Category Archives: Agriculture

The benefits of sustainable animal husbandry and multi-purpose plantations

September 23, 2024 | By Vaagdhara
The benefits of sustainable animal husbandry and multi-purpose plantations

Sarita Devi, the wife of Ruplal Kataria, lived like many other people in Jhikli, a village in the Kushalgarh tehsil in Banswara district of south Rajasthan, with modest resources. She worked from morning till night on her 4 bighas of land and also went for odd jobs in other people’s fields. She had been helping her parents with farming since childhood and continued this support even after her marriage by working in the fields with her husband. But despite all her efforts, her situation did not change. Now, at the age of 45, she has spent more than two decades in poverty without any improvement in her circumstances.

Banswara, the eastern part of South Rajasthan, is a mountainous region mainly dependent on rain-fed agriculture. The main crops grown here are cotton, maize, lentils, urad beans, mung beans, rijqa rice, etc. Farmers in the lower-lying areas also grow rice. Due to lack of water, these crops provided food and economic needs to some families for two to three months, but it was not enough to sustain their livelihood. Due to this situation, Savita Devi and her husband Ruplal also went to Surat in Gujarat to find work. However, as there was no employment available there either, she returned to the village. To earn a living, Savita Devi started small-scale activities such as rearing goats and cattle rearing. However, there was a lack of adequate knowledge and as a result, there was no significant improvement in her livelihood. Although the region was always rich in natural resources, the communities lacked sufficient income due to unsustainable practices.

In 2018, things slowly started to change when Savita Devi joined the group ‘Saksham Samuh’, which advocates for gender equality and women’s empowerment in all areas. In collaboration with Vaagdhara, she started the Multi-Purpose Plantation Program to replicate the ‘Vadi’ model throughout the village. With the support of the Saksham group, Sarita Devi grew around 40 different types of plants in an orchard. Through this program, she realized how she could benefit from high-yield crop cultivation. As a result, she generated more income and received guidance on how to integrate these improvements into her livelihood and that of her five family members. Sarita Devi attended training on intercropping techniques and purchased high-quality traditional seeds for her farmland, including bamboo, mango, lemon, and guava. As part of this program, work was also carried out on soil conservation methods through mulching, and a pump for irrigation was installed in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture. This helped her to grow vegetables in the nutrient oasis and irrigate her fields, which quickly became a reliable and sustainable source of income for her family. This type of agriculture led to an improvement in the nitrogen content of the soil and an increase in soil moisture. As a result, agricultural costs decreased and production increased.

After making these changes, she immediately set up a rainwater harvesting system in her field, which ensures that sufficient water is available for irrigation and the increasing productivity remains sustainable in the years to come. Today, she earns an income of INR 65,000 a year from selling vegetables and fruits and has seen an increase in income within just two years of adopting sustainable farming techniques. Gradually, Savita Devi has also integrated other sources of income such as livestock farming into her practices.

The benefits of sustainable animal husbandry and multi-purpose plantations

Sarita Kataria explains that she applied for the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA program. With the income from NREGA, she bought a cow and with the money from the sale of milk, her livelihood began to grow. Her husband sold milk in the market for INR 50 per liter, which gave them a daily income of INR 200. With this income, she bought a buffalo, which led to a further increase in income. Today, Sarita has four buffaloes, two bullocks, and a cow. They produce 30 liters of milk daily, which she sells for INR 50 per liter, resulting in a monthly income of INR 45,000. With this income, she finances the studies of her two children at a college in Jaipur. By introducing multi-purpose plantations, vegetable cultivation, and improved livestock farming, she has not only diversified her sources of income but also achieved sustainable agricultural development and a better livelihood for her family. She remains motivated to learn more and inspires other women in the village to develop further.

Today, Sarita Devi has multiple sources of income and is financially secure. Savita Devi has an annual income of around 350,000 rupees. She also recommends other women participate in Vaagdhara’s programs to become self-reliant and change their lives.

Thousands of hands raised to preserve traditional seeds for a better future

July 11, 2024 | By Vaagdhara
Thousands of hands raised to preserve traditional seeds for a better future

Due to increasing new technologies in agriculture and the demand for hybrid seeds, the importance of traditional local seeds is gradually declining on a global scale. With the aim of improving the situation by restoring and promoting the importance of traditional seeds, Vaagdhara organised more than 90 events in the form of Seed Utsav (Seed Exchange Festival) from 18th to 22nd June 2024 under the guidance of the Agriculture and Tribal Swaraj Group in its working area, in which around 10,000 tribal farmers participated. At these events, traditional indigenous seeds were displayed and ideas about their characteristics and importance were exchanged. Beej Utsav was organised in the tribal belt of the trijunction of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. The role of women tribal farmers was particularly encouraging.

