Learning the Organic Way

Organic Certificate Course

(This note describes about a Three Month Organic Certification Course jointly initiated by the JNKVV, Jabalpur, C&A Foundation and Action for Social Advancement. This has been done under the aegis of the Organic and Fairtade Cotton Secretariat, a multi-stakeholder initiative in M.P for improvement of organic cotton value chain. The initiative was to address the poor supply of trained human resources at the ground level to guide producers about organic farming following scientific ways. The first batch of the course was supported through generous funding support by the C&A Foundation, the JNKVV for their faculty and infrastructural support and members of the OFCS in developing the curricula and teaching to the students. The first batch comprises of 30 students, mainly from the rural areas with farming background. There are eight girls in the first batch of the students). There is a likelihood of the government of Madhya Pradesh providing financial aid to the JNKVV and other Agriculture University of the state for the continuation of the course in future).

‘It may not be unique but probably first of its kind and our commitment towards development of skills

inventory as part of human resource infrastructure

development will continue through public and

private partnership model’ –with these words, Dr.

Rao Director Research Services, Jawaharlal Nehru

KrishiVishwaVidyalaya (JNKVV) welcomed all the

students, Faculty members and representatives

from C&A Foundation and Action for Social

Advancement (ASA).

Tracing the history of events on 15th November,

2016 in the auditorium of JNKVV campus, Dr. Rao said that the concerted efforts took less than six

months from the stage of discussion to rolling out a first three month Organic Certificate Course (OCC),

starting from 15th November, 2016 to 12th February, 2017.

Genesis of OCC

The conventional farming had helped the country not only to produce enough food for own

consumption but also generated surpluses for exports. However, the increasing population and income

continues to put pressure for food and also for raw materials for industry. The modern system of

farming, it is increasingly felt, is becoming unsustainable as evidenced by declining crop productivities,

damage to environment, chemical contaminations, etc. The necessity of having an alternative

agriculture method which can function in a friendly eco-system while sustaining and increasing the crop

productivity is realized now. Organic farming is recognized as the best known alternative to the

conventional agriculture.

NGOs continue to spearhead the organic movement in our country. The major weaknesses of organic

agriculture are absence of linkages between the farmers and markets and absence of financial support

from the governments. While it is important to link farmers with the market, it may also be required to

take a stock of the situation of human skills’ inventory with respect to organic system of

farming.Needless to say it is minimal in nature with no scientific standardization to it.

‘Field Extension Officers (FEOs)’ have been trained on conventional ways of farming and plays a very

critical role between the company and farmers by providing advice and support to the farmers from land

preparation, seed selection, pesticides & fertilizers application, soil & water testing to best farm

practices. It was realized that on similar lines, Organic FEOs shouldbe developed by targeting local

youth. They mostly learn in an informal way, i.e. they acquire skill at the work-place, when they help

their parents, relatives and employers etc. They come through the informal system due to socio-

economic circumstances of the family and the compulsions of earning a livelihood rather than attending

a formal training.

Very few opportunities for skill development are available for the above referred groups (out of school

youth & existing workers especially in the

agri sector). Most of the existing Skill

Development programmes are long term in

nature. Poor and less educated persons

cannot afford long term training programmes

due to higher entry qualifications,

opportunity cost etc.

With this background and key gaps in

perspective, Action for Social Advancement (ASA), Bhopal, C&A Foundation and JNKVV with the support

of Directorate of Farmer Welfare & Agriculture Development (DFW&AD) decided to launch a three

month certificate course in the campus of JNKVV. OCC is one of the key initiatives identified by Organic

&Fairtrade Cotton Secretariat (OFCS) promoted by C&A Foundation, to fulfill the demand for well

trained and qualified professionals on Organic way of farming. An agreement has been signed between

ASA as part of OFCS & JNKVV to conduct this certificate course and DFW&AD has agreed to extend its

support for subsequent batches of the certificate course at JNKVV. The first batch has been fully funded

by C&A Foundation to take care of boarding and lodging cost of candidates and JNKVV on its part has

provided institutes’ infrastructure and faculty’s time.

Course Module & Pedagogy

The three month course is a fully residential 12 credit programme and will evaluate the students once

every month. The course curriculum was developed by involving different faculty members, field experts

and practitioners. The pedagogy has been designed keeping the background of students and the market

demand in mind. The students will be trained from the basics of organic farming to the

entrepreneurship development and try to serve the following purpose-

a) To build capacities of 12th and above passed on Organic practices

b) Local level employment and need based consultation on Organic practices

c) Building links & managing relations with farmers by providing quality solutions to their problems

The detailed course structure is shown as annexure I.

