Smart Village Success Stories: Planting Trees as part of CSR - how it changed life of a village

An excellent success story that shows how planting trees as a revolution can change the small village into prosperous village in Madagascar. It has been a village of 40 people which has grown to a people of 450 people with more work to do because of ecological changes due to planting of millions of trees
https://www.facebook.com/climatereality/videos/1156902591043050/

Another initiative where money gets funded by searches made online and they are planting trees in many countries and increasing the green cover as well as changing the ecology for better

http://ecosia.com 

Video about Ecosia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEBm9HbHvl0&feature=youtu.be?utm_source=ecosiayt&utm_medium=doodleEN&utm_term=video&utm_campaign=5Mtrees

Our state governments mission on planting trees is good, but I think we need the agriculture department do lot more.

Take areas with less green cover, do soil tests, suggest the plantations to be grown, people from the community/CSRs contribute to planting trees and also taking care of the maintenance of them.

The plantations should be profitable to take care of the maintenance on its own as well and add more revenue streams to the villages nearby

Empowering Girls in Villages

Courtesy:
http://www.thebetterindia.com/59796/nandini-tripura-district-administration/


Below story is a classic example where districts can empower girls and women in village towards development of the village. A classic example of what an IAS officer can do if they want to work on social causes like Beti Bachao Beti Padao schemes of Central Government

Nandini, an initiative aimed towards the empowerment of women and girls in Gomati district of Tripura, is helping in the successful implementation of the central government’s Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme in the region. Started by 2008-batch IAS officer Sonal Goel, Nandini is an umbrella project that encompasses the work of several district administration departments.

1. Setting up a crèche – the first of its kind:

2. A park dedicated to girls and their parents:
A local park, was revamped and over 120 trees have been planted by local residents in the names of their daughters, sisters, granddaughters, etc. 
The community itself has taken up the responsibility of taking care of the park.


3. Festivals with a purpose:
Planned to popularize the idea of women empowerment during the celebrations around the theme of saving the girl child and women empowerment.

4. Collective streamlining of projects:

The DM issued collective guidelines to all stakeholder departments like social welfare, health, education, police, judiciary, forest department, IT department etc., informing that they all should take up steps towards women empowerment.

5. The Health and Family Welfare department has started training ASHAs (Accredited Social Health Activists) on how they can prevent domestic violence.

6. Making women self-dependent:
The department of social welfare in the district is involved in providing supplementary nutrition to 24,315 girls in the age group of six months to six years. The department has also set up 70 vocational training centres for making women self-dependant by teaching them tailoring skills.

7. Nandini Samman:

An award called Nandini Samman has been introduced in the district and has been adopted by every department to honour women and girls excelling in different fields. The education department awards female students who perform well; health department honours the ASHAs; social service department gives the award to anganwadi workers, etc.

Farmer Success Story: Jackfruit tree and its agri products

Courtesy:
http://www.thebetterindia.com/59942/james-joseph-jackfruit-365-superfood-india/


James Joseph says Jackfruit is Jack of all fruits. He wanted to make this undervalued and underrated seasonal fruit available for consumption 365 days a year.  On learning that 80% of the fruit is made up of water, he hit upon the idea of freeze-drying jackfruit. Freeze-drying reduced the weight of the fruit by 82%, cutting down the huge costs of transportation and storage. A 180-gm pack of freeze dried jackfruit can be stored at room temperature for 365 days and, when soaked in lukewarm water, yield one kg of jackfruit.

• Since the glycemic load (glucose level) in unripe jackfruit is almost half that of rice or wheat, the fruit makes a potent carbohydrate substitute for diabetics. 
• Jackfruit’s high potassium content helps lower elevated blood pressure 
• Its high anti-oxidant and flavonoid content protect against cancer. 
• Jackfruit also increases the human body’s capacity to absorb iron, making it extremely effective in preventing and curing anaemia. 
• Since jackfruit blends beautifully into most recipes, it can also change the way we look at health foods and gluten-free foods in particular.
• Interesting and unique jackfruit-infused recipes include galouti kabab, biryani, masala dosa, kathi roll, panna cotta, and payasam, all made from dehydrated jackfruit!

“I don’t even consider it a crop. It just grows. When other crops fail, you can always count on the jackfruit tree.” says Joseph

Farmer Success Stories: Mr. Umesh, hailing from Kalya village of Magadi taluk of Ramangara District, Karnataka

Please read the below site for a success story

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/generating-constant-income-imperative-for-successful-farming/article6549354.ece

Farmer Success Story: Natural Farming from barren land from villagers

Courtesy:
http://www.thebetterindia.com/66570/natural-farming-suneet-salvi-maharashtra/

“These are simple people. They grow one crop a year and either spend the rest of the time doing nothing or go to the city for menial jobs. My idea is to help them make farming sustainable and profitable. Right now, I am paying them for learning and working on our farm. In a year or so, they should be able to till their own land,” Suneet adds.

Read the article given above.

Lot of people would want to do something like this, but might be thinking of upfront cost on land. See how Suneet has progressed and did Collective Farming using natural farming techniques

Farmer Success Story: Vertical Farming and Israli farming techniques

Courtesy:
https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http://www.theweekendleader.com/Innovation/1837/fairy-farms.html

Vertical farming, drip irrigation, soil solarisation and the like were terms that mystified Deepak Khatker, a 40-year-old farmer, when he first visited the Indo-Israel Centre of Excellence for Vegetables here a couple of years ago.

Around three hectares are currently being used to cultivate vegetables using Israeli know-how. and is growing cherry tomatoes, seedless cucumbers, brinjals and coloured capsicums. The production is four to five times when compared with other farmers not using these technologies

Methods like vertical farming help save space on the ground by growing the crops vertically while drip irrigation saves almost 90 percent of water. These methods are revolutionary

Though the concept of "protective agriculture" is expensive as it requires greenhouses and poly-houses, government subsidies have ensured that interested farmers take the plunge.

We get 90 percent subsidy for installing a drip irrigation as well as automatic irrigation system, while for the poly-houses, we get 65 percent rebate from the government

About the centers that are propagating this

Situated 145 km from Haryana capital Chandigarh, the centre opened in January 2011 and is spread across six hectares. Built for Rs.6 crore (Rs 60 million) by the Indian government, it was set up following the signing of the Agriculture Cooperation Agreement between India and Israel in 2008.

Experts from Israel regularly visit the centre and organize free training sessions for farmers, teaching them "protective agriculture" to increase their crop yields while using fertiliser and water optimally. The experts also visit the farms if needed.

In addition, corporates and professionals are also taught ways to produce quality vegetable seedlings at a nominal fee.

"The idea is to transfer applied research and technologies to the farmers in various states across India. While Israel has already entered into agreement with seven state governments to set up these centres, the most successful model has been Haryana," said Israeli Embassy spokesman Ohad Horsandi.

At present there are 10 such Centres of Excellence with a special focus on mangoes, pomegranates and citrus fruits. By 2015, their number will increase to 28 as they also branch out to flowers, bee keeping and dairying.

According to S K Yadav, project manager of the Gharaunda centre, over 60 farmers, not only from Haryana but also from states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and even Tamil Nadu, visit the centre daily. Last year, over 16,000 farmers were trained at the centre.

Diverse technologies are demonstrated to the farmers so that they can choose the technology that suits them best and maximize their yield and profits,