Establishing Ecological Agriculture in Faridkot district in Punjab

Submitted by

Kheti Virasat Mission

A. Organizational Profile:

1. Name of the Organization : Kheti Virasat Mission 2. Address and contact details :Post Box No.- 1, Jaitu, Dist.- Faridkot- 151202(Punjab)

Contact Person : Umendra Dutt, Executive Director Phone : 01635-503414 Residence : 9872682161 Fax : 01635-503415 E-mail : [email protected] Web : www.khetivirasatmission.org

3. Registration details : Registered as Trust on 4th March, 2005 (Please enclose relevant : Trust Deed enclosed Photocopies)

4. Details of Exemption : 12 A Copy enclosed (12A and 80G) , 5. Organization Profile Including Objectives And Major Activities: ● To improve the quality of life of farming communities by promoting environmentally safe and sustainable methods that would enhance the quality and quantity of crop yields in Punjab. ● To enhance the participation of farmers, both women and men, in all processes of problem analysis, technology development, evaluation, adoption and extension leading to food security and self reliance among farmers and rural communities. ● To facilitate community access and control over natural resources and to build institutions and coalitions at different levels for strengthening People’s Agriculture Movements, which focus on empowerment of marginalized sections like small and marginal farmers and particularly Women and Dalits. ● To develop a Sustainable Agriculture Resource Network that promotes sharing of knowledge, material and human resources. To serve as a repository for documenting, collecting, storing, collating and disseminating information/success stories from different sources on sustainable agriculture. KVM believes in promoting sustainable agricultural technologies that are based on

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farmers’ knowledge and skills, their innovation based on local conditions and their use of nature’s products and processes to gain better control over the pre-production and production processes involved in agriculture. The objective is to increase farmer’s self reliance whether it is related to knowledge or resources required for sustainable agriculture.

As part of this, KVM promotes Natural farming with special focus on NPM approach [Non Pesticidal Management] to pest management, sustainable soil fertility management, non-chemical disease management and Seed Production & Management as integral technologies of sustainable agriculture. These approaches are mostly based on management practices to be adopted by farmers in their farming and often are driven by social and political perspectives and realities.

KVM is also engaged in policy advocacy work mainly on the impacts of chemical and GM technologies, their regulatory systems, public support systems to small and marginal farmers and revitalizing agriculture.

There is critical call for a civil society movement with multiple approaches. One - there is urgent need to re-connect society with nature, to build empathy towards natural resources in society. Two- to establish a grass root initiative thoughtful of nature. Model forms for ecological agriculture are one of core intervention. Three – Building space for women participation in whole process with a thrust on re- establishing their role in agriculture. Male dominated agriculture is quite inhumane; it is violent, nature abusive with no scope of concern for life. This male view point in agriculture is a stumbling block in the holistic development of agriculture, environment and the society as a whole. Women are caring in her inherent nature she will take care of others even. So, bringing women in to ecological agriculture movement will ultimately give agriculture a human face.

The Challenge

It is multidimensional problem in Punjab causing severe damage to its natural resources and public health. Punjab is witnessing one of the most severe environmental health crises any where taken place in the world. This unprecedented crisis is looming around health, water, food, agriculture and ecological resources. Most of people call it environmental crisis, but KVM feels that it is more far beyond that. It is more of civilizational crisis which includes our relationship with eco-system and our ecological world view. This crisis created by humans themselves. Punjab is known as food bowl of , but this fact is no more a thing of pride. Punjab has paid very heavy cost to get this status. Punjab has the highest pesticide consumption among the Indian states. Most unfortunate part is that food chain in Punjab is ruthlessly contaminated having residues of pesticides and agrochemicals. Punjab is consuming highest amount of pesticides among Indian states 18% of national consumption on mere 1.5 % geographical area and 2.4 agriculture area of India, that too with highest cropping intensity of 195 % on largest area under agriculture 87%. This equation is creating a pesticide loaded and highly toxic eco-system in Punjab.

