Project Coordinators and Animators from Jeevan-Empowering Animation and Sanjeevani in Western India learnt the techniques of Soil & Water Conservation and Sustainable Agriculture.

Caritas India has been working in this area to empower the local communities in earning their livelihood and taking proactive steps to lead their development process. Jeevan – Empowering Animation and Sanjeevani are two programmes in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh for the vulnerable smallholder farming families and landless farmers to secure food & nutrition security and achieve greater self-reliance in the sectors of agriculture, governance, livelihood, land rights by collectively using their resources.

The training from 27-27 August 2021 drew a total of 39 participants. Fr. Balaraj Madanu, Director, Nagpur Multipurpose Social Service Society (NMSSS), Director and Fr. Rohan Gavdya, Asst. Director, Pune Diocese Social Service Society have attended the programme along with the participants to learn and motivate the staff to carry forward the learning to the field.

Mr. Melvin Pangya, State Officer of Maharashtra outlined the program’s goal and cleared the participant’s expectations from the learning and exchange programme. The session helped in sharing the organisation’s experience with other participants and vice-versa which promoted cross-learning among participants.

Mr. Mukund Deshmukh, Asst Program Lead – Food & Nutrition Security Program from SABAL programme facilitated the session on Sustainable Agriculture Practices and Resilience Farming.  He shared the Importance of Soil testing and its method and the government centres available for soil testing. Mukund also explained the diversification and promotion of food crops under Sustainable Agriculture Practices (SAP), and how minor as well as major millets can change the nutrition scenario of small and marginal farmers communities. Additionally, the inputs were given on Integrated Nutrient Management (INM), Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and Soil and Water Conservation (SWC). He explained about the soil water erosion and migration of soil and its impact on biodiversity, on how mismanagement of water is causing soil migration.

The participants visited Jamblapani village on a field exposure to witness some practical sessions on SWC & SAP. The farmers agreed to show the demonstrations plot layout on Soil and Water Conservation. A practical demonstration on Sustainable Agriculture Practices was given to the participants.

Mr. Melvin Pangya in his inputs shared about Sustainable Agriculture and explained the role of women in agriculture. He emphasized cash crop and food crops benefits, localized agriculture practices, wisdom exchanges of farmers and farmers field schools, the movement against chemical farming, group farming, the revival of traditional crops, and also had discussed the Adivasi food system such as forest-based food system, crop diversification and crop management system and home food Vs. market food, Identification of farmers own marketing options and Linkages-building.

Mr. Melvin concluded appreciated all participants for their active participation, NMSSS team for coordination for the training program and field level arrangement for practical sessions.