“Krsi Vana” Launch and Plantation Drive at Hunasvadi Village

Samashti Foundation organised it’s first plantation drive and launch of “Krsi Vana” project on June 15, 2022 at Hunasvadi Village, Madhugiri Taluk, Tumkur District, Karnataka. We have been partnering with the farmers in this village to understand the challenges they face and how to provide sustainable solutions that will help farmers make their livelihood.

Samashti went through multiple iterations to understand the environmental conditions and farmers' limitations. We found that Hunasvadi has extremely dry land and is dependent on either monsoon rains or presence of borewells in the farm for better plant yield. The village does not have a concerted approach towards water conservation.

Launch of Krsi Vana Project

Krsi Vana project was launched with an intent to increase green cover in the village while providing the means for the farmers to

• prevent water runoff

• decrease the soil erosion

• get alternative sources of income

As part of this project, we partnered with the Forest Department, Madhugiri. Mr Ravi, RFO and team helped to identify the trees that could be grown in this area and participated in multiple sessions with the farmers to propound the advantages of agroforestry and educate them regarding short and long term benefits of participating in the program. Krishi Aranaya Protsaha Yojane (KAPY) with its monetary incentives acted as a catalyst to spark the interest of the farmers to sign up with us.

A step towards a better tomorrow

We identified 35 deserving farmers who could be in the phase 1 of the Krsi Vana Project. We cataloged their requirements and procured the saplings requested by them through Forest and Social Forestry Departments. The type of trees that where procured are Mahogany, SandalWood, Red Sandalwood, Silver Oak, Tamarind, Hebbavu and Teak.

Plantation Methods

Plants ready for its destination

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We educated the farmers that they could plant the saplings in 2 different methods - Border and Block which gave us a requirement of 6000 saplings covering around 40 acres of land. Samashti felt it was a rigorously and labor intensive activity for a marginal farmer to prep the soil and plant around 120-240 saplings /acre . Hence, we undertook the costs and coordinated the activities of making pits and the bunds around the farms so that there is water conserved from the rains.

We raised funds through Impact Guru and also got CSR funds from Srishti Digilife. As we were able to raise adequate funds ahead of monsoon, we were able to execute all the prepping and procuring activities in time to have the plantation drive on June 15 , 2022

Dignitaries of Krsi Vana Project Launch

The event was attended by Ankur Omar - CEO of Farmonaut, Mr Loganathan - Head of KVK, Hirehalli (Tumkur), Mr Ravi and his associates from RFO Madhugiri, Mrs Tarakeshwari - RFO Social Forestry. We could mobilize around 200 NSS student volunteers from Govt First Grade College, Madhugiri and Sri T.V. Venkataswamy First Grade College, Madhugiri. The event was kicked off with information sessions to raise awareness regarding Earth day theme “Only One Earth - “Living Sustainably in Harmony with Nature ''. They were then given instructions on how to plant the saplings and for the next 7 hours students worked side by side with the farmers to complete the task at hand.

Overall, it was a successful event attended by many people from different backgrounds. We wish to continue this activity by inducting more farmers for our next season soon so that we Samashti along with farmers can strive to create a greener, healthier environment for the current generation as well as for our future generations.

Below are few glimpses from the event