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Pesticides and Health Impacts:

Pesticides are known to cause a variety of human health impacts in the long term, in addition to acute poisoning effects. These are effects that occur months or years after exposure and are also induced by repeated occupational exposure to low concentrations of pesticides. Chronic effects can occur even if there are no acute effects. Some of the major health impacts from chronic exposure are cancers, reproductive and endocrine disruption, neurological damage, immune system damages etc. Many widely used pesticides are known to cause reproductive health damage like birth defects, sterility, increased spontaneous abortions, stillbirths etc. Many pesticides are known to be toxic to the embryo and foetus in laboratory animals. Teratogenesis (deformities created in the foetus) is another form of chronic toxicity in foetuses of women exposed to chemicals during their pregnancy.

Studies have shown a link between a variety of reproductive health impacts in women and pesticide exposure. Studies have documented increased incidence of miscarriages, stillbirths and delayed pregnancy among women agricultural workers and wives of men employed in pesticide mixing and spraying. Carbonate and organophosphate insecticides have been reported to increase birth prematurely and spontaneous abortion rates. If the husband did not normally wear protective equipment during pesticide application, the estimated risk of an early miscarriage was approximately five times higher, compared to pregnancies not exposed to any pesticides. Many early miscarriages (before 12 weeks' gestation) are found to have serious genetic defects. There are many possible reasons for these genetic defects, among them abnormalities or errors in the genetic information carried in the sperm. Exposure to toxic agents during the three months prior to conception could cause this type of damage to the sperm.

Some earlier studies in India also pointed to similar effects on reproductive health. One such study focused on reproductive toxicity by analyzing reproductive performance of couples where the males were pesticide sprayers, compared to unexposed couples1. Analysis gave the following incidence rates: abortions – 26% for exposed couples and 15% for unexposed couples; stillbirths – 8.7% Vs 2.6%; Neonatal deaths were at 9.2% in the exposed couples and 2.2% in the case of unexposed couples. Another study in Jaipur in Rajasthan showed a very high incidence of still births and a high incidence of gross neural tube defects possibly associated with pesticides (Dr S G Kabra, 1997).

Pesticide use in Punjab:

Punjab is one of the highest-pesticide consuming states of India. It is reported that while other high-pesticide-using states are bringing down their consumption levels, Punjab continues to use high amounts of pesticides, with 923 gm/hectare in 1999-2000, as against 288 gm/ha at the national level . The herbicide consumption in the state is increasing. On top of that, it is probably one of the longest pesticide-consuming states of the country given that Green Revolution was initiated here in the late sixties. Certain parts of Punjab, due to their cotton and vegetable cultivation have higher intensity of pesticides being used. Health impacts of such pesticide use, in terms of cancer incidence

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as well as on the adverse impacts on developmental abilities in children have been documented from Bathinda district, one of the higher pesticide using districts of the state. Similarly, there are informal reports from village Jajjal in Bathinda district which point to a high number of childless couples.

6. Organizational Structure:

KVM Organizational Structure KVM is committed to build an all-inclusive strong civil society ecological movement in Punjab. As KVM is working on very broad canvas covering a vast arena of issues, problems and challenges; it is bound to have strong academic, intellectual, technical and social dimensions of its work. These dimensions will build a cross section grass root network of volunteers, organic farmers, physicians, agriculture experts, economists, environmentalists, heritage conservationists, experts of life sciences, academicians, literary and creative artists, poets and writers and community leaders. This networking also includes farmers’ groups, social activists, religious leaders and village panchyat members. Moreover to cover different aspects of ecological intervention with involvement of experienced and concerned persons KVM has formed subject specific action and working groups.

