ANANTAPUR: As part of the ‘Giving Back to Society’ initiative, seven alumni of King’s College of London, took up natural farming methods on a field at Raminepalli village in Rapthadu mandal of Anantapur district on Sunday.
These college alumni, now highly-placed in different organisations and government sector, kneaded cow dung, jaggery, soil from anthill and cow urine along with powdered dal to prepare ‘Ghanajeevamrutham’ balls at the 1.5-acre 5-layer agroecology field of Manda Anjaneyulu and Krishnamma.
As a gratitude for what they had got from the society, these Indian students observe ‘Giving back to the local communities’ in the month of March every year, said founder of King’s College London Alumni Association Stephen Anurag.
They prepared 25 big balls and left for drying under the shade of a tree and stirred the drava ghanajeevamrutham in a 200-litre drum and applied it with mugs at the roots of jamun, guava, mango trees on the plot. They then learnt how to do mulching at the rootzone of the fruit trees with natural materials like pebbles, horsegram and freshly cut grass to arrest water evaporation. After learning natural farming methods for two hours, they appreciated the untiring work being done by the farmers with the help of Accion Fraterna Ecology Centre in the district.
AF Ecology Director YV Malla Reddy appreciated the gesture of the King’s College alumni members to popularise Community Natural Farming practices by participating in such a programme. Sustainable Agriculture Project Coordinator Amara Rudraiah and CNF project coordinator Khaleel Ahmed of AF Ecology supervised the work.
Other members of the King’s College Alumni Association, Hyderabad, who participated in the programme included, Har Sahay Meena, IAS, Akash Poddar, Teja Tribhuvan Boya, Zakir Hussain, Sahil Khader, Harsha Sake, and Akhil Ravi. On the occasion, the association launched a Mobile App which will help farmers and other practitioners like the AF Centre in Anantapur to publicise their ground stories and good practices on the farms.
They gave a cash award to the farmer couple for their efforts to grow crops and trees using only natural farming methods, being promoted by the AF Centre for the pst several years under Community Natural Farming funded by Azim Premji Foundation.