Mafsu educates farmers in 1,080 villages about integrated farming

Nagpur: With the aim of minimizing suicides in farmers in Vidarbha and Marathwada, the Maharashtra Animal and Fishery Sciences University (Mafsu) conducted an awareness campaign in 1,080 villages in these two regions by organizing awareness programmes in each of these villages.
This was purely an initiative of the university as it didn’t get any financial support for this project from any agency or government.“This was completely an initiative of Mafsu to reach out to the farmers in these rain fed regions. The farmers in both these regions barely have any animals with them. For them crop failure means no money at all for the entire year as they have no other source of income. Hence considering the suicide scenario in these regions, the university thought it was necessary to educate the farmers about integrated farming. We actually planned to cover 1,000 villages in the two regions but interestingly could reach more villages than our target in the one year 2015-16,” said the Mafsu Vice Chancellor Aditya Kumar Misra.
Misra says that though the change in these villages cannot be quantified, the campaign has definitely resulted in a positive change. The university told the farmers about integrated farming which includes poultry, goatry, fishery, dairy etc for supplementary income in case of crop failure.
Of the total villages in Vidarbha (366), maximum villages were covered from Yavatmal district (146). Similarly in Marathwada total 614 villages were covered. Of these 614 villages more than 50% of the villages were alone from worst affected Latur district (374). Also as many as 68 villages were taken from Nagpur and 82 villages and 79 villages each from Osmanabad and Parbhani districts.
“We took support from the Livestock Development Officer (LDO) from villages they were available for understanding the problems of the villagers in not taking to animal husbandry. Our experts who included experts from general education extension, poultry, dairy, goatry, veterinary and fishery spent at least one night in each village we visited to understand the local problems before offering them solutions. But yes, we didn’t have anything in the form of any government scheme as such to offer to them. We did educate them about the schemes and the ways of availing them,” said Sariput Landge from the directorate of extension of Mafsu in city.
Landge said that most farmers in Vidarbha and Marathwada as on today don’t have a cushioning mechanism to sustain during years of crop failures due to any reason. Those who do have animals had them in meagre numbers and not enough for commercial purposes. “We used videos, pictures, films of success stories to the farmers to make them believe that what we were telling them was actually right and could be implemented on the ground. WE also educated them about the fodder crops and animal feeds,” said Landge.