New Delhi, Oct 28 (HS): Andhra Pradesh has long experience of large scale programme on sustainable agriculture, in the past i.e., Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture. The large scale programme of Government of Andhra Pradesh aiming to shift 6 million farmers from chemical farming to natural farming has attracted the attention of the many.
The newly launched Climate Resilient Zero Budget Natural Farming (CRZBNF) programme aims at internalising the input use, maximising the land use and increasing soil organic matter by adopting various agroecological approaches. The programme is also unique in terms of using experienced farmers as resource persons and program managed through the community institutions. Three years of its implementation, with the engagement of many Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), Research and UN bodies provides fertile ground for understanding the challenges in scaling up of alternative agriculture extension programme, as solution to current economic and ecological crisis in agriculture.
In order to strengthen this initiative, the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) engaged in this programme are looking forward for the learnings from the experiences of others from across the country.
Objective: In this context, CSOs have invited NGOs, academicians, practitioners, researchers and journalists from across the country to come and see the programme on the ground and seek their suggestions for further strengthening the programme.
The 3-day (12th Nov to 14th Nov) travel workshop at Accion Fraterna Ecology Centre, Anantapuramu, Bangalore in Karnataka will cover various dimensions of the programme like: farmer to farmer extension model, adoption of various agro ecological practices, response of the farmers and initial results, integrating research and science in the programme, resource requirements and mobilising the resources for the programme.
Hosting team and others who are part of the programme are very keen on learning from the experiences of various grounded models from across the country and look for long term engagement.
Host organisations: Centre of Sustainable Agriculture (CSA), WASSAN, Accion Fraterna Ecology Centre.
Participants: About 25 Practitioners of agro ecology, Academicians, Researchers, Policy analysts and Journalists.
Schedule of the workshop: Field visits and interaction with farmers: both chemical and natural farming practitioners / CRPs/ Natural Farming Fellows/ input shops and women sanghas and farmer producer organisations and bio diversity blocks. Interaction with the thematic teams, CSOs, Rytu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS), and Azim Premji Philantropic Initiatives (APPI) who are engaged in ideating and grounding the programme; and feedback from the participants and plans for long term engagement.
