Hyderabad: Biodiversity festival concludes in Machunur

Ashish Kothari, environmentalist & founder, Kalpavriksh, Pune, recollecting his visit to the biodiversity festival after 20 years, appreciated the DDS initiative for 'Zaheerabad Agenda' release. He mentioned that the document came from local ordinary people who were involved in doing extraordinary things.

Hanumantha Rao, the District Collector, noted that the Agenda came from the local people to tackle the present global crisis of climate change. DDS has brought the district to the global map. Zaheerabad agenda is significant as it is a bottom-up agenda unlike those which are developed in large cities.

Machunur: The Two decadal Mobile Biodiversity Festival (MBF) closing ceremony was ended with a momentous release of Zaheerabad Agenda, held here at on Saturday.

Michel Pimbert, Director, Center for Agro-Ecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, UK, talking about the relevance of Zaheerabad Agenda for climate crisis, said how it offers an answer for the growing temperatures in the regions of Antarctica and those regions of South Africa. He also mentioned that the Agenda highlights the women's knowledge and also it is the bottom-up process which doesn't involve market or state but the people.

Ashish Kothari, environmentalist & founder, Kalpavriksh, Pune, recollecting his visit to the biodiversity festival after 20 years, appreciated the DDS initiative for 'Zaheerabad Agenda' release. He mentioned that the document came from local ordinary people who were involved in doing extraordinary things. Rukmini Rao, Director, Gramya Resource Centre for Women, highlighted that the women in this region are relatively stronger especially because they are rising and eating the traditional crops. Recognizing that it is women who take 70% of the land's responsibility, she suggested that women should be inherited the land and not men as always.

Hanumantha Rao, the District Collector, congratulating DDS on Zaheerabad Agenda release, noted that the Agenda came from the local people to tackle the present global crisis of climate change. DDS has brought the district to the global map and the Zaheerabad agenda is the direction for the world. It is significant as it is a bottom-up agenda unlike those which are developed in large cities.

Dr Sanjay Marthur, Agenda is people's thought but the agenda needs organisational and institutional system to be realise into reality. And none other than Government officials like District Collector has the power to do this. And I as an academician who believe it is a request to the collector to support of district mechanism to take forward the Zaheerabad agenda.

Director of DDS, P V Satheesh said "The agenda of DDS is not of few people, but is the agenda of hundreds of farmers, agenda of this land and its heritage. Over 10000 people and 158 sarpanches of Zaheerabad region have endorsed it. The Biodiversity Festival is part of this community based campaign to tackle Climate crisis with biodiverse farming". The biodiverse farmer Annapurna said, "We should grow multiple crops to ensure every life is sustained. We should continue to grow and save seeds for the coming generations. They also become food for birds".