A compilation of Ecologically Sensible Good Practices
Imprints of Ecological Footprints ‌. A compilation of Ecologically Sensible Good Practices Aug 2016 Authors: MV Rama Chandrudu Beneta Mahanta Waseem Mohammad Anitha Reddy V MB Vali Saab Editors: K Suresh MV Rama Chandrudu Visuals:Cheriyal Nakashi Artists Family - Shri D Vaikuntam and his family members Mrs. D Vanaja (wife); D Vinay and D Rakesh (sons). Design and Layout : Ankush Copy Left : These case studies could be used for non-commercial use, with proper acknowledgement. Supported by : Indian Foundation for Humanistic Development, Bengaluru Produced by : WASSAN (Watershed Support Services and Activities Network) Produced for Leaders For Nature Program. This program is collectively organized by CII; Hivos; IUCN; Wild Life Trust of India. IFHD is anchoring the Leaders for Nature Program. Published by: IFHD, Bengaluru
Acknowledgements I am very happy to present "Imprints of Ecological Footprints ‌. A compilation of Ecologically Sensible Good Practices". I take this opportunity to thank all organizations and individuals who contributed to the process of documenting these good practices. They were kind to frankly share with us their experiences, thoughts, challenges and achievements. They also shared relevant data to substantiate any critical point from their experiences. Some of them even prepared the first drafts of these case studies. They also revised them, based on our feedback. All the organizations/ individuals happily gave consent for publishing these case studies and using them for learning purposes under "Leaders for Nature" program of IFHD, IUCN, CII, Hivos and Wild Life Trust of India. The entire process of producing this compilation was an enriching and fruitful experience. It is also a humbling experience for us to learn several lessons from these interactions and visits to several villages/ sites. We genuinely believe that this compilation truly enriches the learning processes of "Leaders for Nature" program. The Writeshop was one of the important events of this process. We got guidance and feedback on the '0' drafts from the participants of the writeshop. This was useful in refining the initial drafts. The participants of writeshop also made important suggestions on the presentation and utility of these case studies. From their busy schedules, they spared few days for refining these case studies, which is a very kind gesture. I thank everyone who participated in the writeshop. Their inputs are invaluable. I thank Ms. Aruna Rangachar Pohl, IFHD for having faith in WASSAN and entrusting us the responsibility of compiling these case studies. She is an active team member at all critical stages of the project and guided us on choice of case studies, structure/ framework, presentation, etc. The partnership with IFHD is really cherished by all of us, at WASSAN.
I also thank the family of artists of Cheriyal - Shri D Vaikuntam, Mrs D Vanaja, Mr D Vinay and D Rakesh, who visualized these experiences in their own unique style. My team -MB Vali, Anitha Vustela, Waseem Mohammad, Benita Mahanta, Radhashree who spent considerable time on this agenda. I also thank K Suresh for providing editorial inputs and support at various stages of this process. MV Rama Chandrudu WASSAN Aug 2016
Foreword It is almost three decades back, the threats to "Our Common Future" were formally identified and deliberations started gaining more steam and support from governments too‌ (Our Common Future,Gro Harlem Brundtland, 1987). Climate Change and its implications were also slowly getting recognized during this period. The need for "producing more with less" was also part of this thinking process, as a means to address the challenges of the future. Over a period of time, the world witnessed more economic distress, unemployment, political turmoil and ecological disasters across different countries and regions of world. Those early predictions seemed to be less threatening than the current reality. The global gloom got predictable companions - unscrupulous industrial growth, irresponsible urbanization, careless global politics, dishonest governments, self-centric citizenship, which tried to glorify the current trends as achievements and inevitable solutions. In the middle of such despair and misery, there is a hope. "Imprints of Ecological Footprints - A Compilation of Ecologically Sensible Good Practices" is a compendium of good practices that brings the efforts made by relentless civil society organizations, citizens and community based organizations, to change the direction of this trend. These experiences bring cheer and hope in the lives of thousands of rural, tribal and urban citizens in India, who are part of these experiences. They were able to take a different path that is less travelled and troublesome. There were several challenges, at each step and milestone. But they continued their journey and proved that "producing more with less" is possible. They also ensured that the ecological and environmentally sustainable processes are feasible for improving economic standards and quality of life of poor communities. These case studies give a hope and confidence that we can face the cruel world and transform the same into a comfortable place for all - including endangered species, poor and marginalized communities. While Corporate Social Responsibility is gaining more support
from governments, corporate agencies and development agencies, these experiences provide guidance and help them to think about alternatives. These experiences help the willing and discerning development agencies and investors in social change, to transcend the mundane "photo stories" of majority of current CSR interventions. They provide an array of options, strategies and ideas that proved themselves in different parts of the country. I thank all the organizations and agencies who shared their stories - highs and lows of it, with us frankly and completely. I thank them for providing leadership on the chosen theme - promoting biodiversity; conservation and governance of natural resources; promoting ecologically sensitive production processes; enhancing livelihoods by developing environmentally harmonious economic models and several others. These experiences are invaluable and are certainly useful for provoking thoughts in the minds of participants of "Leaders for Nature" programs, which are jointly organized by IFHD, IUCN, CII, Wild Life Trust of India, HIVOS and other like-minded organizations. I thank WASSAN for producing this compilation of case studies and supporting us in this endeavor.
