I have been aware of and followed the evolution of the Global Vikas Trust for some time. It aims to help marginal farmers with small land areas increase their earnings. Since its first steps in 2016, more than 23,000 marginal farmers have benefited from the impetus of his advice and the example they see from others who followed. The increase in annual income went 4 to 10 times the income per acre before the transformation, confirms the Founder of GVK, Mayank Gandhi (MG).
Where is its magic? Is it doing more of the same, with more productive plant species, irrigation, and better fertilizers? All this had already been done during the so-called Green Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s and later, when following Dr Norman Borlaug. Then, the productivity of many cereals, such as wheat, rice, corn, etc., took a good leap forward, overcoming the famine and food insecurity scares in India.
The Green Revolution in India was first introduced in Punjab in late 1966-67 as part of a development program issued by international donor agencies and the Government of India. During the British Raj, India's grain economy hinged on a unilateral relation of exploitation."
I must remember that India was highly deficient in food and cereals during the British colonization – which left between 14 to 29 million citizens starving to death during the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. And in 1943 alone, with Churchill as Prime Minister, with stubbornness - when food was enough to overcome hunger till the new harvest- 3 million citizens will have died.
Soon after the Independence, India had to spend millions in foreign currency to import grain, year after year, to feed its citizens. The peak occurred in 1969 when Indira Gandhi had to import 9 million tons (MT).
The outcomes of the Green Revolution were bright to the point that India became self-sufficient and had a surplus from the 1970s onwards. In 2023, due to skirmishes between cereal-producing countries, India exported 23 MT of grains after feeding its population and maintaining a reasonable reserve for emergencies.
GVT appeared in 2016 with ideas to leap the incomes of the marginal farmers whose lives were tough. Mayank Gandhi had experience planning abroad and realized he could help farmers get better incomes from their small land.
Agricultural activity highly depends on water availability and good soils to guarantee acceptable productivity. Therefore, MG started working in a minor village in Maharashtra, where there were acute water problems.
He managed to mobilize the entire population of the nearby villages to, with the support of machinery, widen and deepen the Paapanashi river that ran there, making furthermore 120 boreholes along the 70 km stretch of the river to reintroduce rainwater that would otherwise be lost down the slopes or infiltrate, becoming wasted.
In an intense activity, working hard under the guidance of Global Vikas Trust "From April 15 to May 31, 2018, we gathered fifteen villages to combat the drought. From 5:30 am every day, equipped with suitable tools and in a well-planned manner, we began digging rivers, ponds and trenches until 1:30 am the following morning with a break taken in the sweltering afternoon. Hiring machines, men and women worked hard. The result was a 70 km deepening and widening of the river and its tributaries, 162 agricultural tanks, 62 check dams, 5 KT weirs, and hundreds of trenches. Two thousand two hundred twenty million litres of water were stored in just 45 days. Change was happening."(MG)
All the non-existent water during the dry months, the hottest ones, from March to June, now existed in abundance. With the 120 FRG-Global Recharge Boreholes along the river, with natural filters of stones and gravel, the water introduced did not carry silt. It raised the level of the underground water table from over 400 feet deep to less than 50 feet.
Water alone is not all. Then came the great solution: by studying soil composition, one can clearly understand which plants/trees may be the most suitable. It was knowing the most valuable products in the consumer markets, replacing the traditional crop with low yields. "It was usual for farmers to dedicate to the cultivation of cotton and soybeans, giving an annual yield of about 25,000 rupees per acre. Our team diligently visited village after village to persuade farmers, with facts, figures and statistics, to consider changing their cropping options to fruit trees, which would increase their incomes."(MG).
Despite building trust and affection in the village communities, farmers were reluctant to abandon their traditional farming patterns. “In 2019, we convinced only 1,700 farmers to switch their crops to horticulture and to plant 1.18 million fruit trees. Gradually, as they saw other farmers making the transition and achieving high yields, the pace of transformation accelerated” (MG). Today, over 53 million new fruit trees are planted; think about trees' decisive influence on the local climate, with a fabulous shade, attracting more rain.
Short-production life trees like banana and papaya, medium-life fruit trees such as pineapple, guava, pomegranate, lemon, sweet lime, and mosambi, and longer-life trees like mango and custard apple have increased farmer annual income from Rs 25,000-50,000 per acre to an average of Rs. 250,000: a 4 to 10 fold increase. Our highly successful "proof of concept" has slowly started gaining traction among farmers and has expanded to over 4,500 villages in more than 27 districts in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
Krishikul Global Institute for Training and
Social Development
It is near completion and aims to become a knowledge dissemination centre to enhance farmer experience and skills. It integrates demonstration facilities, agricultural technology, training and extension facilities, R&D facilities and a laboratory. Its functions are the Introduction and implementation of the latest farming technology, Demonstration of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), provision of ongoing guidance/support and Agricultural extension services, Agricultural R&D and routine testing.
It is projected to become an incubation centre to solve the world’s four most significant problems: 1. End hunger; 2. Reduce the climate crisis; 3. Replace chemical fertilizers through composting and use organic and natural pesticides; 4. Especially for India: more protection for cows that produce natural fertilizers in addition to milk.
The Training Centre is open to anyone from near and far who wants to learn and practice high-value disruptive ideas. It is not enough to do better of the same you did before, but something different, producing much more value.
(The Author is Professor at AESE-Business School
(Lisbon), at I.I.M.
Rohtak (India), author of
The Rise of India)