AP’s pure farming mannequin wins world prize

A novel pure farming methodology being practiced in Andhra Pradesh for over eight years has gained world recognition. Nagendramma Nettem, a farmer from the drought-prone Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh, Vijay Kumar, Govt Vice Chairman of Rythu Sadhikara Samstha, a State-government company, has acquired the distinguished Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity award in Lisbon (Portugal) on Thursday.

The award recognises excellent contributions to local weather motion and options that encourage hope and risk.

For Nagendramma, a small farmer from Ghantapuram village, it isn’t a flowery thought to make a change to pure farming. With a daughter affected by imaginative and prescient deficiencies, she realised the significance of going pure, shunning chemical-based agriculture.

As soon as she noticed the profit (she earns greater than 50 per cent of the typical revenue of fellow farmers within the village), she by no means seemed again. She even grew to become an advocate for pure farming strategies promoted by the State Authorities. She grew to become a Champion Farmer Coach of the Andhra Pradesh Neighborhood Managed Pure Farming (APCNF) in 2019. Her mandate is to win over extra farmers. In 2023, she grew to become a Mannequin Grasp Coach, mentoring different trainers throughout the district. 

Vijay Kumar, a former bureaucrat who’s main the pure farming initiatives within the State, is in Lisbon to obtain the award together with Nagedramma.  

“The APCNF helps small farmers to modify from chemically intensive agriculture to pure farming. It includes practices similar to utilizing natural residues and minimising tillage to enhance soil well being; and reintroducing indigenous seeds,” he mentioned.

Run by RySS, APCNF covers over 10 lakh small farmers with an combination land of 5 lakh hectares within the State. 

The APCNF shares a money prize of  €1 million prize with eminent soil scientist Rattan Lal (US/India); and SEKEM (Egypt). The money prize helps them proceed and scale their work for safer and sustainable meals programs.  

The three have been chosen from 181 nominations with nominees from 117 nationalities, vying for the award. The award was instituted by the Calouste Gulbenkian Basis, a philanthropic establishment that promotes high quality of life for everybody by way of artwork, charity, science and schooling.