Category: Inspiration

 

48 year-old Chintakayala Devamma, is a small but progressive farmer from Podaralla village, Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh.

 

When we visited her on her field, Devamma and her son and daughter-in-law were harvesting okra. Devamma proudly gestured towards the half grown castor trees on the border of her farm. Instead of fencing our field with twigs and bamboo, we have planted castor trees around our field. Castor trees have very big leaves. The pests and insects that would generally attack the crop will make a shelter on those leaves and eat them out and spare the crop. Depending on intensity of pests, we spray NPM kashayams (bio-extracts) like neemastram (neem kernel extract) and Brahamastram (bio-extract for pest control) to kill the pests. Eventually, incidence of pests and insects on the main crop will reduce to a great extent. This makes Castor tree a good border crop, shared Devamma.

 

 

 

 

 

We also make an additional income by selling Castor seeds. This was the first practice that I adopted after attending a training program on sustainable non-pesticide management (NPM) organized by the farm wing of Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) – Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture (CMSA), she added.

 

 

Looking at Devammas keen interest and her articulation skills, Bukkaraya Samudram revenue block self-help groups federation selected her as one of the Sub-Committee members in non-pesticide management division. As part of this job, she attended trainings on NPM, visited several farms, and interacted with scores of farmers to encourage them to adopt NPM practices. Being a member in Maheshwari self-help group (SHG) has benefitted my family in many ways. Apart from financial support, we were shown videos on NPM practices. With that exposure, being a Sub-committee member, I have trained many other farmers on adopting NPM practices, shared Devamma.

 

 

Devammas story also reinforces the power of peer-to-peer learning. Initially, the SERP-CMSA trainings and Digital Green videos helped her learn the NPM practices, and then she started practicing them herself. This lent credibility to NPM among her peers. We have all NPM practices adopted on our one and a half acres of land, shaed Devamma proudly pointing to a corner of her field where she had created a Nadep compost pit.  She explained that she had used the compost created there recently for transplanting the latest crop of okra, which too she points out.

 

 

When people come to work in my field, they see all of it. When we sit together for lunch, we share our food. I share curries made of vegetables from my field. They instantly recognise that they taste deliciously different. That convinces them of the relevance of NPM, she adds.

 

 

 

Many farmers in and around Bukkaraya Samudram block cultivate vegetables to supply to Bengaluru and Hyderabad, the nearest metros. Vegetables often get some disease or other And the farmers spend a large amount of money on pesticides and fertilizers. Especially with vegetables like okra that have relatively short crop cycles, the use of pesticides and fertilizers is concentrated over a period of time and result in high toxicity of soil and crop. Our cluster activist showed us videos on the use of sour butter milk, neemastram (neem-kernal extract), and ghanajeevamrutham (bio-fertilizer) etc. After watching the video on sour-butter milk and its advantages, we adopted that practice. It really helped to cure the powdery mildew disease, shared Devamma. Before watching the Digital Green video, we had never known about the use of sour butter milk for pest control, added Devamma.

 

 

When asked whether her family has any debts, Devamma shares proudly that they didnt have any. In fact, she says they have a surplus of INR 30,000 in hand. When our farm investments have reduced so much, there is no question of borrowing money from others. We grow everything that we consume, she said showing us a small patch of land where she has sown onions, tomatoes, and drumsticks etc.

 

 

Anantapur, one of the most arid and drought affected districts in India, is often in the news due to high levels of agrarian distress. Despite being from the same district, Devammas story is different. My family depends solely on this small piece of land. We spend most of our time on the field. Cultivating vegetables gives us a regular income. As part of crop rotation, we also cultivate groundnut and tomato. By the time we finish harvesting the current okra crop, the next crop is ready to be harvested shared Devamma. Though she is a small farmer, her family is food secure and ensured a moderate income. Stories like Devammas may not be a panacea for larger agricultural concerns.

 

 

 

 

 

Pro-farmer policies, price guarantee, and stable markets are what make farmers lives easier. But, certainly, stories like Devammas may stand as an alternative in the midst of agricultural distress until we find a longer-term solution. As I walked back from her field, I was convinced that its this spirit of small farmers which needs to be celebrated and shared with the wider audiences again and again.

 

 

(The author of this case study wishes to acknowledge support from District Project Management Unit, SERP-CMSA, Anantapur, A.P., K.Masthan Vali, Assistant Program Manager, Digital Green)

 

 

 

Andhra Pradesh Rural Inclusive Growth Project (APRIGP) mobilizes farmers as producer groups to share knowledge on better agriculture practices, support each other in using cost-effective agriculture technologies and eventually market their produce at better prices as a collective. Many might think that this sounds too good to be true. I hope you would be able to believe the power of this process by the time you finish reading this post.

