BMZ PROJECT NO.2008.3422.6

January 2009 to December 2009
No.498, Errappa Line, N.R.Colony
Murugesh Palya, Vimanapura Post
Bangalore – 560 017,
Karnataka State, India

Email:Anisha.india@gmail.com
Tel: 09448872207

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Introduction

Agricultural scenario is undergoing changes in India. 70% of the Indian population is depending and sustaining on farming and allied industries as the only source of livelihood. The Government supposed to be with farmers by providing basic requirements and addressing food security, slowly withdrawing its responsibilities and promoting commercialization to support Corporate Sectors by bringing new policies like Contract Farming, Special Economic Zones, Special Agricultural Zones, focusing more on commercial crops than food crops etc. Now the corporate sectors are gaining control over entire agricultural sector in India.

Year 2009 was not so friendly for farmers of Karnataka State. The state witnessed death of 2 farmers due to police firing in Haveri district in North Karnataka. These farmers were among thousands of agitating farmers group, demanding in-time distribution of fertilizers by the State. The issue erupted as the Central government failed to supply the required fertilizers in time.

The Central Government is planning to make changes in the present Subsidy policy for chemical fertilizers. As of now, the government is spending more than Rs. 10,000 crore per year as subsidy to the chemical fertilizers to “support” farmers. Expressing concern over the misuse of chemical fertilizers, the government is planning to bring modification in the present subsidy policy. Unfortunately, these modifications are not towards supporting for organic inputs.

Though the monsoon started well on time, but failed miserably during its second spell. The sowing seeds produced and marketed by private seed companies, found spurious in various districts of the state, when farmers found the most of them failed to germinate. The state witnessed mutely the heavy downpour of rain in 18 districts of the state, during the month of September. The rain not only washed away the growing crops, but also hopes of lakhs of farmers as it also dismantled hundreds of villages.

Adding salt to injury, the central government is proposing new seed act “seed act 2004” which gives power to Corporate Seed companies, which in turn will have total control over seed sector in India. Already many research and development in the seed sector is going on by private companies and the corporate companies are investing huge capital in the agricultural sector.

These prominent developments have shattered the hopes of farming community in India and farming becoming costly for farmers.

In this critical situation, ANISHA’s intervention is to address the issues of farmers. With specific goals and objectives, ANISHA started working with farmers to improve their living conditions. The following will give brief information about its activities.

Project Profile Area

Martahalli Gram Panchayat (located about 180 km south of Bangalore) is in Kollegal Taluk, Chamarajnagar District, Karnataka State. There are 21 villages in Martahalli Gram Panchayat with the population 15,000. ANISHA is working in five clusters covering 20 villages.

ANISHA’s Vision

1. To transform 500 acres of conventional agricultural land to organic farming.
2. To initiate and encourage kitchen gardens to provide nutritional security of 200 families.
3. To encourage use of herbal medicines

Project goal

Substantial improvement in the living conditions of the population in the project area. Food and nutritional security of small and marginalized farmers, landless labourers and their families.

In order to achieve above goals, the following activities were initiated:

1. Initiating and sustaining organic agricultural practices
2. Setting up a resource centre together with land for demonstration and trials
3. Setting up infrastructure for storing and enriching agricultural produces
4. Setting up of seed banks
5. Forming farmers’ federation for organic certification and marketing
6. Other Income generation programs

The following issues were identified in the region before ANISHA’s intervention:

1. extensive usage of chemical fertilisers and pesticides
2. infertile soil and soil erosion
3. dependence on market and Public Distribution System for food products
4. lack of alternative employment locally
5. high indebtedness
6. migration in search of employment

Considering the above issues, ANISHA began its intervention in the area by orienting the farmers on organic agriculture and food security.

Activities

Brief description of surveyed areas:

According to the baseline survey conducted in 2009, out of 735 farmers, 375 are small/marginal and medium farmers, 250 are dry land farmers and 125 are wet land farmers (with small land holdings of about 0.5 acres to 4 acres) and 170 landless families were identified for implementation of kitchen gardening.

