Experiences from Centre for Sustainable Agriculture

What is
Community Managed Sustainable
Agriculture ? Sustainable Agriculture is a concept
Community Managed
of making agriculture economically viable and ecologically
sustainable
 Major Components
 Locally suitable production systems and local resource based
production practices which help in managing natural resources like
water and soil
 Improving energy efficiency
 Community Managed learning and Extension systems though
Community based organisations like SHGs (women or men),
Cooperatives (producer and consumer) etc
 Mobilising public support from large government programs like
RKVY
 Engaging with local markets
Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture
Policy support Human
Resource
Media
Resource
Development Centre

Support to
promote Farmers institutions
sustainable
models
Cooperatives:

Regulation
Strengthening
production Production
and
Local Locally Natural
restriction Farmers’ resources adopted Resource
on Vedika: for knowledge and natural cropping Manageme
unsustaina entitlements processes systems nt
ble
practices

Andhra Maharasht Chattisgar

Punjab h
Pradesh ra
What we are doing?
 Working with Large Government Programs
 Andhra Pradesh: Provided handholding support to SERP to promote NPM
and Sustainable Agriculture to reach 18 districts, 1800 villages, 7 lakh acres,
3.5 lakh farmers
 working with CADA in command areas to improve water productivity,
reduce external input use, increase farmers net incomes-250 villages
 Rehabilitation in flood effected areas-30 villages
 Chattisgarh: working with worldbank to design institutional systems for
scalingup of sustainable agriculture practices and come up with a scoping
study-10 villages
 Working directly with farmers
 Sahaja Aharam farmers Cooperatives: A Federation of farmers and one
consumer cooperatives to organise
 production Ecologically safe and economically viable
 healthy food products and
 a fair marketing system
Case study of
Pest management in
india
 Largely based on pesticides and now on
pesticide incorporated GM crops
 Methods largely borrowed from countries
with large farms, less labor, more
machines
 High costs of externalities were never
accounted
 Technology driven rather than problem
driven
 Scale neutrality question
Pests, pesticides and distress
 Chemical pesticides are a treadmill technology-pesticide
induced pest problems are on rise
Pesticides have problems in manufacturing, usage and with
residues in food, water, land and air after harvest
Acute and Chronic impacts are well documented
Pesticides and poverty
 Agriculture workers/small farmers who spray often suffer poisoning
 The acute poisoning is compounded by malnutrition
 Spray person has no choice on time of spray as advocated
 97 % of farmer suicides are by ingestion poisoning
Pesticides take major share in the costs of cultivation
safer and cheaper alternatives exists
 Cancers in Punjab
Source of data and information
 National Cancer Registry Program (ICMR)

Hospital Based Registry

Population Based Registry

Districts surveyed in population based

registry: Bhatinda, Faridkot, Muktsar,
Patiala, Rupnagar
Genetically Modified
crops  More resource use
 Newer pests and
diseases
 Animal morbidity
 Skin allergies
 Reduced soil fertility
 Monoculturing genes
Non Pesticidal
Management
 Ecological approach to pest management using
knowledge and skill based practices to prevent
insects from reaching damaging stages and
damaging proportions by making best use of local
resources, natural processes and community action
Uses a set of practices which include
 Monitoring methods-trap crops, pheromone traps etc,
light traps,
 Preventive measures-border rows, sticky plates,
resistant varieties, mixed crops etc
 Control measures-hommade biopesticides, mass trapping
Mostly evolved based on experiences from working
with small and marginal farmers
Non Pesticidal Management
Habitat conversion and
enhancement

Stress pest/
enhance beneficials
Reducing pest numbers

Reactive inputs Minimal pest damage

Growing healthy plants

Build healthy soils

Other practices to
reduce crop stress
 2004
2006
NPM Scaling up in Andhra
Pradesh
 Worked with SERP in promoting Non pesticidal
Management designed the system and
provided handholding support for 4 years
 2004-05 started with 225 acres in one dist
and reached 7 lakh acres in 2007-08 in 18
dist. today the prog covers 20 lakh acres in 18
dist
 National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture is
now designed based on this model
 World Bank says this is a good tool for poverty
eradication 2009
 Institutionalization
Consortium on
Community Managed Sustainable
Agriculture
Executive
committee
State SERP State Level CSA
level Secretariat
Implementation and financial Technical
management Support
District Zilla Samakhya District Rural District
level (District Development committee
Federation of poor Agency of NGOs
women’s SHGs) (Coordination)
DPM-NPM NGOs
Mandal Mandal Mahila
Samakya
level (Federation of
Mandal NPM sub-
committee Cluster
Women coordinator
SHGs) (for 5 villages)
Village Grama Sangham Producer Village
(Village Organisation of collectives Resource Village
level women SHGs) Centres activist

