Farmers Exchange Visit at Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, from 28th Jan to 2nd Feb 2023

03 Feb, 2023

Exchange visits are an ideal way of sharing knowledge and experiences between farmers. It not only leads to mutual knowledge increase but also ensures farmers are able to share their experiences and adopt innovations and ideas. Through this, they get an opportunity to explore and interact with fellow farmers to obtain an idea about how farmers are practicing organic and sustainable agriculture across the project regions.

Therefore, the DPP project, realizing the need for knowledge sharing and mutual learning across the project areas, organised farmers' exchange visits for farmers from Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the project region in Jaisalmer.

GIZ and AVT McCormick (AVT McC) and McCormick are jointly implementing DPP Spices project in six states of India, viz. Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. The project aims to sustainably strengthen the production of cardamom, cumin, celery, dill seed and turmeric in these states, to enhance the capacities of spice farmers as well as, to make production practices more economically, socially and environmentally sustainable.

Around 16 lead farmers were invited for the exchange visit to Jaisalmer which comprised of 10 lead farmers from Tamil Nadu and 6 lead farmers from Kerala. The exchange program revolved around answering the following questions:

• Q1. What are they currently practicing?
• Q2. What motivated them to change to sustainable and organic agriculture?
• Q3: What are the practices they adopt for it and how useful are they?

Exchange visit started with farmers meeting AVT McCormick’s staff and lead Cumin Farmers in Jaisalmer. Dr. Poonam Pande, Project Manager, GIZ, facilitated the meeting — introducing participants and the objective of the exchange visit. Mr. Ashok Nair, Head of Sustainable Agri Operations, AVT McCormick explained the requirement of different spice crops grown in different regions. He talked about the importance of sustainability in agriculture practices along with different practices and goals that farmers are implementing in different spice crops. Mr. Avaneesh, Area Manager, AVT McCormick explained in detail, the implementation of sustainable agriculture practices in Cumin crop and how farmers are benefited through FSA certification.

Discussion about various sustainable agricultural practices and biodiversity conservation practices in the region, ©Ashok P. Nair

On 30th January 2023, farmers visited Bhagoo ka Gaon, one of the project villages, and visited Mr. Alla Bax, who is a lead farmer from Rajasthan. Mr. Alla Bax talked about how he is implementing sustainable agricultural practices in Cumin. He shared his experience regarding change in weather patterns e.g. negative impacts of rising night temperature during the sowing of cumin leading to low emergence of the crop. He explained that conventionally, farmers were used to start sowing after Diwali festival, but due to change in weather, as a consequence of climate change, farmers need to rework their farm activities according to crop requirements and weather parameters. For example, the change in sowing timings, as farmers experienced that delayed sown cumin crop was much better than the crop sown immediately after Diwali.

The second field visit was organized with another lead farmer, Mr. Giridhar Singh. He explained the usage of bioformulations and bioagents and thereby, reduction in agrochemicals in his field. He shared that his farm is full of lady bird beetles, ants, and various birds as he was not using any chemicals on his farm.

Second-day visit on 31st January 2023, was organized at Kucheri village where farmers met another lead farmer - Mr. Vikram Singh. Mr. Vikram talked about water conservation practices adopted by him. He also showed the participants, the farm pond which he has maintained to collect water used for irrigating the Cumin crop.

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About the project

The ‘Enhancement of Smallholder Spice Farmer’s Capacities in Sustainable Farming’ aims to strengthen the production of cardamom, cumin, and turmeric in four states of India - Kerala Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Rajasthan - to increase the capacities of spice farmers to make production practices more economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable.

The project is part of the develoPPP.de Programme implemented by GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The lead executing agency for this project is AVT McCormick. develop.PPP was set up by BMZ to involve the private sector in areas where business opportunities and development policy initiatives overlap. Read More

For more information contact: biodiv.india@giz.de