Our Present Programme Focus
- Sustainable
Agriculture & Rural livelihoods.
AF at present focuses on transforming the conventional HEIDA (High External
Input Destructive Agriculture), to sustainable that is low cost, local
resource based, eco-regenerative and small rainfed farmer oriented. In
pursuance of Sustainable Agriculture AF organizes farmers groups with
rainfed and drought affected farmers into “Sasyamitra Grops” (SMGs). And
through them promotes farming systems integrating diversified annual crops,
tree crops and animals. AF intensively campaigns against use of chemicals in
agriculture and promotes Non-Pesticidal Management (NPM) and various kinds
of bio-fertilizers such as vermin composting, farm composting, liquid
fertilizers, mulching etc. AF promotes crop diversity and crop rotation with
the objective of household food and nutritional security on one side and
soil health environment and bio-diversity on the other hand. Perennial tree
crops for fruit, fodder and biomass as tree crops are more drought tolerant
than annual crops and benefit rainfed farmers as an insurance against
droughts. AF organizes campaigns on policy issues related to gender,
environment, agriculture at village, mandal and district levels.
- Accessing Basic Services:
AF facilitates and enables the rural poor to access basic services like PDS,
health care, education, social security and particularly the Rural
Employment Guarantee Program. AF educates the labor on their rights under
MGNREGP and also advocates that it should be used to create long term
durable productive land based assets like rainfed tree crops for the very
labour under the program.
- Alternate
Livelihoods for Rural Youth and Women
AF runs two Driving Schools with a capacity to train about 250 rural youth
per year. And two other Skills Training Centres are run with the capacity to
train about 1000 rural youth per year. The rural under-educated youth,
(girls & boys) are trained in job oriented skills Driving, ITES,
Hospitality, Customer Care, Automobiles, Electrical Wiring, etc. AF is
enabling access to rural youth for various other vocational training
organised by Government Agencies like RUDSETI, JSS, DRDA etc.
AF is now reviewing youth and its alternate livelihoods program in view of
global recession and fall of job market.
- Alliance Building and
Policy Advocacy
AF is actively campaigning and building Public Opinion on policy issues of
Poverty, Environment, Agriculture, Gender etc. It is involved in alliance
building & informal networking with other NGOs, CSOs and CBOs on issues of
Gender, Poverty, Environment and Agriculture and lobbying with Government
for pro-poor policies and removal of various bottlenecks in implementation
of various anti poverty programme.
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