Gau Adharita Vyavasayam”

Andhra Pradesh (VSK). In an interview to Vishwa Samvad Kendra Andhra Pradesh, Shri. Kumar Swamy, Organizing Secretary of Bharatiya Kisan Sangh Andhra Pradesh (BKSAP) has given a brief insight into BKSAP pilot project “Gau Adharita Vyavasayam” (organic farming).

The pilot project has been adopted by farmers in seven districts of Andhra Pradesh, who are selling their produce through Kisan Sangh Cooperative Society retail outlets. This project has been helpful in providing employment opportunities to a large number of youth as well.

During the course of the interview Shri.Kumar Swamy emphasized the importance of Gau Adharita Vyavasayam by pointing out to the following facts.

or high yields of crops  farmers  have using large quantity of fertilizers and pesticides which caused alarming levels of food contamination. As a result whatever we are consuming is nothing but pesticide coated food items which in turn damage our health leading to new diseases as well as degrading our immune system. Due to this, in our country we spend most of our income on medical expenses.

This trend of high crop yields started with the green revolution in India with a slogan “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan”. The intention was to avoid and reduce deaths due to hunger. The successive governments encouraged this by giving subsidies for purchasing fertilizers and pesticides. This led to increase in cancer cases in India.

Medical research has concluded that, now-a-days the chances of a new-born developing a heart or a kidney problem are far higher. This is due to mother’s intake of high pesticide laden food items, the traces of which are passed onto the new- born through the mother’s milk. Medical research also suggests that, people living in rural areas have higher chance of developing cancer due to frequent use of fertilizers and pesticides.

In India, Punjab has high number of cancer patients from farming community which is again due to rampant use of fertilizers and pesticides. Due to increasing number of cancer patients now the government has introduced a cancer treatment train.

Taking stock of this situation Bharatiya Kisan Sangh Andhra Pradesh wing has started a campaign named “Aarogya Andhra Pradesh”. It’s motto is to make Andhra Pradesh a healthy state. For that Kisan Sangh has introduced “Gau Adharita Vyavasayam” (organic farming)  and it has launched awareness and training programmes to encourage farmers to adopt Gau Adharita Vyavasayam. A slow change has been observed and several farmers have adopted Gau Adharita Vyavasayam.

The main problem which the farmers have been facing in this organic farming is absence of any platform to sell and market their produce. The Kisan Sangh has responded to this by forming a “Farmers’ Cooperative Society”, an registered society, through which the farmers can sell their produce to the consumers without any middlemen. In Vijayawada city, the society is running four shops and each shop has a daily sale of 20K to 30K.