AP Natural Farming Model Wins Global Award

2024-07-11 18:31:00

A unique natural farming method that has been implemented in Andhra Pradesh for over eight years has won global recognition.Nagendram Netham, a farmer in Andhra Pradesh’s drought-prone Anantapur district, and Vijay Kumar, executive vice-chairman of the state government body Rythu Sadhikara Samstha, received the prestigious Gulbenkian Humanitarian Award in Lisbon (Portugal) on Thursday.

The award recognizes outstanding contributions to climate action and solutions that inspire hope and possibility.

For small farmer Nagendrama from Ganthapuram village, switching to natural farming is not a fantasy. She realised the importance of adopting natural farming and moving away from chemical farming because of her daughter’s visual impairment.

Once she saw the benefits (her income was more than 50% of the average income of other farmers in her village), she never looked back. She even became an advocate for natural farming methods promoted by the state government. In 2019, she became a champion farmer trainer for Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming (APCNF). Her mission is to win over more farmers. In 2023, she became a model master trainer to mentor other trainers across the district.

Vijay Kumar, a former bureaucrat who led the state’s natural farming initiative, came to Lisbon along with Nagedramma to receive the award.

“APCNF supports smallholder farmers in moving from chemical-intensive to natural farming. This involves practices such as using organic residues and minimising tillage to improve soil health; as well as reintroducing native seeds,” he said.

APCNF is run by RySS and covers more than 10 lakh smallholder farmers in the state, with a total land area of 500,000 hectares.

APCNF, together with renowned soil scientist Rattan Lal (USA/India) and SEKEM (Egypt), have been awarded a €1 million cash prize to continue and expand their work towards more secure and sustainable food systems.

The trio were chosen from 181 nominees from 117 countries for the prize, which is established by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, a charity dedicated to improving the quality of life for everyone through art, philanthropy, science and education.