WELCOME TO FOUNDATION FOR ORGANIC & RURAL DEVELOPMENT

To feed the growing Indian population in early 1960’s, there was urgent need to increase productivity of food grains, for which besides introduction of new high yielding varieties, external input like chemical fertilizers, insecticides, and pesticides were used indiscriminately. This package of practice gave birth to the so-called “GREEN REVOLUTION”. Of course as a result of this green revolution, India could increase the production manifold i.e. against a food grain production of 50.82 million Tons during 1950-51; we are now producing more than 332 million tons (2023-24).

LATEST NEWS

Registration opens for Rural Agriculture Work Experience (RAWE) and training on International Standards for Organic Farming For Next Batch of RAWE/Organic Training Programme, Register immediately.
Association with IIM, Kashipur, Udhamsingh Nagar, Uttarakhand
FORD is providing training on various aspects of rural development, organic agriculture in particular to MBA students of IIM, Kashipur under Experiential Learning Programme of the Institute. Under this programme, FORD is interviewing the panel of MBA students provided by IIM and selected students are taken to the villages where FORD is working and the students are provided opportunity to interact with farming community using PRA tool. The students are asked to evolve Gaps and Problems of farmers together with success story, if any, and incorporate the same in their Project Reports together with action plan to address the gaps and problems. Before the project reports are presented before the academic Council of IIM, in length discussion is held in FORD on the output and outcome of Project Work and it is ensured that the action plan suggested is practical and replicable.

The level of increase in external input is evident from the fact that against a consumption of 3.05 Lakh MT of NPK during 1959-60, the total consumption of fertilizer products increased to 30.64 million MT in 2023-24. India consumes around 35.78 million tonnes of urea annually, of which almost 70% is domestically produced and the rest is imported from other countries. Similarly the consumption of pesticides in India increased several hundred folds from 154 MT in 1953-54 to 54,121 MT in 2015-16 with the Green Revolution being a major contributor. However, since then, the consumption steadily is dropping because of the ban and restriction on the use of organochlorine pesticides and with the introduction of the Integrated Pest Management practices. Read more…