The KVM Executive Committee

Patrons

● Shri Anupam Mishra, Eminent Environmentalist, GPF, New ● Sunita Narayan, Director, Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi ● Dr S G Kabra, Eminent Environmental Health Expert, Jaipur ● Dr Shiv Chopra, Canada

Advisory Council

● Dr Inderjeet Kaur , Pingalwara, Amritsar ● Shri Rajinder Singh, Megassassy Awardee, TBS, Alwar ● Dr Sudhirindar Sharma, The Ecological Foundation, New Delhi

Executive Committee ● President - Harjant Singh, VPO-Rai Ke Kalan, Bathinda ● Working President - Dr Amar Singh Azad, MBBS, MD; Patiala ● Executive Director- Umendra Dutt, Jaitu ● Vice President - Hartej Singh, Mehta, Bathinda ● Vice President - Vinod Jayani, VPO - Kethera, Fazilka ● Vice President - Madan Lal, VPO - Bulluwal, Hoshiarpur ● Associate Director - Ajay Tripathi, Jaitu/ Bathinda

Secretaries

● Gaurav Sahai , Sattva Farms, Landran, Mohali ● Aashish Ahuja , VPO - Khubban, Abohar ● Kultar Singh , VPO-Sandhwan, Faridkot

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● Dr Harminder Sidhu, VPO-Jalaldiwal, Ludhiana ● Dr Gurbax Singh, Amritsar ● Jarnail Singh , VPO Mazi, Sangrur

Organising Secretary ● Balwinder Singh, Village Jai Singh Wala, Bathinda

Members, Executive Committee ● Kavitha Kurungati, Hyderabad / Jaitu ● Dr Pushkar Vir Singh Bhatia, Panchkula ● Shubh Prem Brar, Bathinda ● Gurmeet Singh, VPO Bhawalpur, Patiala ● Upkar Singh, VPO-Chak Desraj, Phillaur ● Gurpreet Singh Rattu, VPO Dabrikhana, Faridkot ● Amarjeet Sharma, VPO Chaina, Faridkot ● Jagdish Pappra, Lehragaga, Sangrur ● Gurtej Singh, VPO- Mehatpur, Jalandhar ● Jarnail Singh, VPO- Jajjal, Bathinda ● Kuldeep Singh, VPO- Bhullaran, Malerkotla ● Jaskirat Singh, Ludhiana ● Vikas Arora, Faridkot ● Rajiv Gupta, Ludhiana ● Anil Prabhakar, Ferozepur ● Nirmal Singh, VPO Bhotna, Barnala ● , Chandigarh ● Neeraj Atri, Panchkula ● Varinder Gupta, Khanna, Ludhiana ● Charanjit Singh Punni, VPO-Chaina, Faridkot ● Gurbjej Singh, Amritsar ● Chamkaur Singh, VPO-Dhudhike, Moga

KVM’s association with National / International networks ● International POPs Elimination Network ● Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture ● Community Alliance for Pesticide Elimination ● Coalition for GM-Free India ● Indian People’s Tribunal on World Bank ● Rashtriya Jal Biradari ● Right to Food Campaign

Action / Working Group of KVM

1.Environmental Health Action Group: This group is basically a forum for physicians, medical professionals and experts of life sciences to take up the issues of environmental health and epidemiology. This group has so far organised 50 seminars as peoples’ dialogue on environmental health. It has honour in its credit to bring number of distinguished environmental

