Modern agricultural practices have a major impact on the environment. Climate change, deforestation, genetic engineering, irrigation problems, pollutants, soil degradation and waste are some of the concerns that are connected with agriculture. Excessive use of fertilisers such as urea, nitrate, and phosphorous along with many other pesticides has affected air, water, and soil quality. Soil degradation has affected the microbial community of the soil, altering the nutrient cycle, pest control and chemical transformation properties of soil.

Natural farming in India is an ideal solution to reducing all these hazards. Natural Farming is a chemical-free alias for traditional farming methods. It is considered an agroecology-based diversified farming system which integrates crops, trees, and livestock with functional biodiversity.

Keeping the above concept, a five-member team from GIZ visited the Smallholder Adaptive Farming and Biodiversity Network (SAFBIN) program. The visit was organized by the Caritas India SAFBIN team in coordination with Manav Vikas Seva Sangh, Sagar on April 20, 2023. The team witness the significant impacts brought in the lives of smallholder farmers through smallholder-led climate adaptive farming practices to make their small farms more diverse and resilient enough to cope with various climate stress while maintaining their farm production and income.

During the visit, the delegation visited two program areas i.e. Bagrohi and Saasan where they interacted with smallholders and could see the impacts of the smallholder-led interventions especially the sustainable institutional framework to address major agricultural challenges, low-cost and no-cost agroecological practices by reducing input cost and reduced dependency on external markets.

The impacts are very much visible and significantly demonstrated by the smallholder community. The institutional framework developed by the team has been widely accepted and owned by the people to address their major challenges related to food safety and security. Many of the interventions are already in line with the government of India’s initiatives. The strong presence with the community mobilisation strategy of the organisation is the key to ensuring a smallholder-led process for holistic development. Said GIZ team members.

The delegates were introduced to Bagrohi village on the first half where the members of smallholder farmers collectives (SHFC) shared the benefits of the smallholder-led integrated farming system approach while explaining the process of farm component enhancement and building strong connections among all available farm components (i.e., crop, cattle, small ruminants, fodder, fruit trees, vegetable, soil health, water with improved irrigation system, botanicals (INM), bio-pest repellents (IPM) and other agroecological practices by creating a healthy small farm ecosystem.

The delegates visited their diversified small farms with allied components to the significance of the component enhancement in making these small farms more resilient towards climate change. They could witness almost 12 components (i.e., Water, Land, Cattle, Biogas, Vegetables, Crop, Pulses, Fodder, Fruit Trees, Botanicals, Bio-pest Manure, and Medicinal Plants) are well managed by these smallholders even during this summer season.

On the other half, they visited Saasan village and interacted with women SHFC members. The team witness the 54 types of local food items harvested from small farms and got to know the partnership established with the local departments to ensure all relevant entitlements and benefits for women and smallholders during the course of the SAFBIN project.

“Considering our custom, the decision-making power generally lies with the male person of the family and they are considered to be the head of the family. However, I am authorized by my husband to take informed decisions for my family for 4-5yrs now. I am a farmer and belong to the SAFBIN project. I am now the president of my Hariyali Kishan Samoh and also working as a Community Resource Person (CRP) by the National Rural Livelihood Mission to ensure necessary capacity building along with credit linkage of 54 self-help groups of the Shahgarh region. I extend my humble gratitude to MVSS and Caritas India for the much-needed support to build my leadership qualities to be an agent of change,” shared Manisha Lodhi, Saasan village.

Further to this, the Delegation also oriented on the concept and role of Bio-lab in ensuring the micro-nutrients to smallholders covering 2500 smallholders in the region. The Bio-lab is placed at Sagar where Trichoderma and Rhizobium are being produced and supplied to smallholders on time for their agricultural uses.