IMPRESSIONS

CSY 20- Hanimireddy palle to Laxmampalli-Ananthapur dist.
This is my third shodhayatra. Before yatra, I was contemplating on making decision as to should I attend the yatra or not due to work pressure. After some thought I realized that my personality in the last 2 years has been mostly shaped through experiences at shodayatras and Gyanshods. Clarity in thoughts & self-realization these activities bring is something I thought that I can’t afford to miss.  I took a right decision to participate in yatra. It has been a wonderful experience for 3 days.

 

I have joined other yatris at hanimireddy palle. From there it started with a positive note from an RDO (Regional divisional officer), who has enquired about our yatra mission & about pallesrujana. Just few minutes after conversation, he understood the cause we are at hanimireddy palle. Being totally convinced, he purchased grass root products (sritailam) and left with a positive start for yatra that “one who has strength inside would be even thinking of giving to someone”.  I am sure many officers at his level would be convinced about the power of grassroot innovations & would join to help pallesrujana in finding rural innovators.

We had many discussions over the course of 3 days; I am listing some important discussions.

Rock mineralization:

Ananthapur region has rocky surface and we started finding piles of rock at the end of farms. Brigadier Sir intrigued us with a question are these rocks any way useful?  Everyone started thinking and he explained that they are useful since they contain many minerals. Instead of piling them up at the end of farms, if they are crushed and put back in the farm, farm will get required minerals from inside the rock.  This process of crushing the stones is named as Rock mineralization

On similar lines the crops (stems & leaves) after harvest from the farmland are disposed and burnt but if they are made into tiny pieces and put back into the farm, they will act as resource of organic manure. We had discussion on this among yatris; few yatris who have seen agriculture have an opinion that if the farm is infected with certain kind of worms, it has chance of infecting the next crop as well. But it may not be the case always; we are burning almost everything irrespective of the health of the farm. We thought that is a good practice to have healthy plants cut and put back to farm.

Problem of wild bores & other animals:

This is the second time I got to hear the same problem from the villager regarding wild bores. In the Naryankhed region (Medak shodyatra-CSY9) as well we heard this problem. Each area has its own way of tackling the problem.  Though interaction among yatris & Brig sir we got to know that all natural methods are good for everyone. Few methods such as using electric fencing, sound production disturbs the nature &any unintentional contact with electric fence can be fatal for farmers. We should propose solutions to stop the damage that we face. Killing wild boars is not a solution for this problem, I think this arises from the way we think of problem. The root problem is not existence of wild boars, but they damaging the problem. Any solution should cater that problem, but killing wild boar disturbs the food chain& ultimately nature, resulting in further unknown problems.

 

Drip irrigation:
We saw many farms around us using the method of drip irrigation. While few yatris know its functionality, none of us are aware of why & when it has been introduced to Indian agriculture.  Brig sir helped us in understanding it. RelianceCompany has big oil refineries in Jamnagar (Gujrat), and it has to do something to the region around according to the corporate policy to establish such a large plant.  They researched and found that drip irrigation is quick to produce good yield for farm & started employing it. Israel is a nation that started practicing drip irrigation and they do that since the availability of water for them is very less & to sustain they need to adopt drip system. But Indian terrain is different, our land is different. Following the footsteps of reliance, everyone started picking it up. But no one has ever told the disadvantages it could have to farm land in the long run. If we just don’t supply water to the land other than the roots for one complete crop season, how few useful organisms present in the farm & dependant on water could survive.  We introduce technologies and don’t let farmer know its disadvantages. We should caution farmer to supply water the whole farm in regular intervals if not daily.

Usage of analytics to predict & mitigate risks in farming:

It is one of those ideas that few developed countries are working on. Working in data analytics sector, I am fascinated about this idea. Can this be applied here in India and help farmers to know that there is risk associated with the task& recommend them ways to mitigate risk? During a discussion with brig sir on this topic, there are some key take aways. For a farm field to be successful three factors play a vital role they are seed, moisture & sun/temperature. In current practices farmer purchases a seed and uses it for one crop season, he may find some results. He applies the same technique in the next season but this time he purchases seed again, which is produced elsewhere thereby the properties changes, the plant may not react in the same way for the same pesticides and same fertilizers may not help the plant to grow well. This way uncertainty is introduced. And finally farmer is at loss. If local seeds are produced and used for the next crop, farmer could be more confident about the patterns he observes for the previous crop & moreover seed that is obtained locally is more adjusted to the local conditions than the foreign seed. But such practices are taken out of the farm.And analytics could help the farmer to know the amount of fertilizer and places where he has to use the fertilizer, this way it can potentially help in efficient usage, but it won’t help him to get desirable yield, if he does the mistake at seed level.  But all this productivity clutter happens only when farmer purchases something at higher price such as fertilizer and pesticides, what if he goes organic, does it require analytics to enter farming sector. Organic will lead to sustainability in few years, and the fertilizer used there is naturally available material, then we don’t need to intervene in the job the farmer knows the best. Not sure how it would evolve but I feel any technology should help farmer to build sustainable agriculture, anything else would be waste of everyone’s energy. I feel one way analytics could definitely help farmers are to collect data on the cropping patterns across state/country and predict on particular crop supply would be at the end of the season. This way we can mitigate risks due to price loss. Since we heard from a farmer that 25 kg box of tomatoes were sold at 30rs, which doesn’t translate to any meaningful margin for the farmer.  Hopefully such technologies evolve sooner.

