Five-layer farming model only solution to desertification
Resource person Mogul Humayun interacting with farmers at Agroforestry workshop in Kalyandurg on Sunday.
Kalyandurg (Anantapur): A five-layer Agroforestry model of cultivation is the answer for drought mitigation in the undivided arid Anantapur district and a perennial source of livelihood for the farming community.
At a workshop held on Agroforestry for 120 farmers of Kundurpi, Settur, Kalyandurg and Beluguppa mandals here on Sunday, resource person Mogul Humayun said the five-layer farming model was good for soil health and the use of natural farming practices was essential.
The AF Ecology Centre and the SayTrees Environmental Trust helped the farmers adopt natural farming methods and supplied trees and ensured that each farmer religiously sowed crops of five different heights.
Humayun said in the first five years, the first three layers of trees and crops give fruits, from the fifth year, the taller one too gives income to farmers.
The SayTrees representative K Venkata Homendra and AF Ecology Centre Agriculture specialist N Veerabhadra Reddy described the ways to prune the Mango, Jamun and Amla trees.
They also explained that mulching happens automatically when the farmers grow millets, leafy vegetables, tubers and other small crops.
Farmers got their doubts clarified and told the resource persons that they were also planting border crops so that they had protection for their plants.
Mandal leaders of AF Ecology Centre Arun Kumar, Bhavani, S Ramesh and Obulpathi gave details about the work their organisation was doing in association with the farmers in all the four mandals.