The preliminary findings of the baseline survey is that in the late 1980s, a small section of farmers in the region started cultivating cash crops for economic reasons and by 1995 many farmers followed it. As a result, at present, only 15% of the farmers in the region are growing traditional food crops such as ragi, pulses and pigeon pea. Rainfed farmers are cultivating groundnuts and maize. Farmers with irrigation system are cultivating maize, tapioca, turmeric, cotton, chilly and banana. The seed of cash crop were of hybrid varieties and these seeds respond only to chemical fertilizers. Hence higher quantities of chemical fertilizers and pesticides were used. These hybrid seeds have to be purchased from seed companies. Today 98% of farmers are buying hybrid seeds from seed companies.

The average expenditure on seeds, fertilizers and pesticides for growing single crop season for an acre is as follows: seeds range between Rs 500 and Rs.1000, fertilizers Rs.800 to Rs.1200, for pesticides Rs.250 to Rs.400/-. Agricultural activities are only for about three months in a year and the earning from this source is less. The daily wages for a male farm worker is Rs.100 and for a female worker is Rs.70/-. Hence the landless and the small land holding farmers migrate to different places in search of other jobs like, quarry worker, construction workers, drivers and tailors. The daily wages for a skilled quarry worker ranges between Rs.200 and Rs.250 and unskilled quarry worker is Rs.125, and also provide free food and shelter. 80% of the migrated population works in quarries and the rest as construction workers, drivers and tailors. Income from non-agricultural sources is much higher than agricultural sources.

Over a period of time, farmers perceived that the costs of inputs and outcome were same. Many times, cost of cultivation was high and the profits were marginal or none. Farmers could not even get back the money that they spent on seeds, fertilizers and pesticides; due to migration there was shortage of farm workers and labour cost also increased and there ware loss due to wild animals and poor rainfall. Another finding was that as most of the male members migrated and female workers found it hard to carry out certain farm activities. This led to a shift in the cropping pattern and farmers were forced to grow more annual crops like as tapioca and turmeric. Maize is also grown as it is less labour intensive.

Orientation camps:

28 orientation camps on pre-sowing and post-sowing activities for organic farming were held during the year at village and cluster levels. Initially only 12 such programs were planned, but due to greater response from the farmers across the region, ANISHA organized 28 orientation camps. Over all 461 farmers, both men and women participated in these camps. The topics covered during the orientation programs are listed below:

1. Brief analysis of the present inorganic agricultural practices and the emerging issues.
2. Concept of organic farming and their benefits in the long run
3. Preparation of organic farm yard manure
4. Compost preparation
5. Seed testing, treatment, and preservation
6. Live fencing, Introduction to different types of liquid manures and their uses
7. Pest and disease control by using locally available materials.
8. Importance of soil and water conservation
9. Introduction to herbal medicines.

The impact of the orientation program is that, out of 461 participants, 375 farmers accepted to convert 390 acres by adopting organic farming methods. They decided to cultivate crops such as maize, ragi, chilies, turmeric, banana and tapioca.

Training programs:

Training camps including demonstration were held during the year at cluster level focusing on each aspect and component of organic farming practices. 334 farmers attended and benefitted. The various subjects that were covered during the training programs are soil testing and conservation, water conservation, importance of seed testing, treating and preservation, composting and, preparation of farm yard manure, sand manure, liquid manures, green manure (all using locally available materials such as neem seed, leaf, cow dung, cow urine, ash, mud, etc), live fencing, kitchen gardens, benefits and importance of growing trees, importance, usage and preparation of herbal medicines, fodder for livestock, farmers’ federation and organic certification and marketing. (See Anexure-1 for more details)

Impact: As a result of the various orientation and trainings programs, a majority of the participants have introduced at least one component of organic farming in their farmland. They have also started preparing farm yard manure and organic inputs in their land. The nutrient name and total number of preparations prepared and used by the farmers is mentioned below:

Name of the nutrient	No. of preparations
Farm yard manure	61
Compost	13
Sand + cow urine manure	3
Vermicompost	11
Cow urine	120
Panchagavya	46
Trimurthy tonic	53
Adara Amudha karaisal	48
Leaf Extract	55
Thulluri karaisal	4
Butter milk Solution	41
Fruit extract	2
Fish amino	1
Avaram Butter milk solution	1
Total	469

 

Case study 1– Maize grown under organic methods

Ms. Anna Mary narrates her experience of cultivating maize using organic agricultural methods.

We are five members in the family. We have 2.5 acres of irrigated land, irrigation possible only during rainy season and no water for irrigation during summer. My main occupation for the past 20 years is farming. I cultivate maize, millet and sunflower. My annual expenditure for buying fertilizer and pesticides ranges between Rs.5000 and Rs.6000 per acre.

I attended meetings conducted by Anisha after which I was very much interested to try out organic farming in my land. One of ANISHA’s staff visited my farm and explained by details of organic farming and also trained me in the preparation of Panchagavya, composting, leaf extracts, etc. In the second meeting, I watched a documentary movie on endosulfan pesticides and its impact.

Anna Mary preparing leaf extract

After last season’s harvest, about 0.4 acres of land was lying vacant for two months. I wanted to try out organic farming on this land. I decided to grow maize, but I did not have money to buy seeds. Then I remembered that I had kept aside some unhealthy seeds from the previous crop. I thought I could use them for this trial. I treated the seeds with asafoetida and dried them under shade for few hours and then sowed them. Later, I prepared leaf extract by using 5 to 6 varieties of leaves in the vermicompost pit. I also prepared Panchagavya. After 45 days stem borers attacked the crops. To control this, I sprayed a mixture of the leaf extracts, Panchagavya and water. Within a week, the stem borers were controlled. I applied 50 kg of Vermicompost while weeding. I had a 30 liter cement pot and I filled it with 5 to 6 varieties of leaves and fresh cow dung. After 20 days, this extract was diluted with water. I did this three times. I am happy with the yield. I want to convert this land to organic farm in the next three years.

Comparison between organic and conventional farming in Anna Mary’s farm

Particulars	Organic farming	Conventional farming
Area of farm land	0.4 acres	0.4 acres
Seeds -3 kg (one kg did not germinate)	Waste seeds	510
Weeding – 6 members	Rs.480	Rs.480
Liquid preparation	RS.50	Nil
Harvesting	Rs.590	Rs.590
Spraying	Rs.100	Rs.100
Urea	Nil	Rs.450
Pesticide	Nil	RS.250
Total yield	704 kg	765 kg
selling price/kg	Rs.8.50 per kg	Rs.8.50
Total sales	Rs.5984	Rs.6502.5
Total expenditure	Rs.1220	Rs.2380
Net income	=Rs.5984 -1220 =Rs. 4764	Rs.6502.5-2380= Rs.4122.5
Even though in chemical farming I got 61 k.g extra yield but expenditure wise it more and I got Rs.642 extra from organic farming even the yield is less.

 

Case study -2 Dry land cultivation using organic methods

Ms. Jayamma narrates her experience of cultivating in dry land using organic practices.

We are four members in the family. We have 1.5 acres of dry land. Half of this land is used for cultivating maize and the other half is for ragi. I am practicing organic agriculture since last two years. This year, I have cultivated ragi along with pigeon peas and pulses. The seeds were sown in the second week of August. At the time of sowing, I applied 1½ tones of goat dung manure. Weeding was carried out after 15 days and I spent Rs.500 towards labour. I prepared Adara Amudha karaisal and mixed it with 150 k.g. of farm yard manure and applied to crop after the rain. I harvested three quintals of ragi which will cost Rs.3000 and I got one tractor load of ragi fodder it will cost Rs.1000. I spent Rs.1500 towards transportation of manure, weeding and harvesting. I am expecting more than a quintal of pigeon peas and pulse together and this can fetch me about Rs.4000. I am not planning to sell any of the yield, but will keep it for self consumption Before harvest, I picked the healthy seeds and preserved for next season.

