50 women famers of Giri Chaitanya have been selected for training programme for improvement of field level practices in Coffee garden. Mr.Allen from Barefoot College has come for the training. Farmers are taught about the right practices to get good quality of coffee and to get reasonable price for that. A training manual is also designed for the farmers.  A project for coffee processing unit is also applied for the development of women farmers.

With the help of Krishi Vignan Kendra- Bhagavathula Charitable Trust, Visakahapatnam- A training progarmme for organic growing is conducted in the Village of Gondipalli of G.K.Veedhi Mandal. Mr.Balamurugan -the trainer for this progarmme has trained 30 farmers in Organic methods. Farmers have also learned the preparation of Beejamrutam, Jeevamrutam etc for the better growth of crops. At the end of the programme, assessment is also conducted and certificates also distributed for the farmers.

With the help of Krishi Vignan Kendra- Bhagavathula Charitable Trust, Visakahapatnam- A training progarmme for Vermi Compost preparation is conducted in the Village of Rallagedda of G.K.Veedhi Mandal. Ms. Kanatamma -the trainer for this progarmme has trained 30 farmers in Vermi compost preparation. Farmers have also learned the preparation of Beejamrutam, Jeevamrutam etc for the better growth of crops. At the end of the programme, assessment is also conducted and certificates also distributed for the farmers. Farmers are also taken to Rural Agriculture Research Center (RARS), Chintapalle where they have shown compost pits and motivated by the scientists.

Barefoot College is supporting to maintain 3 Night schools which are empowered by Digital equipment like Apple iPads and Projector. Children are motivated through this Digital equipment and learned via Digital apps. They are basically drop outs from that village. Our teachers are trained by Barefoot Education Team and teaching Digital curriculum to children. Schools are located in Korrapadu, Koyyuru Mandal, Bowrthi, Vamigedda of Chintapalli Mandal. 15 Children from Koyuru schools are main streamed to Residential school, Koyyuru by our teacher. All of these girl students have cleared the exam and get the admissions into that school.

Mumbai based Vitamin Angels is supporting us by giving deworming medicines, Vit- A for 1-5 year old children and Multi-Vitamins to Pregnant women. We started working with them to help the needy children and women in our area. We closely work with Government health system and Anganwadi system (ICDS) to reach many interior villages.

We have distributed 9000 doses of Vit A and Deworming medicines and 3000 Multi vitamins to Pregnant women through this programme.

Goonj is a Delhi based Organization and have their branch in Hyderabad. They send materials to us to distribute in villages for the needy by conducting activities which will be needed for the village development. We have distributed materials like clothes, utensils, foot wear etc to Villagers and school kits to Children. We reached 60 villages through this programme. Several impactful works are conducted through this activity.

October 15^th is celebrated as women farmers day internationally. MACS in association with KVK, Haripuram has also conducted Kisan Mahila Diwas with 100 women farmers. Farmers are gathered in our Gudem campus and few of the women farmers are also facilitated by KVK team. Scientist, MACS and Giri Chaitanya Governing body members are also participated in this. Women role in agriculture and family planning and for economical growth of the family is well explained by the eminent speakers.

Giri Chaitanya framers are sent to several training programmes with the support of Department of Horticulture. Farmers are attended to various programmes like buyer-seller meets, farmers-buyers meets to gain knowledge and they have also been attended to the commissioner programmes for the better representation. After gaining good acknowledgement in all of these programmes, Giri Chaitanya is getting good number of buyers for their materials.  Our farmers also attend Kisan Mela which is conducted by RARS, Chintapalli for the exposure.

108 farmers have been supplied Cocoa saplings with the help of Department of Horticulture. Farmers have also been given a input support of 4000 rupees per acre for the 3 years. New areas have been selected for the distribution and farmers were given plants.

Our Women those are trained in Calicut by IISR has participated in the processing of 35 MT of Turmeric this year. They could successfully be delivered the​ ​materials to the buyers with prescribed quality standards. They worked hard nearly 30 days under the sun. this time we could sense the needs of own processing unit and warehouse and applied for a new one under infrastructure development programme, Department of Horticulture

15 members farmers team visited IISR, Calicut and trained by scientist in the processing of Turmeric and Ginger. They also learned spice powder making and jack fruit processing. This team stayed 15 days in Calicut and learned about the processing techniques thoroughly. They came back to our area and shared their experiences with other people as well.

