Nabard to promote organic farming in Kerala

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) will promote organic farming in Kerala through an integrated initiative involving banks, NGOs, farmers and the state agricultural university.

According to K C Shashidhar, chief general manager, Nabard (Kerala), the initiative in the first phase will integrate the activities of up to 10,000 farmers by forming them into joint liability groups.

Nabard will conduct a two-week training programme called Joint Liability Training (JLT) for farmers, intended as a primer on pesticide-free food production methods, post-harvest management, food security through organic farming, seed conservation etc.

The farmers will also be taken on exposure visits to organic farms within and outside the state. JLT programme will be led by experts in the agricultural sciences along with district officials of Nabard.

The project will be implemented in seven districts in Kerala initially, in association with the Kerala Social Services Forum, an umbrella NGO of the state to which 36 NGOs are affiliated. A meeting of NGO stakeholders convened in Thiruvananthapuram has decided to publish a white paper on the potential of organic farming in Kerala.