Several years ago, I requested the then Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to visit some villages in Andhra Pradesh where a unique community managed system, based on no application of chemical pesticides, was emerging as a new social movement. He listened to me patiently, wanting to know more about how the concept of No-Pesticides Management (NPM) had caught up with farmers’ imagination, so much so that the transformation towards a safe and healthy farming system was quietly expanding. I must acknowledge that soon after putting down the phone, he asked the Directorate of Research at Hyderabad to depute a team of scientists to visit a few villages to make a preliminary assessment. A couple of days later, he called up to say that the report he received showed positive and significant behavioural changes necessitating a shift from established farming practices.
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