The Arvari Sansad, a farmer's parliament, was formed by villagers in Índia in 1999 with the primary objective of safeguarding community efforts for the conservation and use of their scarce natural resources. The role of the Arvari Sansad is to develop policies and rules while they also elect a coordination committee, which is responsible for ensuring that policies and rules are followed. One policy recently decided upon by the Arvari Sansad, was to support cropping patterns favouring local indigenous crops, which use less water. Therefore, sugar cane production for commercial purposes was discouraged. Some poorer farmers (members), however, raised objections since they needed to grow sugar cane for domestic use for making sweets, for special occasions like marriages and festivities such as Diwali or Holi. Through a democratic process of debate and discussions the Arvari Sansad arrived at an innovative and sustainable solution to this issue which they call the “compensatory agricultural crop pattern”.
