Nineteen-year-old Meenakshi was sure about the way forward, but she had to convince her husband. She tore a sheet of paper and asked him to sign it. It was an unusual contract. They would split the land they had leased for the season — about one-fourth of an acre. They would farm it in their own ways and see who makes more money at the end of the season. If Meenakshi won, her husband would shift to her way of farming.
It was summer of 2004 and Meenakshi, a landless tribal girl from Koduru village in the Srikakulum district of Andhra Pradesh, was convinced that the only way for her to change her debt-ridden life was by changing the way her family practiced agriculture. She was part of a women’s self-help group and had seen positive results of a cheaper, more sustainable way of farming that the group had been promoting.
As was the case with many farmers in Andhra Pradesh, Meenakshi’s family was always in debt. Farming was no longer remunerative and their meagre earnings were spent paying back the interest on the loans taken to purchase chemical pesticides and fertilizers, which accounted for over one-third of the total cost.
That summer, under the guidance of her self-help group, she used locally available resources like cow dung and traditional knowledge of controlling pests. She reaped a profit of about Rs. 15,000 — Rs. 5,000 more than her husband.
A Small Revival
Meenakshi’s stunning success was part of early experiments in a revolutionary approach to farming in Andhra Pradesh, called Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture (CMSA). Launched formally in 2005 by the Ministry of Rural Development in Andhra Pradesh, CMSA presents a bold alternative to conventional input-intensive agriculture in a state that has the highest consumption of pesticides and fertilizers in the country.
How the Model Works
Necessary, but not Sufficient
(This story appears in the 08 October, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
Fascinating Coincidence: An Organization founded and led by an ex-NRI (after 16 years outside the mother land, and now devoted full-time to this cause, traveling from one village to the next..) called \'Back to the Roots Project\' which is incidentally doing exactly this and more with a vision of creating self sustainable and healthy villages in Andhra - with the help of good-natured people willing to give a hand. He sends out regular updates to those in this google group. If you wish, you can write to him at backtotherootsproject@googlegroups.com. On a separate note :Yes, Indians need to quickly become aware of \'Monsanto\' and damaging effects of GMOs before the bill allowing such farming gets passed by the existing governance. (GMO crops and such have already taken the lives of several hundreds of farmers in Bihar alone, not to mention it is toxic food). Watch \'Future of food\' in youtube.
on Aug 15, 2013Shh!! be quiet and dont say it out loud. ...lest US corporations will raid india with all kinds of sanctions etc as they will not be able to sell the pesticides to India. Just like they killed a natural grains in India to propagate their GM grains.
on Aug 15, 2013The figures given are unbelievable figures of grain yield. Is Dr. Swaminathan involved in designing the programme? When zero pesticides are used, why are costs mentioned for it too?
on Oct 15, 2010The best model would be to adopt one village as a unit, apply this system for all crops of this village for all seasons. Just single attempts will not suffice. Run this project for five years continuously. One will understand the real problem in Indian agriculture. Only then one can find the real truth.
on Oct 12, 2010This is the way to farming going forward. There should be health benefits as well in using natural pesticides and fertilizers.
on Oct 7, 2010Why cannot the government, recognise this as provision of ecosystem services and adequately reward farmers instead of giving subsidies for fertilizers?
on Oct 15, 2010