22 farmers built live fencing on their farm lands. Live fencing will not only mark the boundary of the land, but also controls soil erosion, provides fodder and manure, control entry of stray and wild animals, attracts birds, keeps soil moisture.

Formation of Farmers’ Groups

Twelve farmers Groups, each consisting of 10 to 20 farmers (both men and women), were formed during the year. Most of the farmers in this region cultivate only maize. Very few farmers cultivate other crops like groundnut (peanut), ragi, turmeric, banana, chilli, etc. so we formed farmers group rather than crop specific groups.

Formation of Self Help Groups

One of the main objectives of Anisha is to reach to the landless people. In order to enhance their quality of life, four Self Help Groups (SHGs)of the landless people are being formed. The aim is to encourage kitchen gardening, savings and credit, and to introduce income generation activities. As a first step, ANISHA provided different varieties of vegetable seeds from its seed bank to 170 landless families. The farmers too contributed few varieties of seeds from their homes and altogether about 7 to 12 varieties of vegetable seeds were sown in their respective kitchen gardens. Sowing took place in August and the plants have started to yield. To mention a few, till date, each farmer has harvested about 5 kg of green (leafy) vegetables; 10 kg of radish and 2 kg of french beans. ridge gourd, brinjal, ladies finger, chilly, tomato is also yielding. As a result the families are able to consume nutritional and healthy vegetables and also save about Rs.150 a month.

Case study: Ms. Rukkamma’s kitchen garden

Ms. Rukkamma of Gulabi Mahila Swasahaya Sangha shares her experience in kitchen gardening.

I live in Hunchappanadodi village and am a coolie since 20 years. All these years, I used to cultivate 2 or 3 varieties of vegetables. This year, with the help of Sangha, I could grow more varieties of vegetables in my kitchen garden. I could grow brinjals, chilly, beans, ridge gourds, ash gourds, winged beans and bitter gourd wherever space is available around my house. Anisha provided 4 different seeds and I had 3 different vegetable seeds at home. Altogether, I could grow 7 different types of vegetables. I water the plants twice a week. For nutrients, I have applied 10 kg of cow dung, sprayed cow urine and butter milk. My family consumes sufficient vegetables and the excess is shared with my neighbors. This season I have not spent any money for buying vegetables. The following table shows the number of plants, yields and the estimated savings till December 2009.

No. of plants	Yield till date (kg)	Estimated savings (Rs)
Brinjal — 10	4	60
Chilli — 40	7	210
Double Beans — 10	3	45
Ridge gourd — 4	2	40
Ash gourd — 4	3	30
Winged bean — 2	10	150
Bitter gourd — 2	1	20
Total	30	555

 

Distribution of farm implements

Most of the farmers do not possess the required farm implements and are renting whenever there is need and it also add upto there farming expenses. Tractors are hired at Rs.400 per hour and sprayers at Rs.15 to spray one tank. Sometimes, they need to wait for days to get the implements as many would be borrowing them at the same time. Moreover, some of the rented implements, such as sprayers are used in conventional farms for spraying chemical pesticides and the same are used in the organic farms too. Lack of barrels/containers to prepare and store the liquid manures. Hence, to support the farmers in carrying out the farm activities on time and to arrest the contamination through sprayers, ANISHA distributed some of the farm implements to the sanghas. Each sangha was give 3 sprayers, 2 wooden ploughs and 3 iron ploughs. A total of 127 barrels were also distributed to the sanghas. A discussion to charge a nominal fee for hiring is ongoing in the sanghas. A decision will be taken shortly.

Distribution of Hand Weeders

Five hand Weeders were purchased and distributed to farmers for use. Few of them tried it out and expressed their inexperience to use them. However they were willing to learn and then use the hand weeders.

