A 25-year-old natural farmers institution, Kerala Jaiva Karshaka Samithi has received a worldwide reputation for its determined efforts in innovating organic farming. The Samithi is one of the Organic Medal of Honour winners that changed into started via Xichong, a Chinese Municipality in collaboration with the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement (IFOAM) Asia in South Korea. State secretary of the affiliation, Mr. Ashok Kumar V, instructed The News Minute that “The award could be given on the thirtieth of May in Xichong. The prize quantity is USD 5,000. This is almost around three.5 lakh Indian rupees apart from the gold medal. The association would use this”.
The 25-year Antique Natural Farming Association has as many as 15,000 participants who are energetic farmers. The democratic formation and operations of the association, consisting of their manner of fund series, changed into one of the foremost reasons for attracting the global award. Mr. Ashok stated, “We have small and large farmers who grow vegetables, meals, and cash vegetation in our affiliation. Some of them domesticate on cents, and others with acres of farmland. Every year, we choose farmers to turn out to be board individuals & stakeholders from among themselves”.
The affiliation selects Board individuals, an executive & a kingdom body that contains presidents, treasurers, secretaries & others from each district. Mutually, they discuss troubles relating to organic cultivation and make decisions. They have our bodies within the Panchayat, Taluk, District, and State levels. The State Secretary added, “While most other farming organizations paint as Non-Government Organizations and request donations, we no longer try this.
Our contributors pool in cash in case of any activities”. The affiliation has proven ways to shield traditional rice sorts in addition to greens nearby the country. He stated, “We encourage growers to cultivate traditional types of rice to maintain them. We then promote those varieties so people can buy and grow them in other areas”. A few conventional greens that might be persuaded to be grown consisting of eggplant, okra, green chilies, beans, aetc
The Samithi additionally conducts organic farming publications for folks who are interested. The route is held for around 20 Sundays in 21-of-a-kind farms wherein each principle of organic cultivation and sensible classes are held. Mr. Ashok stated, “There is no indoor class. Our teachers are farmers who have been growing organic produce. Students get to analyze the whole lot proper from the agriculture records inside the country to natural farming methods; growing fee brought vegetation & advertising and marketing of organic products”.
They are also educated on how to put off pesticides on produce and prepare dinner organic produce to preserve vitamins. Besides the organic farming training, women and youngsters are taught to hold houses toxin-loose at the village level. He said, “It isn’t only within the veggies and fruit that you have toxins & insecticides; however, you purchase many different things like paint, cleaning retailers, and so forth. Additionally, contains toxic components. Students are taught to apprehend and put off these”.
The association also organizes an organic farming pageant in numerous districts every year where members can speak about their discoveries or studies in natural farming. This year, the festival changed to being held in Vadakara in Kannur. He additionally stated, “Here we’ve growers, each participant and professionals from outside the kingdom, coaching us on their revolutionary ways of organic farming. This helps in the change of ideas. For example, a farmer from Tamil Nadu, Swaminathan, attended the festival in 2018 and supplied their modern organic cotton plant”.
