Irrigation

Kalaivani, a single mother of three, took to farming after the loss of her husband almost two decades ago. Since then, she has grown all the crops on her farm without using chemical or synthetic pesticides or fertilisers. Over the last few years, she has focused her time and energy in growing organic cotton. 

Nitrogen and phosphorus are essential for plant growth – that is common knowledge for farmers. Cow dung contains nitrogen – that is also common knowledge for farmers. Then why is it that many farmers look for costly solutions rather than use the abundant cow dung they have in their farms as manure? Luckily, one farmer did think of this.

“PAWAN GURU, pani pita, mata dharti mahat” (air is teacher, water is father and earth our mother) -  thus goes the closing line of the Japji Sahib given by the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak Dev. It holds special significance for Amritsar, the holy city, which boasts of the Harmandar Sahib (also known as the Golden Temple).

Countrywide ban on sand mining

Till a few decades ago, most people in India grew vegetables and fruits in their own gardens. Then something changed. We shifted from 'farming for food' to 'farming for money'. The start of the ‘green revolution’ meant that production increased but so did the farmer's dependency on chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides.

Organisers

Department of Environmental Science, Central University of Rajasthan & the Swedish Meteorology and Hydrology Institute, Sweden 

About the workshop

Offered by 

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD)

About the Fellowship

Organisers

Department of Aquatic Biology & Fisheries, University of Kerala

Theme of the conference

The 1972 drought in Maharashtra affected several villages and talukas. Farmers in Purandhar taluka in Pune district decided to get together and discuss how to improve their situation so that they would not be as severely affected by poor rainfall in the future. Thus was born Pani Panchayat.

Author and conservationist, Anupam Mishra has spent decades promoting water conservation and management. Through his travels across various states of India, he has been studying and teaching the time-tested techniques of rainwater harvesting.