The idea of distributing weeders was discussed in the SHGs (landless families). This group indicated that this will have an adverse effect on them. In the traditional weeding method 25 workers are needed to carry out the weeding on one acre in one day. Whereas, by using hand weeders the same job can be done in two days by one worker with one weeder. They feared that they will lose their incomes if weeders are distributed. They also expressed that weeders will only help the farmers and not the landless poor families.

We realized the consequences and decided to put this idea of distributing hand weeders on hold. Anisha is here to support the landless people and not to create unemployment or push them to the worst economic situations

Exposure Visits

Two exposure visits were organized during the reporting period - one for the farmers and the other for the staff of ANISHA

1. A visit to Mr. Kailash Murthy’s farm (one of the farmer practicing natural farming in Dodahinduvadi Village) organized a seminar of Natural Farming. 16 farmers from our project area participate and they shared their experiences in organic farming and also had a field visits.
2. ANISHA’s staff visited ‘Krishi Mela’ (an exhibition of agricultural practices and products), in Bangalore. The objective were : to gain more information on the different techniques and practices of organic agriculture in dry land farms; to obtain more information on native seeds, high yield seeds, different methods of compost making, preparation of different types of liquid manures, etc. This was a good learning experience for the staff and would equip them to work more effectively with the farmers.

Formation of Seed Banks

There is a need to set up seed bank facilities which would help the farmers to preserve and obtain varieties of native seeds, income generation activities, preparation of liquid manure and other related activities. For this purpose, two pieces of land, each measuring 1320 sq. ft. were purchased in two clusters namely, Cluster 1 (Bidarahalli) and Cluster 4 (Sandana palya). Buildings with carpet area of 410 sq. ft. in Bidarahalli and 400 sq. ft. in Sandana palya are been constructed using bricks, cement, steel and roofing with Mangalore tiles. These seed banks will be functional by the end of January 2010.

The land prices are high in the other two clusters and hence could not purchase the land. However, we are searching for land that would fit into our budget.

So far we have collected 53 varieties of paddy, millet, vegetables, oil seeds and manure seeds from in and around the project area. These will be well catalogued and documented with details such as name of the plant, quantity, germination capacity etc.

The seed mela and seed exhibition will be organized during the opening of the seed bank, and the preparation is in progress

Income Generation Activity (Revolving Fund)

As part of income generation activity, revolving fund was distributed to 10 sanghas. Since the 3 revolving funds were distributed during the non-agricultural season, the sanghas decided to lend the money for buying goats. 39 members from three sanghas bought goats with this money, reared them, and three members sold after six month for profits ranging between Rs.400 and Rs.1500 per goat. Of the 39 members, 3 have fully repaid the loan and rest are repaying it in instalments.

Farmer to farmers

Farmers, who are already practicing organic farming under the guidance of Anisha, were identified and grouped together to propagate their experience to other farmers in the region. This group meet every month to exchange ideas discuss the problems, find solutions, identify their training needs and draw out their monthly action plans. One such need based training was organized in December to provide information on the uses of different nutrients and to demonstrate the preparations.

It as to be remarked that the logistic was coordinated by the farmers, themselves.

Farmer’s federation

A meeting of selected farmers was also held to discuss the concept of farmers’ federation, its advantages and the benefits of organic certification. 18 farmers attended this meeting

Organic Certification

A separate meeting was organized to discuss about organic certification and a resource person from Sahaja Samrudhi (an NGO working on native seed and also involved in internal group certification) was invited to explain the guidelines and procedures for organic certification. For this meeting the 22 selected farmers from the sangha were invited, the follow up of this meeting will be held in February 2010.

Marketing agricultural produce

Most of the produce, except maize, is sufficient for self consumption. Hence farmers are not planning to sell them this year. The production of maize some portion kept for own consumption and the remaining is sold locally. Thus, no marketing activity is taken up by the sanghas this season.