Integration of innovation by civil society through women farmers and support by

Government.
 Farmers and area covered under
CMSA
RKVY funds
Rs. 167 Cr.
for 5 yr

pilot
CSA handholding support
NGOs technical support at field level

SHG groups ind. handling

…aiming to reach 100 lakh acres across crops in all districts of AP in by 2014
Area under different crops (2007-
08)
 NPM vs conventional pest
management
Comparative economics in cotton
Strategy Genotype No. of Cost of Yield Gross Net returns
chemical cultivation (kg/acre) returns (Rs/acre)
sprays (Rs/acre) (Rs/acre)
NPM Non Bt 0 6524 889 18036 11512
NPM Bt 0 6222 888 17469 11247

Control Non Bt 5.0 6555 835 16500 9945

Control Bt 3.8 7235 897 17786 10551

urce: Study by CRIDA in WWF project on Sustainable Cotton production, Warangal, 2007
Economics of NPM v/s conventional
Paddy in Kurnool dist (2005-06)

Sl. Village Farmers Area (ha)

Costs of plantYield (q/ha)
No protection (Rs/ha)
NPM Con NPM Con NPM Con NPM Con

1 Arlagadda 16 15 8.4 12 400.00 2525.00 56.83 56.13

2 Durvesi 5 15 5.2 59.4 490.40 3116.80 61.87 65.5
3 Bhupanapadu 4 5 1.6 2 440.00 2000.00 56.25 58.87
4 Alamuru 17 23 7.6 10 480.00 3240.00 55.45 53.8
5 Konidedu 6 9 2.4 3.8 520.00 2280.00 64.05 50.12
6 Panyam 5 9 2 3.6 724.80 2680.00 64.5 48.13
Total

Source: Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Yagantipalli, 2005-06

 Distinguished visitors

Jairam Ramesh, Honble Minister for Commerce

T. Nandakumar
Dr. V L Chopra, Secretary Agriculture
Member Planning Commission GOI
Healthy Food.Ecology.Livelihoods

Sahaja Aharam, 12-13-445, Street no-1, Tarnaka, Secunderabad-500 017

info@sahajaaharam.in www.sahajaaharam.in, 040-6526 8303
Sustaining Farming and
livelihoods
 Research and scaling up of Sustainable Agriculture practices
 NPM practiced in more than 14 lakh acres
 Entire village becoming pesticide free and Organic
 Successfully demonstrated in Punjab and Maharashtra
 Designing and hand holding support to SERP on Community Managed Sustainable
Agriculture
 Reports show sustainable agriculture as a potential for poverty eradication
 Organising farmers to access markets
 Farmer to Consumer Marketing: through Farmers cooperatives and consumer
cooperatives
 Sahaja Aharam Cooperative Federation to increase market access

 USP:
 Efficient Organic production system (reduced costs and better yields)
 Healthy foods, Speciality foods (pound rice, colored rice, millet mix etc)
 Affordable prices (5-10 % over regular market prices)
 Helping farmers and environment (60 % of consumer price to producers)
 Robust Quality Management System
 What is Sahaja Aharam?
 An F2C initiative to create a meeting ground for nature-friendly
consumers and farmers
 blend the values of traditional bazaars with ecological concerns
 to build a new supply chain on Farmer to Consumer (F2C) model
which helps
 Increasing farmers’ income
 by realising better prices for their produce, locally grown by adopting ecological farming
practices
 More employment opportunities by value addition and selling processed produce .
 consumers in getting access to healthy and diverse food
 By establishing a Participatory Food Quality Assurance System and a
Fair Trade Model
 By direct retailing to consumers (bulk/individual consumers)
 partnerships
Sahaja Aharam Cooperatives

Producers’ Cooperatives (7)

Other project villages (130)
Consumer Cooperative (1)
 District Name of the Cooperative Village, Mandal Facilitating
Sahaja Aharam Mutually Aided Marketing Cooperative
Organisatio
Federation n

Producer Cooperatives
1 Warangal Yenabavi Organic Farmers’ Mutually Yenabavi, CROPS,
Aided Cooperative Society Ltd Lingalaganapur Jangoan
2 Swayamkrushi Organic Farmers’ Parvathagiri MARI,
Mutually Aided Cooperative Society Warangal
Ltd
2 Nalgonda Bommalaramaram Organic Farmers Chowdaripalli, PEACE,
Mutually Aided Cooperative Society Bommalaramara Nalgonda
Ltd m
3 Ananthpur Kadiri Swasakthi Organic Farmers and Kadiri REDS, Kadiri
Forest Producers Mutually Aided
Cooperative Society Ltd
4 Guntur Abyudaya Sustainable Agriculture Koyavaripalem, Rakshana,
Farmers Mutually Aided Cooperative Pattipadu Chirala
Trift and Marketing Society Limited
5 KhammamPunukula Organic Farmers Mutually Punukula, SECURE,
Aided Cooperative Society Ltd Palvoncha Palvoncha
6 Mahaboob Nallamalla Agriculture Products Venkatagiri, CONARE,
nagar Marketing Mutually Aided CooperativeBalmoor Achampet
 Organic Store
Processing units
Farmer Group A Seed market

