Advocacy

Guest Speaker Mr. Abhaya

On Saturday, 11^th  April 2009.

Introduction

            Mr.Abhaya born and brought up in Hyderabad, He studied Engineering in electronics. He worked for MNC in Bangalore for 5 years and left the job by inspiring   himself to overcome social issues. So he went to Raichur and settled to work especialy on   Devadasi System.

Devadasi System

He made people to aware themselves and people got inspired, formed “Nava Jeevana Mahila Okkuta “(NJMO).  This is non -registered people’s organization, mainly they are working for Dalits and women in villages. Till now they have covered 100 villages around the Raichur district.

Advocacy

   It means identifying the social problem and making government and people to aware and solves it.  Advocacy should be done by people who affected by the  issue,understanding the issue theoretical and practical aspects both in local contents and in other parts of country and the world.believe in the issue as belief in the strategy is important.grass root level work on the issue, both activism and constructive involvement.to work along with the media and not use the media.data collection and presentation should be human, not just statistics.to always have the goals broke down in to short term, medium term and long term demands,understanding of the government administrative machinery and way of working is very important,should have well wishes in all fields,proper use of all forums available sensitive days of year and reacting to important events is very essential,regular follow-ups is a very important, attack the issue simultaneously from many fronts, also one is some required to take two steps back and then move ahead,always fight for issue not people responsible. (Reference: Abhaya).

Advocacy is a process to reach a goal, he done advocacy in village with support by people, for example village does not have road, by involving people approaching the government and another example is open deficacy is a common problem in villages for women, so by involving people they approached the government and constructed the toilets.

The local people and media are supporting them for every cause always. The most of stake holders always fight the issue not the people responsible, leave the issue and attacking people is bad strategy to advocacy. He never attack the people, he always fought for issue.

Agricultre Module

Introduction

Agriculture means the production of food through farming or forest. With 60 per cent of India's population directly engaged in agriculture, the real motivation to the economy can come only if the focus moves to agriculture. In agriculture two types conventional agriculture and sustainable agriculture.

The AME foundation is working for sustainable agriculture. Now it covered three districts they are Bijapur, Chittardurga and Bellary. Mr.Shashikant Introduced about AME foundation. Mr.Pattenshetty, Mr.Desai and Miss. Sangeeta patil were present. After that we gave our introduction.

Module Description

India is the 2^nd largest country in production of rice and wheat. It also produces vegetables, mangoes, bananas and onion.  It exports fresh fruit and vegetables to other countries. It used many technologies to develop farming in agriculture and in the year 1960 Green revolution in wheat and paddy, horticulture revolution in high value crop and white revolution in milk sectors are used for development in farming.

Rural situation is very difficult to survive, the rural people face many problems such as poverty, hung

er, illiteracy, poor health, sanitation and migrating from village to urban areas.  In order to produce more and improve the quality, they need costly inputs such as chemical fertilizers and artificial feeds, which make their farming activities uneconomic. All these reasons are making farmer to do suicide. Over 16,600 farmer suicides in 2007 .The broad trends of the past decade seem unshaken. Farmer suicides in the country since 1997 now total 182,936, but the real causes behind this devastation remain unaddressed. (Reference: News).

We had video session about farmer suicides. After that we discussed about climate change. This Change will impact on production of crops like rice, wheat and other crops. Many Indian farmers depend on rainfall. If doesn’t rain on time production of crop would not happen.We discussed about LEISA, it means Low External Input Sustainable Agriculture. How to get more yield by using low external input in agriculture and usage of natural resources.On 13th  we were on field visit to Inamirapura and Kurdikeri. I visited agriculture exhibition in Inamirapur with my friends. I observed diffe

rent types compost, it is made by using natural check resources. I also observed soil fertility testing, different types of seeds and Ajola. 

Later we visited Kurdikeri village, there we met Farmers Field School (FFS).It is informal education at school for farmers. There were 10 male and 10 female farmers present. They learn many things practically. First they do Agro Eco-System Analysis (AESA), farmers divide their group in to small groups then they go to analyze the plant. They select some plants and they search enemy insect, friend insect, climate, flowers, leaf and pets in AESA method.We followed the farmers we did analysis about Brinjal plant in ASEA method with farmers.  We caught enemy insect and pets in box. We counted leaf, flowers and Brinjals. We ca

me back and discussed with other and presented. There after other group has presented.

We played a game with farmers. It was enjoyable game, the moral story of this game is impossible will be possible by doing work with group, in a team we should cooperate, appreciate and encourage each other. Lastly our team won the game. On 14th March we had debate on Path to progress – Ru

ral economy v/s Industrial economy. I was in Industrial economy. It was one hour debate. Every one participated very well. I got much idea from debate.  Finally our team has convinced well to rural economy team.Finally we have discussed about Integrated farming System (IFS). The IFS has revolutionized

 Conventional Farming of Livestock.

Key Points: Conventional agriculture,  Sustainable agriculture,  Agriculture V/s Livestock,    Integrated farming System (IFS).