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India faces
increasing degradation of its national resource To counter this
alarming reality, CWS, along with CSA, WASSAN and CPF promotes
protection of degraded village common lands to make them productive
(currently more than 30,000 acres of wasteland is protected by
network partners). More than 5000 acres of land has been made
productive over the last three years. Gender concerns are
mainstreamed in the program. Alternative food security model is
implemented in more than 1200 acres providing household food
security.
CWS
supports communities to take control of forest resources to protect
and develop for improved productivity. Social regulation of water
resources is being promoted in Andhra Pradesh. CWS continues to
influence and debate policy to prevent flood and water logging in
the Gangetic region of Bihar.
Implementation of
Sustainable Agriculture during 2004-05
During the year sustainable agriculture was taken up in 3507 acres
of land with 1763 farmers with nine partners in Adilabad, Khammam,
Mahboobnagar, Medak, Nalgonda and Warangal. The program was mainly
focused on making agriculture more knowledge centric than input
centric. Non-pesticidal Management (NPM) of insects and diseases
using farmers’ knowledge, management skills and labour in lieu of
the chemicals along locally available bio resources is important
component in this program.
It
also focused on encouraging farmers to shift to organic nutrient
management system using vermicompost, neem powder, Karanj powder,
crop rotation/multiple cropping etc. Developing farmer seed models
where in a famer or a group of farmers together would take up
village level seed production to ensure good quality seed within the
community.
Mainstreaming into Government Rural Development Program, Indira
Kranthi Padam-NPM upscaling in A.P.
A.P. is the largest pesticide consuming state in the country.
Realising this, SERP has taken up NPM (Society for Elimination of
Rural Poverty) (Non pesticidal Management) of insect pests in field
crops through women self help groups in 12 districts in the state.
The Program’s unique features
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Focus on enhancing the knowledge base of the farmers in ecology
and pest control.
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The focus is on effective usage of local resources, conserving the
natural processes to reduce the dependency on external commercial
inputs.
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A
large scale effort is initiated wean away people from chemical
pesticides and promote more eco friendly agriculture.
The Main Objectives of the Program
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To
carry out a large scale campaign on the problems with and
alternatives to chemical pesticides
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To
build technical and managerial capacities of the local team in
handling these programs i.e., developing resources persons for
scaling up
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To
develop appropriate communication material and cadre for further
scaling up
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To
encourage marketing and credit support including incentives
towards sustainable agricultural produce
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To
establish a network of farmers at state level
Outreach of Sustainable Agriculture Program
The outreach of sustainable agriculture through partner
organizations (NGOs) has covered 2888 acres in 42 villages covering
six districts through 56 training programs. The farmers involved
were 1268 of which 605 are women. CSA program staff, partner NGO
coordinators, farmers have participated as resource persons in this
work. |
