Representing India's one of the first few soil-focused Farmers Producers Company (FPC), the Speaker of the Gujarat Vidhan Sabha and esteemed Chairman of Banas Dairy, Sankarbhai Chaudhary, addressed the media in Palanpur about the inauguration of the Banas Save Soil Farmer Producer Company (FPC) in Tharad on Monday.
He will inaugurate the Banas Save Soil Farmer Producer Company (BSSFPC) in Tharad on September 3, 2024. He will also inaugurate the Banas Soil Testing Laboratory (BSTL) in Tharad, the Banas Biofertilizer Research and Development Laboratory (BBRDL) in Khimana, and a Farmer Training Hall.
Banas Save Soil Farmer Producer Company: A collaboration between Banas Dairy and Save Soil
The Farmer Producer Company (FPC) is a collaboration between Banas Dairy and Save Soil and will train and handhold farmers from the semi-arid regions of Tharad and Lakhani to adopt and transition to following sustainable soil management practices that bring both life and health into the soil of this region. With farmers facing challenges like poor soil quality, water scarcity, and extreme weather, the FPC will provide resources and support to enhance soil health, reduce cultivation costs, and improve crop yields.
Save Soil Movement: The Genesis of the Collaboration
Save Soil is a global movement launched by Sadhguru to address the soil crisis by uniting people across the globe to stand up for soil health, and support leaders of all nations in actioning policies toward increasing organic matter in agricultural soil. With 52% of the world’s agricultural soil already degraded, the Save Soil movement recommends that agricultural soils should have a minimum of 3-6% soil organic matter (SOM) based on regional conditions.
To meet the objective of having a minimum of 3–6% SOM, Save Soil is proposing the following broad three-pronged strategy:
Provide incentives for farmers to achieve the minimum threshold of 3–6% organic matter
Facilitate carbon credit incentives for farmers
Develop a mark of superior quality for food grown from soils that have high SOM.
The Save Soil Movement reached over 4.1 billion people and 81 nations are in the process of framing soil policies. It is supported by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the UN World Food Programme, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Shri Shankarbhai Chaudhary Ji as Brand Ambassador
As part of the Save Soil movement, Sadhguru in 2022 undertook a 100-day, 30,000 km solo bike journey across 27 nations to activate citizen support and prompt governments across the world to form policies addressing the world’s dying soil. During his India leg of the journey, Sadhguru visited Banas Dairy in Palanpur, where he addressed the farmers on the Save Soil movement.
Speaking with the farmers, Sadhguru reminded them, “A movement like Save Soil has become necessary because that sacred soil which has been so alive, which has built this whole civilization, is now depleting to a point where 62% of India’s land is considered degraded.”
He drew attention to the concerning reality that today we have created farms with tractors and machines but no plants or animals, without which soil can never be rich. The value of the animal is not just the milk they produce but the animal waste in the form of dung is the most important thing to keep the farm alive. Expressing concern that animals are considered a problem, he cautioned against this attitude and reminded them that in another 10-15 years’ time, “if our animal population goes down by 50%, we are killing the nation. The day we lose our animals on this land, we are murdering the soil.”
In a press interaction earlier, Sadhguru praised Shri Shankarbhai Chaudhary’s leadership in the field of animal husbandry and announced him as Gujarat’s Brand Ambassador for the Save Soil movement.
Banas Save Soil Workshop at Isha Yoga Center
The Banas Dairy leadership team led by Shankarbhai Chaudhary visited the Isha Yoga Centre for a dedicated 3-day workshop on Soil regeneration from December 21-23, 2022. The Workshop was facilitated by the Save Soil Technical team which included discussions, and farm visits. This transpired into a longterm collaboration to set up a FPO whose foundations is based on soil heath.
Project Activities in Banaskantha
The partnership between Banas Dairy and Save Soil Movement is spearheading several transformative projects in Banaskantha, aimed at revolutionizing agricultural practices and soil health. This collaboration is set to bring forth a series of ground-breaking initiatives that blend advanced technology with traditional farming wisdom to foster sustainable agriculture.
