Saturday, April 25, 2009
ABOUT KODERMA
District Koderma was created on 10th April 1994 out of the old Hazaribagh district of the North Chhotanagpur Division. It is known, as the mica capital of India. Koderma and Tilaiya are only two important towns in the district. Koderma is district town of Jharkhand and is well known for rich mica deposits and is also called as "Abharkh Nagari". It is essentially an under-developed, thinly populated district having varied but limited endowment of natural resources.The six blocks in the district are namely Koderma, Jainagar, Markacho, Satgawan, Chandwara and Domchanch.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
CONTACT
Indramani
(secretary)
SAMARPAN
At- Sundernagar,
Dist- Koderma-825410
(Jharkhand)
Mob- 09934148413
email- samarpanindia2007@rediffmail.com
(secretary)
SAMARPAN
At- Sundernagar,
Dist- Koderma-825410
(Jharkhand)
Mob- 09934148413
email- samarpanindia2007@rediffmail.com
OUR VISION
An egalitarian society where there is freedom and justice tempered by values of love and happiness.
OUR GOAL
To organisation the exploited and oppressed people of Jharkhand so that, they coould control natural resources , work for decentralisation of power, self rule and self-reliance to bring in an egalitarian society based on freedom and justice this should tempered with values of love and happiness.
INTRODUCTION
SAMARPAN is a registered organisation under the Indian Trust Act 1882. It was established in 23 rd september 2005. But it was registered as a trust on 28th December 2006.
In 2005 itself the organisation took up activities of making people aware, sensitive and creative in both rural and urban areas of Koderma and Giridih Dist.
The organisation believes that people cannot struggle on issues and against exploitation and appression on their own.
It found it necessary that its activists take up the issues and organise the people so as to enable them to get their right.
At the moment the organisation takes up issues and concentrates its activities in Koderma and Giridih district of Jharkhand.
In 2005 itself the organisation took up activities of making people aware, sensitive and creative in both rural and urban areas of Koderma and Giridih Dist.
The organisation believes that people cannot struggle on issues and against exploitation and appression on their own.
It found it necessary that its activists take up the issues and organise the people so as to enable them to get their right.
At the moment the organisation takes up issues and concentrates its activities in Koderma and Giridih district of Jharkhand.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
organic farming for nayi azadi
CHAPTER 1
PROMOTING ORGANIC FARMING: A STRATEGY
Author: Professor RADHAMOHAN : Sambhav, Odagaon, Rohi Banka, NAYAGARH 752090 Orissa
A
bout fifty years back, farming in India in general and Orissa in particular was essentially organic. In the last half a century, however, and thanks to determined efforts of the agro-chemical industry as well as active involvement of the government and the academia of agricultural universities, the so-called modern input-intensive agriculture made significant strides. Farmers were coaxed and cajoled, even in cases coerced, through subsidies or credit facility incentive to take more and more to chemical fertilisers, pesticides and growth hormones, etc. As a result, and especially since the nineties, commercialisation and market orientation have led to growth of monoculture and introduction of hybrid seeds necessitating a greater use of inorganic fertilisers, pesticides, etc., besides money and machinery. In the midst of all this, however, there are still many who stubbornly resist the inorganic inroad into farming and stand out as the sentinels of organic farming.
While what passes for "scientific farming" has caught on, its inherent problems in the context of a tradition-bound land like that of India have turned farmers to remain receptive to all possible "alternative" to the modern methods.
The points that frequently emerge at discussion sessions with farmers in regard to existing agricultural practices are:
(a) Soil is losing its vitality and its ability to renew itself. It is getting hard like 'burnt clay' so that to get the same amount of production one is required to use more and more chemical fertiliser and other such aid;
(b) Because more and more input is necessary to get the same output, production cost increases, and since the farmers have no control over the price of products, they often incur losses. Further, since inputs are purchased with borrowed money, they fail to repay the loans with disastrous consequences;
(c) Earlier, seeds used to cost almost nothing; farmers usually had their own or exchanged seeds with others. Such seeds were well adapted to local agro-climatic conditions also. Pest problems posed no serious threats. In contrast, seeds have now become rather expensive, and have to be purchased from the market every year. These seeds are found to be always hungry for fertiliser and thirsty for water and, what's worse still, are pest-prone;
(d) New kinds of diseases, pests/insects, not known before, affect the plant today. The traditional knowledge of farmers fails to cope with it resulting in heavy losses;
(e) Not only the plants but also the people and animals are vulnerable to new diseases and disorders. Cancer and Aids afflict a large number today. The cattle are no better thanks to polluted environs-many succumb to drinking contaminated water, for example;
(f) Continuous use of chemical fertilisers etc. has robbed both rice and vegetables not only of their nutritional value but also of their quality of taste or flavour, something which remained intact when produced organically; and, lastly,
(g) Farmers have a feeling of being trapped in the chemical-intensive approach against their will and see no hope to escape the chemicals. Their anguish and concern is better reflected from the most recurring outburst:
“After all, haven't the Government been promoting use of these harmful chemicals? If they are bad, why not the Government stop production and use of such chemicals? And don't you think, if we stop using fertilisers etc., production will decline and millions would starve to death?”
