any money. Thanks to alliances and partnerships we could build up at that time, the campaign could be taken to 17-18 States,” she recalls.
The term ‘patent’ was not easy to explain to a farmer in pre-globalised India. She remembers telling farmers “there will be an iron cage in your field. The key to that cage will be with someone else. Only when that someone else opens the key will you be able to sell your produce and you will never be allowed to save the seed.” Powerful farmer leaders like Mahendra Singh Tikait were also roped in hammer on the point. “It was not easy to explain to the kisan union leaders either that how through patenting the control over agriculture would be lost. So we took the metaphor of East India Company. Tikait belonged to a generation which understood what East India Company did. We reminded him, it came to trade but stayed on to rule us. If we accept all the proposals of the Dunkel draft (Arthur Dunkel as its director general drafted its proposals), then it will rule us. This caught on and Tikait till his last days referred to the metaphor to oppose patenting.” A farmers’ rally led by M.D. Nanjundaswamy of Karnataka and Tikait was organised on a March morning in 1993 at the Red Fort.
Sahay says it was during this time that her organisation “got a new track”.
“We began as an advocacy organisation for farmers’ rights. When the GATT-WTO episode was unfolding, the entire debate was focussed on the product patents in the pharmaceutical sector. But we argued that the real deadly patent demand is on seed. Till then, nobody had realised it because the country was focused on the health sector and also big players were involved in it but it touched a chord somewhere,” she feels. As a geneticist, she “could see the game plan then, the legal terms used in the proposal.” She was particularly attuned because as a lab scientist in the University of Heidelberg (She obtained her habilitation in human genetics there), she “saw the genetic material coming in all kinds of conditions.”
“We have grown up in a climate where everything is exchanged between labs for free. Then suddenly, the whole patent thing began to happen, we could see where it was going. So our first effort was to stop it.”
Soon the farmers’ rights movement got a new symbol — the seed — and was named Gene Campaign “to conserve the genetic resources of the Global South.” Sahay recalls “understanding the issues herself from people like Muchkund Dubey, B.L. Das.”
Gene Campaign organised a day-long discussion on the Dunkel draft in New Delhi then where it put forth “a list of minimum must for renegotiation.” She remembers representatives of all political parties coming to the discussion “because there was a lot of curiosity about it.” She now feels, “After that event, some amount of positioning began in the political parties.” One minimum must for renegotiation was “in exchange of giving it financial mobility, we should be given labour mobility.”
Gene Campaign shifted focus on Genetically Modified (GM) food on its 10th anniversary, debating its relevance, the safety measures required. She however, underlines, “We are opposed to it but we don’t belong to the vitriolic anti-GM brigade.”
As a scientist, she knows the ill effects of GM food, the dangers of not having genetic diversity. “Only last year, the United States lost its entire corn crop because of genetic uniformity. The Irish Potato Famine is your biggest example. In the time of climate change, the countries that have genetic diversity will have the answers, not those who have put their entire agricultural economy on say, five varieties,” she is categorical here. India’s large variety of crops, particularly rice, is its biggest wealth, based on which “it can be a food exporter one day.”
Food is not a mere necessity, she reminds you. “It is also a symbol of one’s sovereignty, a weapon.” Resorting to technology without gauging the need for it just doesn’t serve the purpose. “It is insane to have GM food when there is no need, when the safety measures are not followed. We have been arguing with the Government to send our people for bio safety testing to those countries who have been doing a good job of it but in vain.”
While there is a serious concern that the Government would let open its gene bank to private players and ICRISAT is already doing it, Gene Campaign through its gene and seed banks in States like UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarkhand — where it does field activities — has already collected 3000 accessions of traditional rice. “One of our biggest joys is that farmers come to us for traditional seeds. It is their property, we are only keeping it safe for them,” she says.
The need of the hour, insists the IARI alumna, is not to give in to the waves of urbanity but to resist it. “I am tired of hearing economists saying we need competitive advantage. My answer to them is, make farming more glamorous, make farmers entrepreneurs. It will dent the huge amount of disenchantment the rural population has with farming now, particularly among the youth.” Also a reason why she is opposed to this version of the Food Security Bill. “Because it delinks the producer from his produce.” She asks, “Where do you see the farmer in the Act? He is mentioned nowhere even though he is the one who will produce the food.”