Resource Centre

A piece of land measuring 5.1 acres has been purchased in Cluster 2 (Vodaradodi cluster) for constructing a Resource Centre. This land is located on a hill and has been uncultivated for a long time and hence the entire land was covered with wild bushes and trees. First round of cleaning and laying of road has been completed. There is no water source in the surrounding area for construction and cultivation activities and hence a bore well has to be dug. We are in the process of getting electricity for this land. In the meanwhile, we are also getting quotes from different contractors for drilling a bore well. We are expecting to get the power connection in January 2010, after which the contractor will be finalised and bore well will be dug. Under the given conditions, we are planning to start the construction activities in February 2010.

[IMAGE: Resource Centre Land]

Government schemes

Apart from providing information on the various government schemes ANISHA also supports the government agencies in the implementation of the scheme for the benefit of the target group. A couple of such schemes are Jalanayana and National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

1. ‘Jalanayana’ is a dry land and wasteland development project initiated by Government of India. The objectives of this scheme is to provide a sustained agriculture base through land measures and best agriculture practices, recharge groundwater, field bunds, farm ponds, tank de-silting, tree plantation and composting. Initially when the government officials approached the farmers with this scheme, they rejected it because they feared that they would lose a portion of their meagre agriculture land by planting trees. As a resort, the officials approached Anisha to support. An orientation workshop was organised to inform the farmers on the benefits of the project and to build awareness on the benefits and importance of growing trees. Related topics were also discussed at the sangha meeting. As a result, the farmers were convinced and planted saplings of coconut, mango, sapota and jackfruit in their farms.

2. [IMAGE: Meeting on NREGS]

   National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme (NREGS) introduced by Government of India in 2005 with an objective to address rural poverty, create employment opportunities and to reduce migration. The scheme provides 100 days of employment to each and every family for a daily wage of Rs.82 irrespective of the sex. These 100 days can be spread throughout the year depending upon their other works. 80% of this employment is for the development of land and 20% is for constructing roads and other infrastructures. ANISHA contacted the government officials to come and brief the beneficiaries about the scheme, but unfortunately none of them turned up. Hence a resource person from Tamil Nadu was invited to explain the guidelines of the scheme to the beneficiaries. Many questions were raised and few members shared their own experiences of NRGES. Certain irregularities in the implementation of this scheme also came out during the discussions. Hence ANISHA together with another NGO in the region has requested access to the implementation details through the Right to Information Act so that the beneficiaries can be empowered with the right information and benefit from it.

3. Information on the other agriculture schemes such as construction of vermicompost pit, grain platform, etc., are also collected and shared with the farmers.

Herbal Medicines:

Parallel to organic farming, Anisha is also focusing its activities on enriching the knowledge and use of herbal medicines in the region. Rural communities are knowledgeable on home remedies, but it is unfortunate that these age old healthy practices are being neglected. People are looking out for fast relief and hence are moving towards Allopathic medicines.

It is a known factor that the number of herbal plants have reduced and so with their preparation and practices. There is a fear that traditional medicines are losing its roots.

Our attempt therefore is to put the resource base of traditional health culture firmly on the ground with women at the centre, enabling them to take care of their own health, of their children, family and the community.

In all the introductory meetings, we discuss and identify the common health complaints like skin allergies, excessive white discharge (a common infection among women and adolescent girls), knee and joint pains, ringworm, chikungunya, fever, head ache etc. During the year, six training programs for the preparation of herbal oils were organized. Women took active participation and learned the preparations of different herbal oils for treating simple ailments. A portion of this oil is distributed to the participants for free and the balance is distributed to the patients. This oil was given to 78 patients of which 54 have completely cured and the rest are still continuing the treatment.

A unique feature of the herbal training programs is that women joyfully sing and dance while learning the herbal preparations.

We also initiated to sell the oil to non-members in the project region which is picking up slowly, next year the sangha will take over the marketing of herbal oils.

