Here are some of known (yet not widely publicised) facts published on the web and on Facebook regarding the social work Isha Foundation has been doing with Farming community.
Support to farming process
- Isha foundation is helping the farmers of Thondamuthur block regarding their produce.
- Isha Foundation has created various support mechanisms for close to 1000 farmers. For those who do not appreciate the effort involved in creating such a mechanism, even Government agencies find it very hard to integrate the farming community as one group.
- From training farmers, to providing fertilizers, to creating market for their produce, Isha foundation is working to ensure continual support for the farming community. I personally think Isha helping farmers to get their produce directly to markets eliminating some intermediary roadblocks is a huge step in increasing profits for farmers. We all crib when the onion or tomato prices go up in the market. We rarely see how little a farmer really gains and how much of these raises actually go to the 'Mundi's and Intermediary brokers who purchase produce from farmers at peanuts price and sell it a much higher price.
Educating farmers
- Isha also educates farmers about Rainwater harvesting and its importance. This has particularly come handy for a lot of farmers during the severe rainfall shortage in the last two years.
- Zero budget organic farming workshops are being conducted regularly for farmers. Nammaazhvar, one of the most eminent agricultarists of our time, is no more with us. But he has been a significant force behind promoting organic farming in Tamilnadu. He has extensively worked with the Isha Green Hands team to promote organic farming. Zero budget farming especially is in a way, returning to our agricultural roots, by making the best utilization of animals & even farm produce to recycle the wastes in an organic manner. Several such ZBF sessions have been held by Isha for the farmers. Some photos are attached herewith - these are available also on their Facebook & public domain pages.
- Isha Foundation & its volunteers are promoting chemical free agricultural practices to farmers in Thondamuttur. This is a significant step in order to produce poison free food and also save the soil from chemical pollution & thereby enhancing the population of insects in the soil and thus strengthening the web of life.
Recently, a 9-day workshop was held in the city of Trichy for about 3000 farmers on Natural Farming.
https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/9-day-programme-to-be-held-in-tiruchy-for-farmers-119010400804_1.html
Dealing with Farmer Suicides
Farmers are also provided with various value addition platforms. Isha Foundation has established the “Karunai Karuvarai” or “Wombs of Compassion” project to prevent farmer suicides. Many a social activist nowadays is crying about farmer suicides, but rarely some know how to prevent it.
Most farmers do not kill themselves just because their crops failed. It is a social humiliation coupled with debt of burdens at unreasonable interests and when the land itself seems to die due to increased pesticides, it breaks their hearts. Unable to bear it any further, they take the path of death unfortunately.
This Karunai Karuvarai project is a kind of self-help counseling program. It aims to provide counseling for farmers periodically. It is a challenge to appoint a person who will do this full-time. The project has been brilliant in that it is looking at training at least one person per village as a counselor so farmers have someone to turn to, in their own village.
Farmers Producers Organization - FPO
A recent news in media: https://m.dailyhunt.in/news/bangladesh/english/the+covai+post-epaper-covaipos/best+fpo+in+tamil+nadu+achieves+record+turnover+of+rs+7+91+crore-newsid-97887862
"Farmers Producers Organisation (FPO) registered as Vellingiri Uzhavan producer Company Ltd (VUPCL) has achieved a record turnover of Rs 7.91 crore during the last financial year, increase of almost 100 per cent compared to previous year.
The FPO was formed in 2013, guided by Isha Foundation, following the loss being incurred by coconut farmers in the village surrounding Thondamuthur area, as the buyers were giving prices based on the size of the coconuts, which were very low comared to market, VUPCL Head, Kumar told reporters at Isha Yoga Centre today. The company was started with 400 members and now has 1,603 members."
This in itself seems to be a phenomenal achievement to bring struggling farmers of Tamilnadu out of their troubles.
Tying up loose ends
This post has been factual so far. Here is my take on it - I have not seen any proofs so far to show that these are farce. In fact, there are testimonials to show how people have benefited out of these schemes. Also, there have been no real complaints with proofs produced that Isha has harmed any farmers. So, taking everything into perspective, this is a phenomenal work done by the foundation for farming community. Hope to see it spread to more farmers and villages also.
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