Let's see what the Government have done: The current (1999-2000) years budget provides about a staggering Rs.10,000/- crores (INR 100 bn) toward fertiliser subsidy alone! Whatever the farmers produce, by using this subsidised input, does not fetch them reasonable prices; as such the Government is forced to provide a support price. After providing support price, grains are bound to become expensive in the public distribution system which in turn forces the Government to further subsidise the grains to the tune of Rs.8,000/- crones (INR 80 bn) to avoid public outcry. But, despite all this, farmers are barely in a better position to repay the loans so that the loans would eventually have to be waived! Such is the rationale that sustains modern methods of farming.
The menace of fertiliser subsidy is becoming increasingly unbearable for the Government, and without subsidy, farmers cannot afford the fertilisers. Having persuaded the farmers to use fertilisers for decades, the Government have forced themselves to a bind and can neither dissuade the farmers nor wriggle out of subsidy payment. Some notable casualties of this catch-22 include fertiliser manufacturing units like FCI and HFC, which find themselves in the red. To seal off the problem, it is the fossil fuel which is the basis of chemical fertiliser, and fossil fuel is not renewable. How can we, then, rely upon a strategy of raising agricultural production to feed the rising millions on a raw material which is not going to last beyond a century or two? And in the mean time soil is poisoned, water contaminated, air polluted, soil organisms, birds and animals die and pesticides kill more people than pests.
During further rounds of discussions, when the following remedial agenda was considered, their faces began to register certain signs of relief as the farmers began to realise that they could be released from being hostage to the chemical frankenstein:
i) Composting
ii) Mulching
iii) Incorporating agricultural residues like paddy straw, maize stalks, etc
iv) Growing and incorporating legumes like Dhanicha and sun-hemp
v) Rotating crops-paddy followed by a leguminous crop like green gram, black gram, horse gram, peas, chick pea, etc.
vi) Inoculating seed/soil with nitrogen-fixing bacteria using bio-fertiliser
vii) Using river/tank silt
viii) Integrating bee-keeping with farming
ix) Using oil cakes
x) Using trap crops
xi) Cattle/goat herding in the field
xii) Using cattle urine, wood ash, neem oil/leaf preparations to combat pests
xiii) Using local time-tested and indigenous seed
xiv) Incorporating diversity in cropping pattern, and
xv) Introducing farm bund forestry so that fuel wood is available for cooking and cowdung is used as manure, etc.
Alternatives to the present input intensive and inorganic farming make take different shapes. It could be natural farming or zero-tillage farming, bio-farming, bio-dynamic agriculture, sustainable agriculture, ecological agriculture, or, agriculture in tune or harmony with nature, or zero/low external input agriculture, etc. The basic principle, here, is to see that by agricultural practices/activities, the nature/environment instead of being adversely affected is actually enriched and the needs of not only the present generation but also the future one are met adequately both in terms of quantity and quality.
Organic farming, therefore, has all the more relevance today in Orissa than ever before; first, because the farmer here is poor and cannot afford expensive input, and second, because the super cyclone has broken the economic backbone of the people. But the question is,
How to make it a movement?
How to inject confidence in the farmers or how to guide the farmer in weaning them away from chemical cultivation towards organic agriculture?
The desired steps could be as follows:
a) It is necessary to document the knowledge still available with some people who are growing crops organically;
b) Preserve the organic and indigenous seed through seed banks;
c) Organise training programmes - 4 to 5 in different regions to begin with, and based on the experience gained, concerns expressed, develop a Trainer's Manual and organise Trainers' training;
d) Organise Farmers' Meets in different parts of the State;
e) Organise Farmers' Tours to successful organic farms;
f) Arrange journalists/leading citizens/opinion mobilisers' visits to organic farms;
g) Develop suitable user-friendly literature on organic farming practices;
h) Develop suitable A/V materials on organic farming;
i) Establish a library of books and journals on organic farming;
j) Establish an information centre to answer queries and questions of farmers on organic farming;
k) Arrange TV talk shows, Radio talks and articles for publication in newspapers/journals;
l) Establish a certification process to certify the organic products;
m) Organise and strengthen marketing of organic food and organise exhibitions of organic products; and,
n) Put up an organic farming Resource Centre to take up these activities.
