Sowing Diversity = Harvesting Security

Sowing Diversity = Harvesting Security “in order that our seeds are not lost�

Participatory visual methods to enhance women farmers’ seed security and local biodiversity in agroecological food systems Sowing Diversity = Harvesting Security (SD=HS) is a project to empower women in rural communities in West Africa and India to grow and use a wide range of nutritious crops that enhance their food sovereignty and nutrition security in the context of climate change. The overall objective of the SD=HS activities on Women, Seeds and Nutrition is to empower women to reclaim their role in food security through strengthening their capacity in seeds management and nutrition as well as global policy engagement to claim their right to food.

The project partners are the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR) at Coventry University in the United Kingdom, the Convergence des femmes rurales pour la souveraineté alimentaire (COFERSA) in Mali, the Association des Producteurs de Semences Paysannes (ASPSP) in Senegal and the Deccan Development Society (DDS) in India. The partners have come together to work with horizontal networks of women farmers and support them in saving and producing seeds of locally adapted crops - such as millets, sorghum, fonio, pigeon pea, and cowpea as part of agroecological farming systems, and also in sharing knowledge about the use of wild edible plants. An additional feature is to facilitate women farmers’ active political engagement in influencing policies and institutions, from the local to the global level, in order to strengthen their right to food and reclaim Farmers’ Rights to agricultural biodiversity.

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Recognizing that process is as important as content when it comes to empowerment, partners have committed to embracing Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodologies. The PAR approach values knowledge held by local communities and can be used as a means to support these communities to generate new knowledge. This happens through a process of collective enquiry based on iterative cycles of action-reflection-action. The PAR approach combines a range of methods and tools from different traditions and locations, and tailored to local needs. Two such tools employed in the project are the related participatory video (PV ) and community based film-making methods that enable women farmers to document and collectively reflect on their life and work during the course of the SD=HS project and beyond.

Participatory video is used to capture key project activities, from trainings on subjects such as seedsaving, nutrition and agroecological farming practices, to citizen debates and community celebrations of biodiversity and food. In the PV method the filming itself is a learning process which forms an integral part of Farmer Platforms for Mutual Learning or Farmer Field Schools and other activities.

In the SD=HS project the PV method has been designed to strengthen the capacity of horizontal networks of women farmers’ organisations in West Africa and India.

Our history of community-based film-making The Deccan Development Society’s (DDS) Community Media Trust has been training rural women in India since the 1990s in the use of video as a means to articulate their concerns, to reflect on those concerns with the aim of inducing change, and to communicate them to an external audience through visual expression. Making a film thus becomes a process of learning to speak up, to be heard, and to be counted.

The first film made by the women farmers with DDS support is called Ten Women and a Camera. It is an account of their initial training experience. It looks at how the act and the process of film-making have impacted on women farmers and their lives. Here are some excerpts: Punyamma - Dalit single parent, non-literate from Zaheerabad, Telangana “Earlier I was busy with work and unconcerned with others.

After becoming a film-maker I started understanding other people’s problems. I understand problems of my own community and also others by traveling to many places.”

Laxmamma - Dalit farmworker, single parent, nonliterate from Humnapur, Telangana “Since I learnt filming people always welcome me. My relationships have grown. I feel very good now. I thought people like us cannot film. Now I know, everyone can.”

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Chinna Narsamma - Single woman, Dalit farm labourer, non-literate from Pastapur, Telangana “We, who had no idea what a camera is, are now making our own films. I am also training women in film-making.

In Peru I trained rural women like us in camera work. If I did not learn video, could I have gone there?.... The camera has enhanced our relationship with communities. Our status has increased, we know more people.”

Our history of community-based film-making The women from the two African partners, the COFERSA in Mali and the ASPSP in Senegal, have seen the women farmers from the Indian partners using their cameras and filming at several international gatherings since 2006. First in 2006 at the Citizens’ Jury on GMOs and the Future of Farming held in Sikasso (Mali), and then again in 2007 and 2014 at the farmer exchanges for mutual learning held in Woloni (Mali) and then in Djimini (Senegal).

These encounters have inspired the African women to begin their own filming processes with the support of the SD=HS project.

Indian woman farmer videofilming the opening of the Citizens’ Jury on GMOs and the Future of Farming in Sikasso, Mali, January 2006 Video-filming of farmer learning exchange in Woloni, Mali, February 2007

Indian woman farmer filming at the Regional West African Seed Fair, Djimini, Senegal, March 2014

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Empowering women through community-based film-making in the SD=HS project in India In the SD-HS project women film-makers of the DDS Community Media Trust have continued to actively document key events in their own life, the life of women sanghams (voluntary village level associations of the poor) and of the Deccan Development Society. They have captured key activities in the project’s focus on women, seeds and nutrition.

