Bharat Ratna C Subramaniam's dream of transforming agriculture needs a push

Raghupati, a farmer in Kanchipuram district in Tamil Nadu standing in the midst of his SRI rice field  

Raghupati is a new age farmer. Based 105-kms from Chennai in Tamil Nadu, he farms 4 acres of irrigated land in Sirunagar in Kanchipuram district. Speaks a little bit of English, and when he told me that the farmers' club he chairs -- Sirunagar Farmers' Club -- was awarded for best performance by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) I was not only curious but also keen to know.

The club has 17 volunteers who reach out to more than 70 farmers in the village. But that's not the only thing that is important. What is more important is the willingness with which he has been experimenting with new farming practices turning the polluted landscape into a verdant, healthy and ecologically-sustainable landscape. More keen to know about the farming practices he followed, I walked with him across the crop fields. His face beamed with pride when he showed me the healthy looking traditional rice varieties (white ponni is the rice variety) he cultivates on his farm, and that too adopting the System of Rice Intensification (popularly called as SRI) method of cultivation.

I asked, what was so special about SRI? Doesn't it require a lot of labour and seed as a result of which the cost of cultivation goes up? No, he replied. It's a wrong impression being created. Raghupati told me that SRI has resulted in 1/3rd saving of water and simultaneously an increase of 50 per cent in crop productivity. The seed requirement has come down from 30 kg/acre to 5kg/acre, and there is no additional labour required. Against an application of about 75 kg of urea per acre he has completely stopped its use while he has been able to scale down the usage of DAP fertiliser from 3 bags to one bag now.

When I told him that I don't believe your claims about input applications, he challenged me to talk to any of the farmers who now cultivate a total of 50 acres of paddy in this village. His argument is that farmers have shifted to the use of panchkavya, neem oil, cow urine based plant bio-pastes that have been effective source of major and trace nutrients and at the same time act as insect repellents. No pesticides are being used by those farmers who are members of the club.

The claims were endorsed by Mr M R Ramasubramaniyam, Executive Director of the National Agro Foundation (NAF), who along with his colleague Mr Murugan, accompanied me to the village. I have now requested them to prepare a case study of SRI in rice cultivation for all the villages in Kanchipuram district that the Foundation works in.

National Agro Foundation was set up by the late C.Subramaniam, awarded Bharat Ratna, who many consider to be the real architect of the Green Revolution. Set up in 2000, the NAF has now completed 14 years. "It was Subramaniam's dream," his son, S S Rajsekar, who is the Managing Trustee, tells me "to set up a training centre that helps take the farmers take the next logical step -- from seed to the market." The NAF now works 'directly or indirectly' in some 250 villages in Tamil Nadu besides providing services in food safety and agriculture, which includes vocational training for confectioners, hawkers and bankers.

At another village, Kamsalapuram, located about 85 kms from Chennai, I met a young and enthusiastic farmer, Thiruvengadam. He cultivates 5 acres of land in which he grows rice, brinjal, onion and chillies and also has a few native breed animals. He heads a 30-member volunteer farmers club, which reaches out to about 100 farming families in the village. Although his village has mainly small farmers, owning 1 to 1.5 acres each, the applicationn of chemical pesticides has been reduced by 50 per cent on vegetables. Instead, farmers now apply chilli+garlic+ginger paste sprayed two times to ward off worms. Plus, for sucking pest control they prepare a five leave extract, which includes leaves of datura, neem, nochi, and tumbai.

I asked Thiruvengadam how much has training helped him to become a better farmer. "What I am doing today is because of the training I got." How many times have you gone to NAF training centre, I asked. "Must be some 40 times", he replied. Accordingly, the continuous training system has helped them move to a more sustainable farming practices which has provided the fellow farmers with increased income in their hand.