“ The need for organic farming can never be overstressed.
Back to Nature and the Natural is the call that one must heed if one wants to avoid the otherwise detrimental debris of a synthetic culture that seems more than likely to overcome humankind
and their habitat, the green earth.”
PROMOTING ORGANIC FARMING: A STRATEGY
Author: Professor RADHAMOHAN : Sambhav, Odagaon, Rohi Banka, NAYAGARH 752090 Orissa
A
bout fifty years back, farming in India in general and Orissa in particular was essentially organic. In the last half a century, however, and thanks to determined efforts of the agro-chemical industry as well as active involvement of the government and the academia of agricultural universities, the so-called modern input-intensive agriculture made significant strides. Farmers were coaxed and cajoled, even in cases coerced, through subsidies or credit facility incentive to take more and more to chemical fertilisers, pesticides and growth hormones, etc. As a result, and especially since the nineties, commercialisation and market orientation have led to growth of monoculture and introduction of hybrid seeds necessitating a greater use of inorganic fertilisers, pesticides, etc., besides money and machinery. In the midst of all this, however, there are still many who stubbornly resist the inorganic inroad into farming and stand out as the sentinels of organic farming.
While what passes for "scientific farming" has caught on, its inherent problems in the context of a tradition-bound land like that of India have turned farmers to remain receptive to all possible "alternative" to the modern methods.
The points that frequently emerge at discussion sessions with farmers in regard to existing agricultural practices are:
(a) Soil is losing its vitality and its ability to renew itself. It is getting hard like 'burnt clay' so that to get the same amount of production one is required to use more and more chemical fertiliser and other such aid;
(b) Because more and more input is necessary to get the same output, production cost increases, and since the farmers have no control over the price of products, they often incur losses. Further, since inputs are purchased with borrowed money, they fail to repay the loans with disastrous consequences;
(c) Earlier, seeds used to cost almost nothing; farmers usually had their own or exchanged seeds with others. Such seeds were well adapted to local agro-climatic conditions also. Pest problems posed no serious threats. In contrast, seeds have now become rather expensive, and have to be purchased from the market every year. These seeds are found to be always hungry for fertiliser and thirsty for water and, what's worse still, are pest-prone;
(d) New kinds of diseases, pests/insects, not known before, affect the plant today. The traditional knowledge of farmers fails to cope with it resulting in heavy losses;
(e) Not only the plants but also the people and animals are vulnerable to new diseases and disorders. Cancer and Aids afflict a large number today. The cattle are no better thanks to polluted environs-many succumb to drinking contaminated water, for example;
(f) Continuous use of chemical fertilisers etc. has robbed both rice and vegetables not only of their nutritional value but also of their quality of taste or flavour, something which remained intact when produced organically; and, lastly,
(g) Farmers have a feeling of being trapped in the chemical-intensive approach against their will and see no hope to escape the chemicals. Their anguish and concern is better reflected from the most recurring outburst:
“After all, haven't the Government been promoting use of these harmful chemicals? If they are bad, why not the Government stop production and use of such chemicals? And don't you think, if we stop using fertilisers etc., production will decline and millions would starve to death?”
Let's see what the Government have done: The current (1999-2000) years budget provides about a staggering Rs.10,000/- crores (INR 100 bn) toward fertiliser subsidy alone! Whatever the farmers produce, by using this subsidised input, does not fetch them reasonable prices; as such the Government is forced to provide a support price. After providing support price, grains are bound to become expensive in the public distribution system which in turn forces the Government to further subsidise the grains to the tune of Rs.8,000/- crones (INR 80 bn) to avoid public outcry. But, despite all this, farmers are barely in a better position to repay the loans so that the loans would eventually have to be waived! Such is the rationale that sustains modern methods of farming.
