Lion. Panthera leo. A large, powerful cat, king of the beasts. Life span – 12-17 years. Social species of wild – organized into a pride of females, males, and cubs; and coalitions of males. Active at night and at twilight. Apex and key stone predator, hypercarnivore. Man-eating lions are rare. Lions are mostly in Africa and India; 900 lions are in India at present count.
Biofuel. Renewable. A fuel produced over a short time span from biomass. Produced from plants or from agricultural, domestic or industrial bio waste. Most common types of biofuel are bioethanol and biodiesel. Bioethanol is an alcohol made by fermentation. Biodiesel is produced from oils or fats using transesterification. It can be used as a fuel for vehicles. 5% biodiesel blend is widely used. Other biofuels include: Methanol; Butanol; Green diesel, straight vegetable oil; Biogasoline; Bioethers; Biogas; Biomethane; Syngas; Algae-based biofuels; Electrofuels and solar fuels; Bio-digesters et al.
Youth Day. Youth. Young people. In the age group of 12-35 years, depending on the circumstances. There are cases where this goes up to 50 years too. Youth may also mean one’s peak in terms of health, appearance, freshness, vigour, spirit, etc. The qualities of youth: active state of mind; strong will; quality imagination; courage; appetite for adventure et al. Can we retain these till we call it a day? Children are the future. We need to build them into powerful youth. Youth are the present and they make all the difference and define our destiny collectively. Can we work with them towards improving our collective flows, livelihoods, love, learning, linkages, leadership, lives, and destinies?
My being with APCNF crosses active, intense 9 years: 108 months: 3000+ days: 30000+ hours. AP Community-managed (climate resilient) natural farming, APCNF, is spearheading ‘Global movement at local levels for Nature-centric farming, livelihoods, living’, beginning with Andhra Pradesh. This engagement is the longest of all so far. It began before RySS came onboard. Before the APCNF name came onboard. Been part of its co-founding team, part of the senior leadership team, part of systems change leadership team, part of its thick and thin. Lead, mentor and senior adviser, Integration – strategy, science, systems, and scaling. Scaling within AP and outside. Resources – Human, Capacities, Institutions, Partners, and Funds. For inspiration, influence towards change results via visioning; strategizing, restructuring, engendering; policy; plans; and resources. Via Monitoring and Learning, Strat Communications/articulation, Tech Support/ Advice. Been part of the co-founding team of the National Coalition for Natural Farming, NCNF; its adviser since inception in 2020.
NF. Natural Farming is maximizing photosynthesis, with Plants, Microbes, SUN doing the farming. This translates as Sun not seeing the soil – 365-day green cover with multi-layered multiple crops, without synthetic chemicals. NF Principles emerged from this. These include: minimal/no tillage, amrtams as bio-inoculants, switches, and local material. Own/indigenous seed, integrated farming that includes animals. NF seeks faith/trust-based local consumption, nutrition, value-chains, and enterprises first. NF extension is through apprenticeship with Best Practitioner NF farmers. They inspire, transfer knowledge, conduct farmer field school classes, handhold, troubleshoot, etc. Community Women Groups, Federations lead the transformation through the practice of Sapta Sutra – discussions, food, kitchen gardens, farming, inputs, funds and records-data. They take charge of planning, tracking, value-chains, endorsing traceability, data et al. APCNF estimates: it takes over 8-10 years to transform a village – small and marginal farm families, all their land, all their practices customized. It is a de-addiction, behaviour change work. The cost of transformation is just about Rs.25,000/ family, without any subsidies.
APCNF is now present in 4116 GPs, with 1.2 million farmers on the journey of Natural Farming, on 500,000 ha. A quarter of them are seed-to-seed, with 50% of them being 365-day green cover multi-layered multiple crops. Pre-monsoon dry sowing is becoming widespread. 365 DGC is becoming the new normal. Models – one-acre A grade, 20-cent Any-time money – have emerged around various farming situations across the state, with additional incomes exceeding Rs.10,000 and Rs.5,000 per month respectively. Compact blocks are also coming up. NF-based local consumption, nutrition and economy, local value-addition-enterprises, emerged as triggers. In addition to health. It is entering another 4,000 GPs this year; and in all GPs next year. With ~15,000 Community resource persons. With ~2,000 Model maker trainers. APCNF is providing seeding support outside AP – 18 states in India, and outside India – in 3 countries. Delegations from 55 countries have visited us to see how to take it forward in their countries.
The NF Movement is gaining momentum towards becoming a default farming option in the next decade or so. It is acquiring all the elements to go viral soon. On scale, local, national, and global. Masterclasses, Coalitions, Collaborations, and Partnerships are growing up. Leaders, Mentors, and Entrepreneurs are emerging. Curriculums at school level in state and national level are being revised. Agriculture graduation and post-graduation curricula are incorporating NF and Food systems. Graduation in natural framing is also being offered by some Universities already. Agri Skill Council is certifying NF. The NF Skill Council may evolve soon.
