Anantapur: Senior World Bank adviser Nalini Kishore has said Natural Farming is the only solution to combat changes in climatic conditions. “Farmers can gain good income throughout the year, as in the ATM banking system, by taking up different types of horticulture and agriculture crops,” he said.
AP tops in implementation of the natural farming system. Agroscientists and experts from abroad are visiting the state to study the successful implementation of the ATM concept in farms for the past one year.
A team from various countries -- Sheik Mazid Alak Assimi, member of the UAE-Sharjah ruling family, Waltar Link of Italy and founder of Future Economy Forum, Sheik Mazid, World Bank advisers Nalini Kishore, Ashok Vaish, Desdeed Sahadev, the AP Rytu Sahakara Samstha executive vice chairman T Vijaykumar, its ED Samuel Anand and several others visited Anantapur district in the last two days and studied the natural farming programme.
The team interacted with the farmers of Chola Samudram village in Kudair mandal and visited the fields. They took special interest in the preparation of natural pesticide and fertilizers without use of chemical substances.
Farmers told the team that they were using cow dung etc to prepare fertilizers and the crops yielded good results. The team-members were appreciative of the initiatives of farmer Shankaraiah, who succeeded to get sweet orange crop yield within two years, as against the normal 5 years when chemical pesticides were used, at Chola Samudram village.
Shankaraiah has also taken up cultivation of other horticulture crops to get a steady income throughout the year.
Another farmer, Penna Obulesu, cultivated apples in eight acres of land as the main crop while raising other crops too in the land by using natural farming methods.
World Bank senior adviser Nalini Kishore briefed the team that the area had been hit by severe drought conditions due to lack of perennial water sources. The farmers were encouraged to take up natural farming and it yielded better results and income s for the farmers throughout the year even during the peak summer season, he explained.
