SDM College hosts talk on rural management

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, Aug 10, 2012 : The Mangalore Management Association and the National Institute of Personnel Management (Mangalore chapter) organized a talk on Rural Management at SDM College of Business Management in Mangalore on Aug 8, Wednesday.

Addressing the gathering, Dr. L. H. Manjunath, executive director of Shri Kshethra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project (SKDRDP), said that the number of farmers who committed suicide during the past 15 years far exceeds the number of soldiers who died in war during the last 60 years. Although 60% of India’s population is engaged in agriculture, very few of them profit by it, he said, adding that this is because they hesitate to implement science and technology in the fields.

In spite of the progress that India has made, it still occupies the 126th place in the human development index, which means that the country has not yet addressed a number of basic issues.

Speaking about the achievements of SKDRDP, he said that this project attempts to find solutions to all the above-mentioned problems. SKDRDP is chiefly involved in organizing communities into self-help groups and focuses on building capacity, accessibility to services, and opening up to innovation.

Stating that SKDRDP has introduced a number of methods to make farming profitable, he said that the muyalu system has been re-introduced as shramavinimaya, in which many farmers get into groups and work in one another’s farms. SKDRDP forms SHGs to teach people financial management, he said, adding that 40,000 of its 1.75 SHGs for meant for farmers. The SHGs have launched credit culture, which ensures 99 percent repayment of loans. So far, SKDRDP has lent Rs. 5,500 crores in 11 districts, and the beneficiaries are repaying these loans at the rate of Rs. 30 crores per week.

A video on SKDRDP’s renewable energy initiatives and the Ashden Award Ceremony of 2012 in London was shown on this occasion.