Coming right out of the agrarian crisis that has rocked their homeland, six farmers from Vidarbha, the eastern region of Maharashtra which has been in the spotlight for a spate of farmer suicides in recent years, think their brethren in Tamil Nadu have a good thing going. Dilip Jagtap, Vinayak Sambhaji Gote, Prashant Nagose, Ashok Singh Dumal, J.K. Lonkar and Ashok Aaglawe, who were in Tamil Nadu this past week as part of an on-the-field training programme with the National Agro Foundation (NAF), said as much. "There is so much new (farming) technology here that we have not even heard of, so many farming implements we have never seen. None of this ever reaches us,' Lonkar, a retired police constable-turned farmer said, the anger in his voice clashing with the wonder in his eyes. "We learnt about soil tests, horticulture, simple ways of increasing crop productivity and improving our marketing strategies here,' Prashant, the leader of the group, said. He is also the liaisoning officer for the project, using his links with the Sarvodya movement to touch base with the National Agro Foundation, through Ajeet Saxena, a volunteer from Southern Railways. The concept of the NAF founder, statesman C. Subramaniam, is to take agriculture development from lead farmers to lead villages to create model states, managing trustee S.S. Rajsekar said, explaining the raison d'etre behind the training programme. NAF attempted to energise the rural sector by focussing on agriculture, livestock, watershed and social development. While the technical inputs came from the NAF, it was Rotary Club of Madras East that funded the entire project, according to Mr. Rajsekar. On the suggestion of another board member M.R. Sivaraman, NAF and the Rotary Club of Madras East will come together to conduct soil tests for all farmers in the villages from which the five guests hail. The six farmers spent a week at NAF's centre in Chunnampet village, Kancheepuram district. Under the tutelage of Prof. P. Kalyanasundaram and M.R. Ramasubramaniyan, NAF's agricultural scientists who speak a smattering of Hindi, the guests from Vidarbha have come off being very impressed with the pace of development in Tamil Nadu, the involvement of the State and non-governmental agencies in farming. "No one has told us these techniques can be applied. They showed us how a huge difference can be made by merely digging deep with the chisel plough. It is so simple to do, we are surely going to implement it back home,' Jagtap says. Apart from learning about farming techniques, watershed development and livestock management, the farmers will also go home impressed about the success Tamil Nadu has made of self-help groups. Prashant says, "We have SHGs too. Except they are only self groups, they help no one, not even themselves!'