Aruna Rangachar Pohl IFHD, Bengaluru Aug 2016
14 A 100% village….. "…. Except sugar,oil and salt, we are producing all food items in our own village now…. Five years back, it was a different scene. We were purchasing everything from the nearby town or dependent on ration shop…. We are also healthy now. We eat fresh vegetables, millets, pulses, rice, fruits…. We also cultivate til (Sesamum, oil seeds) and produce oil locally for special occasions…." A beaming Anandrao shares the experiences of all farmers of his village - Mallapur. This quite village is gaining a unique status in the state, for its achievements. The watershed management project implemented in this village triggered a change that had deep impact on the minds of people here. This village is now self-sufficient in food and water. In fact, there are surplus food grains that are collectively sold to local markets and also to Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) for good profit. Interestingly, they did not compromise or "sacrifice" commercial crops - cotton and soya. Anandrao explains how the village learnt to balance economic requirements with requirements of safe food, with a positive foot print on ecology. A 100% village…..
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Mallapur is a small hamlet of Tejapur Grama Panchayat in Indravelly mandal of Adilabad district, Telangana. This hamlet is part of Dharmasagar Watershed Project. This project was funded by Indo German Watershed Development Project (IGWDP), a bilateral project between Government of Germany and Government of India. National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) was coordinating this project. Dhan Foundation, a reputed development agency was functioning as Project Facilitating Agency and WASSAN was providing necessary guidance and support as Resource Support Organization. Dharmasagar watershed consists of 5 hamlets and has an area of 890 ha. Mallapur village has 86 houses with 550 persons, who belong to Gond community. All farmers in this village are small and marginal. Like many tribal villages, Mallapur was also strongly influenced by commercial agriculture. From traditional agricultural practices, the entire village shifted to commercial crops. Cotton and soya dominated the cropping pattern in the village, for last twenty odd years. Farmers got used to "high investment" agriculture. Chemical fertilizers, synthetic pesticides, modern varieties of seeds (high yielding; genetically modified, etc); mechanization (use of tractors, etc) became part of agriculture. This induced a new culture in the village. As the farmers stopped growing food crops and completely shifted to cotton, buying food became an inevitable new practice in the village. Each family started buying food from markets. The ration shop became an important part of life supporting systems. This has implications on the family economy. While there was high income from cotton, there was also high expenditure on food purchases and also for agricultural inputs. The high income from cotton was not necessarily guaranteed each year. A 100% village‌..