Visiting the watershed village of Nugumbul village, some 100 kms from Chennai, reminded me of the famed Sukho-majri village in Haryana, which has completely transformed the village, from a typical drought affected poverty-stricken village to a prosperous village. At Nugumbul, Mr Murugan explained to me how adopting the simple water conservation techniques like gully plugging, water absorption trenches and check dams has changed the village profile. Earlier, water-melon was the major crop, and now it is rice. 100 per cent crop cultivation is now being done in this village, up from 50 er cent earlier.

The community-based water harvesting systems adopted in 4 villages by NAF has helped save 28,000 lakh litres of water in a year, changing the fate of 850 villages.

Although, the NAF has a lot of activities in food and nutrition security, women empowerment, technology transfer, veterinary, horticulture, farm machinery and water management etc, it hasn't been able to communicate its role with the people at large as well as the policy makers. Not many outside its direct association are aware of the role NAF has been quietly playing in rural transformation. Since the research and training infrastructure has already been created, and is operational, it is time to turn the NAF centre into a multi-purpose training and development centre. It has to move to the next logical step of opening up to the masses, including colleges and university students, and taking a bigger role in training and education, which can be better coordinated by not only collaborative efforts with ICAR/CSIR/banks but also with civil society groups/NGOs/colleges. Media could have been used as a strong ally in reaching out.

NAF needs a complete re-orientation in the way it has been working so far. More documentation of the work accomplished, periodic assessment studies, case studies and analysis in its areas of operations need to be published and shared. Finances are a constraint for everyone who is engaged in rural development, but a little more imagination and vision could have turned NAF into a household name. Perhaps that is what C Subramaniam envisaged. #

British agriculture is headed for a doom. Time to shed the false pride and learn sustainable farming from India.

British agriculture has to undergo a radical transformation if it has to survive. 

Pic by Telegraph

Some years back I was at a dinner meeting hosted by the then British Secretary of State for International Development, Hilary Benn, in London. Among those present were a select group of leaders of charities and people’s organisations working on sustainable agriculture, biodiversity, environment and worker rights. The discussion was broadly on how Britain could extend help to developing countries in promoting sustainable agriculture and food security.

After the first round of discussions, Hilary Benn turned to me. Being the only outsider at the meeting, he asked me how I perceive Britain’s role in promoting sustainable agriculture in developing countries. In a sense the question related to my expectations from the DFID, the department responsible for promoting development and the reduction of poverty. If I recall correctly, I replied: “I don’t understand how UK can help India in promoting sustainable agriculture. Your own agriculture being ecologically and environmentally devastated, please tell me how is DFID qualified enough to teach us sustainable agriculture?” 

It took some moments for Hilary Benn to understand the implications of what I was trying to say. He quipped: “Well, I get your point. In that case what do you expect British DFID to do?” My answer was simple. I told him that aid should be a two way channel. Instead of imposing the British development agenda, it was time DFID invited some farmers from India and make them go around the country educating farmers and educationists and thereby create awareness about the importance and need for sustainable farming practices. 

As you would have guessed my suggestion never received a second thought. But if Hilary Benn, and also some of the agricultural experts present at the dinner, had actually ignored the national pride tag that they were wearing on their sleeves and launched a serious effort to resurrect British agriculture, the doomsday warning could have been easily averted. A study by the University of Sheffield warns of a serious 'agricultural crisis' unless dramatic action is taken. (Britain has only 100 harvest left .. http://ind.pn/1ySqLt9)

The Sheffield study only establishes what I have been saying for long. British agriculture is one of the most intensively farmed, and of course one of the most devastated. With cultivated soil turning infertile, researchers found that soils in urban parks and kitchen gardens were much healthier. "Allotment soil had 32% more organic carbon, 36% higher carbon to nitrogen ratios, 25% higher nitrogen and was significantly less compacted."  

Britain, like many other countries, is encouraging people to farm in the available urban places. Citizens are allowed to apply for allotment plots -- small patches in urban centres where they can grow food for themselves and their families. Currently there is a waiting list of 90,000 people wanting allotment plots. Interestingly, unlike the corporate farms,  the small scale producers know the importance of maintaining soil health and therefore tend the gardens to maintain an ecological balance. With the rural landscape turning unhealthy, the hope now rests on the urban farming. 

