Vijayawada: The AP Rythu Sadhikara Samastha (RySS) has won a philanthropic grant of $15 million from Co-Impact, a global organisation founded in 2017, which identifies agencies, governments, and initiatives from Asia, Africa and Latin America for the favour.
Vijaykumar Thallam, executive vice chairman at RySS, said the organisation would work towards systemic changes across other states, with the Co-Impact grant.
RySS, an initiative under the state’s agriculture ministry, started the Andhra Pradesh Community-based Nature Farming (APCNF) programme in 2016. It has so far steered more than 6,30,000 farmers towards the journey of natural farming in 3,730 Gram Panchayats through women's self-help groups and by phasing out chemical inputs from farming.
India can save around Rs 124 lakh crore in agriculture subsidies annually if natural farming is adopted by farmers across the country, as per an estimate.
Vijaykumar said RySS is one of the 10 applicants shortlisted from 601 entities by Co-Impact across the globe. The grant aims to encourage transformation across many levers of the system, ensuring that 2.8 million farmer families within AP and 0.4 million farmers and their families from other states begin their natural farming voyage in this decade.
He explained that the RySS, with the grant, would also undertake master-classes, along with joint workshops for stakeholders and entities across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, while ensuring that their enterprise undertakes necessary measures to address UN’s sustainable development goals (SDG) 2030.
He said Andhra Pradesh would serve as a catalysing agent for change, with partnerships and collaborations of multiple states across India through a National Resource Agency working on policy ecosystems to guide India’ Natural Farming journey. He said many of the grants are made through Co-Impact’s foundational and gender funds.
“The establishment of the Indo-German Global Academy for Agro-ecology Research and Learning in Pulivendula was made possible with the efforts of chief minister Jagan Reddy and agriculture minister Kakani Goverdhan Reddy. This meant funding of almost Rs 200 crores, to which has now been added a grant from Co-Impact," he said.
