Agriculture

Andhra Pradesh extends support to SC women farmers for natural farming push

The government will use its extensive network of women’s self-help groups to encourage the transition.  

 
By Shagun
Published: Thursday 27 January 2022

The Andhra Pradesh government announced financial support to more than 70,000 women from scheduled castes (SC) to promote natural farming among marginal farmers.
 
Natural farming excludes the application of chemicals and promotes traditional agricultural practices. It is regarded as particularly useful for smallholder farmers as it reduces dependency on purchased inputs.  

A one-time subsidy of Rs 10,000 and an interest-free loan will be given to each of the identified 71,560 SC farmers, including the tenant farmers, in 30 districts. The move has been envisioned to help them switch from conventional to natural farming and reduce their input costs. 

SC farming households form 12 per cent of the state’s agricultural households, according to a 2019 National Statistical Office survey. A large share of them are tenant farmers.

The government will use its extensive network of women’s self-help groups (SHG) to encourage the transition.

Harsha Vardan, managing director, the state SC Corporation that works for the welfare of scheduled caste population, said:  

We are starting with women farmers initially because we have a vibrant SHG structure. We have identified the farmers based on their interests of shifting to natural farming. All the identified farmers are small, marginal, or landless and have one acre or less land.

The beneficiaries can use the subsidy for activities like purchasing seeds, mulching, bio-stimulants, he added. 

For the loan amount, the farmers will prepare individual micro-credit plans (MCP) and based on that, they will be granted an interest free loan. “There is no cap on the loan amount but from our assessment, the average amount will be around Rs 40,000-50,000,” said Vardan. 

The initiative is another push in the Andhra Pradesh Community-managed Natural Farming (APCNF) programme, under which the government aims to convert the entire state into natural farming by 2030. 

The farmers under the project will be given training on natural farming by Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS), the nodal agency for implementing APCNF. 

RySS will also help them in preparing MCPs and will connect them with the market for the sale of their produce through marketing tie-ups. 

“A large number of poor and marginal farmers are SC farmers and shifting to natural farming can help them in reducing their cost of cultivation and enhancing incomes,” said B Ramarao, CEO, RySS. 

We have started the project with women farmers because SHGs have a well-established network and we can do capacity building programs and trainings in groups, he added. “Based on the fund availability, we will think about expanding to other farmers as well.”

There are more than 41 per cent tenant farmers in AP and most of them come from SC families, said GV Ramanjaneyulu, executive director, Centre for Sustainable Agriculture. “They cannot access any scheme because the land is not in their name. So they are not able to access regular agriculture credit as well.”

This initiative will help them circumvent this challenge, he added. 

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