Some 120 km from Bengaluru in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh in India, a village, of which little was known previously, has now become famous through its self-sustaining model. Families here grow crops organically, meet their energy needs by tapping wind power, harvest rain to conserve water and supply it to their homes with a solar-powered pump.
The village boasts of Wi-Fi facility and provides entrepreneurial opportunities to farmers.
As water depleted in the rocky soil and farming became tough in the semi-arid zone, villages in the district despaired as people deserted them and migrated to cities for livelihood.
That was when 39-year-old Kalyan Akkipeddi — who gave up a lucrative job in the finance and marketing division at General Electric to travel around the country’s villages in search of knowledge — arrived at remote Tekulodu.
Akkipeddi chose to “intern” with a farmer family in Tekulodu and helped them increase their income from Rs 7,000 a year to Rs 14,000 a month by putting scientific practices to work and tapping natural resources like solar and wind power.
In 2013, he bought a 12.5-acre plot of land a few kilometres from Tekulodu. This has evolved into what he named ProtoVillage — the prototype of an ideal village.
“I was so inspired by what I saw in the tribal communities. I thought of demonstrating that kind of life based on three simple principles — a deep respect for soil, air and water, inter-dependence and, as a result, self-reliance,” Akkipeddi said.
Akkipeddi, along with the villagers, has in four years transformed the barren piece of land into an inspiring model that is self-reliant, environmentally sustainable and socially cohesive.
As part of developing the village, ProtoVillage’s inhabitants had initially built eight farm ponds in low-lying areas to store rain water and had networked them.
“Though rains are scarce in the region, one good spell of 90 minutes one day filled the ponds with enough water to last for months and attracted hundreds of people from nearby villages,” said Akkipeddi.
ProtoVillage is unique in many ways. Food is cooked for all the families in a community kitchen by both men and women, irrespective of caste and creed. And they live as a joint family, with even men taking care of children.
“Here, I have freedom to learn and do a lot of things, as others take care of my child,” Lakshmi, 28, who migrated to ProtoVillage,
said. — IANS
Bhavana Akella
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