More than 800 farmers and guests from 5 blocks of the satna district participated in the mega fair organised by SAF-BIN programme under Caritas India.
Mr. Sandeep Sharma, Upper Collector and chief guest of the event that the whole food chain of humans are under threat due to excessive use of chemicals fertilizers and pesticides and only farmers can stop this by adopting sustainable agriculture practices. Due to this high doses of chemicals the crops have lost its self-immunity and there is less production whereby smallholder farmers are finding it difficult to sustain. He suggested to all the farmers that by adopting organic farming and sustainable agriculture practices this big problem can be reduced and the degradation of land water and agriculture can be saved.
Bishop Joseph, in his presidential address shared that he is very happy to see such a big gathering of smallholder farmers under one platform and told that the “farmers are our food suppliers” in hindi “Anndaata”. He appreciated the work taken up by Caritas India in 10 villages of Uncehara block setting up a base for other farmers to follow.
15 best farmers from 10 villages were honoured for their crop trials, experiments, new learning’s and adopting blend of traditional and modern sustainable agriculture practices.
The Agriculture Department has agreed to link farmers from 10 villages of SAF-BIN to the PKVY – “Parmparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana”, under Ministry of Agriculture, GOI. As already the project has 3 active farmers group in each village, hence 500 farmers will be benefitted by this scheme. All the support will be provided by ATMA- Agriculture Technology Management Agency, Agriculture department according to the guidelines mentioned in the PKVY scheme.
Exhibition stalls were set-up to showcase the learnings of SAF-BIN in 3 district. Farmers exhibited diverse farm produce and seeds of paddy, wheat, gram, minor millets (kodo, kutki, sama, ramdana), bajra, jowar, vegetables etc. Stalls were also set up from the Department of Agriculture, ATMA department, Child Line and Samaritans for disseminating information and knowledge among farmers. Stall from the Government Department sharing information on various schemes was a point of attraction.
The programme was attended by Mr. Sandeep Sharma, Upper Collector, Bp. Joseph Kodakallil- Bishop of Satna Diocese, Fr. Rony Varghese- Director SSSS, Fr. Robin, Mr. Ganesh Mishra – Agriculture Department, Mr. Ravi Singh Baghel – ATMA, Mr. Varghese Mathew and Ms. Sunita Tirkey from Caritas India and many other guests.
