With an aim towards making a difference to the society and aiding sustainable agriculture, I came across a unique model plan already in practice by a Thane based school teacher, Ms. Rashmi Menon. Ms. Menon has devised a very simple model which enables us, the urban affluent citizens, to contribute and give it back to the society. We all are aware of the destitute condition of farmer community in some of our villages. The sole bread earner finds himself helpless and in meagre situation, unable to buy basic starting input materials like seeds, fertilizers even today, inspite of numerous ventures of corporates building farm level linkages.

According to her model, community/groups/networks collectively "adopt a village". The village which is adopted is carefully chosen after much scouting and analysis to ensure that it is amonst the really needy ones. Here the "adoption of the village means mobilizing resources from the members and using the resources to provide basic inputs to the farmers of the village adopted". This as a result nullifies the farmer's dependence on his funds towards starting material.

We, amongst the fast growing affluent middle class with huge disposable incomes, spend a lot although sometimes un-essential. I am tempted to and wish that the PUMBA alumni community also join this movement and sponsor 2-3 villages based upon the resources mobiized between us. I would hence ask, are we willing to forgo one portion of pizza, once a month and contribute a meagre sum of INR 50 per month, so that our farming community can sustain itself, and we can contribute our bit to the society and uplift the agrarian economy.

The project has actually been implemented in the village Pali, near Khopoli, where the organization for which I work has played a lead role. We have already dispatched organic compost for distribution amongst the farmers there. Mr. Nathuram Waghmare, a resident farmer, has volunteered to be the coordinator for the village. He can be contacted on 09226561548 for further queries pertaining to his village. PUMBA can look forward to co-sponsoring or co-adopting the same village where work has already begun.

In addition there are talks with the following on the finalization stage;

The scouting process for selection of villages is a continuing process, based upon the fact that as and when more and more communities join this project to enable sustainable agriculture in India, more and more villages will be up for adoption.

Well, I am totally convinced by the idea and am passionate to contribute my bit towards the upliftment of the farmer clan by community involvement. The organization where I work has also committed to play a major role in this movement, and has set aside fixed volume of its bio-fertilizer product to be distributed at subsided rates to this movement. By ensuring the farmers access to quality organic compost, we also ensure output free from harmful chemicals and pure organic food cycle.

Also talks are in the incumbent stage with the Rotary Club, along with its two off-shoots, Interact and Rotaract, towards involving schools and educational institutes as well as micro-credit organizations for the project.

This movement has now started to take wings from a small beginning in Maharastra, with an aim to provide sustained agriculture in major regions of the country. The concept behind this is creating a network of socially aware people, who are passionate about changing the lives of destute farmers and helping towards making the agriculture sector (a key backbone) self reliant and sustainable. Here, approach is towards more and more people joining this movement, and contributing meager sums (which is not a burden), rather than one organization donating huge sums of money. So, in addition to mobilizing resources, primary activity of the project is aimed at building a human corpus.

To contact the volunteer team, please send an email to social-projects <at> pumba-alumni <dot> com

Vivek P. Adhia
Project Executive,
Zoom Developers Pvt. Ltd.

www.zoomdevelopers.com