Sustainable Agriculture

Keeping to the tradition and commitments envisioned by the founders of SVA, efforts have been made by the governing body and the staff members to enhance our role in promoting participatory rural development. While the efforts are on, but we realize there must be some mistakes/lacunae in our work for as the saying goes, “to err is human”. It has been and it will be our sincere endeavour to overcome our shortcomings and make a meaningful contribution to the society. Below we briefly present the activities carried out over the year 2005-06. 

The economy of the operational districts of SVA is agriculture and forest based. Agriculture in these districts is traditional, rain fed and paddy centric. Livelihood of the people in this region is dependent on Agriculture. The area is drought prone. Periodic drought and large-scale deforestation during the past several decades have seriously affected the livelihood of the poor people in this region. As part of sustaining livelihood of the poor and marginalized sections SVA since from its inception has been promoting as well as advocating sustainable agriculture and organic farming. During the last one year SVA and its associates worked on the followings:

Promotion of Organic Farming: 

To promote organic farming SVA organized 24 numbers of training programmes for farmers and community leaders in 4 operational districts i.e. Bolangir, Kalahandi, Bargarh and Nuapada. A total of 32 days of training was provided to them. Trainings on preparation of compost pits included classroom training as well as demonstration. In these trainings focus was given on Nadep Compost and Vermi Compost. Apart from preparation of Compost pits number of trainings around Bio-fertilizers and integrated pest management was also organized. All the above trainings were residential and apart from regular resource persons of SVA, individuals with years of experiences were out sourced from the Agriculture department of State government. During the year a total of 829 farmers out of which 595 male and 234 female farmers were trained on various themes of Organic Farming and few of them are successfully organizing such trainings at G.P and Village level. See Table-1.

Table: 1

Introduction of Cash crops, Horticultural Plantation and Vegetable cultivation:

To increase income from agriculture SVA promoted cash crops like onion, sunflower, Mushroom, yam and few other crops suitable to the area (please refer to SVA’s policy/position on Agriculture). It also promoted plantation of some horticultural species i.e. Mango, Guava etc. both in agricultural land as well as in wasteland. Again as most of the small and marginal farmers in this area do involve in vegetable cultivation SVA promoted large scale cultivation of certain vegetables. To promote the above SVA organized 16 nos. of training during the year. It imparted trainings to 246 male farmers and 196 female farmers over a period of 22 days of training in phases. See Table-2

Table: 2

Interface between farmers and functionaries of Credit/ Governmental Institutions:

Farmers of the operational district of SVA are so poor that unless credit is available to them they are not able to improve their agriculture. Even if a number of Credit Institutions are there and they also extend credit to farmers for agricultural purposes, farmers do not avail credit from them. The main reason behind is that the farmers are not aware of the scheme and they do not have good experiences with the bankers and officials of line departments. To break the ice SVA organized 5 nos of Interface workshops between farmers and functionaries of Regional Rural Banks, NABARD and other nationalized banks operating in the area. Interface between farmers and officials of Agriculture and Horticulture department of the State was also organized. A total of 279 male and female farmers had interface with officials on various issues relating to agriculture. See Table-3

Table: 3

Processing, Marketing and Management of Agricultural and Forest Produces:

In this region farmers do not get a fair price of their produces and are being exploited either by the market or by not having a market. To add value to produces of farmers and to enable our farmers to meet various issues and challenges relating to market, SVA has organized 45 Nos of training on processing, marketing and management of agricultural and forest produces this year. Training on Dal processing, Training on medicinal herbs, Training on storage and harvesting of onion are some of the important trainings conducted by SVA this year. A total of 1160 farmers out of which 384 are male and 776 are female participated in the above trainings. See Table-4

Table: 4

 Promotion of Pisciculture:

Keeping in view the water resource potential and ample scope for fishery, SVA continued to promote pisciculture as an alternative livelihood option for small and marginal farmers in the area. Along with agriculture pisciculture can also be practiced. With a small investment a high return can be achieved. To promote pisciculture, SVA organized 11 nos. of training on nursery raising, management of farm pond as well as nursery pond etc. A total of 320 farmers out of which 195male and 125 female farmers attended the training programme in phases. Senior Scientists of Krushi Vigyan Kendra, Bhawanipatna, FEOs were among the external resource persons for these trainings. See table-5

Table: 5