Team Fab helps needy farmers in Maharashtra by giving them GIR cows
It is through a serendipitous meeting with farmer activist, writer, Padma Shree awardee, and the father of the SP natural farming method, Mr. Subhash Palekar, that Team FAB became aware of how they could help poor farmers in Maharashtra.
Farmers can benefit from following zero-cost farming methods that use natural fertilizers like cow dung and cow urine. Cows are expensive to purchase for small farmers with only 1 – 2 acres to their name.
Team FAB decided to “Run for Mother” to raise funds to buy Gir cows for farmers in need. In the winter of 2018, Kumar ran for 18 days across Mumbai, Nashik, and Pune, covering 756 km. Other team FAB members joined him at various legs of the journey and team FAB finished strong with a lot of help from their community of running friends.
Team FAB was able to donate 31 gir cows to farmers owing only 1 – 3 acres of land aggregating to Rs 16 Lacs (Rupees Sixteen Lacs Only) of the total fund raised out of this run. 8 cows from the above were donated by Lake Runners Group of Powai. 31 farmers were able to start practicing zero-cost natural farming. 16 of those cows gave birth to calves, which were donated to other farmers. Therefore, Team FAB’s Run for Mother project has impacted the lives of 48 farmers so far and will continue to support more farmers in the years to come.
The team was able to achieve their goal with help from Mr. Subhash Palekar, SPNF, who helped Nair, Mr. Arvind Bijwe, Mr. Nikhil Shah, Ms. Laxmi More, Ms. Smitha Chowta, and Goregaon Sports Club (GSC) which helped promote Run for Mother. The project was a great success because of all the wonderful donors who contributed towards the purchase of the cows.