Kumbharwadi, a drought-prone village in Maharashtra, is set to rewrite its future as it undergoes a natural farming revolution. The lands are now laboratories for organic farming and natural practices as farmers apply what they learn at “school”.
Village Kumbharwadi may seem ordinary, but this once drought-hit Maharashtra village has rewritten its story and now stands as an example of what determination and innovation can do for a region. While 66% of the state suffered drought in recent times, natural farming has come as a solution for farmers at this village.
Seventy percent of rural households are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood across India – nearly 82% of those falling in the category of small and marginalised. Their struggle is made worse by harsh climatic changes, land degradation, desertification and drought.
I can say that farming is synonymous with uncertainty. The new generation is barely interested in it and the future seems doomed.
But Kumbharwadi village shows how community-driven solutions can offer a way out of agricultural hardships.
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Let’s go back to 1948, when 24-year-old Swiss Jesuit priest Father Hermann Bacher, popularly known as the ‘Baba Bacher’, arrived in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. During the drought of 1972, which pushed marginalised farmers to migrate to cities in search of livelihood, he focussed his efforts on water harvesting and conservation. The late priest, who is remembered as the father of community-led watershed development in India, engaged the village in planting trees, growing forests, building check dams, digging contour trenches and raising earthen bunds, gradually transforming the area.
The collective action culminated in the Indo-German Watershed Development Program (IGWDP) and Watershed Organization Trust (WOTR), which went on to become a non-governmental organisation working for national-level watershed development. Meanwhile, the IGWDP, a collaboration between Germany, India, Maharashtra state government and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), marked a new chapter in the drought-prone region of Marathwada.
Watershed development at Kumbharwadi from 1998-2002 transformed the labour intensive agricultural practices of the village, but it wasn’t enough for the new generation to stop the youth from migrating for better prospects to industrial areas.
On the threshold of the new century, farmers decided to switch to vegetable and dairy farming along with animal husbandry. In 2022, with the aim of promoting natural farming, NABARD launched the agroecology-based JIVA programme, supported by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, targeting ecologically fragile and rain-fed areas.
“The JIVA programme for natural farming in Kumbharwadi was introduced in 2023 as a pilot. Around 900 hectares were divided in 10 clusters. We introduced new farming patterns such as intercropping, mix cropping, climate resistance agriculture practice, broadcast seeding, zero budget farming, A-grade model, ATM model and integrated farming systems,” says Tushar Gaikwad, a Senior Agriculture Assistant and JIVA programme manager at Kumbharwadi.
The JIVA production model aims at produce that caters to the family’s needs, followed by crops for livestock and ultimately for the market. Farmers undergo training at Farmer Feed School, while the Seed Bank and Bio-Resource Centre are set up as small business models to sustain women’s self-help groups (SHGs) to provide seeds and bio-inoculums such as natural fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides and fungicides.
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In the pilot year, 40 families were selected to turn half an acre of their land into soyabean demo plots, where they could experiment from a pool of natural farming practices, under the guidance of two NABARD-appointed external farmer resource persons (EFRPs). “As a farmer too, I can say that farming is synonymous with uncertainty. The new generation is barely interested in it and the future seems doomed. Therefore, the JIVA programme helps farmers in putting their land to maximum and optimal use,” adds Tushar.
The success of natural farming in this tiny village of Kumbharwadi is more than evident, especially in the shift towards a scientific approach among farmers, thanks to the manuals provided at the Farmer Feed School. JIVA has also developed the Custom Hiring Centre where devices such as jumbo seeders, pro seeders, cleaning grading machines and token devices can be rented.
“At present, 80 families are associated with the JIVA programme. We have established a Village Development Committee and assigned seven farmer resource persons from the village to guide these families,” shares Bhagwat Gagre, Secretary at Village Development Committee.
Each household in Kumbharwadi is akin to a laboratory. “Under JIVA, people have started adapting to dairy, goat farming and poultry. Most of us have our own kitchen gardens. Advanced farmers are putting their hearts and minds into preparation of azolla, vermicompost, jeevamrit and dashparni (natural fertiliser), natural spray medicine and micro-nutrients, plant promoters, sea-bead extracts, sanjeevak (immunity booster) and biogas,” says Ramesh Hundare, 39, a conventional farmer with a newfound passion for the science of agriculture.
JIVA also aims to cater to the needs of the village’s tribal population. Another challenge is access to the market. Tushar says, “There’s no scope for an organic market nearby and farmers are often forced to sell their crops at lower prices. JIVA is working on creating a Farmer Producer Organisation,” shares Tushar.
The village may be small, but what’s happening at Kumbharwadi is nothing short of a miracle. And with the farmers upbeat on adopting natural practices, the road ahead can only bring more success.
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The lead image on top shows Village Kumbharwadi, which has come a long way after decades of suffering from drought. (Photo by Pranay Tripathi)
Pranay is an Indore-based filmmaker whose lens is always in search of how we ought to live. He is also a journalist, activist and nature-lover.
