“Mantra (ways, means and solutions), Tantra (technology), Disha (direction) and Gati (speed) are the wheels of planned development apart from participatory and community-led planning and implementation”, stated Mr. Girish G. Sohani, President and Managing Trustee, BAIF Development Research Foundation. “Adoption of these elements for ecosystem and economic well-being, thrust on decentralised employment and enterprise development and considering the village as the unit of development, can further strengthen the rural economy”, Mr. Sohani added.

Mr. Sohani was speaking at the virtual forum of the 2nd Rashtriya Sarpanch Sansad (National Village Heads’ Parliament) organised by the MIT Institute of Governance, Pune, on December 2, 2020. He further emphasised the role of every Sarpanch in consolidating the Seven Pillars of Development namely, Youth Power, Resilience, Sustainability, Green Economy, Enterprise Promotion along with Goal setting and clearly defined Milestones. There is a need to catalyse the process of development, so as to tackle climate change effects, ensure optimum use of renewable resources and promotion of new age enterprises based on renewable energy, ICT, and appropriate technologies such as polyhouses and small holder farm mechanisation. “Development should focus on new age ‘green enterprises’ in rural areas and creation of jobs around such enterprises for rural youth who may be reluctant to engage only in farming”, he further added.

He also highlighted the important role of Sarpanch/Village Heads during these challenging times of COVID and Climate Change-related disruptions and shared the Best Practices demonstrated by BAIF in the form of a cadre of over 5000 self-employed youth and community functionaries such as e-Dosts, rural technicians and service providers. He also assured handholding support from BAIF while planning for village development.

He announced the launch of Samruddha Gram Abhiyan, an ambitious participatory programme with the active involvement of local youth as the vehicle for grassroots development and invited the Sarpanch and Village level catalysts from various villages across the country, to register for this novel programme at https://manibhaiunnatgram.baif.org.in/ “This programme will be based on the learnings of BAIF’s rural livelihood programme and various successful development projects implemented by BAIF and will be implemented through Gram Panchayats, Farmer Producer Organisations and Watershed Development Committees to showcase various interventions which can be introduced with BAIF support at the village level”, he concluded.

BAIF and Sakal Media Group jointly organized an online training programme on “Ethno Veterinary Practices for treatment of Mastitis in milking cows” on December 2, 2020. Dr. A.B. Pande, Group Vice President, Scientific Research and Livestock Development Programmes, highlighted the significance of Ethno Veterinary Medicine for improvement of milk quality while emphasising on the residue free milk – antibiotics and chemical residues. Mr. S.D. Nimbalkar, BAIF, delivered a talk on the use of Ethno Veterinary Practice as an alternate system of medicine for control of Mastitis and shared the BAIF experience in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Dr. Amul Wagh, BAIF Institute for Sustainable Development, Gujarat, briefed about the symptoms, cause and precautions for control of mastitis in cows and the encouraging mastitis cure by use of Ethno Veterinary Medicine at farmers level in Gujarat. 28 participants comprising of veterinarians, youth and farmers attended this programme.

BAIF in partnership with the Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog, Government of India, organized an online webinar on “Ethno Veterinary Practices” on October 28, 2020 which was chaired by Dr. Vallabhbhai Kathiria, Chairman, Rashtriya Kamdheny Aayog. The webinar focused on importance of Ethno Veterinary Medicine in Goshala and among livestock keepers in rural India. A talk on “Use of Ethno Veterinary Practice for Mastitis in cows – BAIF experience” was delivered by Mr. Sadashiv D Nimbalkar, BAIF. The other speakers included Prof. Punnaimurthi, TANUVAS, Tamil Nadu, Dr. Balaram Sahu, Odisha and Dr. Bankim Patel, MD. Homoeopath, Bubaneshwar More than 250 participants comprising of Government Officials from Veterinary Department, Veterinary Collages, NGOs and farmers attended the online meeting.

The BAIF family celebrated their 53rd Foundation Day on August 24, 2020 virtually. In a way, the virtual celebration was very memorable for over 200 BAIF field officers from 12 states who came together to make it a special celebration.