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epidemiologist to its programmes at grass root level. EHAG played very crucial role in campaign against Bt Brinjal. EHAG successfully mobilized doctors in Punjab on the issues of multiple environmental toxicity and GM food. Convener – Dr G P I Singh, Director-Principal, Adesh Institute of Medical Sciences, Bathinda ; Co-Conveners – Dr Jaswant Singh Thind , Kaputhala Dr Manvir Gupta, Kotkapura Executive Members – Dr Amar Singh Azad, Patiala Dr Daljit Singh, Amritsar Dr Inderjeet Kaur , Amritsar Dr Arun Mittra, Ludhiana Dr Neelam Sodhi , Ludhiana Dr Satish Jain, Ludhiana Dr Shiv Dutt Gupta, Bathinda Dr A S Mann, Sangrur Dr Harminder Sidhu, Raikot Dr Nirmal Singh Lambran, Jalandhar Dr Yashpal Sharma, Chandigarh Dr Vittul Gupta, Bathinda 1. Women Action for Ecology: This is a unique initiative in Punjab to mobilize women towards ecological action particularly in natural farming. This is to prepare women who are committed to the cause of safe food. These women are working on millets, re-established millets in our food chain. KVM motivating women to grow natural vegetables in their kitchen garden. They also help their husbands and other male farmers to switch over to natural farming. Their participation makes natural farming a family initiative. 2. Action Group on Water Resources: Water crisis is one of most challenging issue of our time. Water literacy and training as one of its foremost tasks of KVM. KVM has so far organised 40 meetings, Seminars and workshops on water issues. It has also documented various aspects of water crisis. Convener – Prof Shubh Prem Brar, Bathinda; Co- Convener - Dr Anupreet Singh Tiwana, Fatehgarh Sahib

1. Literary Forum for Environment – A forum of poets and creative persons and artists: This is a unique initiative of KVM. KVM has brought several literary legends of Punjab together for building an environmental movement in Punjab. It is an ecological brotherhood of creative personalities and artists for a cause. KVM had organized several programs on ecological crisis; health and GM free food campaign by involving poets, writers and playwrights. Forum has so for organized few Kavi-Darbars on plight of farmers, environmental crisis and GM Food. A book of Punjabi poems ‘ Maff Karin Pani Pitta’ was edited and compiled and published by Pingalwara. Convener – Anil Adam, Co-Convener – Harmit Vidyarathi

1. Environmental Justice Action Group – A forum for environmental of legal activism for ecology and environment: EJAG is network of legal experts and

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layers to take up the issues of environment at legal forums. It will also work as a discussion platform for new legal developments in environmental sector. Convener: Reeta Kohli, Additional Advocate General -Punjab, Chandigarh 1. Vatavaran Panchayat - Vatavaran Panchayat is a participatory forum and grass root level network for KVM activists, sympathizers, supports and partners, working for wider environmental and developmental issues. It is ecological action and working group of KVM. Vatavaran Panchayat has its units in most of districts in Punjab covering all regions. Rightly, it can be called a peoples’ initiative for environment running with the peoples’ resources, voluntary participation and thoughts. It is true eco-democracy.

a. Current Annual Budget - Rs.12 lakhs (approx.)

b. Details of Current Staff and Qualifications:

1. Umendra Dutt, Executive Director, M.A. (Hindi) 2. Ajay Tripathi, Associate Director, BSc 3. Gurpreet Singh, Programme Manager, B.A. 4. Amanjot Kaur, Coordinator, M.S.W.( Social Work)

(d) Proven in-house experience – evidence that the applicant can successfully implement the project.

KVM has successfully established that shifting to local resource based agriculture models can bring in both ecological and economic gains to farming community. The Non- Pesticidal Management of insect pests in crops like cotton, chillies, paddy has brought in a remarkable improvement in the livelihoods of several small and marginal farmers. The costs of cultivation have significantly reduced without affecting the yields.

B. Technical Proposal:

B.0 Summary of the project

The lives of small and marginal farmers of Punjab are in jeopardy. Farmers in the Punjab are resorting to committing suicides due to high-levels of indebtedness and helplessness at the situation. The ever increasing costs of cultivation due to excessive dependency on external inputs and stagnation in market prices have made agriculture more and more non-remunerative. This can be analyzed through a simple equation: Input (costs far exceeds) > Output (price). Most of these external inputs are inorganic/ synthetic chemicals which disturb the ecological balance and further cause economical and productivity losses. The transfer of technology model adopted by the has created the perpetual external dependency, deskilled the farmers replacing their traditional knowledge base.

The current proposal aims at establishing ecological models of agriculture which

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are knowledge centric, skill based and make best use of local resources and natural processes. The support systems required for carrying forward these models would also be established. Such models would be projected as the sustainable way forward for Punjabi farmers who are facing an ecological and economic crisis.

