Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 12, 2006
Enabavi farmers create history
K. Venkateshwarlu
SHOWING THE WAY: Eenabavi Village of Warangal has earned the distinction of turning towards organic farming completely. — Photo: P.V. Sivakumar
WARANGAL: Enabavi, a tiny village of 55 households in this district, could pass off as a speck on the Andhra Pradesh map. But the gritty farmers ensured it a place in agrarian history on Wednesday when it became the first to be declared fully organic, free of pesticides, chemical fertilisers and genetically-modified crops.
It took them three years of determined effort for the feat that followed a common pledge to stop using pesticides and chemical fertilisers for all the crops they grow from paddy, pulses, maize, cotton, tobacco, chilli to vegetables.
Difficult decision
For the farmers the switch-over was a difficult decision steeped in a mindset that only pumping in lot of chemicals and growing GM crops could fetch higher yields. But constant motivation by the NGOs, Centre for Sustainable Agriculture in association with Centre for Rural Operations and Programmes Society (CROPS) did the trick.
"For me it meant a halt to making rounds of the money lenders and getting into a debt trap. Even better, not getting exposed to pesticides. I was able to cut down on inputs by more than 50 per cent", says Venkatadri, who grows paddy and cotton on his ten-acre farm.
Another farmer Ponnam Mallaiah recalled the days when all their efforts used to go into tackling the menace of "bontha purugu" (red hairy caterpillers). "We got tired of using `pai and adugu mandu' (pesticide sprays and chemical fertilisers). Now, we manage it better with neem seed powder and vermicompost."
Anjamma did the village proud by daring to switch to System of Rice Intensification (SRI) when none of the ten paddy growers taken to a demonstration farm took to it.
On Wednesday, it was celebration time in the village and sharing their joy was Vijay Kumar, chief executive officer of Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP). After seeing the cotton, paddy and other crops and interacting with the farmers, he was so pleased that he declared Enabavi as a model in the State and announced a tractor as an incentive. "It is a new revolution."