“With so many people put on dole for votes”, she wonders, “Who will do farming?” A reason why she has an issue with MGNREGA too. “MGNREGA has no vision, just a populist scheme. It will have a huge effect on agricultural labour in some years. One is already sensing it.” Sahay notes here, “You know, I am downbeat about the Government’s attitude but upbeat about the possibilities.”
The activist rues that “the real tragedy in India is that there has been no good farmers’ movement, only episodes of it.” Gene Campaign, in coming times, is thinking of something on these lines. “May be, it is time to take the issue of GM food, the need to safeguard the seed, to the people yet again,” she says.
Losing genetic diversity
Suman Sahay warns that India is already losing a lot of genetic diversity not just in plants but in animals too. “We are a home for buffaloes. There is a kind of buffalo called Bhadavari. Its fat content is as high as 12 per cent, much coveted for it. But today, I think we don’t have its purest form,” says the scientist.
India is also the birthplace of rice, particularly eastern India. “In States like Odisha, Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand, you will find non-sticky rice. When you move upwards to the North East, you will get both sticky rice and the non-sticky varieties. But when you move further to China, you will find only sticky rice. Rice probably followed a path that way,” she states. Unfortunately, many traditional rice varieties are either lost or in the process of extinction. “For instance, the red rice is nowhere to be found in Himachal Pradesh.”
A policy against bio terrorism
One of the recommendations that Gene Campaign put together at its 20th anniversary function in New Delhi was to have a policy on bio terrorism. The deliberate release of viruses, bacteria, toxins or other harmful agents to cause illness or death in people, animals, or plants in a country. Sahay explains, “The safety measures are prime when you are resorting to GM food because if something goes wrong, you will have no control. As a scientist, we know it can create new organisms, so it needs constant surveillance. But today, 30 to 40 per cent of our agriculture is based on BT technology and it is not need-based.”
There is also a lot of secrecy, she feels. “The intentions at times are not honourable.”
“Long before BT brinjal became widely used, I filed an RTI with the Department of Biotechnology seeking information on the tests it had conducted and their results. The Department wrote to me saying it was confidential. So I went to the Supreme Court which said it should be in public domain.”
Friday, November 29, 2013
Survival of small farms crucial for food security
The Hindu, November 28, 2013 by M. J. PRABU
SOURCE: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-
The HinduThere are more than 300 million small and marginal farmers in India. Photo: Rohit Jain Paras
For the last 25 years, Deccan Developmental Society (DDS) in Medak District, Andhra Pradesh has been working in more than 70-odd villages along with 5,000 dalit women farmers.
“More than 60 per cent of their livelihood is derived from small holdings. In fact there must be more than 300 million small and marginal farmers in this country. And everyone who analyses Indian agriculture and farmers clearly says that the survival of these small farmers is crucial to the nation’s food security and well being,” says Mr. P.V. Sateesh, Director, DDS.
Food analyst
Some of the most respected food analysts in the world such as Miguel Altieri, after a decade of study have categorically concluded that small farms are the most efficient food producers. Hence the criticality of small farmers for agricultural future today stands undisputed.
Most of these farmers were either landless or marginal farmers two decades ago. But with support from DDS they got into active agriculture.
“All of them are ecological farmers and producers of food crops. Through their magnificent efforts they have become owners of lands between 5-20 acres though all these lands are non irrigated dry lands,” says Mr. Sateesh.
Take the case of Rayapalli Susilamma, a 40 year old woman farmer who owns three acres of rainfed farm of which half an acre is mango plantation, one acre not cultivable, grows an amazing variety of food crops.
She is proud that she does not have to buy food grains. She goes to the market for buying only cooking oil, coconut oil, soap and soap powder.
Along with Susilamma are five others, all of whom share the same socio economic and agricultural profile. They all want to own about five acres of farm, a pair of bullocks, one milch animal, a couple of goats and a few chickens.