Producer Co-op-1
Farmer Group B Producer Co-op-2

Farmer Group C
Other farmers and
farmers groups
Sahaja Aharam
Market place
Cooperative Federation
Direct to
•Capacity building
resellers
•Institutional building Direct to Home
Whole sale to•Investment support Consumer Co-op
traders •Brand building
•Healthy food Mobile Store
•Qualtiy Management
Bulk buyers •Affordable Price
•Fair Trade
• Max share to farmers Organic Store
Yet to estiblish
Sahaja Aharam Cooperative Federation
•Organising Cooperatives, Capacity building, Strategy planning
•Production, Marketing and investment support
•MIS of seasonal availability of products, Product and Market Research
•Organising Food Quality Management system and Fair Trade system
(based on PGS)
•Creates a market space for farmers and Producer cooperatives to sell
their products in bulk to traders and retailers
Producer Cooperatives Consumer Cooperatives
•Support member farmers to have
sustainable production •For directly reaching out to
• Seasonal plans to ensure consumers
diversity, staggered production •To create a consumer base who
•Provide Marketing Support to can support sustainable
member Farmers production and adapt
• Develops business plans sustainable consumption model
• Quality Management through •Contribute capital
PGS • Membership fee Rs. 100
•Establishing and managing • Share capital Rs. 5000
processing units • Deposits @ low interest (about
•Warehouse support 4 %)
•Increasing bargaining power with • Monthly purchase of atleast Rs.
buyers 500
Farmers cooperatives
 Currently two cooperatives are into functional business (50 farmers
each)
 Bommalaram Coorative, Chowdaripalli, Nalgonda dist
 Enabavi Cooperative, Enabavi, Warangal dist
 Running two shops
 Bhongir
 Jangoan
 Abyudaya Cooperative, Guntur is selling Chillies for last two years to buyers
from Mumbai
 Status
 Currently only doing collective planning for production
 Elections are due in two cooperatives
 Business plans are underway
 Strengths: all cooperatives have large production of NPM (pesticide free)
and Organically grown food products
 Cotton processing unit (ginning, micro spinning, dyeing, weaving) at
Punukula
 Primary processed foods
 Grains: Rice, Millets like korra, sajja, jonna, ragi
 Dal: Split dal of redgram, greengram, whole and split of blackgram etc
 Groundnut beans
 Fruits
 Vegetables
 Secondary processed
 (processed to cook)
 Atta and Suji from cereals and millets
 Cold Pressed Oil
 Jaggery
 Tertiary processing
 (processed and preserved-Ready to eat)
 Pickles
 Pappads/fryams
 Fruit juices
 Purees of tomato, tamarind
 Onion/garlic paste
 Masala powders
Main Products
 Guntur: Rice and Chillies (pesticide free dry chillies and powder)
 Warangal: Pulses, chillies, oilseeds, Rice (Pound rice, colored rices)
 Nalgonda: Vegetables, rice, millets (millet mix)
 Mahaboobnagar: pulses, honey (cold processed)
 Ananthpur: millets, groundnut (cold pressed oil)
 Khammam: rice, chillies, pulses, cotton (seed to cloth)

Existing processing units

 Chilli processing unit: Guntur
 Dal processing unit: Mahaboobnagar
 Millet processing unit: Nalgonda
 Cotton processing unit: Khammam
 Chillies in Guntur
• Chillies’ in 1200 acres in
SERP’s NPM prog
• Savings on pest management
more than 15,000/acre
• M/s Laxmi Exporters Mumbai
purchased at Rs. 1500/q
premium over the existing
market price of Rs. 4500/-
• Hon’ble Minister for
Commerce Dr. Jairam Ramesh
and spices board officials
visited
• From the Guntur coop 300
q/yr pesticide free chillies are
sold every year in the last
three years
• There is demand for specific
varieties for dye extraction,
oleoresin extraction etc which
can be tapped
Sahaja Aharam Participatory Food Quality Assurance
System
  To ensure the quality of the produce ‘Sahaja Aharam’
has attempted to establish a reliable Food Quality and
Fair Trade Assurance System with participation of
producers and consumers which is simple, efficient,
affordable and cheaper.
  The Food Quality Management involves various levels
and various players. Sahaja Aharam is establishing
quality standards and processes
 to ensure safety and ecological sustainability in production,
processing, transporting and storing and selling.
 based on honesty and mutual trust between producers and
consumers of food,
 provides scope for understanding farming realities and village
economy at grass root level, social relations and maintaining
the dignity of the farming family and
 affordable both at farmer and consumer level.
 PGS Quality Assurance
Facilitating Team
Organizatio Initially after sowing CSA
n Visits during the season
Reviews after the season
Farrm level data available for any
product for consumer
Producer Cooperative Consumer
PGS committee at Village level Cooperative
Monthly reviews
Consumer
Cooperative
Consumer
Cooperativ
Farmers’ group at the
village level for learning, Producer
decision making and Cooperative
monitoring
Meet every Week/ten days

