Hyderabad: The 13th edition of Deccan Development Society’s ‘Mobile Biodiversity Festival-2012’ gets on the road at Medak district’s Rechintal village on Saturday. Aimed at celebrating traditional crops and modes of farming, the month-long festival will tour 45 villages in the district over the coming few weeks. Participants, largely Dalit women farmers, will showcase crops and seeds that will be displayed on specially designed bullock-carts as folk artistes perform alongside to add colour to the show.
Cultural programmes apart, the event will be dotted with public meetings and discussions on various subjects related to organic farming. Along with farmers from India, scientists and farming organisations from other parts of the world such as Africa, Canada, Indonesia, and the Philippines will participate at these sessions.
“This is a festival where seeds are worshipped as gods. It is a platform for us to present and promote natural cultivation, which happens sans use of chemicals,” said PV Satheesh, director, DDS. “What started initially on a small-scale has now become an event of national importance with thousands of farmers and people working in this area, every year.”
Pointing to the commendable work being done by this group of women agriculturalists in Medak, Satheesh revealed that these farmers grow over 20-25 varieties of crops on a plot no larger than an acre-and-a-half.
“At a time when people everywhere are promoting ‘mono-cropping’ (growing one type of crop across several acres), it is an absolute delight to see these women practising something so unique,” the director said.
Although it has remained confined to Medak in the last decade, organisers of the annual festival hope to change that soon. Over the next few years, the event is expected to travel to other villages in Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra.
Cultural programmes apart, the event will be dotted with public meetings and discussions on various subjects related to organic farming. Along with farmers from India, scientists and farming organisations from other parts of the world such as Africa, Canada, Indonesia, and the Philippines will participate at these sessions.
“This is a festival where seeds are worshipped as gods. It is a platform for us to present and promote natural cultivation, which happens sans use of chemicals,” said PV Satheesh, director, DDS. “What started initially on a small-scale has now become an event of national importance with thousands of farmers and people working in this area, every year.”
Pointing to the commendable work being done by this group of women agriculturalists in Medak, Satheesh revealed that these farmers grow over 20-25 varieties of crops on a plot no larger than an acre-and-a-half.
“At a time when people everywhere are promoting ‘mono-cropping’ (growing one type of crop across several acres), it is an absolute delight to see these women practising something so unique,” the director said.
Although it has remained confined to Medak in the last decade, organisers of the annual festival hope to change that soon. Over the next few years, the event is expected to travel to other villages in Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra.
Al Quaeda preaching jihad through circulation magazines by post in Pakistan-The Pioneer
Al Qaeda continues to preach jihad or holy war through an Urdu monthly magazine that is delivered to omes in cities across Pakistan by post, according to a media report on Monday. The 200-page magazine, iteen, is named after the battlefield where Sultan Salahuddin Ayubi defeated the Crusaders and features rticles that preach jihad and praise Osama bin Laden. The magazine was started in June last year, a onth fter bin Laden was killed in a US military raid in Abbottabad, The Express Tribune reported. Hiteen is eing delivered to D e o b a n d i s , A h l - e - H a d i t h a n d Barelvis sects to convert them to Al Qaeda’s point of view, the report said. The seventh edition, which was sent out last month, opens with he essay ‘Matyrdom of Sheikh Osama bin Laden and the International Jihad Movement’. The magazine as the ‘sayings’ of Afghan Taliban commander Mullah Omar and some Al Qaeda leaders. There is also an nterview with Sheikh Khalid Bin Abdul Rehman Al Husnain, who was once part of Kuwait’s Ministry of slamic Affairs and has now joined Al Qaeda. There is a ‘fatwa’ by Muhammad Wa l iu l l a h Hu s s a i n f Jami atu l Uloomul Islami which declares that there is no bar on Muslims looting goods from NATO ontainers. An editorial said it is not true that the mission of the ‘mujahideen’ has been damaged by bin aden’s death. The mujahidden are still fighting with their full strength, it said. The editorial advised eaders not to pay attention to “false reports about mujahidden from the hypocritical media” and to continue the struggle. The fight, the editorial said, will continue till the US is removed from Muslim countries and an Islamic Caliphate is established. An anonymous essay spoke of the need for another bin aden who would fight non-Muslims and defend Muslims. The magazine thanked the many wings of Al aeda all over the world. Hiteen does not carry the name of the editor and the only way to send feedback s through two email addresses. A police officer of the Counter-Terrorism Department in Lahore, peaking n condition of anonymity, said police had knowledge of the magazine and that copies of it were in their ecord.
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