Anantapur dist promoting natural farming in a big way

Anantapur-Puttaparthi: District Collector Dr V Vinod Kumar is taking keen interest in promoting natural farming and taking the movement forward through his pro-active initiatives.

Talking to The Hans India, Collector Vinod Kumar revealed that he would soon arrange a buyer-seller interface of natural farming agriculture produce by inviting corporate entities from Hyderabad-Benguluru-Chennai metro cities and ensure payment of higher price for the organic products.

The Collector had been visiting several natural farming fields and urging them to adopt natural farming practices in their fields without using chemicals and pesticides to restore the right balance in nature.

He urged 'Accion Fraterna' director Malla Reddy who is promoting natural farming to train other farmers in the district to successfully convert fallows into cultivable lands through natural farming methods and planting fruit trees along with annual crops. The department of Agriculture is into natural farming movement Statewide in all districts and had been creating natural farming zones by transforming hundreds of villages into organic cultivation zones. This is triggered by a worldwide movement to return to 'square one' in agriculture practice of natural farming, shedding the use of chemicals and pesticides. In fact AP is providing leadership to third world countries

District project manager (Natural Farming) V Laxma Naik revealed that one lakh farmers in 30 clusters involving 300 villages have totally turned to natural farming in the undivided district. These one lakh farmers took an about turn from chemical based farming.

The villagers in several mandals in the district sought input subsidies for growing crops through natural practices, which they felt would act as an incentive for many farmers to adopt these methods and get higher prices for their produce.

The general complaint of the farmers is that organic produce gets lesser yields and so the temptation to use fertilisers and pesticides for higher yields. Keeping the superiority of organic produce and the lesser yields in view, the natural farmers are urging for marketing initiatives at a higher price, to offset losses to natural farmers. The District Collector's initiative in this regard is being appreciated by the farmers.

AF Ecology Centre director Y V Malla Reddy told The Hans India that he is also actively working for creating mass awareness on natural farming concept in his ecology project villages.

He is also exploring possibilities to take village as a unit and transform them into natural farming villages.