Vijayawada: A high-level delegation from Pegasus Capital Advisors from the United States of America visited A Gokavaram in Ungutur mandal and Vadlapatla, Kodurupadu villages in Bheemadolu mandal in Eluru district on Thursday to engage in discussions and field visits aimed at advancing environmental and economic sustainability projects.
The delegation focused on strengthening Andhra Pradesh Community-managed Natural Farming (APCNF).
The team included Gina McCarthy, former White House National Climate Advisor and the US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) administrator; Craig Cogut, founder, chairman, and CEO of Pegasus Capital; and Keith Agoada, founder and CEO of Producers’ Trust. T. Vijay Kumar, executive vice-chairman of Rythu Sadhikara Samstha led the field visit of the US delegation.
The delegation visited Surabhi Goshala in A Gokavaram village and observed a live demonstration of APCNF’s nine principles. They witnessed method demonstrations of seed pelletisation, Ghana Jeevamrutham, and Agni Astram, followed by the ATM (Any Time Money) model and water experiment by T Mallesh, assessing paddy productivity across different farming systems.
Later, the delegation went to Kodurupadu of Bheemadolu mandal where they explored a comparative study on coconut farming analysing APCNF’s A-grade natural farming model of mentor intern K Kalyan Kumar versus chemical farming by farmer N Rambabu.
The visit continued to an 8-acre coconut field of U Ramachandra Rao with intercrops of arecanut, banana, and vegetables, compared with a chemical-based farm of N. Rambabu.
The team also visited Krishna Raghava non-pest management shop which provides multi-crop seed kits for pre-monsoon dry sowing and other essential inputs. They later explored A-grade paddy model field and interacted with members of Sri Srinivasa SHG (Self Help Group) of Vadlapatla and local farmers. A key highlight was the demonstration of drone-assisted spraying of botanical extracts in natural farming fields.
RySS senior officials Aruna, B Prabhakar and Vishy, and district project manager of APCNF Tata Rao, additional DPM Venkatesh and Praveen Kumar, mandal AO also accompanied the team.
