Campaigning Short Film Award WINNER
10 MYTHS ABOUT DEFORESTATION AND FOOD
WWF-UK
Too often, the food we’re consuming right here in the UK has direct links to the destruction of some of our most precious wild places. Watch our video to learn more about how our food system is driving the destruction of nature.
SHORTLISTED for Campaigning Short Film Award
HOW A SOLAR IRRIGATION ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROJECT TRANSFORMED AGRICULTURE IN A VILLAGE IN BIHAR
Video Volunteers
In 2018, the Bihar government declared 206 blocks of 23 districts as 'drought-hit'. Samastipur was one of them. “My district was declared drought affected this year but when I look at my village, I see no reason why it should be declared drought hit, “ says Yatin a farmer and a solar irrigation service provider from Chakhaji village of Samastipur district, where the International Water Management Institute set up a pilot project to empower farmers to become solar irrigation service providers by using solar pumps instead of diesel pumps. The idea was to help marginal farmers buy water at a reasonable cost and offer better irrigation services at a lower price. “ In our village, crops irrigated using these solar pumps are giving us a yield of 100kg per katha (approx 720 sq ft ), whereas farmers in other villages are not even able to recover their input costs,” he adds.
IWMI assisted six farmers acquire solar pumps by offering 60% capital cost subsidy on 5 kWp solar pumps, along with 1500 feet of buried PVC pipe distribution. The total set up cost for each irrigation service provider was Rs 2,00000. The farmers paid Rs 50,000 upfront and paid back in the rest through zero interest installments.
“With diesel pumps fuel costs were 60-70 % of our income. Now that entire cost is our saving,” says Ramnaresh Singh, another solar entrepreneur from Chakhaji village. With diesel there were also other additional costs such as that for labour, maintenance etc. Due to lack of adequate irrigation, farmers in Chakhaji also grew crops that required less water. “After getting solar pumps, we now grow maize, green vegetables and pulses, even in spring, which we could not grow earlier, ” says Sunita Devi, a farmer from Chakhaji village. This project not just brought summer crop to Chakhaji but also reduced carbon emissions by eliminating diesel, reduced irrigation cost by 60%, increased output by 48% and farmers started earning an additional income of Rs 9,000.
In India, there are around 18 million grid-connected irrigation tube-wells which account for an estimated ₹70,000 crore of power subsidies. Under the Kusum scheme, the government has proposed to provide for 17.5 lakh solar irrigation pumps. “Most NGOs and governments give our solar pumps to demonstrate technology but there is enough awareness about the technology among farmers. Solar pumps now need to be used to transform a monopolistic water market into pro-poor water market, ” says Dr. Tushar Shah, senior fellow, IWMI. According to him spattering solar pumps is not the answer, but equipping one village at a time with adequate solar pumping capacity and create solar pump entrepreneurs is. “ If we follow this route, a state like Bihar can transform its agriculture within a span of five years, “ he says.
SHORTLISTED for Campaigning Short Film Award
OIL ON THEIR HANDS
If Not Us Then Who
Oil spills in the Amazon by Dutch PlusPetrol leave indigenous communities contaminated.
For almost half a century, indigenous peoples of the Quechua, Achuar, and Kichwa ethnic groups have suffered extremely negative environmental, health, cultural, social, and economic impacts as a result of the operations of the oil companies, Occidental Petroleum (1971-2000) and subsequently Pluspetrol (2000-2015).
These oil pipes in the Peruvian Amazon, have collapsed and degraded, leaking oil and heavy metals into the land. There are more than 1,963 contamination sites. Communities are now not only fighting to protect the earth but also their health as hundreds are sick from contaminated water and food.
In 2020, indigenous leaders take their complaint to the Netherlands, where PlusPetrol transferred its headquarters to the Netherlands in 2000. Research into its corporate structure suggests it did so to support its broader effort to avoid paying taxes in the countries where it operates.
Pluspetrol has failed to undertake adequate environmental and human rights due diligence. The complaint presented to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) in March 2020 alleges that Pluspetrol has also failed to respect several human and indigenous rights of the local population related to land, self-determination, and water and food. “We have come to the Netherlands seeking justice,” said Aurelio Chino, president of FEDIQUEP…We hope that the OECD and the Dutch government can convince Pluspetrol to take responsibility for the terrible harm the oil industry has done to our peoples.”
This is their story.
CONSIDERED for Campaigning Short Film Award
BREEF AND ROLEX PRESERVE & PROTECT NATURE
The Bahamas Reef Environment Educational Foundation (BREEF)
CHRISTIAN AID – FLORENCE’S STORY
Christian Aid
DRONES & DEFORESTATION IN THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON
WWF-UK
FRACTURED
Coulson & Tennant
HEALTHY SEAS: MISSION IN SANTORINI
Healthy Seas
HOME
Braw Production
MAKING WAVES
Double Farley Creative Partners
NATURE RECOVERY NETWORK
Campaign Film LTD
Actuality Media
THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC HAS CREATED A NEW THREAT TO OUR OCEANS
City to Sea
THE PAST
Hadi Ghazanfari
TOGETHER LET’S WIN THE REAL RACES!
MANTA Sail Training Centre
VANISHING LOUISIANA
Rascal Filmworks