But peri-urban agriculture may not be enough. Britain will sooner or later have to revert back to restoring its soil health. It is therefore high time that Britain sheds its false pride in agricultural superiority, and learns from countries which have shown an agro-ecological pathway. It's time DFID becomes a channel to draw from the expertise of ecological farmers from countries like India. There is nothing to feel ashamed. If only Hilary Benn had seen the merit in my argument, perhaps we could have identified a group of smart farmers from India who could have helped British agriculture to regenerate. It isn't too late even now. 

Further reading: Climate change provides the right opportunity to reorient agriculture..

http://devinder-sharma.blogspot.in/2014/09/climate-change-provides-right.html

No pesticides, No Bt, No Pests

http://indiatogether.org/punukula-op-ed

An 11-point agenda for resurrecting Indian agriculture and restoring the pride in farming

 Time to usher in "Acche din..." for the Indian farmers.

Indian agriculture is faced with a terrible agrarian crisis. It is a crisis primarily of sustainability and economic viability. The severity of the crisis can be gauged from the spate of farm suicides. In the past 17 years, close to 3 lakh farmers reeling under mounting have preferred to commit suicide. Another 42 per cent want to quit agriculture if given a choice.  The spate of farmer suicide and the willingness of farmers to quit agriculture is a stark reminder of the grim crisis.

Even at a time when the country was in the midst of elections, there was a spurt in farm suicides. In the past few weeks, on an average five farmers ended their lives in Vidharbha every day, another five in Telengana, three in Bundelkhand. In Marathawada in Maharashtra, news report say 101 farmers have taken their own lives in March-April. In progressive Punjab, 14 farmers have ended their lives in past two months.

 

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi blames UPA for the plight of jawanand kisan during the past 10 years, he raises a lot of hope for the beleaguered farming community. During election campaigning, he had specifically talked of farmer suicides, farm prices, crisis in agricultural marketing and also touched on local agricultural issues in different parts of the country. After all, kisano ke bhi to aache din aane chahiye …

What should therefore be the agriculture agenda for the new government? What should be the strategies and approaches that Narendra Modi has to follow to pull farmers out of the deep morass? Knowing very well that India cannot compromise with its food self-sufficiency, there has to be a number of short-term as well as long-term measures. I am being asked this question time and again. Here is my 11-point agenda:

 

1) Providing a guaranteed assured monthly income to farmers. According to the Arjun Sengupta Committee report the average monthly income of a farm family is Rs 2,115. This includes Rs 900 from non-farm activities. About 60 per cent farmers are dependent on MNREGA activities to survive, and an estimated 55 per cent farmers go to bed hungry. But these farmers produce economic wealth for the country in the form of agricultural, horticultural and dairy produce. It is high time they are adequately compensated for generating that massive economic wealth in the form of food. My suggestion is that the new government should set up a National Farmers Income Commission which should have the mandate to compute the monthly income of a farm family depending upon his production and the geographical location of the farm.

2) The time for price policy is now over. Every time the Minimum Support Price (MSP) is raised questions are asked about its impact on food inflation. Moreover, the Bali Ministeral of WTO has questioned India's subsidies that it provides to farmers by way of MSP. It is therefore an appropriate time to move from Price policy to Income policy. The income that a farmer earn should be de-linked from the price that his crops fetch in the market. That is why I have been asking for a guaranteed monthly income for for farmers. Let us not forget, if inflation is rising it is also rising for the farmers. While the Govt employees get DA instalments every 6 months to compensate for inflation, and get a pay commission every few year, farmers get only MSP and that too is un-remunerative. In an interesting study from Kerala, it was computed that if paddy price rise was to match the salary rise of govt officials, paddy price in 2005 should have been Rs 2669/qntl. It's Rs 1,310 today. In other words what paddy farmers are getting in 2014 as paddy price is 50 per cent of what they should have earned 9 years ago.

