Successful Seminar concluded with field demonstration

Karsog Valley Farmers Group (KVFG) a cooperative of farmers and Organic Farming Association of India (OFAI) held a joint 3 day conference at the village Thandapani from 22nd to 24th of May. The conference focused on the topics of Organic Farming and Water conservation techniques. The conference was unique in its participation with Vice Chancellor of Dr Y.S.Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry Dr. K.R. Dhiman, Vice Chancellor of CSK HP Agriculture University Dr. Tej Pratap presenting lectures on these topics to the audience. The special guest speakers on the topics were Dr. Bharatendu Prakash (Director North India – OFAI), Shri Rajender Singh (Ramon Magasaysay Award Winner and leading activist in the area of Water Conservation), Sh. Miguel Braganza (Secretary of PGS Organic India Council).
In addition the conference saw the participation of two judges of the HP High Court in personal capacity, Jt. Deepak Gupta and Jt. Sanjay Karol. Farmers from Gujarat, West Bengal, Goa, Madhya Pradesh and Organic food marketers from Delhi participating in discussions and demonstrations.

Sh. Vikram Singh Rawat, spokesperson for KVFG, introduced the conference with describing the problems faced by farmers of the region. He mentioned that nearly 100% of the farmers were using synthetic inputs in the region and although this did result in increase in yields in the initial stages, there was a remarkable decline in resistivity of plants in case of periods of drought. Also, the overall soil Organic Carbon levels had gone down. The taste and quality of the produce of the region such as apple is not the same as it used to be in the yester years. The growers of the region had moved to growing exotic vegetables on a large scale and in the past have sent a record 3-4 tonnes of these vegetables per day to Azadpur in Delhi during season. However, vegetable production demands a lot of water which has in the years plummeted to levels where even consumption by households in scarce.He requested to the scientist to reduce the gap between farmer and scientists . He thanked to the local farmers, kheel dharmaur kisan club, chamanpur kisan club for organizing this program and making it successful, He specially thanked to Himachal Gramin Bank for donating rupees ten thousands for the seminar.
The core topic of Organic Farming was presented by Dr. Bharatendu Prakash who is spearheading the grass roots organic farming movement with the farmers in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Dr. Prakash spoke to the audience about India’s traditional agriculture which was default organic and how the last 70 years saw rapid use of fertilizers and pesticides in the name of the Green Revolution. He also said that this period has resulted in a near irreversible loss of livelihood to millions of farming households and large scale misuse of chemical inputs due to which many human lives were lost. He also mentioned that the fields of Water conservation is not separate from Organic Farming since the it is the latter which improves the water holding capacity of the soil which further results in rejuvenation of underground and mountain water sources in addition to reducing the overall consumption of water used for farming.
“Chemical farming inputs in addition to requiring high costs of synthetic inputs are also a sink for water consumption, since the onset of the Green revolution water consumption has grown at a rate manifold of the increase in yields of produce. If this continues the grow unabated then we are not far from a scenario that both our elixirs of life, water and food, will be scarce and inconsumable due to our own deeds. The only way to the future in ensuring a sustainable agricultural model is to follow the path of Organic Farming”
Dr. K.R. Dhiman spoke to the audience about how over the years incessant use of the chemical fertilizers has actually reduced the overall yield of crops across the country with large swaths of land actually going barren in the years. He stressed on the importance of using Geographical Indicators (GI’s) for identifying produce from the region so that consumers can identify with the producers as well as the products. His experiences of his time while working with farmers in the North East especially in the area of Jhum or Swidden agricultures was aptly heard.
Dr. Tej Pratap spoke about how water has become a problem across the world and how the effects of weather would bring forth catastrophic changes in the foreseeable future. He reiterated that organic farming was closely linked the Water Conservation and that if we choose to ignore it today we will be doing so only at our own peril, when in the future we will have no other choice but to farm organic. He spoke about his experiences travelling to mountainous regions across the world where villages had to be abandoned due to the extremities of climates.
Miguel Brganza described how India’s fear for food scarcity in the 60s was capitalized by western industries to market the explosive and poisonous chemical remnants for the two world wars were consciously marketed as fertilizer and pesticides to our nation. The biodiversity of our country which has hardy millets and pseudo-cereals like Amaranth, Ragi and Buckwheat were reduced to mono-cultures of wheat and rice. It was not time to revive our heritage and globally unique biodiversity which characteristics of India. He also spoke of alternatives for farmers on certification techniques called Participatory Guarantee Scheme (PGS) which is directed as a simple and low cost alternative to complex and expensive third party certification which is in any case export oriented and not suitable for the domestic organic market.
On 24th the program started at Government Senior Secondary School Pangna with recitation of poem on water conservation written and recited by Vikram singh Rawat. Here kufar means Johads

हमारे कुफर प्यारे कुफर
कुफर हमें बचाना हे सीमेंट नहीं लगाना है
आवो मिलकर पेड लगाएं पानी के लिए चेकडेम बनाये
पानी को नहीं बहने देना , हो सके तो रोक कर है इसे रखना
भाइयो मिलकर चेकडेम बनाना है क्योंकि दौड़ते पानी को चलना सिखाना है
कचे कचे टेंक बनायें , बारिश में जो भर हैं पायें
पानी अगर जमीं में जायेगा तभी तो बावरी में पानी आएगा
पर्यावरण को न बचाया गया, तो वो दिन जल्दी ही आएगा
जब धरती पर हर इंसान, बस ‘पानी पानी’ चिल्लाएगा
बच्चे, बूढे और जवान, पानी बचाएँ बने महान
अब तो जाग जाओ इंसान, क्योंकि ,पानी में बसते हैं प्राण !

Magasaysay award winner Rajender Singh first addressed school children . His interaction with children was most interesting the fact that when he asked them what they wanted to be, some children replied that they wanted to be doctor’s, computer engineers and soldiers but he was saddened by the fact that today none of the children wanted to be farmers. He said that the people who provide food to the world is today one of the most distressed by natural as well as economic conditions. He later spoke at the conference about his experiences in rejuvenating 7 rivers in Rajasthan which had been barren for years. However, it was most disturbing to hear from him that earlier there were 36 villages which had to get water from distance greater than 8km however today there were 2.5 lac such villages, this was a dangerous trend. He also said that almost all cities today depended on water from external sources.
Dr Bhartendu Prakash also interacted with school children at Pangna.
Ashish Gupta, executive member of KVFG , held on field demonstrations on Organic Farming techniques such as biodynamic heap compost, Cow Pat Pit (CPP), Panchgavya and green manuring.

The conference also displayed various literatures in Hindi and English on topics of Organic farming. In addition local farm produce such as Nashashta, Badian and Organic Cow Ghee were displayed and sold at the venue. Traditional Dham lunch was most enjoyed by visitors from other states. In all it was a unique and successful conference held for the farmers of the region first time in the history.