Amrita Bhoomi Center

Chamarajanagar, Inde

An Overview Of Our Solution

At the Amrita Bhoomi Center, we practice and promote agroecological methods through farmer trainings and exchanges. We work with women, youth and farmers of all ages. We are also a key organizer of the Zero Budget Natural Farming movement, an agroecology movement in Karnataka state through which more than a 100,000 farmers have shifted to agroecology. Agroecology increases crop, seed, and livestock biodiversity, and it cools the planet. Our methods end farmer’s suicides by increasing autonomy in farming and ending dependence on expensive external chemicals or loans. We also promote drought resistant and highly nutritious crops like millets. These can withstand climate change related temperature rise and droughts, and they require no chemicals.We also conserve, produce and distribute local seeds.

Who is this solution impacting?

Community Type

Rural

Organization type

Other

Ecosystem (select all that apply)

Forests

Population impacted

90,000

Size of agricultural area

75 acres on our center’s premises – however we work with hundreds of farmers outside our own campus premises, making it a about 10000 ha. ex. 1,400 ha

Production quantity

50,000 kilos

People employed

Describe your solution

1. Agroecology trainings: We practice farmer-to-farmer trainings where successful farmers with agroecological solutions train new framers who face problems. As part of the state agroecology movement-Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) movement, we mobilize farmers and resources from the community to carry out intensive multi-day trainings for up to 3000 farmers per class. All these have been done through community resources and without any external support. ZBNF is a tried and tested agroecological method that relies on intensification of biodiversity at farm level, local resources, local seeds, local cows, and focuses on completely ending debt over time. It also reduces water consumption by 90% being highly successful in dry land areas. 2. Millets: We promote millets among farmers, through trainings camps and well as massive seed fairs, involving the local government. We have also been lobbying the state government to promote millets. Millets are a real solution to the climate crisis, drought, fodder shortage, and malnutrition. 3. Seed and livestock conservation: By conserving local seeds, we directly fight the loss of seed biodiversity. We are newly producing and distributing seeds and receive a high demand from farmers. We are also creating a network of farmer seed savers to multiply our efforts. We also conserve local livestock varieties, these use four times less water than exotic varieties and are hardy. Their dung and urine form important components of our farming.

Describe your implementation

Success factors/implementation are: A) Farming practices that work – Zero Budget Natural Farming has proven to provide agroecological solutions to problems that farmers face. ZBNF also works in economic terms, reducing debt and dependency by cutting costs. B) Training activities – We do monthly trainings on various agroecology topics like agroforestry, millets, seed saving, natural pest control etc. Farmer to farmer is a key teaching methodology – through this farmers are able to find farmer mentors who help them throughout the training and farming process. We carry out mass trainings at very low or no cost, so everyone can participate. C) Communications: We have many Whatsapp groups, and Facebook groups where farmers with cellphones can easily communicate with each others and ask questions. ZBNF also frequently appear in newspapers, and radio , which is key for reaching out to many other farmers. Phone numbers are also shared at each training camp. D) Charismatic/local leaders: The main “guru”of ZBNF is a farmer called Mr Palekar – a close ally of Amrita Bhoomi. Him and other leaders have a very effective discourse and teaching style that is attractive to, and convinces farmers to adopt agroecology. Farmers can relate to these leaders, who are other farmers like them. E) Self organized activities: We are a part of the state farmers movement - KRRS, and were created by them. We are embedded in social movements, which has ensured that we carry out our training activities as community insiders, and by mobilizing community resources- donations, space, accommodation, support from religious institutions, state support, mobilizing farmer volunteers etc. All the work is done in a social movement volunteer dynamic, which we believe is a major success. Challenges: Lack of financial resources for doing substantial state level work, lack of connections with scientists, need for urban rural links for marketing agroecological produce.

External connections

We work in a social movement way, which means we rely on a number of allies at the state level. We were created by the state farmers movement – KRRS (initials in kannada). KRRS is a mass based grassroots, and the largest farmers movement in the state. It is through the organization of KRRS that we have wide reach at the grassroots level in every district of the state. Most training activities are supported by the human power and volunteers of KRRS. We are also part of a network of progressive social movements in the state including women’s movement, dalit (so called untouchable caste) movement, etc. All such social movement connections are key to our ability to organize at the grassroots level. We also do lobby activities for favorable policies along with KRRS- the state government has supported us in the past, and we frequently demand policies- for e.g. we are currently asking for state support for millets, processing plants and marketing. They are helping to organize a massive millets fair and seed exchange next month. We are a key organizer of the Zero Budget Natural farming movement and we support ZBNF trainings and methods as part of our work plan. ZBNF movement works based on alliances with the farmer’s movement KRRS, local community leaders, religious institutions, media, urban consumers, writers, local NGOs, etc. All of these together are the pool of allies and stakeholders that we draw upon regularly to promote our agroecological solutions.

What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?

1. Chemical contamination of farms and food: We train farmers to adopt agroecological and chemical free farming. We are also the key organizers of the state level agroecology farmers’ movement called Zero Budget Natural Farming which has converted more than 100,000 farmers towards agroecology. 2. Biodiversity loss: loss of local crop and seed diversity is a major challenge facing Indian farmers. GM seeds are also a threat to biodiversity, for e.g. Monsanto’s hybrids and GM cotton varieties today control more than 90% of the area sown. By producing, distributing, and promoting local seeds, we aim to revive local seed biodiversity. We do both in situ and ex situ (in a seed bank) conservation. We have conserved more than 500 varieties in our nascent seed bank. We also have a livestock bank, where we conserve indigenous cow varieties. 3. Climate change: recurrent droughts have become a norm in most parts of India. We promote local millets that can grow without water or chemicals.

