The Confederation of NGOs in Rural India (CNRI) has entered into a partnership with Agrochemical Policy Group (APG), an industry body that represents over 200 crop protection companies in India to promote Project Gyandeep. The programme envisages educating farmers, agriculture field officers and retailers in Andhra Pradesh on the safe and judicious use of pesticides and non-use of spurious and sub-standard pesticides.
“Many farmers lack the knowledge of using crop protection chemicals – right amount and the right kind in a right way. Project Gyandeep is an effort to educate the farmers about the right usage and also about the regulation governing the safe storage and distribution of pesticides.” S Kumaraswamy, chairman of APG, told mediapersons here on Tuesday.
In India, the estimated crop loss due to non and inadequate use of pesticides is valued at Rs 140,000 crore, which was 20 per cent of the value of the agricultural output of Rs 7 lakh crore in 2006-07. This is enough to feed one-fifth of the our population for a year. The best way to prevent these losses is to adopt appropriate crop protection technology with the use of pesticides, he added. The domestic pesticide market is currently pegged at Rs 4,000 crore.
Project Gyandeep was launched in six states – Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal – in 2006-07 as a training programme for 600 NGOs. In the second phase, it was launched in Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh on a pilot basis to educate the communities on precision farming.
“We have selected 44 NGOs in Andhra Pradesh and approximately 30,000 farmers in the state have benefited from the project. Our plan is to move to the next stage and implement the project in other states,” M Srinivasa Reddy, president of CNRI’s AP chapter, said.