The following oils were prepared during the training programs:

1. Nelagunde oil for relieving aches and pains.
2. Astamola oil, prepared with a combination of eight different herbs, cures 16 skin ailments like ringworm, skin allergies, burn scars, controls hair falling and dandruff, crack foot, and wounds, etc.
3. Vicks prepared with three types of camphor’s also relieves aches and pains.

[IMAGE: Herbal medicine training]

So far, we have identified 65 varieties of herbal plants in the farmland. Three elderly women who were treating simple ailments with local herbs were also identified. These women have stopped the practice as they are old. Anisha has plans to document their herbal medicinal practices and prepare a user manual.

 

5. Comparison table shows between Actual Plan for 2009 and targets achieved

Sl.No.	Actual plan 2009	Achieved	Remarks
1	To reach out to 500 farmers	Could reach out to 375 farmers	Rest 125 are planned to be covered from Doddanna and Thokari villages. Baseline survey of these villages is completed. Three orientation meetings were held and farmers identified.  We could not initiate any work in these villages due to physical difficulties and non-availability of educated local person to work there. Both the villages are situated on a hilly region and can be accessed only by walking for about 8 kms (1-way) through the forest. Outsiders are not willing to go there and work. The local youth have migrated in search of jobs. Recently, we identified 2 people and held interviews. They have agreed to start working from January 2010.
2	To reach out to 200 landless families	Could reach out to 170 landless families	30 more landless families to be identified during the 2010
3	Baseline survey	735 baseline surveys carried out in all the 5 Clusters	Preliminary analysis has been done
4	12 Orientation and Training programs	12 cluster level training program held 28 sangha level training programs held	Many small group meetings were also held at sangha and village levels.
5	Exposure visits	two exposure visit one to natural farm and another Krishi Mela	Many farmers are interested to visit other farm.
6	Distribution of agricultural Implements	Distributed the following: 43 sprayers 65 ploughs 127 drums/barrels 5 hand weeders	Still we have to form sangha in Cluster No.5
7	Formation of Farmers group and Self Help Groups - 20	12 Farmers groups  4 Self Help Groups (SHGs of landless families)	4 more farmers group needs to be formed.
8	Revolving fund	Distributed to 10 groups	Have to distribute to 10 more groups. Will be done in 2010.
9	Health	4 orientation and training programs held.  5 herbal medicines prepared and distributed to patients	78 patients treated so far with herbal medicines and 24 patients are undergoing treatment still and the remaining recovered
10	Implementing government schemes	1. Jalanayana's Dry land Development project — saplings distributed 2.NREGS - organized one public meeting, 20 compost pits 3.Agriculture Dept — soil testing	We are collecting information on different government schemes

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CONCLUSION

ANISHA started work with its vision to transform 500 acres of conventional farming land into organic farming, reaching out to 500 farmers, addressing nutritional and food security to 200 landless families and to encourage herbal medicinal practices.

1. ANISHA started all the programmes in time on all pre- and post-sowing activities. Almost 70% of the farmers identified for this project, participated in the orientation camps. But due to many reasons 50% did not show much interest to implement organic methods, but they expressed that organic farming is labour oriented and more work, sourcing and collecting of materials, prepare the inputs and wait for some time from 24 hours to 21 days, where in the case of conventional farming is less work and it is shelf to farm and is immediate.

Our understanding is that some of the farmers are not fully convinced with the organic methods. We were also unable to sustain their interests in organic farming at the initial stage. Those who implemented one or many of the organic farming components, did not have the patience to wait till the yielding stage and thus in the middle of the season, out of the fear that they might lose the crops/yield, started using chemical inputs. Here again we failed to gauge their fear. Even though many farmers in and around the project area contact us for information on mainly pest and disease control methods, but those do not practice all of them. Organic system controls the pests, but do not destroy them, farmers have a misconception on this aspect, even after attending many of our programs. We need to focus more on resolving such Reaching out to the target group.

