Ramkistapur village

Sambasiva Reddy hopes to tap t Crop: cotton, turmeric, chilli, paddy
With a considerable tribal population and a lot of influence from Maoist groups, this district gets special attention from the Union government. The villages and NGOs that have taken up NPM also run projects to promote organic farming. Here, the initiative rests squarely with the NGOs -- not the women's group, as is the case across the state. Yara Raj Reddy, 50, a registered NPM farmer, thinks NPM is about organic manure and vermicomposting. Farmers have stopped using chemical fertilisers under the organic farming project, and think that's what NPM is about. R Sambasiva Reddy has 12 acres and was harvesting chilli when he spoke to Down To Earth: "I've learnt that my soil is zinc deficient. I'm doing organic/NPM for my soil's health. They also say that I'll get a premium price for my produce after certification." His mother-in-law Suguna, though, is unhappy. "The yield is too low," she says. But their are others, like D Ravindra Reddy, who know NPMis only about avoiding pesticides: "Yields are lower as I didn't use chemical fertiliser, but the cost of cultivation is also low. There is no loss."