Participatory inventory of uncultivated edible plants Young women gather under a tamarind tree to conduct a participatory inventory of uncultivated edible plants they use to feed themselves and their families Pasthapur, India, October 2015

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Empowering women through community-based film-making in the SD=HS project in India

Participatory inventory of uncultivated edible plants Women are collectively ranking the uncultivated edible plants according to benefits they identify.

These benefits are: it is healthy; it gives you strength; it is good for lactating mothers and infants; it is tasty; it has medicinal properties; it is used in ceremonies; it is freely accessible Pasthapur, India, October 2015

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Empowering women through community-based film-making in the SD=HS project in India

Farmer Mutual Learning Platforms in the millet fields Women are filming the farmers who are weeding their fields and also interacting with scientists from Krishi Vignyan Kendra (KVK) Farm Science Centre. These scientists are present to learn from women farmers about natural pest management and agricultural biodiversity.

Huligera in Telangana, August 2015

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Empowering women through community-based film-making in the SD=HS project in India

Farmer Mutual Learning Platforms in the millet fields Women from the DDS document the knowledge of women farmers on biodiversity-rich agricultural practices.

Huligera in Telangana, August 2015

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Empowering women through community-based film-making in the SD=HS project in India

Strengthening horizontal networks of women farmers Women farmers from DDS are bonding in solidarity with women farmers from the Northeast Network as they share and document stories on the relevance of traditional seeds in their life and work.

Nagaland, India, March 2016

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Empowering women through community-based film-making in the SD=HS project in India

Strengthening horizontal networks of women farmers Women farmers from tribal communities celebrate Burlang Yatra, a traditional festival of seeds and biodiversity held in the village of Bikapunga, while women from the DDS film the event.

Orissa, India, March 2016

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Empowering women through community-based film-making in the SD=HS project in India The film ‘Cotton Reality’- produced by the women film-makers of the DDS Community Media Trust as part of the SD=HS project - shows how women farmers growing locally adapted and drought resistant crops like millets and other plants are able to feed themselves and their families.

As DDS describe in their introduction to the film on You Tube: “Meedoddi Vinoda in Nagwar village, Raikode Mandal grows 18 different crops on her 3 acres of land despite the unfavorable climatic conditions. She uses her own seeds and manure.

Adjacent to her field is the farm of Tenugu Yadaiah who grows Bt cotton as a single crop. He buys seed, manure and pesticides from the external market.

His farm fails to provide him with food or fodder for his cattle, making him completely dependent on external sources for all of these. In contrast, Vinoda grows sufficient food (sorghum, millets. pulses, oil seeds…) for her whole family for an entire year making her completely self-sufficient. The story of Vinoda and Yadaiah reflects the current situation of Telangana farmers as a whole. One story talks about self- confidence, regeneration of life, and hope. The other story about the hopelessness, dependency and desperation: cotton cash crop farming has all too often led farmers to become indebted and commit suicide.”

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Empowering women through community-based film-making in the SD=HS project in West Africa Inspired by their sisters in India and thanks to the SD=HS project, women from the COFERSA in Mali and the ASPSP in Senegal have seized the opportunity in 2015 to learn how to use video cameras and experiment with community-based film-making.

First training workshop on participatory video Fifteen women from Mali and Senegal gather for a first training workshop on participatory video facilitated by Anne Berson, CAWR video trainer and expert in farmers’ seed systems in West Africa SÊgou, Mali, April 2015

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Empowering women through community-based film-making in the SD=HS project in West Africa

First training workshop on participatory video As a source of inspiration at the outset of the training, the women watch short videos produced by the DDS Media Community Trust in India on a range of themes - Bt cotton, vermicomposting, and village-level millet milling machines.

Collective discussions follow on the usefulness for women from rural communities of filming their work with video cameras.

Some of the main benefits identified are archiving, external visibility, publicity, a source of new knowledge, additional income stream, documentation of knowledge and experiences and “an image is worth a thousand words�.