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This soon became a zero sum game. In fact, farmers needed more money each season to buy chemical fertilizers, pesticides and cotton seeds. Each family has two to four cattle, and could collect five to ten tractor loads of cattle dung, every year. Earlier, this was applied to agriculture land for improving soil fertility. As farmers started applying chemical fertilizers for cotton crop, they thought they could sell cattle dung and earn some more money. In the absence of organic manure application, soils got degraded. For higher yields, farmers started applying more chemical fertilizers and this further degraded the soils. This trend continued for almost twenty to twenty five years, till the watershed development project was initiated in the village. "When the representatives of WASSAN advised us to stop selling cattle dung to outsiders and apply the same to our lands, we thought it was a joke. How can we go back to age old traditional practices, when modern agriculture, particularly cotton requires chemical fertilizers, pesticides?"- Anandrao's apprehensions are shared by several other farmers in the village. They refused to listen to the points made by WASSAN representatives. After several attempts, only ten farmers agreed to listen to what is being said. During these conversations, farmers were advised to allocate part of their lands for growing food crops as these crops require minimum inputs - cow dung and traditional seeds. This practice could produce food that is required for the family and the farmers need not make great sacrifices. These farmers reluctantly agreed to grow food crops. But they realized that they did not have any seeds of crops like millets, pulses and oil seeds. WASSAN team supplied seeds of seven to ten crops. In the first season, farmers allocated a small portion of their land to these crops and could successfully cultivate them. By the end of 158
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harvesting period, these farmers could collect few kilos of each type of seed from their own field. This helped them to gain a sense of satisfaction on the process followed. By next cropping season, they were confident and eager to allocate more land for these crops. By the end of second season, they were able to harvest reasonable quantities of food crops, which were just sufficient for the family. They stopped buying pulses, millets and oil seeds from the market. As the price of these grains started increasing in the market, these farmers realized that they were actually saving significant amount of money by producing them in their own land. They do not have to buy these grains any more. In fact, they could store some seeds required for next season also. By third season, these farmers allocated more land for these crops as they already had enough seeds. These farmers realized that they could produce more food grains from their own land. These grains could be consumed by family and surplus could be sold in the markets. They also started sharing these seeds within the village, with other farmers. As the prices of pulses and millets were increasing each year, these farmers could sell the surplus and earn some good income also. While the first batch of small number of farmers were slowly making progress on food production and restoring traditional agricultural practices (e.g: retaining seeds, application of farm yard manure, mixed cropping systems and so on), other farmers also realized the benefits of this process. Meanwhile, WASSAN team and Dhan Foundation organized special meetings, training programs and exposure visits on diversified farming systems, particularly with a focus on food crops. From the watershed population in the village, by the end of watershed project.
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development project, special project components were introduced in the village such as seed supply, demonstration of agronomical practices and necessary training/ orientation programs. One of the interesting interventions of this village is providing loans to farmers (A credit line from watershed project) for buying farm yard manure and applying in the fields. This exclusive credit line for buying manure helped stop the selling of manure to outsiders. After the harvest period, each farmer returns this loan to the farmers group and the fund is replenished. All farmers of the village benefited from this revolving fund and each year this fund is used for buying organic manure to the fields. About Rs 4.45 Lakhs was allocated for this purpose. This fund is being used for farm yard manure application, ploughing the land with oxen/ bullocks; and land related preparations. Each year 100 to 250 tractor loads of farm yard manure are applied to the lands, where food crops are cultivated. This practice reduced the demand for chemical fertilizers in the village from 400 bags/ year to 280 bags/ year. Over a period of time, this fund is integrated into livelihoods of the project and separate ledger is maintained to see that the funds are available to farmers for soil fertility improvement (by application of farm yard manure). As other works under watershed development project were also being implemented in the village (mainly soil and water conservation works; drip system), there was good amount of water in the village. This enabled the farmers to cultivate vegetables also in the village. As part of watershed project, several farmers started cultivating fodder from their own plots to overcome fodder scarcity. As fodder cultivation triggered fodder availability, there is significant increase in the number of cattle A 100% village‌..
