With natural farming techniques and agroforestry, one man has helped 30,000 farmers in Maharashtra’s Latur district lead better lives. His mentorship is helping Latur’s farmers reap profits even in drought conditions - many of whom were so despaired that they were on the verge of committing suicide. Today, their quality of yield has improved and they are growing crops with zero-input cost. Even one or less than one acre of land is now enough for these farmers to earn profits in lakhs.
The man is Mahadev Gomare, the project lead of The Art of Living River Rejuvenation Project in Latur. He has been working to overturn the situation for farmers since 2013 at a time when the district was in the news for water scarcity and the resulting agrarian crisis. The hard work put in by his team continues to reap benefits: water sufficiency, replenished eco-systems, and the thriving marginal farmers in Latur.
From quitting farming to making Rs. 4 lacs on 4 acres
"I quit farming to earn at a petrol pump. After marriage, my expenses increased. My parents used to work on others’ farms since we had a very small piece of land. Eventually, my parents could not manage to work there. I was in a dire state when I met Gomareji.
After the training with him, I stopped growing sugarcane, a water expensive crop. Instead, I switched to bananas. My plantation was chemical-free and used drip-irrigation. The market price of bananas at that time was Rs. 10- 12, while I was selling my banana crop for Rs. 40. I sold it via an autorickshaw, the customers were impressed with the quality and taste. And so, I made Rs. 4 lakhs in my 4 acres of land, and all my bananas were sold via order. My next project is soybean cultivation, for which The Art of Living has also helped me and a few others to tie up with an oil mill in the area."
- Balasaheb Yadav
Left chemical farming when father got a paralysis attack
"I was a Maths teacher who practiced chemical farming as a side business. But a few years ago, I realized the harmful effect of chemically-produced food firsthand. My father got a paralysis attack one day and was hospitalized for a few days. It was tragic. After spending thousands of rupees on hospitalization, I finally came to a point when I desperately wanted to switch to chemical-free food. I learned farming techniques like mix cropping, agroforestry, and other natural farming techniques from my mentor, Mahadev Gomare.
Right now, I am growing enough sunflower and mustard seeds to be able to open an oil plant. It has been ten years since I began natural farming and my family is at their best health-wise. None of them have had to undergo treatment even for a cold or fever since they started consuming chemical-free food. Seeing the quality of our yield, my father-in-law and other friends have also adopted natural farming."
- Sanjay Shankar Sadakale
From being debt-ridden to becoming a successful natural farming trainer
"We are a happy family of six with 0.5 acres of land. One of our children is also pursuing higher studies, the first in our family to do this. Though, it was not always like this. We were once so steeped in debt that my husband wanted to commit suicide. Life changed when we adopted natural farming techniques. Earlier with chemical farming, we were spending 75 percent of our earnings on input cost. With natural farming, our input cost is almost zero and the quality of our produce is such that we send it to Mumbai. Now, I don’t want any more farmers to suffer and so, I have started teaching natural farming to others as well."
- Mangala Waghmare
Tripled her earnings by growing trees
"I never thought that I could increase my earnings by growing trees on my farm. Yet this happened at a time when regular crops at other farms were failing to give yield because of drought. With an input cost of Rs. 5,000, I was able to earn Rs. 3.6 lakhs within 7 months. The produce has also seen immense improvement in quality. I have been selling my produce at better rates than the markets. The taste, the size, the colors - everything is top-notch! People see how healthy it is. My ancestors did not use any chemicals. They used to have bountiful crops. These new techniques immediately connected with me and we adopted them. I felt I was connecting more strongly with my roots."
- Mangala Pandge
Grew 1.5 times the average yield of an Indian farm with natural farming
"As a chemical farmer in the past, I have spent huge amounts on fertilizers and chemical sprays. However, whatever was produced, we didn’t feel like eating. I knew chemical fertilizers are harmful but we still did it. The farming losses forced me to take a job at a petrol pump. That is when an Art of Living program was going on in my village where I learnt natural farming techniques. After changing my way of farming, I started getting an output of 0.8 tonnes of wheat from 0.25 acres. That is 3 tonnes per acre, which is nearly 1.5 times the average yield of an Indian farm. I was able to sell that wheat for Rs. 7,000 per quintal. It was so much in demand that I had nothing left to store for myself."
- Amrut Gample
These are not just five success stories. They represent thousands of farming success stories in drought-hit Latur.
Story source: Art of Living Bureau of Communication
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