OneWorld.net (U.S.)

Sustainet - Sustainable Agricultural Information Network, launched a book “Sustainable Agriculture: A Pathway out of Poverty for India’s Rural Poor” at a city hotel in August 2007.

To download the book, click here.

The book communicates the strong message that sustainable agriculture, if replicated on a country-wide basis can provide a means out of poverty and hunger. The book is a collection of various well researched and documented studies on how sustainable agriculture can be a success story for millions of farmers in the country today.

Ghasi Ram was toying with the idea of moving from rural to urban Rajasthan but his experience with sustainable agriculture helped him overcome extreme poverty and stay on in his home village. Ghasi Ram is not an exception to what is increasingly becoming a phenomenon.

His example and many others are part of Sustainable Agriculture: A Pathway out of Poverty for India’s Rural Poor, a book that was launched here today. The book, which highlights 14 case studies from nine States across the country, is the result of a Writeshop conducted by Sustainet India and Sustainet Germany.

The thread that binds the case studies is sustainable agriculture, which if replicated on a larger basis can be a means out of poverty and hunger for millions of farmers and their families. They are all the result of practicing local resource-based technologies which are low cost, appropriate and replicable in comparison to high input, expensive technologies promoted by mainstream agriculture.

There are many rural initiatives to promote sustainable agriculture and the case studies in the book focus on some key areas: Organic farming, management of Land and water, and new marketing strategies. It will help address the deepening agrarian crisis, which has seen thousands of farmers across the country, unable to cope with crisis, take their own lives.

Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals: environmental stewardship, farm profitability and prosperous farming communities but most of the success stories are rooted to specific locations. “The analyses and lessons in the book could be applied to a wide variety of situations not just in India but also in other parts of the world,” said Sustainet (Sustainable Agricultural Information Network) Project Office Head Dr. Paul Mathias Braun. He enriched the occasion with his welcome speech and a presentation on the goals of Sustainet.

About the Project:

Sustainet came into being in 2003 as part of the German federal government's initiative. Sustainet India is a network of NGOs with a long-standing experience of sustained agriculture. Sustainet aims to support the scaling up of examples of good practice in sustainable agriculture. And the book will be a valuable resource to the country’s policy makers and NGOs, some of whom are in the process of getting it translated into vernacular languages to be able to inspire more farmers to embrace sustainable agriculture.

Further information may be had from: Ms Manasi Gopalakrishnan /9968150668 ()

Media Contact: Satyajit/9899392940: Radha/9899736745: Monali/9911709012