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interview with Sarat gidda to regenerative agriculture makes sense when having enrolment campaigns where farmers
Co-founder of Raddis Textiles Private Limited and the Vice President of
Grameena Vikas Kendram’ Vice-President of the grass-roots organisation
Grameena Vikas Kendram (Society for Rural Development in India)
Attending international environmental were not limited to this. The kind of pressure
conferences definitely is the way to go if you cotton cultivation puts on biodiversity is
want to learn about new initiatives and projects. immense. There’s genetic modification, the
In line with this, we had a chance to link up high use of fertilizer and chemical pesticides,
with this engaged and dynamic person, Sarat and recently, we started seeing herbicides as
Gidda, who is the vice president of an amazing well. This leads to death and degradation of
and very inspiring NGO in India. Mr Sarat, the all species in the ecosystem where cotton is
floor is yours. cultivated, including humans. We wanted to
change this.
You are currently the Vice-President of the
grass-roots organisation Grameena Vikas You were trained as a mechanical engineer
Kendram (Society for Rural Development in working in the private sector and had never
India) and the co-founder of #RaddisCotton, been on a farm. How did you manage the
in Andhra Pradesh. Could you tell us a little transition?
more about yourself, about it and about how It certainly was difficult in the initial days.
it all started? Especially, the seasonality of certain activities
I am the Vice President of Grameena Vikas makes everything time-bound with actual
Kendram Society for Rural Development, the deadlines before which farm activities must
grass-roots-level organisation implementing be concluded. My founder, Aneel Kumar A,
the RaddisCotton program. I am also the supported me closely in gaining the perspective
Director of Raddis Textiles Private Limited. of rain-fed farm production in the tribal areas
These are my titles. of India. Once I was on the farm, I felt it had a
lot to do with applying common sense and the
We saw the problem first-hand. There was a science we study at school. I learnt many things
huge uproar in India around cotton farmers. first hand when I moved to a tribal village and
At one point there were more than 10,000 lived there along with the farmers. This gave
farmer suicides in India every year, the me a clear perspective of their day-to-day
majority of them cotton farmers. The problems lives and how farming is conducted. The shift
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you zoom out and see what’s happening. It’s are invited to convert a part of their fields into
logical and is the only way forward. The faster regenerative organic agriculture. We slowly
you adapt, the better. saturate 100% of the farmers’ fields and aim to
saturate 100% of the village in 2-3 years time.
If I got it right, you are an NGO owning a
company for profit in Holland. Could you tell When it comes to funding, where does the
us more about how it works? money come from?
We are a social enterprise consortium. We are We charge an ‘acre contribution’ from the
a group of organisations that come together brands that would like to participate and
to deliver RaddisSystem, a food and fiber off-take commodities produced under
system. The NGO focusses on developing the RaddisCotton program. The NGO responsibly
farm program and works with the indigenous spends this on the farm program and provides
farmers in India. The NGO raises funds, trains, a report on the impact generated.
builds infrastructure and builds capacity in
indigenous women farmers to move away What would you like to achieve in the coming
from harmful chemicals and produce food years?
and fibre in a regenerative, organic way. We are currently at a 3000-acre level. By 2027,
The companies in India and Holland focus on we would like to have more than 50,000 acres
aggregating, processing, and making finished under regenerative organic production.
goods that the farmers have produced with a
lot of hard work. We pay attention to detail Finally, if you have a message for our readers,
that adds more value to an already responsibly what would that be?
produced commodity there by reaching out to Consumer awareness is important. I implore
niche markets across the globe to fetch a better your consumers to ask themselves, ‘Who made
price. This is reflected in the value generated my clothes?’ What is the story behind the piece
for farmers. of cloth I am wearing? Why does it cost what it
costs, and, if I’m spending good money on it,
Today, your project is very successful, and why should the hands that make it starve and
you have set up many programs. How do you be exposed to inhumane working and living
choose the farmers who will be part of your conditions? Companies change based on the
project? demand from consumers. The next time you
Fundamentally, we begin by conducting a shop, ask for the story behind the cloth and
baseline study to analyse if there is a felt need see if you would like to be associated with
for the intervention in a particular region. the garment however beautiful it is if it isn’t
Once a felt need is established, we begin by produced responsibly.
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