Visiting the farms in Kerala

Gill and Leon Aarons visit Kerala most winters. They have got to know AVI’s local partner, the Kerala Gandhi Smarak Nidhi well. They sent this report on their visit to some of the organic farms near Trivandrum.

Since 1996, Action Village India has provided small-scale support to enable the Kerala Gandhi Smarak Nidhi (KGSN) to promote 'Balanced Farming', an integrated organic homestead farming system. The aim of this current phase is to introduce balanced farming to more villages in collaboration with other interested local voluntary organisations and self help groups. Another major development is the setting up of training/conference facilities at KGSN's Gandhi Bhavan headquarters in order to strengthen the awareness activities and support the sustainability of the organisation.

Since its resources are limited, KGSN approached like-minded voluntary organisations to collaborate in promoting balanced farming and integrating it into their activities. We conducted a meeting of such organisations in April 2002 in which 14 organisations participated.

During the meeting a popular grass-root level organisation, works for Gandhian model of development - Santhigram - expressed an interest in collaborating with KGSN. After extensive discussions KGSN and Santhigram jointly identified three panchayats, Kanjiramkulam, Karumkulam and Kottukal, for extension of Balanced Farming activities with the support of Self Help Groups (SHG) and local self-governments.

As a first step orientation was given to staff members and volunteers of Santhigram and the members of SHGs, who thereafter, became the advocates and promoters of this novel type of farming. In a three-fold division of roles, KGSN supplies the technical support, training and guidance; Santhigram provides the management support and resources, while the local SHGs perform the role of information dissemination and monitoring. This three-dimensional management approach has paid rich dividends in terms of quick implementation and maximum results. Involvement of people at the grass root level has given the programme the character of a people's movement.

Inspired by the wonderful results of this movement, NGOs and farmers groups in other parts of the state have approached KGSN to facilitate the process to their areas. KGSN is planning to form a networking forum of such NGOs and groups with a view to using this forum an effective instrument of state-wide extension.

Parallel to this development KGSN has activated a Resource Centre at Gandhi Bhavan to provide training and information services to interested individuals and groups. The infrastructure facilities at the centre are being upgraded.

A distinctive feature of KGSN's new strategy in furthering the expansion of Balanced Farming is that it is focused on the community of small scale and marginal farmers and is aimed at effecting a healthy change in cropping and consumption patterns. Equally important is the empowerment of rural womenfolk through SHGs and utilization of their capacity to spread the message of the alternative farming culture among the masses. KGSN's contribution in developing alternatives in farming and health care has been seminal. The decade old crusade for revival of organic farming and adoption of indigenous holistic health care practices has lead to welcome results. There is a growing swell of public opinion for Eco harmonic farming and holistic health care. Both the Government and the private sectors are also positively inclined for the switch over for healthier farming and healing practices.