Governments role
“The government must ensure that all farmers like them must own these animals that generate additional cash to support the needs of their children as they grow and get educated,” adds Mr. Sateesh.
Increasing cost of cultivation is a major worry for these women.
“Weeding wages have gone through the roof. What used to be about Rs.100 per person just two years ago, has gone upto Rs. 250 now.
“And even then we find it hard to find labourers,” says Susilamma.
She thinks the 100 days rural employment scheme (MNREGA) has caused this situation. Everyone seems to echo this feeling. Though all of them also are benefited by it since they all go for wage work in other people’s lands, they still think that the scheme has dented their own agriculture.
To make MNREGA small farmer friendly, they suggest agricultural activities be included in it. Weeding, ploughing (incidentally ploughing costs have gone up by four times in last five years, they point out) and harvesting costs can be borne under the scheme.
“If this is done, surely their agriculture will not be under any threat,” asserts Susilamma.'Another farmer, Cheelamamidi Laxmamma, in her late 30’s has nurtured her three acre dryland farm with great love and care for decades.
Weeding cost
“During monsoon, weeding must be done quickly in two or three days. Depending on the soil type, 20 to 40 persons are needed. Current rates are around Rs.200-250 per person. Therefore it costs between Rs. 4,000 and 6,000 per acre. The total income from one acre might be around Rs.8,000. Under these circumstances how can the weeding wages be met?” she asks.
Agriculture officials think that weeding is something that a small farmer can do on their own. They treat this argument with heavy contempt. In drylands, particularly on red soils weeding during Kharif must be finished within two or three days. If you prolong it, it becomes unproductive, according to her.
An acre needs a minimum of 25 persons. If the farmer does this on her own, it takes 25 days for her to finish the job. Weeds become unmanageable over this gap of time.
Local money lenders
Most of these women borrow from local moneylenders at three per cent interest to complete weeding.
Add to this the fact that crops like millets and other food crops need more weeding compared to cash crops.
Therefore the government must offer 100 per cent subsidy for agricultural activity on millet lands and 50 per cent for cash crops by including these activities under MNREGA scheme.
Need encouragement
According to Mr. Sateesh, this is the only area where these proud women farmers in spite of their small holdings and difficult farming need help and encouragement from the Government.
To know more interested readers can email Mr. P.V. Sateesh at satheeshperiyapatna@gmail.com , website: www.ddsindia.com, Project office, Pastapur Village, Zaheerabad Mandal, Medak District - 502 220, Andhra Pradesh, phone: 08451 282271, 08451 282785 and 08451 281725.
SOURCE: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Big Island Mayor Signs Biotech, GMO Ban Into Law
| By Sophie CockePosted: 12/05/2013 10:21 pm EST
HONOLULU -- Mayor Billy Kenoi signed Bill 113 into law on Thursday, prohibiting biotech companies from operating on the Big Island and banning farmers from growing any new genetically altered crops.
The bill exempts the island’s GMO papaya industry.
Kenoi said that the new law signals the county’s desire to encourage community-based farming and ranching, as opposed to playing host to global agribusiness corporations in a letter to council members announcing his decision to sign the bill.
None of the biotech companies that have taken up root in Hawaii in recent years, such as Monsanto, Syngenta and Pioneer, operate on Big Island. The new law makes sure that remains the case.
"Our community has a deep connection and respect for our land, and we all understand we must protect our island and preserve our precious natural resources," Kenoi wrote to council members. "We are determined to do what is right for the land because this place is unlike any other in the world."
Kenoi said debate over the bill at times grew “divisive and hurtful” and that some of the island’s farmers have been “treated disrespectfully.” He urged community healing.
"We are determined to reunite our farming community to create a stronger and more vibrant agricultural sector," he wrote. "It is time to end the angry rhetoric and reach out to our neighbors."
The majority of Hawaii’s farming industry opposed the bill.
Passage of the Big Island bill comes just weeks after Kauai passed its own law relating to GMO and pesticide disclosure. A bill similar to Kauai’s law is expected to be introduced in the Maui County Council on Friday.