The Seed Utsav was organised with various objectives in mind, the most important of which is to ensure the conservation and availability of high-quality traditional and climate-friendly seeds. Many seed species are endangered today, hence the Seed Utsav programme was organised which involved actions like promoting traditional seed varieties through the media, ensuring the availability of traditional seeds to every family at the community level, eliminating the market dependency of seeds, practising traditional methods of seed conservation in the community and reviving traditional agricultural practices.

The community, under the leadership of the community organisations of Vaagdhara, including the Farmers’ and Adivasi Sangathan, Gram Swaraj Samuh and Bal Swaraj Groups, participated in the Seed Utsav by parading around the villages with traditional musical instruments and spreading slogans for the conservation of indigenous seeds. Farmers contributed all the seed varieties that they preserve and seed exhibitions were organised where the farmers exchanged their seeds with one another. Moreover, the discussions on traditional seeds raised awareness about their quality, their health benefits, as well as the methods and measures to preserve them.

At a time when a few multinational companies are doing their best to consolidate their dominance over the world’s seed resources, events like the Beej Utsav help to protect and strengthen farmers’ rights to their seeds. More than 50 varieties of traditional seeds were presented at the exhibition, including some that are threatened with extinction: Black Kang, Red Maize, Santhi Maize, Ragi, Rajgira in the cereals category; Bailadiya Urad in the pulses category; Brown Gourd, Aabka in the vegetables category; Gundi, Arudu, Kosch, Nagfali, Timru, Ramphal in the crops category. The community also took an oath to preserve and promote these varieties. The farmers who devoted themselves to the protection of seeds were given a special honour. They were honoured as Seed Mitras or Seed Mothers.

The secretary of the organisation, Jayesh Joshi, said that it is the tribal community that has preserved the heritage of its natural resources for centuries. This heritage especially includes traditional local seeds, which are of utmost importance in today’s world where a few multinational companies are increasingly controlling the world’s seed industry. By organising such seed festivals or seed fairs, the organisation tries to set an example for the tribal community to other communities and the outside world so that they too are inspired to preserve the local seeds in their respective areas.

This is the only way Beej Swaraj can be restored in the true sense of the word.

This Beej Utsav also has a special significance for the preparations for the Kharif harvest, as the seeds are sown with the rains. Therefore, the exchange of seeds and information is particularly important at this time in order to increase one’s own chances and diversity of harvest.
As a result of all these efforts, a favourable environment for the protection of seeds in the area has been created thanks to the efforts of Vaagdhara. The farmers feel that they urgently need this work and one of the reasons for the success of the Beej Utsav is that work has been going on continuously for many years to protect these traditional seeds.

The organisation’s seed expert, Prashant Thorat, informed the participants that seeds are the basis of agriculture. Whereas farmers traditionally cultivated their own seeds and were therefore sovereign, they are becoming increasingly dependent on the external seed market. Currently, around 70 per cent of seeds are no longer in the hands of farmers, but on the market. This development is particularly favoured by politics. Every year, the central and state governments spend thousands of rupees on providing hybrid seeds. This hybrid seed is not only transported over hundreds of kilometres but is mostly unsuitable for the local conditions and climate. Additionally, due to hybrid seeds and modern farming methods, the expenditure on irrigation, toxic chemicals and pesticides is continuously increasing, which results in the cost of farming rising day by day. Therefore, agriculture is becoming a loss-making business. At the same time, the availability of traditional local seeds, which are rich in nutrients and suitable for the local climate, is constantly decreasing. The youth is forgetting the culture of seed conservation, traditional seed saving and promotion. Under these circumstances, we need to recognise our seed culture and make serious efforts to restore Seed Swaraj in the community.

Parmesh Patidar, Programme Implementation Lead of Vaagdhara, remarked that in this age of increasing marketisation, this Beej Utsav will prove to be an effective means of reducing the market dependence of marginal tribal farmers on seeds as traditional seeds are a symbol of agricultural traditions and cultural heritage passed on from generation to generation. These seeds have many characteristics, e.g. they are adapted to the local climate and soil, which means they produce higher yields and require less care, promote biodiversity and help maintain ecological balance. In addition, plants grown from traditional seeds are rich in health-promoting elements. It is therefore important to preserve traditional indigenous seeds so that we can offer future generations a better tomorrow.

Majid Khan, Lead of Vaagdhara Technical Support Unit, said that active participation of local farmers, members of the Saksham Samooh, members of the Gram Sawaraj Samooh, members of Bal Swaraj Samooh and members of Krish Evam Adivasi Swaraj Sangthan was ensured to make the Beej Utsav programme successful. The children were not only educated about the importance of traditional seeds but were also allowed to share their experiences and knowledge. To preserve traditional seeds, the programme focused on setting up seed banks in the communities to safely store the traditional seeds brought by the farmers. This way, the seeds of the future can be preserved and nurtured.