Candidates & Selection

A good seed under right environment/conditions, more often bears good fruit. This hold true with the

trainee also. We ensured that right candidates are selected and undergo the training. This will not only

help in improving the quality of training but also the output. ASA, lead the following process from

identification of candidates to their final selection. Agreement with JNKVVJNKVV has given consent to host OCC in their campus & signed agreement with ASACommunication for Inviting ApplicationsFinalized application format Content developed Releasing advertisement in leading Agriculture newspaperMail communication with concerned OFCS members Community platform through community meetingsData Entry & Short Listing of Candidates Received applications entered into master file Scrutinized & Analyzed all ApplicationsOrganized short listing workshop on 24th October, 2016 at JNKVV and communicated to all applicants

The selected students for the first batch have gone through

two levels of screening which included initial screening based

on minimum qualification & prior relevant experience

followed by interview in JNKVV on 24th October 2016. In all

there were 71 applications from three different states of MP,

Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand and the top 30 made it to the first

batch. As the adjacent chart suggests 30% of applicants are

female candidate and close to 97% come from rural areas.

Similarly, the batch has a healthy mix of experience & fresher,

under graduates, graduates and PG from different educational background.

Way Forward

While this may be the first step, different

stakeholders will continue to engage with the

programme and strive to take it to the next level.

ASA will not only continue to work along with

different civil society organizations and try to

mobilize candidates for the successive batches but

also work on placement and entrepreneurship

aspect of the candidates. Similarly, JNKVV will continue to pursue long term interest in the course and its

continuity within their campus through submission of formal request with the department of

Agriculture, MP.

General P.G.3% Agriculture P.G

& Graduates12%

Graduate34%

Till Sr. Secondary40%

Below Higher Secondary but

above 8th10%

Qualification

70%

30%

Profiling - Gender Male Female

97%

3%

LocalisationVillages Urban

Annexure - I

# Module Credit

A Concept of Organic Farming 1

B Organic Plant Nutrient Management 3

C Organic Plant Protection 2

D Organic Crop Production Practices 3

E Organic Certification 2

F Entrepreneurship Development 1

Total 12

Annexure - II

ENROLLED CANDIDATES for BATCH - 1S. No. Name of Applicant Father's/Spouse's Name District

1 DevvratBagari Uma Shankar Panna2 ManojJaiswal HeeralalJaiswal Betul3 BhuraBatke RamkrishnaBatke Betul4 Kuldeep Bagri Jagdeesh Bagri Panna5 Keshav Das Kushwaha ShyamlalKushwaha Tikamgarh6 Pankaj Kumar Mishra Ramanuj Mishra Shahdol7 Mina Marandi BhagatTudu Jamui8 Kapoor Singh Chauhan Jay Singh Chauhan Chhatarpur9 DevendraBilwal JaimalBilwal Jhabua

10 Anil Chicham Garbhu Singh Chicham Mandla11 Hansraj Bagri Suresh Singh Bagri Panna12 ChandreshPaliwal ShyamlalPaliwal Damoh13 PriyankaKewat RaghuwarSharanKewat Shahdol14 Mangal Singh Kulste Vishwnath Singh Umriya15 BaliramYadav ChintaYadav Umriya16 DhaneshwarBediya MadhoBediya Ranchi17 Shail Kumar Nanda Maikulal Nanda Mandla18 RanchodKharadi BheriyaKharadi Jhabua19 Rahul Kumar Prajapati ManoharlalPrajapati Tikamgarh20 Ragini Singh Shaymalal Singh Anuppur21 Bhanmati Singh Man Singh Anuppur22 GulabYadav ChintaYadav Umriya23 Ramprakash Harideen Singh Jhabua24 Yadvendra Singh SurajBali Singh Umriya25 ShyamSundarGolhani Vinod Kumar Golhani Seoni26 SwarnikaNapit RamdhaniNapit Umriya27 SheetalSahu RampyareSahu Umriya28 RishabhGolhani HemrajGolhani Seoni29 PraveshYadav RajdharYadav Tikamgarh30 LaljiYadav HarilalYadav Shahdol

Annexure – III

LIST of ATTENDEES

# Name Organization Designation

1 Prof. V S Tomar JNKVV Vice Chancellor

2 Dr. S.K.Rao JNKVV Director Research Services

3 Dr. P K Bisen JNKVV Director Extension Services

4 Dr. GirishJha JNKVV Head, Agronomy & Course Director

5 Dr. P K Mishra JNKVV Dean Faculty

6 Dr. M L Kewat JNKVV Professor

7 Dr. S B Nahatkar JNKVV Principal Scientist & ADR (HQ)

8 Dr. K KAgrawal JNKVV Principal Scientist

9 Mr. DeepaK Pal JNKVV Business Associate

10 Ms. IpshitaSinha C&A Foundation Programme Officer

11 Mr. Somnath Roy ASA Coordinator OCC

12 Mr. Manas Mohan ASA Coordinator OFCS

& Many More from JNKVV

Annexure IV

Coverage in Print Media