Germany’s KfW Team Visits Natural Farming Centres In Sri Sathya Sai District
The visit began with an overview of natural farming practices, farmers’ participation: Reports
ANANTAPUR: A research team from KfW (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau), Germany, visited the Patachamarlapalli village in Chilamathur mandal of Sri Sathya Sai district on Tuesday to study the implementation of natural farming at the field level.
KfW sector economist Iris Harder and KfW New Delhi senior specialist Sangeetha Agarwal examined the compact blocks, farmer producer organisation (FPO) activities and the role of natural farming cadres.
Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS) executive vice-chairman T. Vijay Kumar, adviser G. Muralidhar, chief technology and innovation officer Lakshmana Naik, senior programme manager Dr. Naveen, Natural Farming associate M. Ravichandra, and other officials accompanied the team.
The visit began with an overview of natural farming practices, farmers’ participation, the activities of natural farming cadres, and the development of compact blocks. The KfW representatives interacted with farmers and learnt about their transition from conventional farming to natural farming, the challenges during the transition, and the changes observed after adopting the practices.
Further, the team visited a 0.50-acre mulberry A-Grade model farm developed by farmer Krishna Reddy. Iris Harder and Sangeetha Agarwal interacted with Krishna Reddy and learnt about natural farming practices, crop management, and implementation of the mulberry A-Grade model.
The visit provided the KFW team an understanding of natural farming implementation, farmer participation, and FPO activities at the field level.