The burden of providing cheap food therefore to 1.25 billion people should not be only on the shoulders of farmers. The society too must share the burden.

3) There is an immediate need to strengthen the network of mandis (market yards) across the country whisch provides farmers with a platform to sell their produce. Leaving it to markets will result in distress sale. To illustrate, let me take the example of rice farmers in Punjab and Bihar. In Punjab, which has a huge network of mandis linked with roads, farmers bring the produce to these mandis. Last harvest, Punjab farmers got an MSP of Rs 1,310 per quintal for paddy. In Bihar, where APMC Act does not operate, farmers resorted to distress sale with prices not exceeding Rs 900 per quintal. The Commission for Costs and Prices (CACP) is now pressurising Punjab Govt to dismantle the mandis and let markets operate. Which means, Punjab farmers will soon go the Bihar way.

4) For a country which was able to build up an excellent marketing network for one of the most perishable commodities -- milk -- I see no reason why a similar approach cannot be adopted in providing a viable marketing network for fruits and vegetables. If the National Dairy Development Programme could ensure that milk is procured from each and every village, and then through a cooperative chain it is finally delivered to the consumers in the cities, I see no reason why India cannot carve out a marketing chain for fruits, vegetables and other farm commodities.

5) Cooperate farming need to be encouraged. Appropriate laws must be framed to make cooperatives more independent and effective. Drawing from the experience of the Amul cooperative in dairy farming, a similar system needs to be adopted for vegetables/fruit farming. I know of small cooperatives of organic farmers which have done wonders. Why can't it be replicated to rest of the crops?

6) Aim at making villages self-reliant in agriculture and food security. Feeding the population has to be linked with farming. Chhatisgarh has given an excellent model of self-reliance in agriculture and food security. It has shifted the focus to local production, local procurement and local distribution. This is exactly what needs to be done throughout the country for which the National Food Security Act needs an amendment. Instead of providing 5 kg of wheat/rice/millets every month, the focus should be on making the villages take care of their own food security needs. This will help reduce the huge subsidy bill on food security that is required every year and thereby reduce fiscal deficit. Such a programme will also help in removing hunger in the long term.

7) Green Revolution areas of the country are facing a crisis in sustainability. With soil fertility devastated, water table plummeting and environment contaminated with chemical pesticides and fertiliser, the resulting impact on the entire food chain and human health is being increasingly felt. The new Government should launch a nation-wide campaign to shift farming to non-pesticides management techniques. In Andhra Pradesh, no chemical pesticides are used in 35 lakh acres. Farmers have even stopped using chemical fertiliser in some 20 lakh hectares. Production has gone up, pesticides pollution has come down, insects attack has also come down, and more importantly farm incomes have gone up by 45 per cent because of reduced health expenses. There has been no farm suicides in these areas. The same system now needs to be extrapolated to the entire country with local modifiations/adaptation.

8) Agriculture, dairy and forestry should be integrated. Agricultural growth should not only be measured in terms of increase in foodgrain production but should be seen in the context of the village eco-system as a whole. This will also shift the focus to low external input sustainable agriculture (LEISA) practices. At the same time such an approach will limit the ecological footprint.

9) Importing food is importing unemployment. Recently, apple growers in Himachal Pradesh have been protesting against the low import tariffs for imported apples as a result of which the local produce goes abegging. There are no buyers for Himachal apples, and the prices have plummeted . Similarly for other crops. The Govt must raise the import duties on agriculture, horticulture and dairy products and refuse to buckle under the pressures being exerted through the Free Trade Agreements. It should not accept the European Union's demand for opening up for dairy products and fruits/vegetables by reducing the import duties. Studies have now shown that indiscriminate signing of FTAs and bilateral agreements has been disadvantageous to the country. Time to revisit the trade treaties and protect domestic agriculture thereby millions of livelihoods.

