Kiran Kumar Vissa

Biography

kiran

Kiran Kumar Vissa is a social activist working at the grassroots level to resolve the issues faced by Indian farmers, majority of whose lives are in a precarious situation at present. His dedicated work over the years in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana has resulted in significantly improving the livelihoods of farmers in the region.

An alumnus of IIT – Madras, Kiran moved to USA in 1995 to pursue Master’s studies at University of Maryland. It was during this period, he started working on social issues in India through his involvement in the non-profit organization AID (Association for India’s Development). He played an active role in the formative years of AID in spreading the organization across US and increasing its volunteer base. He interacted with several social activists in India and widened his understanding of food production and farmer’s struggles. Eventually, after working for over 9 years in the US, he quit his job to work full time as a social activist focusing on agriculture and natural resources.

Ever since he headed to India in 2008, he is instrumental in raising the problems of farmers in the public domain. He has been National co-convener of Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture (ASHA) and state convener of Rythu Swarajya Vedika (RSV) in Andhra Pradesh. One of the worst affected regions of India in farmer suicides, next to Vidarbha, the farmers’ crisis situation in Telangana & Rayalaseema is still a continuing story with over 1000 farmers ending their lives each year in the last 6 years. With minimal irrigation systems, the region is heavily dependent on monsoon. One drought season or deficient monsoon is all that triggers a spate of suicides. Kiran has put his heart into this burning issue and his organization Rythu Swarajya Vedika has come up with several initiatives – at micro level as well as advocating government policy changes – to make agriculture a sustainable livelihood.

Notable efforts and accomplishments

Kiran’s promotion of millets, a drought resistant crop which requires less water and minimal investment, as an alternative to paddy in the dryland regions was a well-studied step during the drought hit year of 2009. It helped many farmers who were reeling under a poor harvest to recover back. Last year when the monsoons failed for second consecutive year, the state government, that understood the importance of millets from Kiran’s initiatives, recommended millets to farmers and distributed millet seeds on a larger scale across the drought hit regions. Due to Kiran’s relentless work, the government of Andhra Pradesh has started to support millet products as well as promote awareness among public through ‘Millet Melas’ to create the value chain for millet grains.

Landless tenant farmers are the worst affected in a drought because they are not eligible for bank loans, crop insurance, disaster compensation, or input subsidy and end up in the clutches of money lenders. In Andhra Pradesh region, they do around 30% of agriculture but account for about 80% of suicides. Due to Kiran’s constant advocacy efforts, government has started issuing Loan Eligibility Cards for landless tenant farmers making them eligible to obtain bank loans. That’s a huge relief for them as now they have a backup of crop insurance or disaster compensation in case the crop fails. His efforts ensured around 25,000 loan eligibility cards were issued last year in Telangana whose government remained highly dysfunctional after the state formation. A target of 200,000 loan eligibility cards is set for this year.

There has been a manifold increase in the number of borewells in Telangana over the past few years, but more than 50% of them are dried up. The natural means of ground water replenishment for centuries were irrigation tanks. But over the years they have been neglected completely in favour of borewells. Kiran’s efforts have ensured that the government has taken action in reviving the irrigation tanks of Telanagana. He encourages farmers to adopt long term sustainable methods against short term lucrative but harmful practices, like wrong crop selections and extracting underground water without replenishment.

Rythu Swarajya Vedika reaches out to the families of farmer’s who have taken their lives and understand the ground reality of each one of them. The suicides of farmers were not taken into account officially by the government citing various other reasons for suicide. Kiran’s efforts have made the state government accept the agrarian crisis which was easily overlooked earlier. Due to his active work, farmer’s unions and media were able to bring the agricultural and farmers issues into the mainstream political discourse. Special agricultural budget for the state and ‘Agricultural Policy’ capturing a place in the manifestos of all the major political parties during the 2014 assembly elections were all unheard of before. Kiran had a major role to play for this change in atmosphere.

Today, his organization continues to educate the farmers regarding organic and ecologically sustainable means of food production and the importance of crop diversity based on available natural resources. His pursuance has made the State government itself taking actions to promote organic fertilizers, avoid the use of pesticides, encourage crop rotation, create awareness among women SHGs and community managed sustainable agriculture. More and more farmers understand the importance and benefits of ecologically sustainable agriculture and are increasingly joining organic farming cooperatives supported by RSV. Andhra Pradesh has seen a reduction of 50% in pesticide usage over a period of 10 years from 2002-12. Truly a phenomenal achievement!

Kiran has no regrets in giving up a well-paid job and a fancy American lifestyle. His interests to know more about the way we produce food, consume food, use natural resources led him into this journey. After realizing that we have deviated so much from the nature’s ways, he decided to bring a change himself. Be it any key agricultural issue – GM crops, advent of contractual farming by corporates, land issues of farmers – he has raised his voice, always keeping the focus on safeguarding the natural environment and the producers of food as the priority. Through ASHA, a network of farmers’ organizations across India, he played a major role in organizing Kisan Swaraj Yatra in 2010, a nation-wide mobilization to draw attention to farmers’ issues. The outcomes were progressive agricultural policies for India which ASHA continuously demands the governments to adopt. Kiran continues to create consumer awareness on food products and brings to attention among the urban public and students about the difficulties faced by the rural India.

Hope you got a glimpse of Kiran’s work. It’s indeed a pleasure for AID-Ann Arbor to have Kiran visit us and share about his ongoing work and experiences. We welcome you all to join us on our first session of the Speaker Series on May 22, 2016 at UofM to engage in a thought provoking session. Indulge yourself in conversations with Kiran to learn more about the pressing issues our farmer fraternity is facing in India. May be you can be a part of the solution too!

How you can help

Donate to AID Ann Arbor

Additional Information

https://conference.aidindia.org/frontpage/speakers/kiran-vissa-agriculture-farmers-issues/
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/this-kiran-is-game-for-taking-on-jagan/article5865738.ece
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/farmers-of-andhra-pradesh-release-their-agenda-for-2014-elections--43865
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/over-400-farmers-have-committed-suicide-in-telangana-since-its-formation-47667