Chetana Vikas Project Report 2011

What? Chetana-Vikas works with are dryland farmers On Low External Input Sustainable Agriculture Natural Resource Management Appropriate science & technology and indigenous knowledge.

Where? Micro Level – 100 villages of Wardha District in Maharashtra Macro Level – Resource Centre for Sustainable Development for groups, organizations, action fronts, activists, networks government officers, scientists and policy making agencies in India and abroad.

How? More proper and higher productivity, profitability, stability and sustainability. Promotion of self-reliant, decentralized and organic technologies; ecologically sound, economically viable Appropriate distribution of food, automatically attained because of inbuilt consumption by the producers. An empowered, scientific, knowledgeable rural community as augmenters and ‘driving wheels’ of mainstream development in India.

Strategy A.Strengthening farm foundation 1.Enhancing Water Resources in villages and in farmer fields. 2.Addressing farming techniques 3.Appropriate seed and manure. 4.Alternative marketing and Processing systems; Storage of produce. 5.Human Resource Development, esp. people with special talents and capacities. 6.Gender mainstreaming in Agriculture. B.Bringing home the message 1.Farmer field Workshops and Dissemination of Knowledge-Attitudes & Skills. 2.Documentation & monitoring and evaluation. 3.Exposure and study for ongoing improvements; Technical consultations. 4.Emphasizing at policy and advocacy level.

Target Demographics 0 to 5 acre land holding-34% 5 to 20 acre land holding-63% Above 20 acre land holding-03% Schedule Caste (SC)-06% Schedule Tribes (ST)-22% Other backward castes (OBC)-69% Others-03%

Activities at a Glance High-Internal-Regeneration of Inputs AND Low–External-Input Sustainable Agriculture Practices Conservation of water & soil and creating “Village Engineers (VEs)” Seeds & Planting Material : Alternative Marketing Systems with Participatory Guarantee Scheme (PGS) as the main vehicle of marketing organic produce Plant Protection & Crop Protection Human Resource Development and Farmers’ Field Workshops Macro-level outreach and Macro linkages; advocacies, liaison, network, surveys, studies, documentation etc

2011 ACTIVITIES HIGHLIGHTS

Alternative Marketing The year was a bad agriculture year with almost 80% of villages of the district declared as scarcity hit. Other than cotton, whatever food crops were obtained were kept for home consumption. The villagers’ committee formed to assess, plan and execute the purchase and sale of organic produce decided to go ahead and buy the small amount of cotton since there were buyers for it. Even if small, the farmers got 20% premium price more than the prevalent market rate for cotton.

Cotton Processing These smaller ginning machines run as small scale entrepreneurships. The cotton is put into the machine and processed.

Soil and Water Conservation Demand by villagers for field based watershed development – 195 acres Work done by village engineers – in the fields, 144 acres have been covered with Inside-the-Field 98 contour bunds or graded bunds constructed by Village Engineers. Number of villagers with whom field demos established – 32

Soil and Water Conservation The role and functioning of a field based earthen structure as a watershed bund being understood by villagers (seen clearly in the above picture). 91 such bunds came up in 32 farmers’ fields. The total length constructed was 9,417 meters.

Women Engineers Involving the women Village-Engineers is a challenging task. All efforts are made so that they can work on a equal level with men engineers. Every effort is made to keep the atmosphere conducive for a positive gender interaction.

Beej Swaraj Seeds of 21 different varieties of food crops were procured by 44 villagers. The quantity was 219 Kg. The rest of the seeds needed were stored in the farmers homes – a case of self reliance in seeds. The seeds of non-edible crop of cotton were also procured. These cotton seeds are usually straight line, non-genetically-modified seeds.

Farming for Self-reliance 59 farmers from 7 villages had taken up creating demos of farming for self reliance in 7 villages on 121 acres. Of these, 14% are women farmers and 86% are men farmers. All the farmers, on an average, had sown at least 21 different food crops as consortium of companion crops, apart from the cash crops, fodder crops and fibre crops. In all, the farmers were saved from the shackles of mountains of debts of the order of about Rs.8,000 to 10,000 per acre. The rainfall was very erratic in its distribution and at many places the farmers had to abandon their fields. Yet, about 13% of total number of farmers who were monitored have shown a net income of Rs.3,840 per acre. Although less, on an average, every farmer could get about 115 quintal of food crops, with diversity, for home consumption, even in this bad year. At least 3 new neighboring villages with 15 new villagers have come forward with an appeal to start farming for self reliance in their villages.

ASHA Hosted and co-organized a two day National Consultation of ASHA at Chetana-Vikas - ASHA Retreat on Ecological Farming