10) Climate change is certainly going to affect agriculture. But instead of looking at strategies only aimed at  lessening the impact on agriculture and making farmers cope with the changing weather patterns, the focus should also be to limit greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. Considering that agriculture share in greenhouse gas emissions is about 25 per cent, the thrust must shift to reducing the application of chemical fertiliser/pesticides in farming. Following the AP model of non-pesticides management being the right approach, the cropping pattern too needs a revision. In the dryland regions of the country, for instance, at present hybrid crops which required almost twice the amount of water than normal crop varieties, are grown. Common sense tells us that in rainfed regions, which occupy 65 per cent of the cultivable area, crops requiring less water should be grown. But it is just the opposite in reality thereby accentuating the water crisis at times of rainfall delay.

I see no reason why Rajasthan, a semi-arid region, should be cultivating water guzzling sugarcane, cotton and rice crops. Similarly I see no reason why Bundelkhand should be cultivating mentha crops, which requires 1.25 lakh litres of water to produce 1 kg of mentha oil. Why can't the cropping pattern in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh shift to pulses, oilseeds (like mustard) and millets? Why can't the Goovt provide special incentives by way of a higher price for these crops so that farmers can willingly shift to more sustainable cropping patterns?

11) Lack of storage for foodgrains is appalling. It was in 1979 that under the Save Food Campaign, the Govt had promised to set up grain silos at 50 places in the country. This should be the top agenda for the new government. Not even a single grain should be allowed to go waste. #

One small step towards chemical-free agriculture

For quite sometime now there has been a silent resurgence in sustainable farming practices across the country. After the environmental destruction wrought by the chemical-based external input driven agriculture for almost four decades now, I find a large percentage of farmers trying whatever they can to salvage the situation. While on the one hand I can count a sizable number of progressive farmers in different parts of the country who discarded chemical-based farming system (and some of them were even awarded and honoured for achieving record yields) and opted for more sustainable farming practices, there is quite a significant proportion of the farming community which has moved away from the Green Revolution approach to farming.

Call it organic agriculture or natural farming or holistic farming or whatever variation you can think of, the fact remains that Low External Input-based Sustainable Agriculture (LEISA) is now being increasingly adopted. Innovative farmers are trying all kinds of permutations and combinations, and I am really amazed at the extent of wisdom our farmers carry. I am not going to list here the innovations being applied, but all I can say is that the mainline agricultural research system would certainly be the gainer if they were to move out of the 'lab-to-land' approach and follow the reverse mode of 'land-to-lab'.

For quite sometime I had wondered if I could ever bring some of these innovative leaders together on a platform and chart out a strategy to put this all together and spread it across the country in a mission mode. I am aware of the reluctance on the part of the agriculture universities as well as the policy makers to extend a helping hand. At the same time, I was also aware of the limitations that the civil society has. Although several groups/individuals are spearheading the silent movement in their own way, but given the monumental constraints that prevail, it isn't moving ahead at a pace I would have expected.

At my own level I had discussed the possibility of forming a consortium with like-minded groups/farmer organisations to spread sustainable farming practices far and wide and to even the remote corners but somehow it didn't work out. It was then that I met the Yoga Guru Swami Ramdev who is better known for the monumental role he has played in promoting healthy living through yoga. Healthy living is directly related to healthy food, which in turn is directly proportionate to cultivation of healthy crops. Over the period, we discussed the possibility of laying out sustainable farming models, where soil, water and food is not poisoned, and then preparing an outreach programme through regular training and learning exercises.

The New Year provided an opportunity. 14 well-known practitioners in sustainable farming methods assembled at Haridwar (at the foothills of the Himalayas) for deliberations which continued non-stop for 4 days. We would sit from 9 in the morning and the discussions would go on till 8.30 in the evening. Such was the intensity of deliberations and the commitment to the cause that even after dinner the participants would once again assemble for an informal round of discussions. Well, to cut the long story short, it has now been decided to layout three models of chemical-free farming, each catering to the requirement of farmers who farm in one acre, two acres and five acres. Once the farming system comes up in Haridwar, we would throw it open to farmers to adopt and improve upon depending upon their local conditions and requirements. This would simultaneously be followed with preparations for a nationwide training programme, which too would depend upon the need and the requirement of different regions.