The menace of fertiliser subsidy is becoming increasingly unbearable for the Government, and without subsidy, farmers cannot afford the fertilisers. Having persuaded the farmers to use fertilisers for decades, the Government have forced themselves to a bind and can neither dissuade the farmers nor wriggle out of subsidy payment. Some notable casualties of this catch-22 include fertiliser manufacturing units like FCI and HFC, which find themselves in the red. To seal off the problem, it is the fossil fuel which is the basis of chemical fertiliser, and fossil fuel is not renewable. How can we, then, rely upon a strategy of raising agricultural production to feed the rising millions on a raw material which is not going to last beyond a century or two? And in the mean time soil is poisoned, water contaminated, air polluted, soil organisms, birds and animals die and pesticides kill more people than pests.
During further rounds of discussions, when the following remedial agenda was considered, their faces began to register certain signs of relief as the farmers began to realise that they could be released from being hostage to the chemical frankenstein:
i) Composting
ii) Mulching
iii) Incorporating agricultural residues like paddy straw, maize stalks, etc
iv) Growing and incorporating legumes like Dhanicha and sun-hemp
v) Rotating crops-paddy followed by a leguminous crop like green gram, black gram, horse gram, peas, chick pea, etc.
vi) Inoculating seed/soil with nitrogen-fixing bacteria using bio-fertiliser
vii) Using river/tank silt
viii) Integrating bee-keeping with farming
ix) Using oil cakes
x) Using trap crops
xi) Cattle/goat herding in the field
xii) Using cattle urine, wood ash, neem oil/leaf preparations to combat pests
xiii) Using local time-tested and indigenous seed
xiv) Incorporating diversity in cropping pattern, and
xv) Introducing farm bund forestry so that fuel wood is available for cooking and cowdung is used as manure, etc.
Alternatives to the present input intensive and inorganic farming make take different shapes. It could be natural farming or zero-tillage farming, bio-farming, bio-dynamic agriculture, sustainable agriculture, ecological agriculture, or, agriculture in tune or harmony with nature, or zero/low external input agriculture, etc. The basic principle, here, is to see that by agricultural practices/activities, the nature/environment instead of being adversely affected is actually enriched and the needs of not only the present generation but also the future one are met adequately both in terms of quantity and quality.
Organic farming, therefore, has all the more relevance today in Orissa than ever before; first, because the farmer here is poor and cannot afford expensive input, and second, because the super cyclone has broken the economic backbone of the people. But the question is,
How to make it a movement?
How to inject confidence in the farmers or how to guide the farmer in weaning them away from chemical cultivation towards organic agriculture?
The desired steps could be as follows:
a) It is necessary to document the knowledge still available with some people who are growing crops organically;
b) Preserve the organic and indigenous seed through seed banks;
c) Organise training programmes - 4 to 5 in different regions to begin with, and based on the experience gained, concerns expressed, develop a Trainer's Manual and organise Trainers' training;
d) Organise Farmers' Meets in different parts of the State;
e) Organise Farmers' Tours to successful organic farms;
f) Arrange journalists/leading citizens/opinion mobilisers' visits to organic farms;
g) Develop suitable user-friendly literature on organic farming practices;
h) Develop suitable A/V materials on organic farming;
i) Establish a library of books and journals on organic farming;
j) Establish an information centre to answer queries and questions of farmers on organic farming;
k) Arrange TV talk shows, Radio talks and articles for publication in newspapers/journals;
l) Establish a certification process to certify the organic products;
m) Organise and strengthen marketing of organic food and organise exhibitions of organic products; and,
n) Put up an organic farming Resource Centre to take up these activities.
“ The need for organic farming can never be overstressed.
Back to Nature and the Natural is the call that one must heed if one wants to avoid the otherwise detrimental debris of a synthetic culture that seems more than likely to overcome humankind
and their habitat, the green earth.”
samarpan
SAMARPAN is a Social Education,Training and Research Institute. Which is working among weaker section's people for their all round development, rights base movement in Koderma sadar block under Jharkhand.There are a large number of unorganised labours, worker, formers, women and child labours.Who work in stone crushers,Granite and Mica mines. so, we are struggling to change theirs lives style also.
samarpan
SAMARPAN is a Social Education,Training and Research Institute. Which is working among weaker section's people for their all round development, rights base movement in Koderma sadar block under Jharkhand.There are a large number of unorganised labours, worker, formers, women and child labours.Who work in stone crushers,Granite and Mica mines. so, we are struggling to change theirs lives style also.
samarpan
SAMARPAN is a Social Education,Training and Research Institute. Which is working among weaker section's people for their all round development, rights base movement in Koderma sadar block under Jharkhand. There are a large number of unorganised labours, worker, formers, women and child labours. Who work in stone crushers,Granite and Mica mines. so, we are struggling to change theirs lives style also.
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