B.1 General:

The ecological crisis in the heartland of Green Revolution in India, Punjab, is well known and established by now. The natural resources in the area have been degraded and contaminated almost irreversibly. The fragility of the physical environment in the region in which India vests its food security plans (with Punjab contributing 53% of wheat and 40% of paddy in the food stocks of this country) is evident from the fact that the water tables in the state have dipped to around 400-450 feet in many places. Nearly 108 development blocks out of the 138 blocks in the state have already been declared as being in the dark zone, where the level of groundwater exploitation is over 98 percent, as against the critical level of 80 percent. It is estimated that in many parts of Punjab, water tables are falling by up to one meter per year. While diversification from the paddy-wheat cycle that the Punjabi farmers were pushed into during the Green Revolution is being chanted as the mantra out of the crisis, it is not an easy shift on the ground, given the lack of public support systems for the shift.

While this is the case with water availability and utilization, a more urgent problem seems to be the contamination of water supplies by agro-chemicals, notably pesticides. Several scientific and informal studies in Punjab have shown that pesticides are becoming killers of scores of farmers and agricultural workers in the state. Infertility, congenital disabilities, cancer, acute poisoning due to pesticide exposure and so on are reported and experienced on a regular basis in many parts of the state, notably the cotton cultivation belt.

Agro-diversity has been diminished at the macro-level and at the individual farms, thanks to a policy that encouraged mono cropping and monocultures of a narrow set of varieties within a crop. Forest lands have been encroached into and natural biodiversity has been eroded too.

Excessive water use has also meant salinisation of lands and water logging in most parts of the state.

Fertilizer applications to boost agricultural productivity have taken their toll on the lands. Today, there is a technology fatigue evident in Punjab’s agriculture, which in turn has pushed the farmers into the trap of indebtedness. This has also resulted in suicides by a number of farmers in the very state that India boasted as the country’s most prosperous and progressive state when it comes to agricultural development.

The ecological and environmental health disaster in Punjab is starkly evident today in the cotton growing belt of Bathinda-Faridkot-Mukatsar-Mansa-Ferozepur. Here, cancers are

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on the rise along with a number of other illnesses related to agricultural technologies like pesticides. Diversification is the new ‘mantra’ being repeated by the policy-makers for this belt too.

Today, Punjab stands at the cross-roads of either intensifying its agriculture further in an attempt to get out of its ecological, economic, socio-cultural crisis in agriculture by adopting a model of more external inputs including GM seeds or of adopting ecological agriculture as the only sustainable way out of the crisis.

7. Project Title:

Establishing Non Pesticidal Management in Faridkot district of Punjab

8. Project Budget: Rs. 10,44,200/- only (ten lakhs forty four thousand only) 9. Project Location:

The project would be implemented in two villages of Faridkot district of Punjab

Selection of the project locations is based on the fact that pesticide usage and related problems have been high in these locations. The agricultural distress in these places is high in terms of ecological and economic crisis facing farmers here. This provides an opportunity to establish alternatives and such alternatives would be show-cased for policy-influencing. These locations have also been chosen based on the fact that farmers have been mobilized to understand the crisis around them and to try out alternatives.

10. Duration : 2 years

11. Person responsible for the Project : Umendra Dutt , Executive Director

B.2. Project Description

12. (a) Goal of the project:

To establish ecological models of agriculture that can mitigate the severe ecological and economic distress amongst farming communities in Faridkot, Punjab.

(b) Purpose/Objectives of the project:

The overall objective of the proposed 2 year project is:

To establish two villages in Faridkot district, pesticide-free ecological and sustainable agriculture, that will rely on farmers’ resources (including seeds and diversity) and knowledge as a way out of the current crisis.

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13. (a) Project Outputs:

Ecological Practices adopted:

Work in the first year in both project villages would cover at least 30 farmers, with 1 acre each. In the second year, the land extent would be increased to 2 acres each per farmer and also the number of farmers increase.