The plots were selected, earmarked and soil preparations began the day the deliberations ended. Soil samples have been drawn, and we are now getting ready for the next step. Meanwhile, a week-by-week action plan has been laid out, and the package of practices to be immediately followed is also being worked out, and improved with each passing day. Soon after Swami Ramdev made public the initiative on Aastha TV channel, I have been deluged with requests and support from hundreds of people from across the country. Let us hope that this small initiative galvanises the country to move away from 'business as usual' in agriculture, and ends up promoting healthy farming. I am looking for the day when agriculture does not lead to suicides, does not push farmers into distress, and above all does not usurp the natural resources. The Haridwar initiative is a small step, and I am aware we have a long journey ahead. #

Earthworm can revive global agriculture. Is Bill Gates listening?

Chhatrapati Shahi Munda in his vermicompost unit

He went to the Central Institute for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP) at Lucknow way back in 2002 for a training in medicinal plants, but was attracted to the lowly earthworms. "I thought what is the use of cultivating medicinal plants by poisoning my soil with chemical fertilisers," he said, and added: "I therefore thought of turning my soil itself into a medicine by getting it rid of all the poisons."

"If my soil is good and healthy, my plants too would be healthy and nutritious," Chhatrapati tells me, and I can see the gleam in his eyes.

For the 65-year-old Chhatrapati Shahi Munda, a resident of village Nawagraha, some 40 kms outside Ranchi in Jharkhand, this was the beginning of a journey into the discovery of truth. The truth is that we have forgotten to tend our soils, to rejuvenate the soil micro-organisms, to provide a breathing space to the gasping soils, and in other words to infuse life in the dying soils. "A healthy soil becomes the ultimate medicine. The path to sustainability in farming therefore begins by keeping the soil healthy."

In 2002, Chhatrapati bought 2 kg of earthworms -- the exotic Eisinia fotida species --from the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR). He started using the worms for composting, and gradually started selling earthworms as well as vermicompost to neighbouring farmers. Six years later, in 2008, he had a turnover of Rs 75-lakh (Rs 7.5 million) from vermicompost, producing about 2.5 tonnes of compost every year.

"I want to encourage farmers to take to their own vermicomposting. Instead of buying from me, I feel the best way forward is to educate them to take care of their own needs. So I give them earthworms with the condition that when they multiply the worms, they will return what I gave them." This has caught up with farmers in the neighbouring villages. He sells earthworm for 25 paise/worm. Farmers in at least 10 surrounding villages have adopted vermicomposting.

Not only in Jharkhand, the message is spreading far and wide. His company -- Sarvashree Swarnarekha Enterprises -- is marketing it to Orissa, West Bengal and Assam. "I am keen to ensure that more and more farmers get out of the chemical input trap and stop poisoning their soils." Farmers are realising the mistake they committed all these years, and are slowly but steadily switching over to the sustainable option. The crop yields have gone up by almost double, Chhatrapati claims, and adds that the soils have become rich and porous, the food becoming nutritious. "Take a bite into this," he hands me a maize cob from a nearby field, "you will taste the difference."

How much vermicompost is needed per acre, I asked. "Ideally, 3 quintals (300 kgs) is required to be used in the first year in soils where no chemical fertiliser has been applied. And then every year, your requirement comes down by 20 per cent or so. After a stage, all that you require is 25 kg of vermicompost." For a farm where chemical fertiliser has been used, Chattrapati's advise is to apply 20 quintals (2000 kgs) in the first year. 

A bag of 50 kg of vermicompost is priced at Rs 300.