Barefoot College International as a part of their Women Prosper Initiative, they offered a training session for the Girls and Women to train them in solar technology and sales. These sales will create revenue for the women and they can earn a decent livelihood by associating themselves in this project. Barefoot college international has also offered them mobile handsets to train them in smart technology for sales and beneficiary information. We selected 15 Girls for this training program​me​ and sent to Rajasthan for the training. They learned solar and handicrafts in Tilonia. After the completion of training, they came back to our area and started working with communities for sales and service. We have selected a boy for coordinating them. These people go to villages and conduct awareness programmes about solar and its benefits. They also provide lighting options for villagers and sell to the people if they show interest.

To motivate the children towards education and reduce the dropouts percentage, Goonj has Organized a tournament. We approached ITDA for the field support and invited 16 residential schools for the tournament. With the support of the teachers, students, and parents we have conducted this game for 3 days. The final day, our constituency MLA attended programme and distributed the prizes. We have conducted this during the month of July in which dropouts percentage will be high due to several reasons. After the success of this programme, Goonj has decided to do this every year.

ICAR instituted Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Award for Outstanding Research in Tribal Farming Systems Very few areas in India are having high curcumin varieties. Our area is one of those. Research stations in India have released several hybrid and improved varieties. But we are resisting those. Because these improved varieties exploit the soil. Some farmers were given this seed and they showed interest as they were convinced that improved varieties give high yield and crop duration is shortened to 9 months only.

Our journey started at this point. We collected several samples of Turmeric and sent them to labs for testing. Our traditional area Turmeric is rich in curcumin content (above 5 %) and oils which are essential for its anti-biotic and anti-inflammatory properties. Hybrid varieties are showing huge fluctuations in the curcumin content. We started educating our farmers regarding this and could able to resist the introduction of new varieties in several places.

From the marketing point of view, buyers are showing interest in Traditional variety for its color and curcumin content. Unfortunately, most farmers post-harvesting procedures are not up to mark due to a lack of knowledge and facilities. We trained in boiling and cooking of Turmeric and drying of the turmeric. We brought polishers on a rental basis and trained farmers in the polishing of turmeric.

We took the help of third-party agencies in powdering of it for marketing. We included Turmeric in our product list under the brand name of The Eastern Ghats and started marketing it. We got a huge response and our Turmeric rose to major sale products in our marketing.

We did all these without any external agency support. We are invited to a farmer- buyers summit which was organized by the Department of Horticulture. We have projected all our products there. Turmeric Powder and Ginger powder have attracted the attention of several people. Mr. Chiranjiv Choudhary, Commissioner of Horticulture was impressed and added about our work in his presentation on that Day. Mr.Sreekanthan Thampi, the then Deputy Director of Spices Board was also impressed and connected us to IISR ( Indian Institute of Spices and Research), Calicut. Those scientists from IISR has asked us to send a team of farmers for the training in advanced technology in Spices processing. Our farmer’s team comprises of 15 members who went to Calicut and learned all advance modalities in Turmeric and Ginger processing. They completed this in a week’s time. The scientists of IISR got impressed and trained our farmers in other product processing also like Jack Fruit processing and Spice Powders making.

Our farmers completed 15 days of training and came with fruitful knowledge. They are taking the lead whenever we o processing of Turmeric. They are also training other farmers as well in harvesting and post-harvesting procedures.

IISR, Calicut has asked us the information about our efforts to bring uniform practices in our Tribal area related turmeric cultivation and post-harvesting procedures to apply for a project to support us in setting up infrastructure and awards.

Then we received a mail from them that Our efforts are selected for the award by ICAR, Government of India. We got selected for this award for our outstanding efforts in Tribal farming practices.

Farmer produces are processed, packed and promoted in the name of EASTERNGHATS and it was launched during CII summit by then Chief minister of State Mr. Nara Chandrababu Naidu.