SĂŠgou, Mali, April 2015

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Empowering women through community-based film-making in the SD=HS project in West Africa

First training workshop on participatory video Participants unpack the equipment and familiarize themselves with the cameras SĂŠgou, Mali, April 2015

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Empowering women through community-based film-making in the SD=HS project in West Africa

First training workshop on participatory video Women learn how to set up the tripod for the camera SĂŠgou, Mali, April 2015

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Empowering women through community-based film-making in the SD=HS project in West Africa

First training workshop on participatory video They explore the range of functions on a camera SĂŠgou, Mali, April 2015

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Empowering women through community-based film-making in the SD=HS project in West Africa

First training workshop on participatory video Women experiment filming from various angles SĂŠgou, Mali, April 2015

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Empowering women through community-based film-making in the SD=HS project in West Africa

First training workshop on participatory video And taking different shots SĂŠgou, Mali, April 2015

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Empowering women through community-based film-making in the SD=HS project in West Africa

First training workshop on participatory video Women are making a first attempt at downloading rushes from the camera to the computer and viewing the first images recorded SĂŠgou, Mali, April 2015

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Empowering women through community-based film-making in the SD=HS project in West Africa

First training workshop on participatory video After having prepared a storyboard, interview questions and a planning of shots, women have a choice for their first hands on experience to create a short video - at the weekly market of Segou in Mali‌ SÊgou, Mali, April 2015

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Empowering women through community-based film-making in the SD=HS project in West Africa

First training workshop on participatory video …or at the Hambe Garden on the shores of the Niger river…

Ségou, Mali, April 2015

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Empowering women through community-based film-making in the SD=HS project in West Africa

First training workshop on participatory video ‌or the weekly pottery burning in Kalabougou village SÊgou, Mali, April 2015

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Empowering women through community-based film-making in the SD=HS project in West Africa

First training workshop on participatory video Downloading rushes, first attempt at editing and critical viewing of videos SĂŠgou, Mali, April 2015

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Empowering women through community-based film-making in the SD=HS project in West Africa

Follow-up video training and making of the first film by the women in the new media and communications team of the ASPSP Oussouye, SĂŠnĂŠgal, January 2016

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Empowering women through community-based film-making in the SD=HS project in West Africa Francisca DIOUF, “Women, Farmers’ Seeds and Nutrition” programme coordinator at ASPSP, Senegal “We came to Oussouye for a media and communications training. The idea is to teach women how to handle the camera, take shots, film and edit. These women are farmers.

They grow vegetables and also produce seeds, and different kinds of cereals. There are three regions in this area and each one has its distinct food culture. In one of the regions the staple food is rice, while in another one it is millet...

This idea of ​​training women in video came from our sisters in India. Because we invited our Indians friends to the Seed Fair in Djimini (Senegal), and they brought with them Indian women who were using video cameras to film.

From this, we thought: ‘why couldn’t African women learn to handle the camera just like the Indian women do...

First (draft) of one of two videos on community-based film-making in Senegal produced by women from the ASPSP in Senegal. In this film they share their personal experiences on the video training and community film-making. The other film focuses on traditional techniques for rice cultivation Oussouye, Senegal, January 2016

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Nobody is born with knowledge… So why couldn’t rural women learn to handle video and photo cameras? This training of camerawomen will enable rural women to make their own documentaries, to show things they have been doing since the time of their ancestors and which have not been documented. They can document all this now in their own way.”

Empowering women through community-based film-making in the SD=HS project in West Africa

Follow-up video training and producing the first film by the women in the new media and communications team of the COFERSA SĂŠgou, Mali, March 2016

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Empowering women through community-based film-making in the SD=HS project in West Africa Sata BERTHE, COFERSA member from Toussegela, Mali “I will raise awareness among people on the use of compost, because it is very important. The training also involved information on different soil types, which soil corresponds to what seed, we have learned all this at the training. Regarding water, we learned the various utilities of water. Water is life.”

Tenin KANTE, COFERSA member from Yanfolila, Mali

A draft of one of two videos produced by women from the COFERSA. This film is on agroecological farming practices for food sovereignty and is linked to the Farmers’ Mutual Learning Platforms. The second is about on-farm biodiversity Sikasso, Mali, March 2016

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“We have to save the local seeds we have, that’s what we have learned here, because they are disappearing. Our maize, okra and peanut seeds. We must do everything we can so that they do not disappear. Before, we did not buy seeds. They were exchanged, but today it takes money to get seeds. If you do not pay for it, you do not get any. The recommendation I want to make to the government is that they do all they can in order that our seeds are not lost and that they support women’s cooperatives ... so we may preserve our farmers’ seeds and the government also supports research on farmers’ seeds.”

Publication date: 2016 Photos courtesy of: Biodiversité, Échanges et Diffusion d’Expériences, France Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, United Kingdom Deccan Development Society, India Text: Csilla Kiss and Michel Pimbert Design: www.cleverdesign.uk.com

This material/production has been financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida.

Responsibility for the content rests entirely with the creator. Sida does not necessarily share the expressed views and interpretations.