 

Digital Green has been working with Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP), which is a part of APRIGP program, since 2011, to amplify its non-pesticide management (NPM) extension. SERP works in 150 of the most backward mandals (revenue blocks) covering all 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh.

 

Digital Green uses its video-based information dissemination model to support SERP in its effort to popularize NPM in agriculture at the community level. Now, as part of APRIGP program, SERPs Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture (CMSA) Unit is entrusted with the responsibility of mobilizing farmers to form farmer producer groups. A producer group is an institution at the village level that brings farmers onto a common platform to make collective farming activities for improved livelihoods possible, while also keeping in mind collective interests of the farmers.

 

 

 

 

 

Building such an institution must follow a well laid-out procedure and also ensure farmers understand the motive behind formation of such producer groups. For this, SERP thought that Digital Greens video-based extension system would be a suitable method. Farmer producer groups, as a concept is quite new within India, barely a decade old.

 

When this was proposed to the Digital Green team we could see the immense benefit it could provide the farmers and making a video on farmer cooperatives and disseminating it at community level also seemed very possible. But, innovative farmer producer groups are rare to find at the community level. So we wondered how to make an instructional video. We could either work with professional actors to to demonstrate producer group formation or make a documentary listing out all processes in the formation of a farmer producer group; until we hit upon a better plan.

 

Centre for Collective Development (CCD), a not-for-profit organization working in Anantapur and Chittoor districts of Andhra Pradesh and in Adilabad district in Telangana has been organizing farmers into cooperatives and federations since last ten years. Its cooperative federation Sri Satyasai Raithu Paraspara Sahayaka Sahakara Parimita Samakkhya had organized groundnut farmers in Anantapur district. SERP & Digital Green approached CCD to help us in making a video on farmer producer group formation. CCD agreed and connected us to farmers in Settipalli village in Penukonda block, Anantapur district.

 

When we arrived at a community-gathering place in Settipalli for a briefing meeting, nearly 100 farmers had assembled at the scheduled time. Perhaps it was a manifestation of a cooperative work culture  meetings, schedules, consensus, and working together. We briefed them on the kind of video we were going to make and why. They were eager to support us in making the video. Settipalli groundnut farmers cooperative (named, Ramaswamy Raithu Paraspara Sahayaka Sahakara Parimita Sangham). Its president Sudhakar Reddy played a big role in motivating his fellow farmers in the meeting, Being a part of farmer producer cooperatives has reaped many benefits for us. Let us advocate our model to many others to follow, he said.

 

Settipalli is a beautiful village situated among the hills. Of its nearly 3000 strong population, 90% are small farmers cultivating groundnut as a major crop, however the area is arid and water for irrigation is very scarce. The farmers there believe a rain during the sowing season is a blessing from heaven. Most of them wake up at 4 in the morning, milk their cows by 6 am and take it to the village milk collection centre, come back home to take cattle for grazing, return home by 10 am from fields and have a light meal and wait for electricity. Like any other Indian village, electricity supply schedules determine their work hours in Settipalli. The day we reached Settipalli for video shooting, the electricity comes at 10 in the morning. Gopal Reddy, a farmer and actor in the video told us he had left his fieldwork to participate in the shooting. We needed about 100 farmers and had just about 50 farmers. Looking at this, Gopal Reddy and other farmers went house to house to gather people for our shoot. They really went out of their way to ensure the making of this video and soon we had a gathering of nearly 100 farmers to help us make the video.

 

Dialogue after dialogue were delivered and scene after scene was shot, the production team worked non-stop for nearly 7 hours. Observing the shooting cues, a little boy who was tending to his cattle close by, fed some fodder to his cow and said to the cow one, two, three action. A burst of laughter rung out at the shooting site.

 

Working with the farmers was a pleasure. The breadth and depth of their discussions and the solution orientation gave us more than a glimpse into the fact that they knew exactly what factors contributed to their problems and how they could be tackled. We realized that all they needed was some support to organize. The kind of support CCD offered them in the beginning.

 

When we returned to Settipalli after a month for a patch of shooting, farmers were in despair that a recent hailstorm has spoilt their groundnut at harvest stage. Sensing a doubt and with hesitation, we asked them for their time. They agreed without batting an eyelid and cooperated in shooting. Perhaps its only the strength of a farmer  looking at what they can do despite the despair. When we showed them the final video after a month, we could see a sense pride in the eyes of the Settipalli farmers.

