Celebrating the success of a DOER, Dr. Ramanjaneyulu GV – TEDxHyderabad 2015 speaker

Dr. Ramanjaneyulu is a name that today resonates with every person associated with Agriculture. He is an Agriculture Scientist who along with other institutions had started Centre for Sustainable Agriculture in 2004, for the ecological and economical sustainability of farming and farming based livelihoods. CSA had their first success in Kulukulla village, Kamad by making it completely pesticide free, saving INR 6 million being spent on pesticides.

He has contributions in almost every agricultural development in the state of Telangana. TEDxHyderabad happened to be blessed with him as a speaker in the first year of event in 2015. His talk “Poison on our Plate” has more than 6.5 lakh views on YouTube, making it one of the most watched TEDx talk in India.

In his talk, he rightly pointed out the adverse effects of bad agricultural practices like pesticides and estrogen usage, artificial ripening of fruits. Have you tried scratching your shiny apples with a knife? Just try and you’ll be introduced to a shining wax on the knife. Doctor says and we quote, “We all want food cheaper and there is competition between the companies. So they in-turn pay low to the farmers, contaminate the food and get away with it.” The average income of 85% of farmers in India is only INR 5,000. In the last 21 years, more than 320,000 farmers have committed suicide. That means, 41 farmers commit suicide in a day! We are losing them who are giving food to us.

To support farmers, he established “Sahaja Aharam” – a consumers’ cooperative in Hyderabad. 20+ farmers’ cooperative producing food organically are directly selling in the market. 75% of what the consumers pay goes to the farmers as compared to 20% in regular market. This is a revolution that need to be celebrated and supported. He was also a guest panelist at Satyamev Jayate TV show (Season 1, Episode 8 here) wherein he talked about NPM (Non-Pesticide Method) of controlling pests, and getting more yield from the land. We read news about farmers’ suicide every day, feel bad about it, but do we “DO” anything to stop it? Sahaja Aharam is one initiative that put farmers in the front and help us stop these suicides. We urge you to watch his TEDxHyderabad talk here, to know how poisoned our food is today.

Dr. Ramanjaneyulu has also been associated with a docufiction film based on the Agrarian crisis in India. “Mitti – Back to the roots” is a tribute to those who work in acres, not in hours. It is supported by SAHE and pledges to help in achieving #ZEROFarmerSuicide. On August 3, 2017, audio launch of the film was done in the presence of hundreds of people. You can watch the title song here.

We all complain about our food having no nutritional benefits, thanks to artificial foods and wrong agricultural practices. But are we ready to pay a little more for organic food (because inflation is for real) and play a twofer, helping ourselves and our farmers as well?

It is high time for us to give back to the farmers who gives us our food. Join us in this movement to support our farmers by promoting the initiatives like Sahaja Aharam, http://sahajaaharam.in/ and Mitti – Back to the Roots, https://www.facebook.com/filmonfarmer/.

And yes, if you are eager to meet Dr. Ramanjaneyulu and the champions behind the film Mitti, you will have a golden opportunity at TEDxHyderabad 2017. Join TEDxHyderabad in creating a community of Thinkers, Enablers, DOers – one idea at a time. See you at TEDxHyderabad 2017

#TEDxHyderabad #SAHE #PoisonOnOurPlate #SahajaAharam #MittiBackToTheRoots #ZEROFarmerSuicide

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