Year I Year II Villages 2 2 Farmers 30 40 Acres 30 70

Crops covered would include Wheat, Cotton, Jowar, Sugar Cane, Paddy, vegetables etc.

Capacity building

Village level trainings would be organized in the first year in addition to exposure trips for farmers to learn from other farmers in locations where such alternatives are being practiced successfully. Communication & Training Materials

Communication and training material on soil management, pest management, seed breeding and management etc., in Punjabi would be created, printed and disseminated in project villages.

(b) Major Activities:

The proposed project will be driven mainly by providing suitable extension support to farmers to shift their practices. Such a process will be knowledge-intensive and will also rest on farmer-to-farmer extension. Village level extension workers, supported by coordinator, would be the main mechanism for such extension support. Such persons would be carefully identified, once the selection of villages and participating farmers is completed. Village level workers and coordinator would be trained in appropriate knowledge and skills to provide extension support to all the farmers willing to shift their farming to more ecological agriculture. Demonstrations would be taken up and farmers would be taken on exposure visits to those villages in Punjab where farmers are practicing organic farming. Regular monitoring through paid extension workers and by KVM staff members is a critical activity for building confidence in farmers in the ecological practices being tried out.

(c) With in the major activities, what are the minor activities ● Selection of project villages and participating farmers. ● Participating farmers will enroll themselves based on the exposure trips organized

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and mobilization meetings held in each village ● Selection of village level extension staff and coordinator ● Creation of communication material to be used in trainings ● Capacity building for the extension workers and at the village level, for farmers ● Regular monitoring and review – in the fields, of farm level ecological and economic progress as well as project level ● Campaigns – on suitable production technologies and against hazardous technologies ● Documentation – in suitable forms, technical as well as socio-economic improvements from the project – to be used for influencing more farmers and policy-makers ● Training workshop for farmers – Basics of NPM/Ecological agriculture, introduction of different skills, understanding science of organic agriculture, seed saving, importance of farm biodiversity and knowing more about pesticides and agro-chemicals and ecological alternatives.

(d) What are the project risks?

1. As agriculture is highly dependent on the climatic situations, climatic changes and abiotic stresses like severe rains may affect the project. 2. The ecological practices being promoted in this project are facing an adverse atmosphere overall, given the aggressive marketing of chemicals by the agro-chemical industry, of GMOs by the biotech industry and of the agriculture departments either endorsing the same or being non-existent. This is like swimming against the stream.

(e) What is the project time line:

1. Enlisting the names of interested farmers in the chosen First Month villages. For this, special mobilization meetings that would highlight the problem with pesticides and the efficacy/ potential of alternatives would be organized. Through this, it is hoped that a set of farmers would come forward to shift some of their lands to Ecological agriculture. 2. Selecting and recruiting village level extension workers in First Month both villages 3. Organizing trainings to village level extension workers and First Month farmers in the village 4. Creating training and communication material in Punjabi Second Month for use by the village level animators and the farmers 5. Selecting some farmers to visit select projects in Punjab Third Month to visit some villages and interact with farmers who have shifted from chemical agriculture to organic farming 6. Organizing actual farming activities centered around Every Month organic farming

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7. Conducting farmer field schools on a fortnightly basis Every Month 8. Monitoring of the program through regular review Every Month meetings (monthly meetings of village extension workers with project staff and field visits) 9. Media outreach and outreach to other farmers after end-of-After Every Crop season review Season

14. Rationale for the Project:

The farming community in Punjab is undergoing a severe crisis and this is reflected in terms of growing suicides in the region. In the current situation, all “factors of agriculture production” are external to the farmer or farming community except for land and labor. This is more acute in the case of small and marginal farmers. This agricultural situation is characterized by:

