In Niryat (export) Sheti, he meant producing some portion of the overall farm produce for foreign market. That would of course entail some planning but in the post-liberalization phase, Joshi believed that a farmer could export up to ten percent of his produce. Out of this “Chaturang Sheti” concept, Joshi wanted to create some remunerative activity for each of his followers. It was comparable to Gandhi’s spinning wheel. It provided all farmers a constructive role to play and that was necessary for retaining the morale of his followers when agitations would reduce. To give a practical push to this concept Joshi organized some special training programmes. One person who helped him a lot in this training was Shripad Dabholkar of Satara, known for his pioneering work in transforming grape farming. Dabholkar had developed many products which could be grown using domestic waste, drain water and sunlight, abundantly available in India free of cost. Dabholkar conducted many training programmes for SS workers. Apart from these ideas which could be worked on by individual farmers, Joshi also expressed some elaborate activities. First novel project he suggested was a company called “Shetkari Solvent”. Many farmers had started growing soyabean. Soyabean gave oil. They were full of protein. There was good demand. New products like Soya Milk were also being introduced. Like sugarcane, soyabean was a good option for farmers. Shetkari Solvent involved growing of soyabeans for sale of soya oil and then from the leftover wastage, called okara, making soya chunks. Such soya products had much bigger demand overseas than just plain soyabean. On trial basis a plant was erected at Hinganghat. Unfortunately this project had to be shelved even before it took off. 298
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Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage
