From Farmers To Agri-Entrepreneurs – A Silerit Revolution OC Rural Transformation
Farmers feed everyone, yet they go hungry. They have the land, the water and the minpower in most places, yet for lack of exposure to the right contemporary tools, techniques anu technology they have been left off the radar of development.
In a bid to strengthen this backbone of the cconomy and ecology, Isha Foundation volunteers are handholding the ‘negila (plough) vogis’ of the Kaveri basin to reverse the growth spiral and help our farmers not just become self-sustaining but also make them ambassadors of an ecological transformation in the Cauvery delta.
As part of its ‘Cauvery Calling’ programme, Isha bas been facilitating a transformation in the agricultural sector in the region by offering adoption and implenentation of Tree Bused agriculture as a solution for variety of issues faced by farmers in the region as well as the only way to naturally replenish the soil by increasing its organic content. So far Isha has enabled over 107,000 farmers to adopt tree based agriculture. There is a considerable enthusiasm among the farmers about tree based agriculture and government agroforestry schemes. While government agro-forestry schemes have been around for a longtime now, farmers have stayed deprived of their benefits due to lack of access, awareness and information. This is where thousands of Isha voluateers are playing a role by not just educating the farmers but also handbolding them through the entire process of availing these schemes and implementing them successfully,
#Around 120 volunteers man a IVR helpline that assists farmers at every stepn every day from 9 an to 9pm
# Volunteers teach thousands of farmers on how to use zoom or google meet apps. for intensive interactions #Farmers are connected to various industry experts and scientists through Cauvery Calling technical webinars and intimate group meets #Grassroots officials are being inspired and invited to collaborate with the project through 1785 gram panchayat events
# 890 Mara mutras have been appointed to register farmer denand using our state of the art mobile app #Isha will soon start its nursery operations in Karnataka. The Isha nursery in Tamil Nadu is one of the largest organic sapling nurscry in the country,
Cauvery calling was launched in September 2019 by Sadhguru with a mega motor-rally through the entire stretch of river Cauvery und aims to take tree-based agriculture to over 5.2 million farmers in the river basin. By enabling larmers to plant 242 crore trees in the delta region, the project intends to reverse the depletion of Cauvery, enhance ground water levels in the region, eririch the soil nutrients, as well as lead to a three to eight fold increase in farmer income. Despite Covid, 68 lakh saplings were picked up under the KAPY scheme because of the efforts of our volunteers who have been working on the ground as well as in the backend.
On August 2, Cauvery Calling, a massive outreach campaign of Isha, was launched covering 1785 Gram Panchayats in Bengaluru rural, Chikkamagalur. Chamarajanagara. Hassan Kodagu, Mysuru, Mandya, Ramanagara and Tumkur creating awareness about tree-based agriculture in respective villages. Till date 475 events have been organized — 27 taluk, 439. Gram Panchayat and 09 District events. 35 events were conducted in Bengaluru rural alone by Isha volunteers attended by 460 people including farmers, govermment officials, PDO, Panchayat President, Sericulture staff and Anganwadi staff. In the coming weeks, 24 more events are planned in Devanahalli and Doddaballpura, which will conclude by 23rd August. In the week after the outreach will enter the remaining two talukas– Nelamangala and Hosakote.
“To have a healthy society, we should have 33% forest arca, but now India has only 16% Karnataka 15%, Bengaluru Rural 9%.with these percentages how can we build a healthy society? So, every farmer should adopt agro-forestry and make this wonderful project Cauvery Calling successful.” said DRFO of Social Forestry Shri Chandra Kumar while presiding over the Cauvery Calling event last week in Bangalore Rural.
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