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/05/big-island-biotech-ban_n_4395521.html
Around the Web:
Around the Web:
HAWAII COUNTY BANS GMO
Published on 22 Nov 2013
A Hawaian island has passed a law banning companies which produce genetically modified food from operating on its territory. Modified crops will also be restricted to indoor structures, and experimenting with new types of plants has been prohibited. But Elizabeth Kucinich, from the Centre for Food Safety believes the anti-GMO mood is beginning to reverberate across the world. READ MORE http://on.rt.com/2v0ycp
CHECK : http://youtu.be/lS3tCNnEbzU
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
'India home to most hungry people but has surplus food'
TNN | Nov 12, 2013, 07.57AM IST
Sam Pitroda, chairman of the National Innovation Council and advisor to the PM on public information infrastructure, is also a member on the governing board of the India Food Banking Network. In town for the launch of the food bank, he spoke to TOI about the tradition, challenges and future of food banking in India. Excerpts
Can you explain the concept of food banking, especially in the context of India?
In India, there has been a great tradition of donating food, but it is based on religion, and we have to change this. It shouldn't matter who that person is or from what religion. As long as the person is hungry, it should be my responsibility to feed him. So if the community takes the responsibility to feed the hungry, I think we'll be able to address this problem. As you know we have the largest number of hungry people in the world, 220 million to be exact. And we have surplus food. Food is rotting, because we don't have the logistics. So a food banking network has a lot to do with information - where is the food, how much food, who needs it, and so on. And that's where my personal interest comes from. I spent most of my life in democratizing information. I don't know anything about food. But I know that with the right information, we can get food to the hungry. And with food banking, the main idea is to get the community to take charge.
There's a perception that food banks belong in rural areas.
There are lots of hungry people in urban areas. Sometimes more than even in rural areas. Because in rural areas, people take care of each other. In urban areas, you get lost. If a fellow from Bihar comes to work here, he's just lost in this jungle, doesn't know where to go. So, contrary to what many may think, there are lots of hungry people in Gurgaon and Delhi.
What are the difficulties of implementing a food-bank network in a federal system of governance such as ours?
First, it's really about people's mindset. I don't think governments come into the picture. If the community wants to take charge, it's the mindset that matters. Although there's one key thing that I am trying to do, which is not happening yet. It is to create a law for good Samaritans. In American it's called the 'Good Samaritan law.' So when you donate food in good faith and something happens to me after eating that food, I can't go after you. We need a good Samaritan law.
What's the future of food banking in India? What's your vision?
My vision is to make sure that there is one food bank in every district of the country before I die.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/India-home-to-most-hungry-people-but-has-surplus-food/articleshow/25617732.cms
Sam Pitroda, chairman of the National Innovation Council and advisor to the PM on public information infrastructure, is also a member on the governing board of the India Food Banking Network. In town for the launch of the food bank, he spoke to TOI about the tradition, challenges and future of food banking in India. Excerpts
Can you explain the concept of food banking, especially in the context of India?
In India, there has been a great tradition of donating food, but it is based on religion, and we have to change this. It shouldn't matter who that person is or from what religion. As long as the person is hungry, it should be my responsibility to feed him. So if the community takes the responsibility to feed the hungry, I think we'll be able to address this problem. As you know we have the largest number of hungry people in the world, 220 million to be exact. And we have surplus food. Food is rotting, because we don't have the logistics. So a food banking network has a lot to do with information - where is the food, how much food, who needs it, and so on. And that's where my personal interest comes from. I spent most of my life in democratizing information. I don't know anything about food. But I know that with the right information, we can get food to the hungry. And with food banking, the main idea is to get the community to take charge.
There's a perception that food banks belong in rural areas.
There are lots of hungry people in urban areas. Sometimes more than even in rural areas. Because in rural areas, people take care of each other. In urban areas, you get lost. If a fellow from Bihar comes to work here, he's just lost in this jungle, doesn't know where to go. So, contrary to what many may think, there are lots of hungry people in Gurgaon and Delhi.
What are the difficulties of implementing a food-bank network in a federal system of governance such as ours?