“With women having taken the drivers’ seat, the field programmes are in an expansion mode’ stated Mr. Bharat Kakade, Executive Vice President of BAIF in his opening remarks. The programmes are now benefitting more than 50 lakh families in 12 states. Livestock development programme, the flagship programme of BAIF, has reached out to 44 lakh families, through 4700 AI technicians operating through their cattle development centres across the country and enabling our farmers, mostly marginal and small holders to produce milk worth Rs. 15000 crores. Every year about 10 lakh new progeny of high genetic merit are born at the doorsteps of small farmers. The Central Research Station at Urulikanchan has been producing embryos from its state-of-the-art OPU and IBF laboratory and for the first-time streamlining genome sequencing. Construction of climate smart bridges have been the outcome of the climate change adaptation and mitigation programme,’ Mr. Kakade further added.

Mr. Girish Sohani, President, BAIF, dwelled on the survival mechanisms adopted by BAIF to support farmers and to continue their farming activity and revival of the rural economy against the COVID 19 challenge.

Shri. Hrishikesh Mafatlal, Chairman, BAIF, listed the challenges ahead of BAIF to meet the knowledge, skills and values and to help others in society. He also emphasised on the strong value system of the organisation and its unique technologies, which are helpful to encash new opportunities and to minimise the difficulties. Shri. Kishor Chaukar, Trustee, BAI F, spoke about the need for phenomenal changes in the mind set at BAIF as well as in the society. Technology will be the strong pillar for upliftment of the poor. Shri. Sunil Lalbhai. Trustee, BAIF, highligted the need to be self-reliant and develop insights into the emerging needs of the people at the bottom of the pyramid in the birth centenary of the Founder of BAIF. He defined the five learnings for growth of the organisation which will lead to a continuous learning organisation.

Dr. Ashok Pande, Group Vice President, Scientific Research and Livestock Development, appreciated the role of the field team in strengthening the livestock development programme of BAIF through applied research, input production, genomics, animal nutrition and field research for the benefit of the farmers. Viewers were taken to the world of conventional semen laboratory established in 1975 followed by the world of a sophisticated sorted semen laboratory, and goat semen laboratory established in 2018 at Wagholi through screening of short duration videos as part of the virtual celebration.

Dr. Rajashree Joshi, Chief Thematic Programme Executive, BAIF Programmes, highlighted the feminisation of farming practices and the shift in the role of women who are now change makers and climate smart farmers. These were highlighted through short duration videos. Enterprise promotion through silage development at the farms itself, was highlighted by Mr. V.B. Dyasa, Regional Director, Western Region and Programme Director, BAIF. Digitalisation of programmes through epayment, elearning, mobile based telephony and edost was highlighted by Mr. Ramprasad while new programmes such as LMS and Cloud telephony services were presented by Dr. Alok Juneja with inputs from Ms. Nirali Shah and Ms. Pooja Majgankar with the focus being on replicability of digital initiatives. The Regional Directors of all the four Regions highlighted the growth of BAIF’s programmes in the midst of the pandemic, apart from record sale of 1.3 crore doses of conventional frozen semen, 1.5 lakh doses of sorted semen and 260 tons of mineral mixture. Mr. Shrinivas Kulkarni, Group Vice President, Finance, highlighted the social and financial capital aspects of BAIF with technology becoming central to BAIF’s horizon and the support from corporates becoming the trigger for strengthening rural India. Mr. Sujit Gijare, Group Vice President, Human Resources and Administration, emphasised on the human resource capital which ensured stability inspite of overnight sweeping changes brought about by the pandemic.

The 52nd Foundation Day and Annual Award ceremony of BAIF was celebrated on August 24, 2019 at BAIF’s Central Research Station, Urulikanchan. “Neer, Nari and Nadi”, are the basic components of a balanced eco system. Only when science i s used with sense, will community wisdom be recognised”, stated Dr. Rajendra Singh, Chairman, Tarun Bharat Sangh, Alwar, Rajasthan. Solar energy needs to be used effectively for water conservation and Mother Earth nurtured through sustainable watershed management, climate change adaptation and mitigation methodologies and by guiding the community towards a river- based approach.