Describe the context in which you are operating

We operate in Karnataka state, where 56% of the population is involved in farming. Agriculture here is monsoon dependent, and droughts have become recurrent; some districts are facing more than 10 consecutive drought years. Ground water is fast depleting too, impacting farmer’s ability to farm or keep livestock. Like the rest of India, Karnataka has been reeling under an agrarian crisis characterized by indebtedness and rising farmer suicides. 77.3 percent of all agricultural households in Karnataka are indebted, which is higher than the national average of 50.1. Debt has been linked to farmer’s suicides, and is spread across all classes of farmers. Karnataka has recorded the second highest number of farmer suicides in the country. In 2015-2016 it broke all its previous records at 1002 farmers suicides in that year. The agrarian crisis consists of ecological factors – like climate change, drought/water, biodiversity loss, loss in soil fertility, as well as social factors – fall in farm income, indebtedness, suicides, and migration. The focus on monoculture market crops has negatively impacted food security, and 1.2 million children are malnourished.

How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?

We are a young institution, 4 years old, these are our results so far: 1. Conserved more than 500 varieties of local seeds – many of these are drought resistant crops, and we distribute them among farmers across the state, who further distribute them among other farmers. 2. We promoted millets in at least a 100 acres (through individual farmers) since last year, and since we have some state support in this area this year, we plan to increase the program by 5 times this year. 3. We conserve local livestock varieties: We have about 15 local cow varieties that we have been collecting since 2 years ago. 4. We have trained more than 9000 farmers since we started 4 years ago in agroecological practices, and as part of the ZBNF movement, have trained more than 60,000 farmers. In acreage that could be more than 500,000 acres. 5. Water tables: We are doing water harvesting and conservation on our premises of 120 acres, and have recharged ground water to some extent.

Language(s)

Kannada, some English

Water

Farmers report that the implementation of Zero Budget Natural Farming has drastically reduce the need for water. ZBNF reduces the need for water by 90% making it an ideal method in droughts. It also promotes a range of water conservation methods such as contours, bunds, intensive mulching amongst others, which help to maintain moisture in the soil and reduce the need for external irrigation. Some farmers reported growing an entire crop based only on scant rain and no external irrigation.

Food Security/Nutrition

As agroecology depends on diversification of crops, there is a benefit in terms of food security, as unlike in monoculture crops, there are multiple crops that can serve as food for the household. ZBNF has taken a strong stance against market orientation because it’s philosophical leaning towards autonomy including in food and farming. ZBNF farmers naturally gravitate towards increasing food crops for food security.

Economic/Sustainable Development

Agroecological methods like ZBNF are inherently sustainable because instead of destroying nature, they enhance and conserve nature, by farming with nature and intensifying natures processes. ZBNF also ends reliance on external inputs and loans, bringing autonomy to the farm household and increasing their self-reliance. Agroecology and local seeds thus improve economic conditions of usually indebted farmers, while also reviving nature, and creating sustainable development.

Climate

Climate change is a serious problem affecting farmers today. A recurrence of droughts is scary problem that we face. Agroecology is a solution to climate change because it ends dependence on fossil fuel based synthetic pesticides. Also increases and maintains more carbon in the soil. We have also been promoting millets as a climate ready crop, as they can withstand increased temperatures and lack of water, and have an excellent nutritional profile.

Sustainability

So far, the day to day functioning of our training center has depended on a grant from the state. We have also received three small grants from some foundations to start our seed program and build our seed bank. However, most of the funds for our agroecology trainings have come by mobilizing resources from the community- donations, donations in kind like food, free accommodation, volunteers, etc. We also sell our own produce directly to consumers and the income from those sales is use towards our activities. While we encourage and are able to carry out activities by self-financing through methods described earlier, we also need a stream of steady income to supplement our work and bring some security, as we are still a young institution.

Return on investment

Our activities have been carried out in a self funded dynamic through grants, donations, and donations in kind. It is hard to put a figure on this, but we could say that it cost the following in last 1-4 years: Trainings: 28,000 USD Seed bank: 15000 USD Seed production: 7500 INR Model plots, and farm operations: 150,000 USD Our results outweigh investments, because as part of the ZBNF movement, 100,000 farmers have taken to ZBNF with a low investment from us. The other investments are new projects that we are implementing – seed bank, model plots, and we believe the results are consonant with the investments, and in the next few years, will start to outweigh investments as we become more established.

Entrant Image

How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?

The Zero Budget Natural Farming model is a successful model in India. ZBNF has already been adopted in Sri Lanka among more than 6000 farmers currently. We believe the model can be adapted to any other place- by looking at how the agronomic principles will work in that specific context. However we find that it is in fact the social methodology which has proven to be successful for us in scaling up – for e..g pedagogical methods, allies, community and farmers social movements, communications tools. We think that working with local farmers or other community movements and organizations is key. They have wide reach, legitimacy in society, and the ability to organize. Such organizations can take a lead in creating small farmer to farmer organizations at the community level, and adapt the methods that work best, and organize frequent exchanges as well as collective field studies in order to scale up the methods.

YouTube URL

"Do Nothing" Film on Zero Budget Natural Farming

Overview