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The immediate need to increase food production through modern agriculture techniques, has led to new set of problems i.e. hybrid seeds, heavy use of chemical fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides etc and over exploitation of water resources. Now farmers have come to realize the adverse impacts on soil and human health, environment and above all the increasing expenditures on external inputs have dragged the farmers into the deadly debt trap. SCT is promoting organic farming practices among the small and marginal farmers in 20 villages of Keonjhar District through utilisation of local knowledge and documentation about best practitioner farmers. Conservation and replication of local germ plasma is encouraged to regain control of farmers over their own seeds and protection of their farmlands. SCT (Sakuntaladevi Charitable Trust provided trainings to the progressive farmers on promotion of organic manure and its preparation. Apart from manure preparation, the Trust also provide technical handholding support to the farmers in construction of vermin compost pit and vermin wash for sustainable agriculture development. The list of training programmes were imparted during the financial year.
Ensuring Food security through agro-ecology SCT(Sakuntaladevi Charitable Trust) is promoting crop intensification techniques to increase yield of small and marginal farmers through plant diversification, intercropping, organic manures for soil fertility while empowering farmers through information sharing and video dissemination in small patches of Banspal Block and Jhumpura Block of Keonjhar District. The production system with increased use of external seeds, expensive chemical inputs and further aggravated by the climate change effects has threatened the ecology, economy and livelihoods of the small and marginal farmers. In such context, sustainable agriculture is the ultimate solution that can restore the damaged eco-systems and improve farmer’s resilience by decreasing their dependency on external inputs, reduce their vulnerability to erratic monsoon, drought, flash flood and soil degradation.
Women play a vital role in agriculture from soil enrichment to harvesting and preserving seeds for next crop, but they are seen as ‘farmwives’ or farm labourers rather than farmers. They don’t have access to information, institutional credits or extension services to enhance their skills and expertise. With the advent of Green revolution, women have become vulnerable to health hazards due to the harmful effects of chemical farming. In this backdrop we have introduced eco-friendly farming and women friendly interventions to enhance their farming abilities and strengthen their organisations for better production. During this period, we had promoted 200 women farmers for eco-friendly farming in their patches of land to enhance their livelihood and address the climate change.
The immediate need to increase food production through modern agriculture techniques, has led to new set of problems i.e. hybrid seeds, heavy use of chemical fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides etc and over exploitation of water resources. Now farmers have come to realize the adverse impacts on soil and human health, environment and above all the increasing expenditures on external inputs have dragged the farmers into the deadly debt trap. SCT is promoting organic farming practices among the small and marginal farmers in 20 villages of Keonjhar District through utilisation of local knowledge and documentation about best practitioner farmers. Conservation and replication of local germ plasma is encouraged to regain control of farmers over their own seeds and protection of their farmlands. SCT (Sakuntaladevi Charitable Trust) will have plan to expedite the activities and outreach to 200 farmers at least in next year.