● Non-remunerative market prices for the outputs – growing globalization of trade resulting in decline in prices of most commodities. ● High Ecological costs of the agro-chemicals having serious impacts on the lives of the agriculture workers and small and marginal farmers. The pests are developing resistance and farmers are forced to go for newer and newer chemicals or high doses or increased frequency of sprays of the chemicals. The pesticide residues are omni present causing health problems all along the food chain. Health costs are an added burden on poor farming households. ● Decreasing livelihood opportunities to small farmers and agriculture workers leading to migration and displacement. ● Poor access to agricultural credit – Small and marginal farmers specially tenant farmers are unable to get institutional credit (Banks, cooperatives) when compared to big farmers. The money lenders are taking these farmers into their clutches by providing credit, inputs with a contract of buy-back mechanism for lower prices. ● The spiraling costs of cultivation and resulting serious indebtedness problems in the rural areas are leading to farmers’ suicides.

Various successful experiments established by various organizations and Institutions across the India and particularly by KVM in Punjab and similar experiments across the world by various grassroots organizations both in voluntary and public sector domain have had three elements in common and there is much to be learnt from these. ● First, of locally adapted, resource conserving, knowledge-centric, farmer-led technologies. ● Second, coordinated action by groups or communities at local level. ● Third, supportive external (or non-local) government and/or non-governmental institutions working in partnership with farmers. Such alternatives have shown that agrarian distress can be mitigated a lot by reducing costs of cultivation, by improving farm ecology, by increasing farmers’ confidence in their own practices and knowledge and by creating collectives.

This proposal seeks to establish and showcase such models for farmers and policy-

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makers to pick them up.

15. Project strategy to achieve the project purpose:

In order to sustain the agriculture and agriculture based livelihoods, shifting to ecological models of agriculture seems to the only alternative. But such a shift is constrained by the surrounding policy environment which is promoting external input based agriculture systems which have ecological and economic burden over the farmers. Therefore creating an appropriate environment in the village that facilitates this shift and creates confidence among the farmers is a major strategy to achieve the project purpose. This is possible through constant extension support provided by trained and knowledgeable members of the community identified as village level extension workers, to be further supported by project coordinator.

Proper documentation and engaging the government bureaucracy and political leadership to make them understand the significance of these models and adapt them into larger public policy would be another strategy.

16. Project Beneficiaries: Farmers in general and Small and marginal farmers in particular in the selected villages. 17. Role of Communities in the project (both in taking decisions, fund Contributions, (actual/kind), Ownership, Planning, execution and implementation)

Since the project is not driven by any programme support that directly goes to farmers (no subsidies, no vermi-compost beds, and no loans), the project more or less rests on farmers being active partners right from the beginning. Participating farmers have to bear their own costs for shifting towards such ecological agriculture while the project will play a facilitating role for capacity building, organizing, monitoring etc. 18. Replicability of the Project: By design, the project aims at establishing a replicable model – one that believes that farming as a knowledge-intensive process rather than just an external-input-intensive process would lead to mitigation of the current distress in Indian agriculture. This is expected to lead to farmer self-reliance on a variety of things including inputs. The learning in terms of technologies and institutional systems can be easily replicable elsewhere. Any opportunities that allow for scaling up during project implementation would be taken up. Such replicability would not be just in terms of other civil society groups implementing such a project elsewhere but for scaling up and mainstreaming to take place by government support.

19. Sustainability of the Project activities: The knowledge and skill development among the farming community would definitely sustain the post project activities. The organization involved would take up follow up activities if required.

B3. Project Management:

20. What would be the project management and administration system for the project -

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The village level activities would be managed by the farmers and extension workers. The village extension workers and coordinator would be involved in regular project monitoring and day to day administration. In addition, KVM staff members would does field level monitoring through regular visits to project villages. At the organizational level there will be periodic (half yearly review meetings). The annual review meetings will happen in the presence of the village communities and then at the project level.

KVM would be responsible for the project, with the financial accountability also resting with KVM.

