Community Managed Decentralised Food Distribution System

In the guise of “feeding the poor and hungry” a model of industrial agriculture was proposed by the Western world. In the year 1960 the Indian government succumbed to pressure and adopted it. What it meant essentially was to promote two cereals, rice and wheat, at the expense of other food crops like millets, cereals and pulses. The system of mono cropping emerged and to increase yield land devoted to other agricultural produce was shifted to the above two types of grains.

Hybrid and high yielding seeds were introduced. These seeds being strangers in a new location had to be supplemented with huge amounts of chemical fertilizers. These crops also required more water and money was invested in irrigation systems and in creating infrastructure for electricity so that farmers could use pumps to exploit ground water. Pest attacks increased and pesticides became a major investment the farmers had to contend with.

Devoid of natural nutrients fertility of the soil diminished with time. This was despite more and more application of chemical inputs. Not only soil fertility, this intensive system of agriculture destroyed local self reliance by offering incentives and opportunities to farmers to cater to national demand rather than local or personal needs. Villages shifted from self reliance to becoming dependant on rationed foods and beneficiaries of a public distribution system that offered them only two nutrition deficient poisoned grains, polished rice and wheat.

In Orissa, just as in British times, the farmers, particularly in tribal districts, are being encouraged to shift towards cash crops, particularly in dry land areas. Cotton has emerged to be the major crop in these areas which earlier had a very diverse array of paddy, millets, vegetables and greens. Today these food crops and associated uncultivated greens have been replaced by cotton, sunflower, groundnut, pineapple and such other commercial crops.

This policy has resulted in the inevitable. Cotton offers much but delivers little. The farmers are experiencing that though they invest very heavily in the crop the income is not enough for them to get out of indebtedness and improve their economic standards. Moreover by shifting from food crops they have to not only spend on food that they had access to for free earlier, they are also malnourished on account of non nutritious non diverse food. Their increasing medical expenses and the high incidence of maternal and child deaths in the region bear testimony to this.

Living Farms, after surveying the plight of indigenous farmers of Bissamcuttack block in Rayagada district, has taken cognizance of the problem being faced by the small and marginal farmers. Interaction with the farmers and discussions about the underlying economic risks of cash crops has made communities question the current external input oriented modern agriculture system and a decision has emerged to revert back to the traditional system where they had control over seeds, choice of crop and consequently over food.

Accordingly Living Farms has started working in three villages of Bhatpur Panchayat amongst 78 house holds. Here small and marginal tribal farmers will revert back to their diverse millets based cultivation and women farmers are being empowered to form grain banks and also to recover lost land races by tracing and cultivating them. Thus self reliance will once again be a key feature in these villages, food security and sovereignty will be established, malnourishment will be tackled, biodiversity will be regained and women will take charge of food as they had done traditionally.

Background

The target villages are Nuagaon, Saan Barundabadi & Karnikupa. All these villages are revenue villages in Bhatapur Gram Panchayat. in Bissamcuttack mandal of Rayagada district. A total of 78 households are living in these three villages. The total population is 559 out of which 62% is adult & rest is children.

Each household has 3 acres of registered land out of which 68% of land is fallow land. Households use 1 acre of land for farming, to cultivate millets such as Finger millet, Little millet, Italian millet & Paddy etc. The rest of the land is kept fallow due to lack of manpower, money and/or seeds.  After the implementation of this project they have introduced two more millets (Foxtail & Pearl millet) in this year.

These villages are located below the contiguous area of plateau of the Niyamgiri hill ranges, part of Eastern Ghats, around 5 - 8 kilometers away from the nearest Niyamgiri hill villages. The inhabitants all belong to Talia tribe, a sub group of Dongria Kondhs, one of the 13 indigenous communities in Orissa.

All families belong to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category. They are getting 25kg of rice & 3 liters of kerosene every month from the government.

Agriculture Pattern

According to a 65 years old man, 20 years ago the villagers had traditional knowledge on mixed farming. In their mixed farming they were cultivating Finger millets, Italian millet, Pearl millet, Foxtail millet, Black gram, Niger, Pigeon pea, Cow pea etc in one farm. According to the elder, for mixed farming one chose compatible seeds so that each plant could grow freely and get nutrition from soil. In this process the plant gets sunlight, water, and air easily. The creeper plants like Cowpea get support from plants like Sorghoum. After harvesting of Sorghoum, the remaining part of the crop was used as compost for the soil.

In 1993 the government introduced the hy yield paddy crop and after one year cotton was introduced in their village. In the same year first time they used fertilizer (Urea & Potassium) and pesticide (Endosulphan) for stem borer in paddy.

