Hemant Joshi, the Secretary of Save Indian Farmers, met with our on-the-ground partners in India from March 13th through 16th. This is a report of the interactions and field visits during his trip.
13th March 2018
Mumbai and Bundelkhand Team gather at Thane (residence of Dr. Hemant Joshi) at 5.30 am. Dr. Hemant Joshi, Pramod Dalal (Head, India Operations, Save Indian Farmers), Manvendra Singh, Prashansha Gupta and Yashwantrao Yadav arrive at Thane. The journey begins to Ambajogai via Pune.
We reached Pune at 9 AM and had breakfast at Dr. Manjusha Ghumare’s residence. Palak Verma also joined our discussion during breakfast.
This was followed by a meeting near Shirur with Aniket Lohiya, Secretary of Manavlok. We then headed to Ambajogai via Ahmadnagar. We reached Beed around 5 pm and had some snacks at Dr. Sanap’s residence. We finally reached the Ambajogai Manavlok campus at 8 pm. During dinner with the team, Dr. Hemant Joshi shared the agenda and objectives for the next two days.
14th March 2018
We started at 7 AM. An introduction about Save Indian Farmers (USA) was given by Dr. Hemant Joshi, Secretary, Save Indian Farmers. He emphasized the crucial role that project partners play in effectively planning and implementing the work. He also mentioned how all fundraising money is directly spent on supporting the projects. He provided an overview of all the initiatives of SIF and the partners associated with each of these projects. We had representatives from each of these organizations at the meeting. Each representative shared information about the priorities and operations of their organization.
- Hemant Joshi, Secretary, SIF
- Pramod Dalal, Head of India Operations, SIF
- Yashwantrao Yadav, SIF
- Prashansha Gupta, SIF
- Manjusha Ghumare
- Dwarkadas Lohiya (Babuji), Founder, Manavlok
- Lalasaheb Aagale, Joint Secretary, Manavlok
- Vijay Honkalaskar, Chetana Pratishthan
- Prasad Chikshe, Jnana Prabodhini
- Vivek Giridhari, Jnana Prabodhini
- Anandakumar, Project Director, Avishkar
- Manvendra Singh, Parmarth
- Sikander Meeranayak, Sankalpa
- Machindra Gojame, Founder, PIRD
- Irfan, Pani Foundation, Competition Director, Maharashtra
- Rohit Bidwe
- Gajanan Parsodkar
This was followed by a field visit to Palaskheda village, where we visited the borewell recharge units, and oversaw the river rejuvenation and silting work that was carried out.
15 March 2018
Yelda and Pathan Mandwa village field visit
We inspected the drip irrigation systems installed for organic drumstick cultivation in Yelda. We also observed the Rainwater Harvesting Structures constructed in Pathan.
What Next…
In our concluding session, we discussed strategies for strengthening the farming community. Organic farming, soil and water conservation efforts & tree based farming approaches were discussed. We also discussed issues related to health, education and women’s empowerment. Here is a summary of the focus areas of each organization along with their actions items for the immediate future.
| No. | Organization | Area of work | What Next… |
| 1 | Manavlok | Watershed development, rain water harvesting structures, micro-irrigation, farming, health, education, women’s empowerment | Execution of drumstick project (planting, advising and marketing for farmers). Installation of hydroponics unit. Completion of remaining borewell recharge structures. |
| 2 | Sankalp | Rain water harvesting through borewell recharge. Microfinance via women SHGs. | Borewell recharge for members of SHG. |
| 3 | Parmarth | Community mobilization, Paani Panchayat, water recycling, water conservation, education, women’s health, kitchen gardens, seed bank, FPO. | Promotion of crops that requires less water. Water audit, water budgeting, socio-economic survey before and after project, case studies. |
| 4 | Avishkar | Tree-based farming, soil and water conservation, organic farming, small and marginal farmers, soil health, farmer to farmer extension, training and capacity-building programmes, bio-fertilizers, bio-pesticides, c/omposting | Vegetable organic farming, farmers field school, exposure visit, improve soil health, micro-irrigation |
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About the Author
Yashwantrao Yadav is a Doctoral Scholar from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai working on Information Communication Technology (ICT) in Farming. On September 15, 2017, he visited Kaij and Ambajogai tehsils of Beed District to see the Rain Water Harvesting (RWR) interventions supported by Save Indian Farmers (SIF) and implemented through Manavlok and Jnana Prabodhini.
