A meeting to help small farmers in Madhya Pradesh
A two-day national conference is underway at the pastoral centre in Bhopal. For Archbishop Leo Cornelio, its “goal is to help people get together to find local solutions and adapt their traditional agricultural methods to climate change and lower land availability and resources.”
Mumbai (AsiaNews) – A two-day national conference dedicated to farmers’ welfare is underway at the pastoral centre in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, with the participation of some 350 farmers, including women, from 17 Indian states.
Inaugurated yesterday by Archbishop Leo Cornelio SVD of Bhopal, the meeting aims to give farmers the opportunity to harness their resources, work together and lobby the government for loans and exemptions, so as to guarantee their dignity and the sustainability of their work.
The conference is the result of collaboration between the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of Madhya Pradesh, Caritas India, a local NGO, and Rahibai Popere, the 2020 Padma Shree recipient.
The 350 farmers are mostly small producers, who are meeting to learn innovative methods of farming, optimise output, show their products and share knowledge.
“The national farmers’ conference is being held thanks to the collaboration of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Madhya Pradesh, Caritas, the Madhya Pradesh social service centre and the coordinator of the Pratibha Shrivasta project of Welthungerhilfe,” said Mgr Leo Cornelio, speaking to AsiaNews.
"The meeting is meant to raise awareness among farmers on how to become self-sufficient through proper cultivation, good seeds and seed banks, and to help them obtain higher yields.
"The goal is also to help people get together to find local solutions and adapt their traditional agricultural methods to climate change and lower land availability and resources.
“Small and marginal farmers suffer from low crop yields, rising costs and unscientific farming methods, resulting in increased poverty, malnutrition, and sadly, at times, farmers' suicide.”
"Through this conference, with the help of experts and by sharing local knowledge, by joining together and with financial advice, we want to help them access government programmes, thus ensuring their livelihood.”
"Climate change,” explains the prelate, “represents a great challenge for our farmers. It is important that women farmers are present at this farmers' conference”. This way we can “increase access to, and the availability and diversity of nutritious food so as to fight serious conditions of malnutrition.”
Rahibai Popere, an important woman farmer popularly known as the ‘Seed Mother of India’, recipient of India’s fourth highest civilian award, the Padma Shri, is taking part in the conference.
She got the sobriquet Seed Mother for her vast knowledge of the different varieties of native seeds and crops and her countless efforts to save them. She is also an expert in subjects like agrobiodiversity and land conservation.
She has also developed several innovative techniques in the cultivation of paddy fields, and can provide guidelines to farmers, especially women farmers.
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