Now the villagers are cultivating Sorghum & Finger millets in mixed farming. Other variety of millets seeds are gradually vanishing mainly due to introduction of cotton & paddy crop by government.

The harvest of millets is 150kg of Finger millets, 100 kg of little millet and 80kg of Sorghum per acre. These crops can provide food for one family (2 adult & 2 children) for only 4 months (October ~ January). Therefore they work as laborers and under the NREGS scheme & with the railways for two months (February ~ March). Doing this, they are able to get food for about 6 months in a year. The following 5 months (April ~ August), the women of the family collect forest wood & other collectives such as mango, jack fruit, tubers from the forest to sell in the local market. This is however not enough to feed them and these months are months of food scarcity. In the month of September, they harvest maize & some times cowpea which is not sufficient though to feed them and meet their nutrition needs.

Initiating the Community process

The work started in the months of April-May ’09 in all our targeted villages. The work began on 1st April in Karnikupa village, 4th May ‘09 in Saan Brundabadi & 9th May ‘09 in Nuagaon villages.

A total of sixty two farmer families have decided to grow millets collectively in their own patta land of seventy two acres of fallow land. Added to it, Nuagaon farmers have taken twenty two acres of land on lease for next five years. Thus in total 94 acres of fallow land is available for cultivation.

These families showed their willingness to cultivate it through shared support, which would enable them to establish Community managed decentralised food distribution system in these three villages of Rayagada district in South Orissa.

Thus within the sixty two farmer families, three village level women farmer groups were formed - “Nuagaon Mahila Chasi Sangathan” (16 families), “Sanabrundabadi Mahila Chasi Sangathan” (31 families) and “Karinikupa Mahila Chasi Sangathan” (15 families). They are keeping their group accounts in the nearby Utkal Gramya Bank, Chatikona, for financial transactions involved in this process.

The Nuagaon women farmers group has 16 acres of fallow land. They are getting 330 kg of millets per acre in a year. One family (2 adult & 2 children) consume 2 kg of millets in one day. Total 960 kg of millets is consumed by 16 farmers in this village in one month.

The group decided to cultivate 22 acres of more land from which they can get 7260 kg of more millets. By this way they can survive 4800 kg of food for 5 months. They can conserve 460 kg of seeds for next year. Rest of 2000 kg of surplus millets will be stored for PDS.

One farmer in their neighboring village has 22 acres of fallow land in one place. He is alone and couldn’t do farming in his land. He wanted to give the land on lease. On their own the villagers couldn’t cultivate this kind of extra land because they did not have sufficient seeds, manpower & financial support. With help of this project the Nuagaon women farmer group took the 22 acres of lease land at a cost of Rs 22, 500/- for 5 years. An agreement has been signed on court stamp paper between the women farmer group and land owner. After the agreement, the Sarapanch of Bhatpur panchayat was informed about the nature of work undertaken, the goal and the quantum of land taken on lease for this purpose. A passbook has been opened in the name of the leader of three groups. The cost of lease land has been given by the project in form of a draft. From 92 acres of fallow land, individual owned land is 72 acres and rests 22 acres of land are community lease land.

Seed Sowing Planning

A rectangle was drawn on the ground with charcoal to represent the cultivable land and to determine the amount of seed available with the farmer and to know how much land could be cultivated with the available seeds. They had taken sand & mixture of sand & soil. Sand was used to denote Finger millets and the mixture was used to denote little millets seeds. Then each farmer sowed the sand & the mixture in that rectangle by assuming as 1 acre of land. It was observed that in three villages 28.5 kg of little millets seeds were available with 19 farmers. The 28.5 kg of seeds can be used only in 10 acres of  land. The other 43 farmers could not share their seeds to the 84 acres of land. So they have decided to procure seeds from other place.

Seed collection & distribution

As per season the group has decided to sow the Kharif crop. The amount of seed required per acre and which seeds are compatible and can be cultivated together was discussed and recorded on chart paper. The group procured 940 kg of seeds @ 22 rupees per kg from Barikula village which is 25 km distance from project village. One farmer of Barikula village is cultivating the traditional verities of millets seeds. He is conserving seeds & also selling the seeds. The project supported the total amount of Rs20, 275 /- to the villagers for purchasing of 940 kg of seeds.

Land weeding & Ploughing

In all the three villages the farmers, individually and collectively, finished weeding activities. Farmers who have already completed the weeding in their fields are helping others in this work.