The villagers are very enthusiastic about the Beej Utsav. According to farmer Vjiaypal, there is now a platform for everything the community wants to know and do to protect indigenous seeds. Now they will also involve the youth and take this work forward. Other farmers, especially women, felt that such seed festivals should be organised every year. A farmer named Kesar shared that she had brought many types of seeds and is taking home a variety of new seeds. We all benefit from such an exchange.

One reason for the success of the Beej Utsav is that Vaagdhara has been working to protect traditional seeds for many years. Many marches have been undertaken to raise awareness on the importance of the traditional seed varieties, training sessions have been organised on how to continue this seed protection and efforts have been made in various villages to save community seeds.

Government officials and employees of the Ministry of Agriculture, elected representatives of the Panchayat and colleagues from other institutions were also united at the Beej Utsav. This way, it became a broad-based effort and received the support of all.

To conclude, here are the words of PL Patel, a senior partner of the organisation: “We hope that such Beej Utsav will continue to be organised successfully in the future as they bring great benefits to all.

Onion gave tears of happiness to Kesar Bai

June 26, 2024 | By Vaagdhara
Onion gave tears of happiness to Kesar Bai

Kesar Bai gave a unique example of how we can make our lives better with fewer resources and it has also become an inspiration for other women in the village.

Kesar Bai is a 43-year-old tribal marginal farmer woman who cultivates her livelihood with her husband Ranglal Bamaniya, who cultivates wheat, and maize in rainfed farming on 2 bighas of land. There are 4 boys and 1 girl in Kesar Bai’s family and they also have supplementary cattle for farming. They have 8 goats and 3 buffaloes. Kesar Bai shares her hand in homework along with laboring in agriculture.

Onion gave tears of happiness to Kesar Bai

Kesar Bai was connected in 2018 by VAAGDHARA, in which Kesar Bai associated with this saksham group and learned how true farming and organic farming is relevant in today’s world. This was explained to women of 20 capable groups by facilitator Gauri Gendot. VAAGDHARA Sansthan gave regular participation in the meeting, Kesar Bai & Mahila saksham Group got details of sustainable integrated farming and vermicompost dasparni organic farming.

Vegetable pests were given to these saksham groups by the VAAGDHARA, they were given seeds of coriander, chili, brinjal, tomatoes, onions, etc. The aim of the VAAGDHARA was that these women should put a nutrition garden in their fields or houses where there is available space and eat the vegetable from these nutrition gardens for good health. VAAGDHARA facilitator Gauri Gandot trained her with the Nemastra Dasparni Vermicompost in her home’s nutrition garden.

Surprisingly, from 2018 to 2020, onion seed conservation was done by Kesar Bai, which was taught by Vaagdhara and planted in the area (20 X 5) in December 2020 and by putting organic fertilizers and vermicompost. Kesar Bai produced 1.5 quintals of onions in her nutrition garden. Those onions at the rate of Rs. 30-35 and she earned Rs. 3500/-. In particular, all these onions were produced from the waste of borewells.

Nutritive analysis of indigenous and traditional food items in Banswara district, Rajasthan

May 05, 2024 | By Vaagdhara (NGO) and LANSA
Nutritive analysis of indigenous and traditional food items in Banswara district, Rajasthan

Our analytical study on traditional indigenous foods items which are available and consumed by few tribal families in the Banswara district, have potential to provide rich nutrition to the community. Many micronutrient rich plant foods (different food groups) which were part of their daily dietary intake, but now at the verge of extinction. There are a good number of food items which are still preferred and consumed which are rich in sodium, potassium, iron, calcium, vitamin A, vitamin-B and vitamin C.

The food items which were analyzed for their nutrition content as part of the study were also found to be good sources of one or more micronutrients.Some of these indigenous foods also reportedly had medicinal properties which were known to the local community based on practical knowledge and traditional wisdom. Based on some of our findings and evidence from previous literature, there is likely a scientific basis to these beliefs. Supporting and advocating  for the consumption of indigenous plants for their nutritive values and medicinal properties through knowledge and behavior change communication and policy interventions could present opportunities for improving community health outcomes.While people know about the rich diversity of the flora in the district of Banswara and isolated efforts by individuals and groups are underway to conserve the natural biodiversity for food and livelihood security, documentation of nutrient content of May such food items are rare. In this direction, our findings are significant in a situation of high rates of chronic malnourishment in all population groups of Bhil tribe in the area which compromises the health and well-being of women and children and the community at large.