First, it's really about people's mindset. I don't think governments come into the picture. If the community wants to take charge, it's the mindset that matters. Although there's one key thing that I am trying to do, which is not happening yet. It is to create a law for good Samaritans. In American it's called the 'Good Samaritan law.' So when you donate food in good faith and something happens to me after eating that food, I can't go after you. We need a good Samaritan law.
What's the future of food banking in India? What's your vision?
My vision is to make sure that there is one food bank in every district of the country before I die.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/India-home-to-most-hungry-people-but-has-surplus-food/articleshow/25617732.cms
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Community managed system sows the seeds of success
M. J. Prabu
THE HINDU | Sci-Tech » Science November 6, 2013
Updated: August 4, 2015 12:56 IST
This model helped many growers get access to good quality seeds
Like many other farmers across the country, preserving and using seeds is a major issue for Andhra Pradesh groundnut cultivators. In Anantapur district, farmers mostly grow groundnut.
The crop diversity in this region earlier included many dryland crops like sorghum, finger millet, pearl millet, foxtail millet and groundnut. Farmers used to grow various crops and groundnut was alternated between red gram, coriander, sesame, sorghum and finger millet. But over time, groundnut became a major crop in the region due to its commercial value.
Perennial debt
“The high input costs on one side and decreasing yields due to prolonged usage of chemical fertilizers forced many growers to borrow money from private money lenders and the moment the crop is harvested, it is sold immediately to pay off the debts. Often the area is prone to droughts and seed availability has been a serious issue for more than 15 years,” says Dr. G. V. Ramanjaneyulu, Executive Director, Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Secunderabad.
Farmers could raise only one good crop every three years. Being already in debt they sold off the harvested nuts for repaying loans and other expenses rather than preserving the seeds for next season.
Also, absence of proper storage facilities posed a serious problem; many felt that the seed from the same land will not grow well if sown for the next season. Subsidised government seeds are available at half the price in the market so farmers preferred to buy those seeds rather than save some for themselves.
But buying the seeds is an arduous task, according to Dr. Ramanjaneyulu. Every year soon after the monsoon season farmers start to queue up for buying subsidised seeds from Government cooperatives.
Each farmer has a passbook which he needs to show in order to get the seeds. Very often, a farmer ends up making at least three to four trips to the town to buy the seeds.
Different varieties
“Sometimes they do not get the seeds (due to no stock) or get them very late in the season. If he does get it on time, there is no guarantee of its quality. Earlier Ananthapur farmers used to grow different groundnut varieties depending on demand, but the subsidy seeds given by the government covers only a few or sometimes only a single variety,” explains Dr. Ramanjaneyulu.
In 2006-07, Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA), Hyderabad and Rural Environment Development Society (REDS), Kadiri, initiated groundnut seed production through women self help groups as part of the ‘Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture’ programme in different villages.
Different farmers’ groups took responsibility for managing the entire programme.
Subsidy
However, seed subsidy could not be extended as the Department of Agriculture was not ready to support farmers own seeds. In 2011 another initiative, a community managed seed system (CMSS) was started in partnership with WASSAN (Watershed Support Services Network) a Hyderabad based NGO with the objective of meeting the requirements of both seed producers and consumers.
The programme was started in 2011 during rabi season to supply seeds for 2012 kharif. The foundation seed was supplied with 50 per cent subsidy from the department of agriculture
The Government agreed to facilitate the process of exchanging the seeds at farmer level and extended subsidy for them.
“A total of 2,888 acres of seed production was taken up in 183 villages involving more than 2,000 farmers under the programme. The group was able to procure 3,763 quintals of seed and distributed it to nearly 4,000 farmers. Similarly in 2013 they have distributed 11,518 quintals of seeds in 260 villages covering nearly to 10,000 acres,” adds Dr. Ramanjaneyulu.
Control
The seed production, supply and distribution, administration are localized within a cluster of villages where the overall control is by the farmers.
This model helped many growers get access to good quality seeds at affordable prices and also saved enormous expense for the Government.
To know more contact Dr. G. V. Ramanjaneyulu, Executive Director, Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, 12-13-445, Street no-1, Tarnaka, Secunderabad-500 017, website: www.krishi.tv, email: ramoo.csa@gmail.com, facebook: ramoo.agripage, mobile: 09000699702.
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