India: Entrepreneur calls for sustainable homestead farming
Delivering the 19th edition of the ‘Beyond Square Feet’ Lecture organised on the World Environment Day by Asset Homes here, Balagopal said that time has come to promote the unique homestead farming
The Hindu Business Line
June 6, 2021
Excerpt:
“We are living in an age when increased urbanisation has created enough and more problems and challenges. India has currently 60 cities with more than one million populations and this number is increasing due to rapid urbanisation. People are in the habit of moving from rural to urban areas in search of livelihood. Therefore, our task is to promote rural livelihood and rural employment. When such initiatives become community-oriented, they become all the more vibrant. Homestead farming is community-oriented,” he said.
Homestead farming reverses the thinking that fragmented landholdings are unsustainable. “An Amul model is already there to make it sustainable not only by procuring the product but also supporting the farmers in various ways,” he said, adding corporate farming, on the other hand, would complicate issues. Both corporate farming and monoculture in large tracts promote the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, he pointed out.
Anaha Trust, piloted by him and his wife, is now focusing on promoting homestead farming in Wayanad, which is considered a biodiversity hotspot in the country. “All economic activities are leaving an environmental impact not only on Wayanad, but everywhere and by planting more crops, we can offset that,” he added.
