Samanvaya News Room

What’s our perspective on farming? Published in the October issue of Raibar, a periodic magazine brought out by SIDH, Mussoorie . A search for ‘farmer crisis in India’ fetches, 1,82,00,000 results in 0.87 seconds. A search for ‘solutions for farmer crisis in India’ fetches, 2,11,00,000 results in 0.70 seconds. So, what is there to write on farming situation today which has not been already written? This is a question that anyone today having to put a pen on a paper (or more like opening a file in a computer) needs to ask of himself / herself. So, at the cost of repeating someone else, I need to write something that I feel like worthy of repeating.  I seek to share some thoughts on the one area of farming that bothers me as a society and as a nation, our perspective on farming. As a nation or society with one of the longest continuing histories in the world, we have always had farming as an activity in this land in some form or another all through a thousand ye...

The head of a prominent business family of Murugappa Group, its former Chairman  and a dear friend of Samanvaya, Sri. M.V.Murugappan, passed away yesterday. Here below a short note by Ram, Chief Samanvaya and an article written by Sri. Murugappan 10 years ago.   The last time I met with Mr. M.V.Murugappan was during the obituary meeting of the legendary organic farming leader, Sri. Nammzhvar in Chennai. We have sent out a note on the meeting by email to several people and true enough there was a phone call  from him earlier that day asking where was the venue. He turned up as he does ahead of time and was happy to sit among the audience. “I am not keeping good memory these days, don’t ask me to say anything, I just wanted to be here to honour him”, he said as he sat among the audience. This was the character of the man and his commitment to the various groups that were in pursuit of ‘alternatives’ in Chennai.   Sri. M.V.Murugappan in the right extreme with Ra...