2. Reaching out to the target group: We could not initiate any work in two villages namely, Dodanna and Thokari as they are situated in remote corners and can be accessed only by walking for about 16 kms (2-ways) through the forest. There are no educated youth available locally to take up Anisha’s work as most of them have migrated in search of jobs, due to absence of High Schools in these villages the youth could not pursue their education. We were constantly looking out for locals, at least with a minimum qualification, and could recently find a person who has accepted to work in these two villages.

It is unfortunate that we failed to achieve our goal in these two villages to reach our target. This we are hoping to achieve in 2010 as the baseline survey is completed and orientation programs held and also having regular interaction with the farmers.

3. Yield — Chamarajnagar district, a declared drought-prone district, receives low rainfall and it has reduced predominantly over the past 3 years and is also unseasonal. The monsoon has started early and most of the people sowed for first rain they could able to get some yield, but the people who sowed in the second rain they lost their yield as the rain was scanty during the growth and yielding stage. The dry land farmers are the one who got affected. Because most of the farmers especially in the case maize crop, they used hybrid seeds. This needs more water whereas the native seeds (ragi, pigeon pea, groundnut and pulses) are drought resistant. Farmers who sowed native seeds were able to get at least some yield whereas the ones who sowed hybrid maize seeds suffered loss. These farmers argue that the loss is due to organic farming, but at the same time they are convinced that there is a major savings on farm inputs.

Whereas the yield was less especially in dry land farming whatever yield they got they kept for their own consumption. In the case of irrigated farmers they practice organic farming in part of their land so they also kept for own consumption and the remaining sold locally. So due to this the sanghas could not buy the product and sell it.

4. Landless farmers: ANISHA’s one of the main objectives is to work with landless families and promote their standard of living through nutritional security and income generation activities. Nutritional security could be achieved to some extent by promoting kitchen gardens. Savings and credit activities have started in a small way in the self help groups, but the turnover is meager and hence they are unable to take up income generation activities in a big way.

Initially Anisha’s plan was the SHG’s buy the agricultural produce and adding value addition and later sell them for a profit. We could not succeed in this activity since many of the farmers are growing only maize. We could not buy this, add value and sell it, because maize consumers are few. Moreover, maize is not the staple food in other regions; hence we feared that marketing this product might be unsuccessful. We also need to focus on the aspects of value addition and marketing in the coming years.

This year, Anisha also had plans to create employment opportunities for the landless families by way of its seed banks; but could not achieve this because there was a delay in the procurement of land due to the increase in land prices. However, construction of seed bank facilities is ongoing in two clusters and is expected to complete soon. We are planning to commence the activities in these two clusters in January 2010.

5. Migration: Though we have addressed the issue of migration, we could not reach the targeted number. However, there is a little success that 5% of the migrating population is working in their fields. Migration issue needs to be addressed more intensively in the coming years.

6. ANISHA last one year have done many activities and also achieved some of goals those we can consider it as success ANISHA:

• Yields were high in some of the farms through organic activities when compared to conventional farming.
• Savings on farm inputs and farm implements.
• More fodder for livestock.
• Savings and self sustenance through kitchen gardening.
• Building awareness on the nutritional aspects and organic farming, importance of trees, conservation of soil and water.
• Substantial reduction in the use of commercial fertilizers.
• Other NGOs in the region approaching Anisha to talk about organic farming in their sanghas and requesting guidance in the preparation of farm inputs. These NGOs following the footsteps of Anisha in promoting kitchen garden and organic farming in their sanghas and also provided barrels for them, earlier these SHGs were going on excursion to nearby tourist places, but now they are visiting the organic farms in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka with the support of ANISHA’s network with organic farmers and institutions in Karnataka and neighbouring states.
• Farmers from other panchayat are approaching ANISHA for pest and disease management and we are visiting their farms and training them.

Closing remarks: We can conclude by saying that Anisha has addressed most aspects of its objectives (though not seen much success) except employment and income generation, and marketing activities.