SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2007 Edition

 

 

HE calls himself a farmer by profession and a journalist by obsession, but Shree Padre has really merged the two. He is the guru of farm journalism or ‘self-help’ journalism as he calls it. Agriculture is in the doldrums, everyone agrees. But there is also a new economy of agriculture emerging which is very inventive and traditional. Shree Padre belongs here.

He is from Vaninagar, a village in Kerala bordering Karnataka. In 1985 when the price of arecanut fell, worried farmers of the All-India Areca Growers’ Association got other professionals together to study their problems and suggest solutions. Shree Padre was invited as a journalist. A newsletter, Areca News, was suggested and he agreed to publish it. The experience made him realise farmers did not have relevant information. Most of the newsletter’s content came from bureaucrats and scientists who didn’t get their hands dirty.

So he proposed a magazine by farmers, for farmers. The Association was sceptical but agreed and the first issue of Adike Patrike rolled off the press in November 1988. Shree Padre now had to coax farmers to write about their innovations and experiences. He assured them their knowledge was invaluable. But they were suffering from an inferiority complex. Shree Padre started workshops at which farmers could learn to write. The trained farmers not only began to write about their own farm experience, but also to report, interview and narrate farming experiences in their neighbourhoods.

Adike Patrike has a circulation of 75,000. It is priced at Rs7 and supported by ethical advertising. The magazine has a cult following among farmers. Shree Padre now works on soil and water conservation in Karnataka and Kerala. He has been conducting awareness programmes and collecting information on rainwater harvesting from all over the world. In fact he has written seven books on rainwater harvesting and does a column for Vijaya Karnataka, a Kannada daily. He has also started a water forum ‘Jalakoota’ on soil and water conservation, including rainwater harvesting.

Shree Padre successfully initiated a campaign against the hazardous endosulfan spraying on cashew plantations in the Kasar god district of Kerala. Endosulfan has had serious repercussions on the health of the villagers. It is thanks to him that its illeffects have been given national coverage.

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