“Hydraulic drought, a serious effect of climate change, is changing the production pattern of food and fruit crops with apple orchards being the worst a f f e c t e d w i t h s e v e r e destruction of apple crops, while frequent droughts with atleast 2-3 in quick successions have direct impact on the lives of vulnerable families”, stated Mr. Bharat Kakade, Executive Vice President of BAIF. While BAIF has shifted to climate proofing measures such as desert development in Rajasthan and water conservation measures in drought prone Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and climate resilient tree-based farming on dryland, it is necessary to assess which model is suitable for the community. Chemical- free farming has also been initiated on a pilot scale with the introduction of Integrated Renewable Energy and Sustainable Agriculture (IRESA) and Phosphate Rich Organic Manure.

Suman Self Help Group, a tribal group from Baretha village of Betul district, Madhya Pradesh, was awarded “Dr. Manibhai Desai Gaurav Puraskar 2019 and Smt. Vijayatai Deshmukh Gaurav Puraskar” for Best Self Help Group in BAIF Programme for its efforts to enhance village hygiene and sanitation through construction of 45 toilets under Water, Sanitation and Hygiene ( WA S H) Programme and Swachh Bharat Programme, use of waste water to establish kitchen gardens for intake of nutritious vegetables, p r a c t i c i n g o r g a n i c farming to reduce risk of chemical hazards and adoption of smokeless chulhas to reduce health and environmental hazards.

Bajrang Women’s Group from Dixal village, Kaprada, South Gujarat won the “Dr. Manibhai Desai Gaurav Puraskar 2019” for Second Best Self Help Group in BAIF Programme. The group launched a campaign for prohibition of alcohol in the village while establishing a grievance platform for marital disputes.

Sidheshwar Women’s Group from Shirapur village, Parner, Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, was the recipient of “Dr. Manibhai Desai Gaurav Puraskar 2019” for Best Self Help Group in Maharashtra Programme. The group initiated Custom Hiring Centre through BAIF from 2017 and so far, they have earned more than Rs. 85,000 with 149 farmers from different villages availing hiring service of various farm implements. They have also p r o v i d e d a g r i c u l t u r a l i m p l e m e n t s t o n e e d y farmers free of charge.

Smt . Kempamani , Guddenahalli village , Holenarasipura, District Hassan, Karnataka was Best Dairy Farmer; Smt. Lalita Baraskar, Banspur village, Ghodadongri, District Betul, Madhya Pradesh was Best Agriculture Farmer; Smt. Nilu Devi, Sarobag, Dharhara, Munger, Bihar was the Best Farmer from Non-Potential Area; Shyam Sunder, Cattle Development Centre at Atai, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, was the Best Cattle Development Centre In-charge; Manoj Wakode, Cattle Development Centre at Wari , Kopargaon , Ahmednagar, Maharashtra was Best AI Technician from Multi-Activity Centre; Anil Kumar Mishra, Cattle Deve lopment Centre at Chandanbhati, Bolangir district of Odisha for Best AI Technician from Non-Potential Area. Prizes were a l so g i ven to meritorious students and for the best scientific paper and case study. The BAIF Annual Report, Research Report and a book on Mahua Recipes were also released on this occasion.

The BAIF Shri. Uday Shirsalkar, C G M , NABARD, Maharashtra Regional Office, Pune, complimented the women fraternity who were felicitated for their work and for their confidence to share their experience. Ms. Ritu Nathani, Director, Cybage Software Pvt. Ltd. and Head – Cybage CSR, Pune, appreciated the women for establishing their identity through their empowerment. Others who spoke on the occasion were Dr. Anand Sardeshmukh, former Director General, MCCI and Shri. Sunil Lalbhai, Trustee, BAIF. Earlier, Dr. Ashok B. Pande, Group Vice President, BAIF, welcomed the women groups. Dr. Jayant R. Khadse, Research Director, BAIF, proposed the vote of thanks.