B4. Project Impacts:

21. What are the Project impacts (social, ecological and economic)

● With media outreach and other campaigning efforts, it would be established in the minds of Punjab policy makers that sustainable farming is possible in Punjab and is also profitable for farmers ● Farmers will look at sustainable agriculture as the way out of the present ecological and economic crisis that they find themselves in ● At least one village that reduce the use of pesticides will show that pesticides are not inevitable in our agriculture ● A cadre of experienced farmers and extension workers would be created for more outreach

22. Project Impact Indicators (to monitor and evaluate progress in activities) – prepare a log frame for the project.

1. Mitigating the distress in agriculture of small and marginal farmers – measured by reduction in average “debt burden” of farmers, increase in net incomes, reduction in cost of cultivation without decreases in yields as a result of adopting “sustainable farming practices” like NPM, seed village, soil and water management practices etc. Increased self-confidence levels amongst farmers in the easy manageability of farming, a sense of dignity and status etc., coupled with community level institutions lending collective support should mitigate the distress related to suicides. 2. Ecological improvements – farm level ecological improvements that can be captured through season-long monitoring 3. Scaling out and scaling up of the model – when more farmers adopt such practices.

23. What impacts will the project create in terms of Policy/Advocacy/Sustainability and Replicability in long term.

At the village level the project would create confidence among the farmers to make a shift to the ecological models of agriculture and sustain that approach. This would help in restoring the ecological balance and making the farming productive and profitable to the farmers.

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Successful establishment of these models in a project mode in the high distress locations would have several cascading effects. The learning would be used to rework the public support systems to agriculture and the dialogue with the state officials could help in taking this up on a larger scale.

The advantages of such ecological alternatives in livelihood improvements without affecting yields would be documented and used for policy influencing.

C. Financial Proposal:

24. Estimated total project cost: Rs. 10,44,200 /- [Ten Lakhs forty four Thousand two hundred Rupees Only]

Sl Budget Head Particulars Year Year II I

Fi eld Acti vitie s

1 Village level awareness 2 villages * 1500/3,00 3,000 & mobilization - each 0 meetings – Reviews from Year II onwards 2 Exposure visit within 20 farmers, one 7,00 Punjab day 0 3 Creation of Lumpsum (small 70,0 Communication booklets, posters, 00 material (Year I) flip charts, wall & Documentation writing etc.) subsequently 4 Training costs for 4 trainings * 16,0 16,000 two seasons (one pre-2000/- *2 villages 00 season, one mid-season, in each village) 5 Farm field Schools 2*12 1920 21600 (two in a month) months*400/-*2 0 villages 6 Monthly Staff Meetings 1*12*500 6000 6000

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7 Salaries for village 2 workers x3500/84,0 2*4000*12 = extension workers month x 12 00 96,000 months 8 Honorarium for 3,00 3000 resource person 0 PRO 2,08, 1,45,600 GR 200 AM ME COS TS Ins titu tio nal Su ppo rt

1 Salary for Project 1 Project 8,50 1*9500*12 Coordinator Coordinator, 0x12 =1,14,000 8,500/month * 12 =1,0 months 2,00 0 2 Travel and 2500/month * 12 30,0 2700/ communication costs months 00 month*12 for Project Coordinator =32,400 4 Travel cost for resource 20,0 20,000 persons from CSA, 00 Hyderabad and other locations to visit and interact with farmers Administration 15,000*12 1,80, 192000 Expenses (phone, 000 internet, stationery, office rent, electricity etc.) SUP 3,32, 3,58,400 PO 000 RT COS TS

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To tal Bud get requ ested

State Year I Year II TOTAL Field Activism 2,08,200 1,45,600 3,53,800 Institutional Support Cost 3,32,000 3,58,400 6,90,400 TOTAL BUDGETS 5,40,200 5,04,000 10,44,200 REQUESTED

Contacts Mr. Umendra Dutt Kheti Virasat Mission, Post Box No. - 1 JAITU-151202, Dist Faridkot Punjab 01635-503415, 9872682161 [email protected]

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