A Belagavi-based NGO, Green Saviours Association, has distributed free saplings of various varieties to farmers in some villages in the Western Ghats, to help them take up agro forestry.
Members held consultations with farmers in the Western Ghats villages to help them adopt modern methods and convert parts of their fields into “ Syntropic Agro Forestry” farms.
As many as 2,900 banana and 3,500 pineapple saplings were distributed to farmers in Amate vilalge free on Tuesday. This is part of an initiative to work with farmers to help them adopt agro forestry.
Association members have identified 12 farmers to help convert half to one acre plots in their farms into plantations with around 25 species of trees, including fruiting trees, spices, medicinal plants and native trees with inter-cropping.
“This is part of our ambitious OMG-One Million Greens, with an objective to planting 10 lakh trees in the Western Ghats region in the Belagavi-Khanapur-Chorla belt,” member Raksha Upadhyaya said in a release.
The Amate Gram Panchayat and ISKCON have contributed to the effort.
Members have been taking up planting of saplings in the Miyawaki method for 258 Sundays in and around Belagavi since April 2016, the release said.