Going around his manufacturing unit, I found Chattrapati trying various innovations. For instance, he has put a layer of bamboo-sticks at the base of the compost pit to protect it from the acidic water that accumulates at the bottom. He also mixes water Hyacinth leaves with cowdung so as to enhance the availability of nitrogen for the worms. Each compost heap laid out in 30x4 ft carries over 100,000 worms, and is ready for composting in 60-90 days.

Why in 60 days, I asked him. He explained: "In 30 days, each worm gives about 10 eggs. It takes about 22 days for the eggs to hatch. So the egg which is delivered on the 30th day needs another 22 days to hatch, which means 52 days. Taking a safe buffer period, I ensure that the compost should be ready for packaging on the 60th day."

For the next two days, I was to travel to Daltonganj (now called Midinanagar) in Palamu district for a talk and also visiting some farmer groups/NGOs. Chattrapati accompanied me, and that gave me the advantage of knowing more about vermicomposting. Interestingly, such was the growing demand for the vermicompost he produces that he got an order for 20 tonnes while we were in travel. "The demand is growing. I am unable to meet the growing demand, and that is why I am keen that more farmers should start cultivating earthworms on their own farms."

We were travelling to meet some of the students of the Chakriya Vikas Pranali (Cyclic Model of Development) that the late Parshu Ram Mishra had initiated a decade back. As someone who had the privilege to know and work with Parshu Ram Mishra from the days of famed Sukho-majri environmental success story of Haryana, I was returning to Palamu to revive my memories, remember the great social scientist and at the same time rekindle the spirit of cooperation that he had imbibed, but which had slowed down over the years.

The response was overwhelming. In my three hours of interaction with people coming in from various villages, I realised that people were willing to take development into their own hands. With a couple of hours, after intense discussions, six people volunteered to initiate a people's programme in their own villages to conserve water and stop the run-off at the village level. This is important considering that Palamu is passing through a severe drought for the third year in a row. A team was formed, two coordinators were nominated, and the next day the entire group met again to lay out an action plan.

Along with water conservation, the other major problem the region faces is hunger. I asked them why people cannot take control over house-hold food security in a village. Why do we have to depend upon government doles when the region itself had a traditional sharing-and-caring food security concept of gola. Again, I was floored when volunteers got up to restart the gola concept. Jugnu, a tribal coming from a village near Ranchi, along with Devender Thakur, a disciple of Parshu Ram Mishra, have promised to start a food distribution centre in their own village based on the principles of gola. They have themselves prescribed a timeline of a month.

Additional Conservator of Forests Ajay Mishra is so bitten by the advantages vermicomposting carries that he has in addition promised to start a farmers cooperative. "Jatka village in Palamu district has come forward to start producing 100 tonnes of vermicompost on a cooperative basis. Two other villages will soon follow," he told me. Ajay Mishra is the son of late Parsu Ram Mishra. All participants agreed that a combination of water conservation methods, sustainable farming by encouraging vermicomposting and cattle rearing, along with house-hold food security is the way forward to emerge out of the perpetual crisis the region faces.

What is clearly apparent is that people do know of the local solutions to local problems. Given a motivation, they are willing to dwell deeper and build up on the traditional and time-tested technologies. I am sure we could probably have had more stimulating discussions and come up with more viable and sustainable options if we had spent more time. In the days to come, the Chakriya Vikas team will look into it more diligently.

I only wish Bill Gates was listening. At the national level, and even at the international level, the development model that is being pushed is based on the sophisticated technologies that the private companies are looking forward to sell. Whether it is Africa or Asia, Bill Gates is now on the forefront and he has even been successful in bringing some of the other billionaires into the development activities. This is certainly welcome, but the litmus test lies in what technologies and approaches are followed. This is where I think Bill Gates has to widen his understanding, and look at the vast array of location-specific and time-tested technologies that can be woven into a social fabric that engulfs the rural areas with happiness.

I am sure the lowly earthworm can help chart the pathway to a truly sustainable agriculture system that does not add to global warming, does not poison the soils, and does not finish groundwater supplies.

We need the earthworm to revive agriculture.

You can reach Chhatrapati at: 09431578590