Ms. Pannir (59) showed her gratitude to Caritas India for the timely support after the Kerala Flood 2018. She was given livestock support as part of the Caritas India DRR Navajeevan Livelihood Project from Marayoor Grama Panchayat in the Idukki district. She reported that with the support of the project she was able to multiply the number of livestock and generate income by selling offsprings of goat, milk and its dung as fertilizers. Her husband was suffering from a severe health issue and had to spend a lot of amounts as part of treatment every month. She was able to cover the monthly hospital expenses and was able to make a saving of nearly Rs. 80,000/- in her bank account only for future hospital expenses of her husband. She stressed that during the covid pandemic time, when a majority of the community people were struggling for their daily bread, the support of Caritas India paved the way to handle the situation. 

This is not an individual story, but the impact of livelihood support given by Caritas India to the backward communities in the Munnar region. This promising livelihood project of Caritas India was implemented with the support of the Vijayapuram Social Service Society (VSSS) for the restoration and resilience building among the affected community people. Two hundred and fifty participants were identified using scientific methods and were given assistance to formulate sustainable and resilient livelihood activities. 

As an extension of this project, Caritas India has organized one-day physical training on Natural Farming for these selected participants on 29th November 2021 at VSSS Animation Centre. The major focus was to enhance the capacity of the participants to adopt various means of integrated farming and non-farming methods to sustain their livelihood options. 

“This training is very important as we are living in a disastrous situation every day, and it is a great opportunity before us to increase the knowledge level and to be a model livelihood resilient people in the community,” said Fr Augustin Binoy Mecheriyil, Executive Director of VSSS in his presidential address while stating the importance of sustainable development. Dr. V.R Haridas, the Thematic Manager of Climate Justice, Caritas India, inaugurated the Natural Farming training session and emphasized the importance of developing environmentally friendly and sustainable activities and livelihoods. 

Dr. V.R Haridas informed us that our existing farming practices are desecrating our natural resources. The way we farm now is poisoning our land, polluting and depleting our water supplies, destroying biodiversity, and providing food that is unsafe due to the use of toxic pesticides and hormones. These damaging farming practices are justified by the need to produce more food in order to feed the people and make a profit. Meanwhile, we are chopping off the hand the feeds us, with reports of more farmers committing suicide. People are flocking to hospitals for treatment to improve their health. The training programme was heading to address these threats by replacing the presently used methods. The session covered topics of traditional seeds, stopping the use of chemicals, manufacturing biofertilizer, minimum irrigation, Integrated family farming and Kitchen Garden.

Model techniques and processes were explained with examples that can contribute towards sustainable life and livelihood of the farming community and maintain environmental sustainability as well as multilayer multi-crop agricultural model. It embraces kitchen garden, horticulture, compost pit, nursery, livestock rearing etc.

“My interest in the natural farming activities is increased, I would like to share the knowledge gained by this training with my neighbours so that gradually the community can adopt the natural friendly methods of framing,” expressed Sali, a training participant from Adimaly, Idukki.

The other training participants expressed their gratitude regarding the benefits they received from Caritas India as part of DRR livelihood projects.They also shared the changes that happened in their life due to the project. Around eighty beneficiaries from the DRR Livelihood project from the Munnar region participated in the training programme. 

Vijayapuram Social Service Society plans to sustain the benefit of the livelihood project and Natural Farming by expanding the number of participants of the project like Garden of Eden, organizing a workshop for Farmers, Organizing Farmers Producers Organization for commercializing natural farming in the coming future.