Producer
ividual farmers maintains PGS records Cooperativ
operations and costs involved maintained plotwise
What is Guaranteed ?
•Ecofriendly in production (NPM/Organic)
•Healthier for consumption (no residues, better processing)
•Fair price and Fair share for farmers’ in consumer’s price

Name of the Cooperative No of farmers adapting PGS

Enabavi cooperative society 50
Abhyudaya Co.Society 287
Bommalaramaram Co.Society 35
Kadri Co.Society 50
Nallama Co. Society 30
Total 452
 Food Quality and Fair Trade Assurance
 Production level: ‘Sahaja Aharam Farm Certificate’ to farmers adopting
System
NPM (Non Pesticidal Management-grown without using chemical pesticides
and GM crops) or Organic (grown without use of chemical fertilisers,
pesticides and GM crops). The quality is ensured based on the
 Farm records maintained by the farmers reviewed by Farmers groups monthly.
 Random cross verification during the season by the PGS committee
 Random testing for residues in the food products
 Maintaining source identity (details of production and farmer’s group)

  Processing level: using only natural colorants, preservatives and flavors

and low processing. The appraisal/monitoring and certification processes
are followed for the Sahaja Aharam Certified Food Processing Units.
  Marketing:
 During storage utmost care would be taken that the food is preserved safely. No chemical
fumigation, spraying would be taken up during the storage.
 Maintaining product identity preservation (produce is separately handled at all levels from
harvesting, processing, packing, distribution and sale to avoid mixing up)
Market strategy
 Direct to consumers
 Organic Store (currently one organised at Ground floor of CSA, House no 12-
13-445, Street No.1, Tarnaka)
 Mobile Store which will operate bi-monthly in 15 locations in Hyderabad.
 Pick up points where consumers can pickup their orders delivered on a weekly
basis. Consumers can place their orders through a telephone 040-6526 8303 or
email: orders@sahajaaharam.in or through the website
http://www.sahajaaharam.in
 Direct to home: door delivery for single orders of more than Rs. 1000 (delivery
charges applicable) and single orders of more than Rs. 2000 free delivery.
 Bulk consumers: Canteens, hostels etc
 Direct to resellers: (by 2012)
 Perishables, processed foods, grains
 Market place where small resellers can buy wholesale
 Direct to Traders: (by 2010)
 Taking orders from traders and placing them with Producer cooperatives
 Direct Marketing outlets
Sahaja Aharam outlets have been established across the three Cooperatives
Name of the NGO No of Date of Business TurnoverMembership fee Share capital
Outlets establishment
No of Amount in No of Amount in
members Rs. members Rs.

PEACE 2 04/11/2008 185000.00 55 550.00 55 5500.00

02/03/2009 35000.00
CONARE 1 05/02/2009 20000.00 70 560.00 56 5600.00
CROPS 1 26/03/2009 15000.00 100 1000.00 100 10000.00
Sahaja Aharam 1 23/07/2009 211462.00 22 2200.00 18 82500.00
Organic Store

Mobile store 2 15/12/09

4,66 462.00 247 4310.00 229 1,03600.00

Key learning:
1.Advantages of having Coop by members are yet to be realized
2.Co.op need to improve their marketing functions
3.Range of products and availability over time is required
4.Ownership of cooperative haven’t felt by members.
Punukula,
the first pesticides-free
village
Yenabavi -Organic Villag
• Entire village (55 farmers’ 228 acres) organic for
last five years
• Most of the inputs internalised into farming
• Land Productivity increased, crop yields
maintained
• In SRI paddy 44 bags were also recorded
• Recently awarded Krishi Gaurav Award by Baba
Ramdev’s Patanjali Trust for their role in
promoting organic farming
• More than 30 thousand farmers visited the
village in last three years
Contacts
Organisational Website http://www.csa-india.org

Learning Portal http://www.takingroots.in

GM Crops http://www.indiagminfo.org
Agrarian crisis http://www.agrariancrisis.in
Marketing Portal http://www.sahajaaharam.in
Email csa@csa-india.org
Phone 040-27017735, 040-27014392