Need of hour is to promote integrative agriculture practices, community development: Aahwahan Foundation-NGO

New Delhi, Aug 13 (UNI) A large part of the country’s population still relies on agriculture for its livelihood.
Development and growth of this sector not only ensures a healthy economy but also a healthier society.
Realizing this as an important thread, Aahwahan Foundation, an NGO working Pan-India is trying to bring about a change as it believes change has to be aimed at the grassroots.

Aahwahan Foundation said, ‘’They are getting together with organisations who are researching into agricultural practices to help provide knowledge to these farmers well in advance as to how to grow and maintain the yield. They are working on their flagship programmes- water body restoration and integrative agriculture where they are helping turn the wasteland in the village or nearby locality by cleaning and restoring it, to make it agriable.
‘’So far, they have been able to help 10 villages with their innovative programme. They are helping these communities by growing medicinal herbs and other plants that will help the villages fetch a substantial amount in return, generating a form of employment and also community living. This has helped change the face of the villages that lived in poverty and unemployment due to lack of resources and dependent completely on the rains for irrigation,’’ the Foundation said.
‘’We realized the problem is also with regards to basic knowledge of doing things and assistance in doing them, water is the future of our being and we need both knowledge and efforts to conserve the same. Therefore, we zeroed down on the villages which had a water body but was not being used to its full potential or neglected,’’ Braja Kishore Pradhan, Founder- Aahwahan Foundation said.
‘’Through our consistent efforts we cleaned the lakes and the water body and turned the nearby land for community development either in the form of parks or growing plants that when cultivated will fetch them good returns. These efforts actually brought about a change in their lives making them self-reliant and dependent. We believe innovation is the key to all problems and that alone can help us move forward, as is especially witnessed in case of our integrative agriculture programme where innovation in agricultural practices is helping these farmers as only spreading this knowledge will define our future since its our only way of sustenance,’’
the Founder- Aahwahan Foundation said.
‘’Working together in a community model is the key forward to developing remotest corners and villages in India as it is based on knowledge sharing and planned labour towards developing the areas. Efforts towards cleaning our water bodies like lakes, rivers have to be addressed to cautiously and meticulously backed by research as they are the going to decide the future of our being. They have been able to restore Saraki lake, Uttarahalli lake, Pampa lake, Hadgad lake, Sobharampur lake in the states of Karnataka and Odisha,’’ the Foundation said.
‘’The organisation has also been recognized and awarded as the best NGO in Asian region for their efforts towards lakes restorations and beach cleaning across Indian cities and towns like Puri, Chennai, Gokarna, Mumbai, Goa to name a few,’’ the Foundation said.
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