Kerala agri minister visits natural farming fields in NTR, Guntur district

Vijayawada: A high-level delegation and the farmers from Kerala, including the Minister for Agriculture, visited the natural farming fields in the NTR and Guntur districts of Andhra Pradesh on Thursday. The visit aimed at gaining insights into the successful implementation of the Andhra Pradesh Community-managed Natural Farming (APCNF) initiative, spearheaded by state-run Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS). The Kerala group of farmers, the minister and other officials divided into two groups and visited the two districts of NTR and Guntur.

The Minister along with Dr Sriram Venkittaramana, director of agriculture, Thomas Samuel, additional director of agriculture, and other senior official visited the natural farming fields. Executive vice-chairman of RySS T Vijay Kumar, ex-officio special chief secretary of agriculture B Rajasekhar briefed the visitors on natural farming. Discussions included the current global scenario, the impact of climate change, and how maintaining a 365-day green cover through natural farming can help address environmental challenges.



Kerala agriculture minister P Prasad along with the team witnessed a live demonstration of the APCNF nine universal principles represented through a wheel model in Chevuturu of G Konduru mandal in NTR district. They also visited the mango orchard of Ramadevi, where she narrated her experience on PMDS in her mango orchard. Later, they visited the vegetable A-Grade model farm of Sk Valibi and interactions with farmers practicing the 5th year Pre-Monsoon Dry Sowing method and also engaged with women self help groups.

Dr Zakir, Sudhakar, Gopichand from RySS, Vijay Kumari, NTR district project manager of APCNF, Krishna Rao, regional project coordinator and other RySS staff accompanied the visitors. The Kerala farmers visited the natural farming fields in Nuthakki of Guntur district expressed satisfaction with the APCNF model and commended Andhra Pradesh’s efforts in promoting climate-resilient and farmer friendly agricultural practices. The team welcomed by Rajakumari, district project manager of APCNF.

Srinivasulu, Thematic Lead and Humayun from RySS accompanied them. They visited farms of Srinivas Reddy and tenant farmer Mallikarjuna in Nuthakki in Mangalagiri mandal. Later, in Davuluri Palem of Kollipara mandal, they explored health and nutrition interventions and the role of self help groups in natural farming.

They also visited an A-Grade turmeric model and a Nutri-garden owned by farmer Vasantha..