Social Entrepreneur Suman Saha Leads The Campaign For Holistic Food And Healthy, Prosperous Farmers

N Rudra promises to put city of Taj on world’s platter

New Delhi, March 07: Agra region has emerged as an important vegetable and potato growing hub. But ironically, it is also a hotspot for high and spurious pesticide consumption which raises input costs for farmers and health costs for consumers over a period and ultimately makesfarming unsustainable.

As of now, over and irresponsible pesticides trail also means that few of the region’s ample produce meet the Maximum Residue Level (MRL) requirement of international markets. MRL defines the maximum concentration of a pesticide residuein or on food or feed of plant and animal origin which is legally allowed by a country.

To ameliorate this situation and position Agra as a hub of growing export-quality produce, New Age Urban-Rural Development and Reconstruction Association (N RUDRA) – a women-led channel partner of Crop Life India launched a massive project last July in the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) mode.

The Campaign and Motivation

Over a short span of last seven-odd months, Suman Saha led N RUDRA has successfully spread the message of responsible use, storage and transportation of pesticides and safe disposal of after use containers among 100,000 farmers in the region.

The Kolkata-born Australia-educated Suman married to a traditional farming family, says that she wants to springboard the quality of the local produce to standards of the developed countries.

Sensible use of proper pesticidescan make farming sustainable and affordable, and strengthen the farming community in the region financially by fetching good price for their produce all the way up to global markets, she adds.

More importantly, it will help humanity get safe food and be a tool of empowerment for all those women who are involved in farming, Saha notes before adding that a revived agriculture will also stimulate local entrepreneurship.

Plant Protection Officer at the regional integrated pest management centre affiliated with the Government of India, Anuradha Sharma also praisesSaha’s efforts and expressed hope that Agra will soon be known for growing holistic food by healthy, prosperous farmers.

Mission 5 lakh farmers: The Way Forward

To spread its message, N RUDRA organises workshops, training sessions, campaigns, songs and street plays, among others, to make all the stakeholders in the agriculture chain aware of the benefits of integrated pest management and judicious use of pesticides.

From producers to fertiliser dealers, agricultural universities, concerned administrative authorities and opinion makers, N RUDRAhas involved the stakeholders to sensitise farmers on fake and counterfeit pesticides which can be far more dangerous, harmful and dearer in the long run. They also take the message to consumers through school children, families and doctors.

In its classroom to campaign model, N RUDRA also incorporates training for farmers in using modern technologies such as drones, Artificial Intelligence-based crop monitoring system and using apps to check the CIR (Central Insectides Registration) codes for verifying genuine pesticides.

Altogether, the NGO applies nine steps and sixteen structured models to target pre and post stages of pesticides uses: selecting inputs, putting on PPE kits, container management and health precautions.

Suman is particularly conscious of implementing the entire project with the help of local trainers. Local trainers can connect with the community easily and will be best positioned to hand-hold post-training situations, she says.

Her N RUDRAis already collecting accolades and getting support from the likes of Economist Gyanendra Kumar Singh and Chief of local Krishi Vigyan Kendra, RS Chauhan, among others, she adds.

If her plan and promise match up, Agra has the potential to script an MLE wonder for the world to take note of.