Before sowing seed the community had planned to finish the ploughing of 94 acres of land. The ploughing was done by both men & women farmers. From the group discussion it came that they need 10 ploughs for ploughing of one acre of land. And the land needs 4~5 times of ploughing. Each group is divided into 4 sub groups. So each group has 4~5 ploughs, they divided their land into 4 parts. This is how 4 subgroups of farmer started their ploughing from 4 directions of land. Farmers who have no bullock have to borrow one pair of bullocks for ploughing. In return they have to give food for one day to bullocks by grazing the bullocks and additionally at the end of the day they have to return the bullocks with grass leaves as their food.

Manure application

With the help of a chart paper & two different size of red stickers (large & small), the villagers were able to show the availability of compost with them. The large sticker indicates the number of cows & bullocks available with them and the small sticker indicates the calf. They had deposited cow dung in an open space which is allowed to drain away in rain. It became clear in the meeting during discussions amongst farmers that they needed 8 quintals of vermin-compost per acre in a year. But they have only 4 quintals of cow dung which is not enough for them to depend upon. Keeping this in mind they have applied 50kg of vermi-compost per acre of cultivated land so as to increase the yield. Total 4600 kg of vermi-compost was applied in 94 acres of farm land at a cost of Rs 29, 140 /- and was supported by this project. The vermi-compost was procured from Rayagada agriculture department & Gunupur farmers’ association group.

Seed Sowing

After manure application the groups planned to sow seeds in their land. They have some little millet seeds which are minor millets and some of the varieties of seeds like Jowar, Finger millets (big size) and Foxtail millets, given by the project which are becoming rare in their villages. The practice of worshiping seeds is slowly being eroded, so an elder woman “Ravi Kanika” (age 62) of Karnikupa village suggested worshiping the seeds before sowing. The aim of “Manji Puja” (Seed worship) is to pray to God for healthy farming. They believe that if their “Dharani penu” (The Mother Earth) will be happy, there will be no pest attack in their farm, the climate will be favorable for farming, yield will be more & overall there will not be any distraction in their farming. This seed worship festival was organized by Bejuni (the priestess of village). They offered Ragi to “The Mother Earth” as “Prasad” which was procured from the homes of each farmer. Then everybody had Prasad & prepared to go for sowing seeds in their land.

In the group meeting the villagers have decided to do mixed farming. They sow 9 kg of Finger millet seeds in one acre land. In this year they have different types of millets & vegetable seeds. They had taken the proportion of seed like 5 kg of Finger millet, 1 kg of Black gram & 800 gm of Jowar seeds for one acre of land.  So total 9 kg of different millet seeds were prepared for one acre of land. They mixed Finger millets, Black gram & Jowar together & sown in 80% of their land. The remaining part 20% of farm land they have sown little millets.

And they have sown Cow pea & Niger (an oil seed) along the bund of the farm land. Cowpeas will use the stem of the Niger plants to climb. Like that they have sown seeds in another 22 acres of lease land in one place.

Farming Situation

As of 8th October 09 in all three villages the height of Ragi plant become 8 inch ~1.5 ft, little millets become 9 inch ~1.5 ft, Jowar become 1 ft ~3 ft . Like that the height of black gram become 6 inch ~1 ft with flower.

Crop Plan

The villagers have made a seven months plan for the next phase of farming. By their experience they know that now they have to be much more careful for their farming. To make this plan the villagers divided into two groups, male & female. In one side 15 female farmers & other side 11 male farmers sat with a plain chart paper. Keeping in their mind their own work, the following time line was prepared to plan their work. They have made a crop plan which indicates the type of work, duration of work, person responsible & the activity done.

Record Maintenance

The groups are maintaining meeting record, income-expenditure record and farming details of individual farmer’s record. From the record it is clear that they have plan to spend Rs 3775/- per acre from that Rs 275/- will be their own contribution as wages in weeding & ploughing , manure transportation & application, seed distribution & sowing, weeding & land cleaning & ploughing.

Problems faced

The farmers of Nuagaon female farmers group had sown seeds in the 1st week of September in their lease land. They faced continuous 4~5 days heavy rain after sowing seeds. So the germination failed in those 22 acres of land. The farmers once again sowed the seeds in the same pattern by procuring 34 kg of seeds from a farmer of another village. The farmers of Nuagaon female farmers group requested to give 34 kg of seeds on loan basis. In return the group will return the 50kg of seeds after harvesting of crops.

Results

• In this year 62 farmers of three villages are cultivating 30 acres of more land than previous year. So that the total no of 2068 person days are generated in 33 days by this project.
• In the 22 acres of lease land some business men from Andhra Pradesh were motivating to villagers to do cotton in their farm land. They didn’t agree with this proposal after implementation of this project.