 

Nematodes & sritailam – Problems few innovations face to reach market:

There are few worms that affect the crop at the roots. It is difficult to find initially but once farmer finds one such problem, it gets difficult to get away with it. It could have spread to other plants in the farm silently in the ground.  G. Chandrasekhar (Innovator) has a solution that could address this problem. But to bring such solutions to the mainstream market; there are different permissions one need to take. Grassroot innovations have to struggle to reach market since most of the times they are not tested at laboratory.  Few rules may not allow the product to be sold in open market. But they have potential to solve the ground level issues. Chandrasekhar’s solution falls into one among them.

Sritailm is excellent oil that acts as mosquito repellent, and also has potential to cure many ailments such as knee pains, wounds of the sugar affected patients etc. A product with such a potential is now facing the problem of reaching consumers since there are few market conditions such as distributors demand for marketing in specific channels, and they also demand for huge discounts. How could a grass root innovator or an entry level entrepreneur bare that cost? Many doctors at some super speciality hospitals use this product after operations stiches.  I feel the moment doctors start using it and recommend it to their patients the product reaches more people and hence results in greater impact.

 

Interaction with yatris:

Everyone has something unique to discuss about. This is something that always fascinates me.  Everyone has rich knowledge of their interest but very humble to explain it to a layman (other yatris with no knowledge of that domain) when asked for. During the walk for 3 days, we had many interactions such as what is the ground reality of teaching quality at govt schools, if some of the teachers are really good what drives them to be so. What could be the hurdles faced by others.

Why do farmers suicide and what is the vital component of for profitable farming. Different methods in organic farming and how could they help farmers.  Especially on the issues related to farming many yatris who had interactions have unanimous opinion that water is the vital component & most of the times it is the major reason for the crop loss. One who could afford for the bore wells survive but others will be at loss due to the input cost they have loaned from someone else. This cycle of loss for consecutive crops puts financial pressure and makes farmer to take harsh decisions.  There should be conscious effort from all the stakeholders to raise the ground water level. Storage of rain water in ponds for the village helps in retaining the water level at certain level & also will be helpful for drought situations.

 

Interaction with villagers:

During any interaction/meeting with villagers the biggest take away for me would be the way brigadier sir sets the mind-set of listeners before jumping in. Address to villagers starts as
“We are here not to explain something that is done by scientists/ someone who would be stranger to you, it is something done by a farmer who is someone like any of you”. And then the explanation of the innovations begins. After the end of each innovation again the same point is stressed. I felt it is key take away. It is a thought provoking activity, unless we inform to audience that you are no different from someone who has done great things, changing mind-sets would be difficult. And I am sure at least one among them would start giving a thought about innovation & what he/she can accomplish.  This kind of conversation also helps to build trust and they (villagers) start speaking about the experiences they have in their villages &those conversations reveal lot of knowledge. As we are instructed we need to unlearn to learn, when we approach villagers it is important to listen to them & unless you build a trust that you are ready to learn from them such knowledge would be difficult to get out from them.

Nature:

It’s been long time that I had chintakaya. And it is the first time that I had groundnuts directly picked up from the farm. I got to understand where they grow and how nature has designed various systems. In case of groundnut crop nutrients pass from roots to the stem & leaves and again back to the ground nuts through the stem into the ground. Groundnut is attached to the stem not to the roots.

Gangappa (Farmer):

With more than 80 years of age he is still healthy & strong. He opened up conversation by saying that he grows trees. He keeps it very simple. He says it is something that is very essential for the farmer. The farm should contain not only the crop that grows for a particular season but also different varieties of trees. These trees have different functions in helping the crop to grow in a healthy manner, thereby helping in farm yield. It has economic value. He says that farmer income is not steady and not predictable, hence strongly advices on growing multiple tress that produce vegetables, fruits so that some income could be generated for his (farmer) sustenance.  Toddy tress (taati chettu) if grown helps farmer in generating some income in form of toddy(kallu).He uses an organic mixture that helps increasing productivity of farms and produce from such farm will help in reducing risks of being unhealthy. He grows few trees and leaves them for birds to feed upon, he says they are also the part of the ecosystem we are living and we should provide some means for them to live. In simple words he is practicing live and let live principle. Yatra ended on an inspiring & positive note by Gangappa.

I am looking forward for the next yatra.