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M.J. Prabu

Icrisat helps them link without threat to food security

Chennai May 9 E. Jayamma of Velchal village in Andhra Pradesh's Ranga Reddy district is neither educated nor is she from a well-to-do family. A labourer, working in cotton and turmeric fields, she once fought hard to keep poverty at bay. Not anymore.

Jayamma is among those few who are behind the country's bio-fuel revolution, which has helped her to marry off her daughter and renovate her dilapidated house.

Similar is the case of N. Nagamani of Kothlapur village, who at one time could barely afford two square meals a day. Today, she has bought a new motorbike for her son

A. Srinivasa Reddy, J. Narasimhalu and J. Chandriah, who all struggled 5-6 six years ago, have repaid their cooperative bank loans taken about 4-5 years ago.

Path to success

The path to success began in 2005 when they along with other small and causal farm labourers, were identified by Icrisat for linking them with the global bio-fuel revolution, which has currently taken Andhra Pradesh by storm.

"These people are not landlords or ryots with large holdings. All of them are small-scale labourers with some of them having only 30-50 cents of barren land," says Dr William Dar, Director-General of Icrisat. With a view to raise the living standards and income of these farmers, Icrisat linked them with the bio-fuel production without compromising on food security, he says.

About 200 farmers were selected from these two villages and asked to form eight groups. Experts from Icrisat identified about 140 and 160 hectares of wastelands in Velchal and Kothlapur village.

With the District Collector's permission, the eight groups, with technical inputs from ICRISAT, started growing jatropha and pongamia.

Plant saplings were procured from women self help groups (SHGs) in Kothapally village, the Forest Department and Icrisat nurseries.

Saving fossil fuel

Icrisat's innovative research on bio-diesel from pongamia and jatropha crops, is not only ensuring energy, livelihood and food security to these dryland farmers, but also reduces the use of fossil fuel, which in turn can help in mitigating climate change, according to Dr Suhas P. Wani, Principal Scientist and Regional Theme Co-ordinator of Icrisat.

"These crops meet the main needs of the dryland farmers - they do not require much water, can withstand stress and are not expensive to cultivate," says Dr Wani.

The institute is working with governments and industry leaders to develop partnerships that can result in economic benefit for the marginal farmers of the semi-arid tropics, even while retaining the strong economic competitiveness for the industry. "The idea is to develop partnerships that link Icrisat's innovative research with farmers and markets. We call this our pro-poor biofuels initiative for the dryland farmers where food security is not compromised," says Dr Dar.

Major opportunity

"With the fuel prices increasing globally there is a demand for ethanol from sweet sorghum and bio-diesel from pongamia and jatropha. We believe that this provides a wonderful opportunity for dryland farmers to get more money from their farms and wastelands," he said.

This project was mainly intended to develop a sense of ownership among the labourers so that they work for the development of government wastelands. The unskilled labourers took care of the plants as their own. All the eight groups were given complete rights to harvest the jatropha and pongamia trees planted in wastelands, says Dr Wani.

Savings

So far the groups have collectively saved almost Rs 1 lakh by selling the harvested produce.

Jatropha has brought smiles to all their faces. A smile that rings in positive notes, which will be heard for a long time.

More Stories on : Cultivation | Non-conventional Energy | Andhra Pradesh

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