Transformation in APCNF does not have subsidies. The support came from RKVY, PKVY, BPKP and now NMNF. Plus a loan from KfW. NMNF Phase 2 is expected to be rolled-out from 2026. We are also expecting NRLM-NF to take off. Fertilizer subsidy savings may be available to us through PMPRANAM soon. Technical support came from Azim Premji Foundation over 10 years; Co-impact over 5 years. We are working on NF landscapes including non-private lands leveraging GEF-UNEP-IUCN-RFA support. One more philanthropy is on its way. For Research, education and learning, the support came from BMZ, to Indo-German Global Academy for Agroecology Research and Learning, IGGAARL-Academy. With 100+ projects, 2,000+ R&L landscapes. Farmer Scientists going through graduation in NF, participatory field centric, intensely mentored, earning while learning, course. Mentors are going through PG. Academy is getting to be formally registered to be an independent unit under the aegis of RySS and GoAP. The efforts to launch Natural Farming and Regenerative Agriculture University NFRU, NFU or an Institute of Circular Studies have begun. Wageningen University is extending its support towards this.
The data system including capturing in the field, community endorsement, and traceability up to the farmer and farm has been set in place. Certification under PGS and NPOP has taken off. NF stalls, enterprises, collectives, marketplaces, and brands are gaining currency. Systems and projects for Carbon and Eco-credits are being developed.
APCNF-Academy portals include knowledge repository and learning for farm and farmworker families and their best practitioner Gurus, apart from progress data analytics. Plus literature, learning material, messages, webinars, social media channels, journals, congresses, etc. The systems include management information, HR, Financial Management. HR architecture at field, district, state and beyond for NF transformation, communitization, amrt value-chains-enterprises has shifted gears to scale deep, scale-up, scale-out and scale-impact. 98% of HR is from the community, best practitioners’ pool and majority of them are women. This is also slowly augmenting the agency of women and marginalized communities – on their plates, families, farms, groups, villages, GP, bazaar, and sarkar. NFFS, Natural Farming Food System, is evolving with women in lead in significant numbers, at various levels. APCNF’s greened models are now available, with dramatically reduced learning curve to others. Consumers have come around to demand NF products.
Governments are getting ready to realign their policies. GoAP is likely to release NF policy in this year. Government of India is readying for launching NMNF soon, and phase 2 budget could be substantial to support transformation into NF by at least 25% farm families in the country. PMPRANAM flows to states are expected to start this year. Convergence and partnerships in various hues are being drawn.
Internal studies, Crop-cutting experiments in a variety of farming situations, independent socioeconomic studies, third party verifications, and panel studies confirm: NF reduces costs, does not penalize yields, increases net incomes; NF is resilient to floods, cyclones, droughts, and pests and diseases. NF increases land productivity; doubles cropping intensity; enhances LER – Land Equivalent Ratio. NF triggers unfallowing. NF improves farmer-consumer health, increases access to food across Food Groups, increases nutrition intensity and diversity, increases taste and shelf life. NF avoids synthetic chemical fertilizer consumption and brings in savings in Fertilizer Subsidy. NF saves water and saves Electricity Subsidy. NF increases biodiversity. NF is a best bet against climate change and/or adaptation. NF’s surface temperatures are lower and cools the planet, potentially, with arguably the lowest cost. NF contributes to 30%+ of 169 SDG indicators.
CIRAD-FAO’s Foresight sight study and TEEBAgriFood – The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for Agriculture and Food – have confirmed NF as the future of farming, with true economics, accounting for all significant externalities, including the costs and benefits of agriculture and food systems on ecosystems, farms, and human well-being.
APCNF has received: Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity 2024 CGF@Lisbon, Portugal; Innovation for India (Most Disruptive Innovation) 2023 MIF@MARICO; Future Economy Leader 2022 @COP27. It has been receiving Jaivik India awards for organization, for farmers et al, over the last 5 years, every year. APCNF’s Executive Vice Chairman has received: MS Swaminathan’s award 2023 from East Madras Rotary Club; Lifetime Achievement 2024 – Rythu Nestam, and Muppavaram Foundations.
Can more and more youth take charge of NF and Natural living? Fully, with interest. Can women take charge? Can marginal communities take charge? Can tribal communities take charge? Can the Governments go all the way, full throttle, in favour of N? It appears we are heading towards state, business, and community organizations taking over. Maybe in a decade. May be during the amrt kaal. Can we value the eco-services of these and reward the contributors fully? Can we see this emerging as a local, national and global political agenda? Can we value the silent players of N? Can we make this a vibrant, viral global movement, happening locally all over? Can we be, become, live N?
Yes, we can. If we coexist, flowing. Natural farming, living systems. In N? nijekayanayoga for 7L.