The enormous natural diversity present in the indigenous foods with the potential to contribute to nutritionally complete dietary patterns, the existence of trans-generational knowledge of their uses within the community and the ease of assimilation of these foods into the routine diets of the tribal can be leveraged to address malnutrition. Listing and identification of more underutilized food items and incorporating testing of their nutritive value and developing education materials at a community level would be important for reviving place in their diets. In this context of promoting nutrition kitchen garden could be used as effective strategies for consumption of indigenous foods for improved nutrition.

Our study is an important step towards documenting the nutrient rich indigenous foods in this tribal community which could be used for quantification of nutrient intake in this community. To the best of our knowledge, no previous study has looked at the dietary and nutritional aspects of the indigenous foods in the tribal of Banswara district. We would also like to highlight that there are many more such indigenous food items yet to be identified in adjoining districts offering immense scope of further study in this geographical area with such tremendous food and plant biodiversity and help community in fighting malnutrition.

Coloma
Coloma
Kandogola
Kandogola
Bokna
Bokna
Kang
Kang

Farmers on road again, this time for larger woes of farming

February 24, 2024 | By Binny Yadav
Farmers on road again, this time for larger woes of farming

Farmers in India are back on the borders of Delhi again within a gap of three years. The last time they camped on the Delhi borders for almost thirteen months demanding withdrawal of three farm laws introduced by the Narendra Modi government. There was no immediate trigger this time unlike the last and long-stretched protest, but the issue of current protest has been the collective farmer’s concerns for long. The major demand this time is a ‘legal guarantee for the minimum support price (MSP)’ for almost all the crops.

The other demands include the implementation of Swaminathan formula for MSP, full debt waiver for the farmers and labourers and withdrawal of cases against farmers during 2020-21 protest.

That the farmers’ march of 2024 is different from the one of 2020-21 was clear from the day it became clear that farmers would meet their deadline of ‘Dilli Chalo’ for February 13. The battle-like barricading and wire-fencing of borders of Delhi from the nearing state of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh was a clear indication that the government was much prepared to hold the farmers’ entry into the national capital. While the government engaged in several rounds of inconclusive talks with farmers’ leaders by the end of second week of february, the borders became a literal combat zone as police engaged with  farmers using rubber bullets and tear gas shells to quell the agitation leading to the death of a farmer on 16th february.

The current farmers protest is also different in a way that this is led by Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann unlike last time when no political party was ‘apparently’ allowed to be part of the negotiation nor the protest.

The protest initiated by the rice and wheat growing farmers of north India, as the MSP issue majorly impacts these farmers from states like Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, issues of implementation of Swaminathan Commission formula in MSP and pension for farm labourers covers almost every farmer while also reflecting upon the general state of agriculture in India.

The palpable anger in the farming community is the reflection of general agrarian woes and the demand for reform in the MSP system reflects years of neglect of the agrarian economy, which has seen declining real income and real wages.

Understanding legal guarantee for MSP

Almost every government of the world supports its farmers by guaranteeing with minimum support price to insulate farmers from price volatility through active intervention when the market price of the crop is lower than the MSP. This is also a simple mechanism to ensure price stability of essential agricultural commodities. The current issue is spearheaded by the farmers which majorly grow rice and wheat but the MSP issue impacts all the major 23 crops for which the government ensures MSP every year before the sowing season but hardly it is followed for most crops barring rice and wheat and few others. Even for these crops the market intervention by the government is not done to support the farmers but to fulfill its obligation under the National Food Security Act.

Without the legal guarantee for MSP, farmers in these states fear that they may not receive remunerative prices for their crops, especially when market prices fall below MSP. From the farmers’ perspective, an MSP safety net helps save them from market price fluctuations and uncertainties in agricultural production.

What is Swaminathan commission Recommendation for MSP

Renowned agricultural scientist M S Swaminathan, who was recently conferred upon the Bharat Ratna by the government was part of the National Commission on Farmers (NCF) which submitted a total of five reports between December 20024-2006. Based on these submissions, the government approved the National Policy for Farmers in 2007 with an aim to improve the economic viability of farming and increase the net income of farmers.

Out of 201 recommendations by the NCF the major recommendation was that the MSP should be at least 50 percent more than the weighted average cost of production, which is one of the major demands of currently protesting farmers in Delhi. This is also known as the C2+50 percent formula, which includes the input cost of the capital and the rent on the land to give farmers 50 per cent of the returns.

The Narendra Modi government accepted 200 out of 201 recommendations and farmers are now demanding the implementation of all the recommendations of Swaminathan Commission including the C2+50 percent formula along with the legal guarantee for MSP on all the crops.