Padma Shri For Father-Daughter Who Transformed Wasteland Into A Forest

Radha Mohan and Sabarmatee, a father-daughter duo from Odisha, have been conferred with India's fourth highest civilian honour - the Padma Shri - for their work in agriculture. The Gandhian father-daughter duo is credited with transforming a degraded piece of land into a vast "food forest" using only organic techniques.

According to Business Today, Sabarmatee and her father, a retired Economics professor, wanted to rejuvenate wasteland using organic farming. In 1988, they bought a piece of degraded land in the interiors of Nayagarh district, Odisha, despite warnings that it would not yield anything.

Gandhian father-daughter duo of farmers from Odisha, Radhammohan & Sabarmatee have been enabling farmers across the country to take to sustainable organic farming - awarded the Padma Shri for their distinguished service to the Nation. #PadmaAwards2020 #PeoplesPadma pic.twitter.com/zXXGjg3sz5

— Padma Awards (@PadmaAwards) January 31, 2020

"We accepted the challenge and stayed committed to the cause. We call our journey Sambhav, from the impossible to the possible," said Sabarmatee.

Today, that one acre of land has been transformed into a 90-acre forest that houses over 1,000 species of plants, three rainwater harvesting ponds, and 500 varieties of rice. This feat was achieved using soil and water conservation methods

Radha Mohan and Sabarmatee also started Sambhav as a resource center for farmers across the country to learn organic farming techniques and exchange seeds. Sambad News reports that Sambhav has successfully grown many vanishing food crops such as clove bean, jack bean, black rice and sword bean.

Union Minister Piyush Goyal praised Radha Mohan and Sabarmatee as two of the "unsung heroes" who are "truly deserving of the Padma Shri award" in a video tribute that included awardees like social worker Usha Chaumar and doctor Ravi Kannan.