 

 

 

 

This video is now being disseminated in every district of Andhra Pradesh. Thousands of farmers who have watched the video are captivated by what the Settipalli farmers have discussed and shown in the video and are eager to follow in their footsteps.

 

 

(The author of this blog wishes to acknowledge support from all farmers of Settipalli village, Killi Jayaram, SERP-CMSA, Andhra Pradesh, Taduri Surender, Program Manager, Digital Green, K Mastan Vali, Assistant Program Manager, Digital Green, Nataraj, Shankaraih, Vishwanatha Reddy from CCD.)

Somia devi, 46, a resident of Nikaspur village, Morwa block of Samastipur district, Bihar in India, owns a plot of 1 Kattha (1 acre is 22 kattha) were she grows a variety of vegetables. She was dependent on chemical fertilizers like DAP, Khali, Potash and Urea, which used to cost her around INR 1,000 -1,500 per season. Apart from this she also had to spend on insecticide and pesticide sprays. Despite all this investment, Somia devis land had dry soil, her produce remained of low quality and prone to frequent diseases.

 

 

 

 

 

This changed soon after she watched a video about zero investment farming created and disseminated with Digital Green and JEEViKAs support. The video, screened in her village in April 2015, demonstrated how a farmer could cultivate using organic fertilizers that could be made without extra input costs using materials like cow dung, hay etc. available in her home. Now Somia devi prepares Ghanjeevamrit (organic fertilizers) for her whole farm and when the vegetables start growing she sprays Agniashtra and Brahmastra (organic pesticides).

 

 

She says that the natural method has helped her by reducing input costs of buying chemical fertilizers and pesticides. At present, she has totally stopped use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides in her farm.

 

 

In a plot of 1 Kattha, she has planted more than 8 varieties of vegetables, namely Cauliflower, Brinjal, Pointed gourd, Chillies, Turmeric, Bitter gourd, Bottle gourd, Beans etc. She says Ghanjeevamrit keeps the soil light and helps it retain moisture, which in turn keeps the plants greener and healthier. The vegetables also taste good. I am really glad that I watched the videos on natural farming and have adopted it. Earlier, when I had only heard about this new method, I was quite unsure. I used to wonder if my field would adjust, but now after watching the video and farming by this method, I am very confident and also motivate others to adopt it. It was difficult for me to convince myself before I watched the video. 

 

 

Somia devi is very happy. “The money I save is handy in educating my son,” she shares. She feels proud that women of the village consider her a role model and people come to learn from her.

 

 

 

Changes, while they are the quintessence of life, are never easy to accept. Yet, there are some brave enthusiasts who have put their faith in new practices and helped prove the worth of those practices.

 

I witnessed one such example in a small village called Rajka Rampur of Samastipur district in Bihar where I met two women (sisters-in-law) who were part of a self-help group (SHG). They have been members of JEEViKA since February 2013 and encouraged many others to also join the initiative to improve their livelihood options. Usha and Reena started growing seven to eight vegetables in their kitchen garden measuring 2 katthas (where 1 acre is 22 katthas) in 2012.

 

 

 

 

 

In the Zaid cropping season of 2015 (between March to June or the Rabi and Kharif crops) they learned how to make Jeevamrut (an organic fertilizer made of cow dung and urine, jaggery etc) through a Digital Green video.

 

We grow creepers such as cucumber, pumpkin, parwal, bitter gourd and sponge gourd in the vegetable orchard using the scaffolds prepared from bamboo and plastic wires. We use the main plot for sowing spinach, elephant foot yam, Colocasia plant. Using these techniques, we have managed to grow seven to eight vegetables together in the single plot, shared Usha. Using organic fertilizers will ensure healthy plants and even the produce won’t be hazardous as they were when we were using chemical fertilizers, shared Reena, beaming while explaining.

 

 

 

 

 

The cost of chemical fertilizers applied on 2 katthas of land for the same was Rs. 1834 in 2014, where as for the organic fertilizer it was as low as Rs. 774 in 2015.

 

We have saved around Rs. 1000 as we didn’t purchase and apply urea, potash, DAP, Zinc or Phosphate in the field this time, added Usha Didi. The effort of applying such organic manure has paid off. The household has already generated Rs. 7,500 as revenue by selling the produce and expects more, up to Rs. 16,000 by end of September after household consumption.

 

I found the method convenient and the low budget required to prepare the organic fertilizer was enough to convince us, explained Usha with confidence. The men in their families have also seen the benefit of using organic fertilizers on their lands where they grow staple crops.

 

Both now have a common agenda they want to ensure application of Jeevamrut by as many people as possible in their SHG.