In yet another remarkable achievement, the Cauvery Calling Movement, started by Sadhguru to revitalize Cauvery river, has accomplished a historic milestone of enabling the plantation of 1.12 crore saplings in farmers’ lands across Tamil Nadu in a year. So far the Movement has enabled planting of 10.9 crore saplings.
Surpassing last year's milestone of planting 1 crore saplings, the Movement mobilized the uptake of 1,12,47,630 saplings by 48,748 farmers and the general public for planting on a total area of 28,000 acres across Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry from April 2023 to March 2024.
A press conference was held at the Chennai Press Club on Earth Day today (April 22). Thiru Thamizhmaaran, the State Field Coordinator of Cauvery Calling, addressed the media and said:
“Cauvery Calling is a movement that has germinated from a seed planted by Sadhguru 26 years ago. Its approach has been painstakingly developed and refined for more than two decades since 1998. We have consistently moved forward with meticulous planning by investing in providing quality saplings, educating farmers about adopting tree-based agriculture, and conducting mega-training workshops in model farms to learn directly from the farmers.”
“The production of the saplings is mainly happening in 2 places. Our unit in Cuddalore District is one of the world’s largest nurseries with an annual production capacity of 85 lakh saplings for a given planting season. The second production unit is in Thiruvannamalai District, which can produce 15 lakh saplings in a given planting season.”
“The two production centers provide saplings to 39 distribution centers established across Tamil Nadu. The nurseries provide around 29 species of high-value timber tree species including Teak, Red Sandalwood, Rosewood, and Mahogany to the farmers at a subsidized cost of Rs 3 per sapling,” he further explained.
“We are offering farmers the chance to grow and sell saplings as a way to earn extra income. Last year, 30 farmers produced and distributed approximately 50 Lakh saplings on their own lands. Notably, 25% of these farmers are young individuals aged 25 to 35. Additionally, 12 farmers distributed around 1.4 million saplings through Isha distribution nurseries in 12 districts, generating extra revenue for themselves.”
To raise awareness, the Cauvery Calling project deployed over 130 field executives to personally visit more than 31,400 farmlands. These executives provided free consultations to farmers, advocating for the adoption of tree-based agriculture. During these visits, the executives conducted thorough soil and water testing on the farms. Based on the results, they recommended suitable tree species for each farmland. These recommendations are carefully curated, taking into account the region’s endemic tree varieties and the income-cycle expectations of the farmers.
Apart from this, Cauvery Calling also conducted three Mega Training Programs and 12 Zonal-level training programs, drawing the participation of over 6,000 farmers. Experts from reputed agriculture institutes, and scientists from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore; ICAR- Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru; Institute of Wood Science and Technology, Bengaluru; ICAR-Indian Institute of Spices Research, Kozhikode amongst others, joined these training programs sharing practical field inputs on tree-based agriculture.
“In the current financial year (2024-25), Cauvery Calling has set the target of planting 1.21 crore saplings in Tamil Nadu,” further updated Thiru Thamizhmaaran.