The World Bank, Andhra Pradesh Community-managed Natural Farming (APCNF) and GODAN are hosting a Webinar on Natural Farming in Times of Corona and Climate Change. The online event will be held on Monday 27 July, 2020 from 08h30-10h30 PDT (Washington).
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This Webinar is the first in a series of India-Rwanda Knowledge Exchange sessions on Community-managed Natural Farming (CNF). In this session, a leading expert from India will present their experience on CNF. A dialogue will follow this up between Indian experts and the high-level officials and policymakers from the Rwanda agriculture sector.
The APCNF programme is working towards enhancing farmers’ net incomes by reducing the cost of cultivation, improving yields, reducing risk, and increasing profit through Natural Farming. The program strongly believes in farming in harmony with nature. It assumes that the nutritional integrity of the food should be enhanced, and food should be free from chemical residue. Natural farming addresses the risks to Agriculture because of the loss of soil organic matter, water stresses, and the worsening climate change crisis. The biological processes triggered by natural farming have a decisive role in enhancing soil organic matter, soil fertility, water holding capacity of soils, and in improving biodiversity (above ground and below ground).
The program is currently operating in 3011 villages of AP and providing handholding support to 700,000 farmers to take up natural farming practices on their farm.
The COVID crisis and subsequent lockdowns have resulted in the loss of livelihoods for millions across India and the World. It has also emphasised the benefits of improving consumer health through initiatives such as Natural Farming, with the added advantage of creating job opportunities in rural communities.
This Webinar will focus on the work happening in Andhra Pradesh on Natural Farming, steered by Women's groups and farmer's institutions. The lessons shared will pave the way for Rwanda and other African nations to initiate conversation on adopting Natural Farming principles.
Speakers
Rythu Sadhikara Samstha, Executive Vice Chairman of the Organization for the empowerment of farmers in Andhra Pradesh, has 25 years experience in large-scale community mobilization and promotion of livelihoods of rural women, tribal communities, and farmers. From 2000-2010 he served as CEO to the Society for elimination of Rural Poverty (S.E.R.P) in AP, leading a World Bank supported community self-help group initiative that enabled 11.5 million rural poor women out of poverty. Following this he held the poition of first Mission Director of the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), Govt of India. He has taken the lessons of SERP to the whole country, with a vision of mobilizing 100 million rural women into S.H.G s and federations. The World Bank supported this program. Alongside his current position, he advises the goverment in zero budget natural farming.
Dr. Éliane Ubalijoro is GODAN’s Deputy Executive Director for Programs and Professor of Practice for Public and Private Sector Partnerships at McGill University’s Institute for the Study of International Development. She has authored numerous academic publications.
Dr Ubalijoro is a fellow of the African Academy of Sciences and a member of Rwanda’s National Science and Technology Council, having been a member of the Presidential Advisory Council for Rwandan President Paul Kagame since its inception and a Ducere Global faculty. Éliane is passionate about the question of gender equality in STEM subjects. She has been named Chair of the Scientific Program Committee for the Next Einstein Forum 2020, is a member of the 2020 Gender Summit Advisory Committee and sits on the Advisory Panel of the open-access Scientific African Journal published by the NEF. This led her to become a reviewer for the Grand Challenges Canada Stars in Global Health program. She also held the position of Chair of the International Advisory Board of the African Institute of Biomedical Science and Technology. Eliane is a member of the Crop Trust Executive Board and the Export Consultation Group on the Post COVID-19 Implications on Collaborative Governance of Genomics Research, Innovation, and Genetic Diversity. She is also a member of the African Development Bank’s Expert Global Community of Practice on COVID-19 Response Strategies in Africa.
Dr. Parmesh Shah is the Global Lead for Data-Driven Digital Agriculture at the World Bank. He provides leadership to the Bank’s work in these areas, supporting the development of global knowledge and learning in these areas to offer solutions to clients and development partners. His current areas of interest are economic and social organisations and networks, making markets and public services work for the poor, social entrepreneurship, digital and data-based innovations in agriculture and rural development, promotion of on-farm and off-farm jobs and public-private and people partnerships for rural poverty reduction. He is currently involved in developing a regional program on scaling up digital agriculture in the African region, involving setting up ecosystems for entrepreneurship and incubation. He holds a DPhil in Development Studies from the University of Sussex, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and a BTech in Agricultural Engineering from Pantnagar in India.
