In what could be termed a rare opportunity, Deccan Development Society (DDS), an NGO working with this village as its base, is going to present the ‘Zaheerabad Agenda’ before President of India Ram Nath Kovind on January 3, 2020 at New Delhi.
The DDS, in its quest for identifying the uniqueness of the area in which it has been working, found that the farming system at Zaheerabad area dates back to few hundred years. Further, it is eco-friendly from the beginning.
Protecting mother earth
“Here the soil is not so deep, still farmers are able to cultivate crops, and a majority of them are small farmers. They do not use pesticides, fertilizers are mostly organic, and are not dependent on irrigation. Moroever, they always follow a multi-crop pattern, which is in tune with bio-diversity. Instead of taking from mother earth, the farmers in fact, are protecting the soil health and strengthening it,” explained P.V. Satheesh, Director, DDS, while speaking to reporters here on Tuesday.
He said all these issues are part of the ‘Zaheerabad Agenda’, which would be presented to the President of India. The DDS has also been proposing spending 50 per cent of the NREGS amount on farming-linked activity.
Twin milestones
“In 2019 we have two milestones to our credit The first one is that we were invited to receive the Equator-2019 award from the United Nations. Our team went to New York and received the award. The second one is: in the fag end of the year, we have received an invitation from the President of India to explain the work we are doing with communities here and what the type of cooperation we want from the Government of India. We will submit the ‘Zaheerabad Agenda’ and request him to take this work at national level,” stated Mr. Satheesh.
The DDS director has informed that farmers of Zaheerabad have been offering a solution for ‘Climate Change,’ one of the biggest challenges of the century, stating that they want to take the Zaheerabad Agenda from top to bottom. As part of that they will meet sarpanches on January 3, and explain to them.
