Cauvery Calling: Freeing farmer's hands by agro-forestry

In this country, especially in sourn India, you would t step out of your house in  morning without a shower. But today, I’m sure many people, for instance in Chennai, are skipping ir shower because re is way for m. If y get ir drinking water for mselves and ir family, y are fortunate. Such a situation has happened because in Cauvery river basin, which accounts for eighty-three thousand square kilometers, we have removed eighty-seven percent of green cover in last fifty years and Cauvery has depleted by over forty percent.

We have launched Cauvery Calling, which is an ecomic plan with a significant ecological impact. We want to plant 242 crore trees to cover one-third of Cauvery basin. only way this can be done is moving to agro-forestry. Right w in Tamil Nadu we have converted 69,760 farmers into agro-forestry and within five to seven years, ir wealth increased by three hundred to eight hundred percent. most important thing about agro-forestry is that it is financially lucrative for farmer and it leaves his hands free. He does t have to go and mess with his farm every day. He can do various or activities. This human potential of who we are can be explored in many different ways.

This becomes important because anyway most of farmers’ children have gone through compulsory education and w y cant be farmers. In this education, you cant fail m till ninth standard. At ninth standard, many do t kw even how to count from one to five. After that, y start failing and drop out. re are millions of youth like this in country who are t qualified for anything. y are fifteen years old and neir do y have competence to go furr into university education, r are y able to work on farm. But y have attitude of educated without any sense of education within m. Once a boy goes through education till eighteen years of , do you think he is capable of going and ploughing land? He neir has mental application r physical strength to do it.

So most important thing is to move people away from this labor-intensive 3-4 month agriculture into long-term agriculture. Orwise, y will all sell ir lands and real estate. If land has to remain in hands of farmer, you have to go for long gestation period crops.

Micro-Irrigation In Hands of Industry

Ar way to free farmers’ hands is through micro-irrigation. In Tamil Nadu for instance, we are still largely flood irrigating, which is cruelest way of using water. It is t good eir for land or for crop itself. If you put so much water in one place, soil gets leached and all bio-activity in soil is reduced. re are more efficient ways to practice agriculture today. In many nations, people are growing same crops and getting better yields than us by using only ten to twenty percent of water that we are using. y are doing this through micro-irrigation and various or ways.

central government has promised that y will allocate 5,000 crores every year for micro-irrigation, but problem is that scale of individual agriculture in this country is very small. Without consolidating farmlands if you do micro-irrigation for each individual farmer, it is t going to work, because each one has to set up a filter and have a bore well, and in end investment for irrigation is high. Above all, a whole lot of m are incapable of maintaining micro-irrigation systems. This is what is killing farmer.

One fundamental thing that needs to happen is irrigation must move from farmer to a well-informed industry or a corporate sector. If farmer only has to pay rent for irrigation, every field can be irrigated. And irrigation includes fertilization also. w every farmer will get better yield, and very easily you can make his income go up at least three times over in a matter of three to four years’ time.

Letting Farmers Loose From ir Land

Right w, farmers are going to land every day. One reason is to assert that this is his land. He owns it, his far owned it, his grandfar owned it, but still every day he has to go re and prove that this is his land, orwise somebody will start plowing into his land. One thing we can do is to digitally survey everything and put it in format. We want to bring 10,000 to 50,000 farmers toger and make an integrated irrigation system. If you do this, farmer need t go to land every day.

Ar reason why he goes to farm is just to turn on pump. Micro-irrigation can cause a major revolution in freeing up farmers’ hands. w a farmer can go to his land just sixty to sixty-five days in a year and effectively grow two crops. This means for three hundred days in a year, five hundred million people’s hands will become free. This can revolutionize rural ecomy with ancillary industry – art, music and a variety of or ecomic and cultural activities that can be of immense value. This can lead to a phemenal shift in way we are using human potential.

Cauvery Calling is a first of its kind campaign, setting standard for how India’s rivers – country’s lifelines – can be revitalized. It will initiate revitalization of Cauvery river by supporting farmers to plant 242 crore trees in river basin. This will increase water retention in basin, while enhancing farmer wealth by 300 to 800% in 5-7 years and transforming lives of 84 million people. Visit: CauveryCalling.org or call 80009 80009. #CauveryCalling

Ranked amongst fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and a New York Times bestselling author. Sadhguru was conferred "Padma Vibhushan" by Government of India in 2017, one of highest civilian awards, accorded for exceptional and distinguished service.

Three decades ago, Sadhguru founded Isha Foundation, a n-profit human-service organization, with human well-being as its core commitment. Sadhguru has initiated powerful yoga programs for human transformation as well as various outreach projects to uplift under-served communities in rural India.