Youth wins laurels for advocating natural farming practices in East Godavari

KAKINADA: Just into his teens, Pujyam Uma Maheswara Shastri of Razole has already turned into an environmental activist. The 16-year-old student of Collierville High School in the US has started educating farmers about the need for environment-friendly agricultural practices. Shastri who hails from Ponnamanda village in Razole mandal of East Godavari district had come back to his native place a year ago. He has since been attending online classes regularly. 

Soon after coming to East Godavari, he observed that River Godavari is being polluted by indiscriminate dumping of plastic waste in the canals and took up an exercise to clean the water. To this end, he also started an awareness campaign in nearby villages. “I realised that another reason for the rise in pollution levels is the excess usage of pesticides and doing away with natural farming practices. The farmers need to be educated in this regard,” Shastri told TNIE.

He started creating public awareness campaigns about natural farming practices and about reducing the usage of pesticides. Shastri is promoting vermicompost to get more yield and for healthy foodgrain, which in turn, would reduce the usage of pesticides. He has printed over 1,000 wall posters and pamphlets and distributed them among the farmers. He also pasted them on the walls of the villages.

“I visited Ponnamanda, Antarvedi, Gogannamatam and Indupalli villages and interacted with the farmers. I emphasised the need to avoid using pesticides and motivated the farmers to revert back to natural farming, which is the only way to bring down the water pollution levels,” he said.  Shastri also noticed the fertile lands in several areas of Razole mandal groundwater is mixed with saltwater due to the number of fish and prawn ponds in the village. 

“The once fertile lands are turning salty and fast losing the rich fertility they once had. I am trying to educate the farmers on this aspect,’’ he said. He organises group meetings with farmers with the support of Amalapuram MP Chintha Anuradha and local MLA Rapaka Vara Prasad, whom he met and explained about environment protection. He also started a website—Youth Against Water Pollution—in order to create awareness among the youth about the need to stop further pollution of River Godavari. 

“Paddy and other vegetable crops get contaminated with the usage of pesticides. By consuming the contaminated food, people are contracting various diseases. It is high time that the farmers start cultivating crops in the natural and organic way,” Shastri said.