Our Activities

Agriculture Rural Development

According to the India Brand Equity Foundation, 58% of India’s population depends on agriculture for their livelihood. Farmers are the backbone of our country. Agriculture was transformed by the emergence of the industrial revolution which relies heavily on the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers and machines. This led to increased food production at a faster rate and fuelled population growth.

In India, the Green Revolution led to surplus food production and displaced a significant part of the population from  rural to the urban areas. This led to more urbanisation and improved the economy. However,   In the wake of this seemingly happy story lies a dark future. The global industrial revolution has led to various problems in its wake as it has been described as “ turning petroleum into food through the use of land “. The conventional farming methods used here are not sustainable as soil gets degraded (why?) thus warranting increasing use of pesticides and fertilizers.

This increases the cost to the farmer leading to debt and thereby  driving them to suicide. Modern pesticides are increasingly being linked to lethal cancers, asthma, Parkinson’s diseasea and neuro developmental issues in children.

Today, all around the globe, people depend on food that is produced thousands of miles way in a different country/ continent.

Egypt is the a very good example, which imports over 50% of its calorie from international market. The food situation is becoming precarious in Egypt. The food crisis is credited with starting the Arab spring of 2011. Syria is in meltdown mode and its trouble started with the food crisis. The world faces an imminent shortage of fossil fuels due to depletion. This makes the model of far-away-food dangerous for global stability.

Modern food habits also lead to malnutrition in developed countries with ever  increasing  incidence of obesity, diabetes and  micronutrient deficiencies .

We intent to address these problems at the grass root level with the help of our volunteers by using these strategies-

  • Trace and interview successful farmers using alternative farming methods and sharing and educating other farmers using online classes  (this is inspired by the methods used by digitalgreen).
  • Teaching and promoting these alternative methods which are gaining momentum in India at various places. One alternative method which is gaining in popularity and what we at Rishi Foundation want to promote is Zero Budget Farming. The idea behind zero budget farming is to “ copy the forest” ie, with a healthy mix of perennials and annuals and satisfactory growth of diverse soil microorganisms. It also encourages diversity of crops as there are more species of plants per acre. More importantly, methods like  Zero Budget Farming  negates the use of pesticides altogether  as a forest does not require pesticides to grow and flourish. This method is also very economical as it brings down the input cost (no chemical ferlilisers and pesticide) hence helping the farmers’ cause in India.  >We can use online classes to share videos of techniques to make liquid jeevatrhum preparations. The farmer who is tech savvy can share his experiences and results with the audience and also take questions.
  • By taking this knowledge to the farmers in distant poor areas, even malnutrition can be addressed as the higher crop diversity improves the micronutrient content of the diet and thereby aiding / preventing iron deficiency anemia in the most vulnerable part of the society.. Another example is Zinc deficiency which causes stunting in apparently well nourished children. Again , the promising moringa tree which grows in water deficient areas is Moringa, is rich in protein and micronutrients.  This tree grows in areas where the economically disadvantaged ive. Thus it becomes a cost effective way to fight malnutrition which is rampant in our poorer neighborhoods.

In kerala, it is not available in the market as every house has a moringa tree and nobody bothers to use it due to lack of knowledge of its health benefits.

List of our activities

  • May 16th 2021: an online class was conducted Google Meet by Mr Joseph Chacko who is a principal scientist at Rubber Research Institute of India and a passionate zero budget farmer for the past 11 years. Around 30 participants attended the online class.

Health and Medicine

In a country like India, the health of the society is intricately linked to education, awareness, socio-economic and political issues. The affluent class has an increased incidence of lifestyle diseases like diabetes, hypertension, cancer and heart disease whereas the poor suffer from infectious diseases like malaria, gastroenteritis, malnutrition along with higher incidences of maternal and infant mortality rates.
Schools are a good place to start as children are more amenable to listen to health messages in comparison to adults whose habits have already crystalised..
If you have 400 students then you can reach 350 to 400 families. The overwhelming nutrition problem in school going children in India is malnutrition and the best way to pick up malnutrition is to use the WHO growth charts. After calculating the BMI using the formula wt (in kg)/(ht)2 (in meters), WHO charts can be used to plot the percentile at which the child is. If the child is below 3rd percentile then the child is malnourished.

Having said that, we must not forget the theoretical possibility of reduced genetic potential. Around 3 % of normally nourished children will be below the 3rd percentile due to genetic reasons. But if you do a survey and find 60% children below the 3rd percentile then you know that the community has a nutrition problem.
The strategy to use would be to raise awareness with the parents of ALL children on low cost easily available locally sourced nutritious foods, common mistakes and misconceptions about diet and nutrition, personal hygiene and importance of regular health check ups for the child. Moringa is one good example. It is a tree whose leaves are power packed with proteins, minerals esp iron, calcium and vitamins. Moreover ,it needs very little water to grow and grows in the most hardy environments. Discovery channel aired a 10 minute documentary on moringa and the work of an NGO which was promoting it to fight malnutrition.

In adults, awareness about diet and physical activity in relation to common lifestyle diseases,importance of routine health check ups and screening can be addressed.

Due to the COVID pandemic now, the schools are closed. Once the schools re-opens we are planning to take health awareness classes for the school children.

Governance

India is a welfare state with many schemes for the public. There is a need for better streamlining of the services that the government provides. We, in the Rishi Foundation, believe that volunteers can play a helpful role in aiding the government.

Our activities in health and agriculture strengthen the civil society and we hope to encourage our volunteers to participate in the democratic process by bringing to the attention of political parties and policy makers about issues that concern the public. A society has three pillars, the Civil Society, the State and the Individual. Even though the Rishi Foundation does not endorse any political party, we do encourage the values of volunteerism and thus create a more vibrant civil society. Political parties are also civil society institutions which seek positions of power through participation in the democratic processes. A strong vibrant civil society will produce good leaders who will be able to take the mantle of responsibility of the State.

In other words, encouragement of volunteerism itself is a guarantee of a better functioning State through the development of a Civil Society which seeks engagement on the pressing issues facing the polity.

This way, we can address the issues of poverty, environmental degradation, uneven access to health services and a myriad of other issues in an effective manner.

Online Advocacy

When social media was getting rolled out and was slowly gaining in popularity it was hoped that it would become the vehicle for the ordinary citizen to speak truth to power. To be fair, social media has transformed the polity in ways that were unimaginable just a few decades back. But also, it cannot be left without saying that it did not live upto its revolutionary potential.

One of the main reasons for the failure of social media is human nature which believes in shouting down those with a difference of opinion rather than turning it into a forum for exchange of ideas and dialogue. The social media companies are also at fault for converting their platforms as a means for data mining and advertisements.

We in Rishi Foundation seek to use the internet platforms as a means to get volunteers to meet each other and work as a team.

This way we hope to maximise our efforts and create a vibrant and a strong team. Internet should be a platform for volunteers to raise awareness about issues that are of pressing concern to the community. We hope to become a catalyst for using the internet as force for change and not to be a vehicle to perpetuate the status quo.