Save Soil Project Activities
Some of the highlights over the past year have been in initiating the farmers to move from the depleting state of soil to awareness towards building the soil. This involved doing detailed technical feasibility studies regarding geography, crops, and demographics with approximately 3500+ farmers. In the first phase, forty villages with a farmer strength of 16,000 have been selected and a soil baseline study with 510 samples that represent the soils of 40 villages has been done and soil health cards were given to the farmers. Over and above the economic baseline, a study was done with 700 farmers. A detailed survey to study human behaviour, crop sequence, risk-reward assessment, the challenges/pain points of farmers etc which led to 100+ pages of detailed report depicting a crystal-clear picture of this geography. That helped in creating a strategy and an economic proposition for the farmers.
All this immersive work on the ground has led to the designing of soil and crop-based training, shortlisting of crops, onboarding of experts from national research organizations, and designing experiments based on IFS (integrated farming system) establishing farmer support systems. Additionally, a stronger base of Soil Champions, known as “Bhoomitras”, have been nurtured to provide last-mile support to farmers. These Bhoomitras have blossomed into confident change agents, recognized by their communities as leaders and sources of inspiration within their villages.
The experiments with inoculum from ICAR-CSSRI :: Central Soil Salinity Research Institute for saline ingress soil have shown positive results. These will be observed for three years in order to derive a concrete strategy. The initial results and feedback from farmers varied from some reporting minor changes in their field. In contrast, few farmers have noticed significant changes and benefits like the quality of produce has increased, germination ratio has got better, the whiteness of salt has decreased and yield has increased.
The training over the past year itself has touched about 2000+ farmers and they constantly have hand-holding support. The training, recommendations and constant touch in the 40 villages have demonstrated economic benefits for the farmers including significantly increasing their income. 370 farmers have started growing groundnut following our recommendations.
The Need for Farmer Producer Company
The challenge farmers in the country face is that, on an average, they have approximately 2 acres of land, making it economically unviable to own equipment and carry out all necessary interventions. Additionally, they struggle to obtain inputs at affordable rates, and limited land size hampers their ability to fetch better prices and access markets. In Banaskantha, while the average landholding is 2.46 ha — slightly higher than the national average of 1.75 ha (2019)—the broader national issues still persist.
The solution is, therefore, the FPC driving economies of scale. Through backward integration, costs of cultivation can be reduced, and yields improved via training, expert advisory, and hand-holding. Forward integration can lead to better price realisation through market access and value addition.
Empowering Farmers through the FPC
Members of the FPC will receive benefits of soil testing, drone services, sustainable soil management training specific to crops grown in the region and expert advisory support.
Banas Soil Testing Laboratory, Tharad
One of the cornerstones of this collaboration is the creation of state-of-the-art facilities designed to support and enhance soil health. Key among these is the Banas Soil Testing Laboratory in Tharad, one of India’s few facilities to focus on the biological aspects of soil. This pioneering lab delves into soil microorganisms, offering a “Soil Life Report” that assesses microbial biomass, diversity, and the balance between bacteria and fungi.
While similar labs like The Soil Food Web Laboratories in the USA, Australia, and Europe, Cornell University's Soil Health Testing Laboratory, and Rothamsted Research in the UK have been analysing biological parameters such as microbial biomass and diversity, the Banas lab is the one of the first in India to bring these advanced assessments into mainstream soil testing. It uses key biological indicators like the fungal-to-bacterial ratio and soil respiration rates and employs both complex chemical and direct microscopic methods to give farmers a clear picture of their soil’s living ecosystem.
With a 75-seat in-house training centre, this lab empowers farmers to visualise and improve the life within their soil, setting a new benchmark for sustainable soil management in India.
Banas Biofertilizer Research and Development Laboratory
Banas Bio-fertiliser Research and Development Laboratory in Khimana is dedicated to developing sustainable bio-fertilizers. This lab aims to provide eco-friendly alternatives to traditional chemical fertilizers, focusing on enhancing soil fertility and protecting the environment. The focus on research and development at Khimana will also ensure that the newly-formed FPC is equipped with cutting-edge bio-fertilizer technology tailored to the needs of the soil of the farmers.
Potential to become a demonstrable pilot
The initiatives undertaken through the collaboration between Banas Dairy and Save Soil towards sustainable soil management practices are replicable models that have the potential to become demonstrable pilots for any region having soil challenges.
