How an engineer's one-cow revolution is transforming Indian agriculture :-It focuses on integrating commercially useful assets like native cattle into farming practices to improve soil fertility, lower input costs, and raise farmers' profits.
An engineer by training, Raut hails from an agricultural family in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district. "Agriculture is flourishing in western Maharashtra because integrated farming is practised there," says Raut. Farmers dedicate small plots to food and fodder crops, which gives them alternate sources of nutrition and income. In Vidarbha, however, they had switched en masse to mono-cropping with cotton, a lucrative, quick-yielding cash crop. Mono-cropping reduces crop diversity, threatens farmers' own food security, and leaves them financially vulnerable, at the mercy of the market. Crop failure or pest attacks can drive them to penury and starvation," Raut points out.
He found that farmers rearing cattle saved substantially on input costs (chemical pesticides and fertilisers often make up as much as 60 percent of the total input cost) by using cow dung and urine to increase land fertility. Cows, besides providing nutrient-rich manure, also yielded a host of high-protein milk products to augment the nutrition of farming families. Most importantly, milch cattle offered a reliable, year-round source of income.
"Hybrid cows don't fare well in Vidarbha's harsh climate, its lack of pastures, and crops that leave behind nothing as cattle feed," he explains. Indigenous cows are not only hardier and better suited to the region, but are less expensive to feed and maintain. Milk from native cows, also known as A2 Beta Casein milk, is more nutritious, easier to digest, and better for immunity building as compared to more commonly available A1 milk.
Armed with such insights from the field, Raut enrolled in the Master's programme in Social Entrepreneurship at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai to give shape to his ideas of change.
About 150 families are customers of its A2 milk and more than 500 consumers have been educated about its benefits. In the coming year, the organisation plans to attain profitability and run operations on its own revenue. It aims to scale its reach to surrounding villages, add up to 300 farmers and 500 customers to its network, and up its milk production and procurement.
At its core, Cowism is about empowering farmers to become self-sufficient and financially independent by using traditional, locally available agricultural solutions. It is about recognising the reliable, commercial value of assets like cattle in improving soil fertility, lowering input costs, raising farm incomes, and enhancing the health of farming families. It is about changing the way agriculture is practised in India, one farmer at a time.
1 minute video with English subtitles.
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