Jamui village success story goes to metros

Patna: Bringing the Kedia success story to urban consumers, Greenpeace India on Sunday launched its 'Food for Life' campaign in three metros - Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore - in an effort to bridge the gap between farmers and urban consumers.

The Food for Life campaign is based on 'Living Soils' approach - an attempt to fix the broken agricultural system, reduce chemical dependency and restore soil health by focussing on replenishing the nutrient value of the soil with biomass-based organic supplements.

The success story of Kedia, an eco-agricultural model village in Jamui district, was brought to life at simultaneous World Environment Day events in the three metros through film screening, street play and panel discussion, allowing the urban audience to thoroughly investigate this alternative way of farming.

"In little over 20 months, farmers in Kedia have constructed more than 282 vermi-composting units, where they convert 'waste' into nutrient-rich, organic fertilisers. The pits also receive slurry from the 11 biogas plants that have been installed alongside, providing a safer, healthier alternative to the burning of biomass as cooking fuel," says Ishteyaque Ahmed, a Greenpeace campaigner.

Farmers have also built five 'pucca' cattle sheds to capture both cow dung and urine 'at source'. While the dung goes into the biogas plants, the cattle urine is used for many purposes, including the preparation of products like 'Amritpani', one of the several plant nutrition and pest management solutions made with cattle urine, Ahmed, who is spearheading the campaign at Kedia village, told TOI.

The farmers have also built ecological toilets that provide safe, clean sanitation while making it possible to convert human excreta into ecological fertiliser. "Today we can witness a landmark change in Kedia, located in Barhat block of Jamui district," he said.

"Since 2014, when we first started facilitating this change in Kedia, we have witnessed the beautiful result of nature, farmer and the government machinery collaborating and coordinating with mutual respect. We are also seeing a renewed focus on farming naturally, increasing awareness of biodiversity and biofuels," said Ahmed.

"We are promoting a largely self-sufficient model of sustainable livelihood, which, by eliminating the middlemen, is creating greater opportunities for the farming community to profit from their own efforts," he added.

Rajkumar Yadav, one of the farmers from Kedia, also sent a message to audiences in which he said, "By making our own fertilisers and pest control medicines with organic, natural ingredients already available to us, we have been able to significantly reduce the input costs of our farming, but perhaps more importantly, we can rest secure in the knowledge that we - and you - are safe from the ill effects of the chemicals that would otherwise be used."