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As farmers need both cash and food, the villagers learned to allocate land for both cash crops (cotton and soya) and food crops (pulses, millets, oil seeds, vegetables, and fruit bearing trees). A small share of farmers (5%) have completely shifted to food crops (100% of their land for food crops), while 3% of farmers have allocated 50 to 75% of their land for food crops; 23% of farmers allocated 25% to 50% of their land for food crops. 66% of farmers have allocated about 25% land for food crops. About 3% farmers did not allocate land for food crops. This trend/ shift is rare to find in the villages, which have been pushed towards commercial agriculture and have completely left food crops. Bheemarao is one of those farmers, who maintains a balance between food crops and commercial crops. During 2015, he cultivated red gram, finger millets, pearl millets and jowar in his land. The total expenditure for growing these crops is about Rs 8000 per year. He could get about 8 quintals of grain and he sold them for Rs 80000/-, at 100 Rs/ Kg. He retained some part of millets and all red gram for home consumption. He mentioned that the profit from millets is about Rs 72,000/- in 2015. "Sometimes, I think I make more cash from millets and pulses, than from cash crops like cotton. It is a misnomer that cotton is a cash crop"‌ Bheema Rao reflects. Other farmers in the village could not agree more with him. Most of them are making more money (profit) from millets and pulses, as the Project Director, Integrated Tribal Development Agency also started purchasing these crops from them. As part of the watershed development project, all the farmers in the village were organized into a thrift and credit group. This group became part of a cooperative of farmers at cluster level. Several support systems A 100% village‌..
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were developed for strengthening the agriculture of the village - regular credit from scheduled banks; collective procurement of seeds, fertilizers and seeds for cotton; application of organic manure to lands; collective marketing were some of these initiatives. 100% families have bank account and the village is one of the few villages with 100% financial inclusion. Apart from influencing agricultural practices and improving food security of the villagers, watershed project also changed the culture of the village. The farmers group in the village pledged to ban alcoholism. Similarly, on the first day of each month, all villagers come together to take up an activity that is necessary for the village development. These activities are completed with village contribution and voluntary labor. Cleaning of village well, drainage channels, roads, repairing of Panchayat building, cleaning the water tank are some of these activities that farmers collectively take up. Each family contributed Rs 5000/- towards purchasing solar panels. Now each family has two lights and fan that run on these solar panels. This is the first village in the mandal in which 100% of families use solar energy for domestic purpose. The dependency on electric grid is almost negligible in this village for domestic use. 100% of houses use efficient wood stoves and fuel consumption has reduced by 50%. However, after some time, the burner/ rings of these wood stoves got rusted and damaged. As the spare parts are not available, some of these wood stoves are dysfunctional now. Mallapur village is a transformed village now which learned to balance the demands of modern life by growing commercial crops (in 56% of the total land) and basic needs of human/ livestock by growing food and fodder A 100% village‌..
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crops (in 44% of the total land). They also learned to nourish the soils and produce healthy food in surplus quantities now. A variety of cultural practices and norms were developed and practiced in the village that ensures economic growth; good quality infrastructure; collective action and well-being of the villagers. They have also adopted modern technologies such as solar panels that are environmental friendly. On several indicators of sustainable development, Mallapur gets 100% score.
MV Rama Chandrudu, WASSAN
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About Cheriyal Paintings Shri D Vaikuntam and his family members Mrs. D Vanaja (wife); D Vinay and D Rakesh (sons) are keeping the tradition of Cheriyal Paintings of Telangana state, for generations. All members of the family are engaged in protecting and conserving this rare art form, that is not likely to survive for long. This is the only family in the country that is still engaged in this traditional art form. The Cheriyal Art has a unique character - red color background; vivid presentation of figures (men, women, animals, flowers, plants and others) with unique strokes and style. This art form belongs to "nakashi" form of paintings in India. But Cheriyal paintings contextualized this nakashi format to local Telangana and improvised it, with their unique styles. Apart from paintings and scrolls, Cheriyal Masks are also very attractive and unique with their bright colors and large eyes. D Vaikuntam received several awards from Central/ State governments, for his unique contribution to Cheriyal Art. D Vaikuntam and his family members agreed to present the key messages of these case studies. They spent time with us to understand the essence of each case study and presented it in their own style. These pictures further enriched the experiences, which are already exemplary in several ways. WASSAN thanks the family of artists of Cheriyal for their support in visualising these case studies. Pictures of some of the paintings/ scrolls and masks could be seen on this blog: http://vaikuntamnakash.blogspot.in/
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"…..In the middle of such despair and misery, there is a hope. "Imprints of Ecological Footprints - A Compilation of Ecologically Sensible Good Practices" is a compendium of good practices that brings the efforts made by relentless civil society organizations, citizens and community based organizations, to change the direction of the trend. These experiences brought cheer and hope in the lives of thousands of rural, tribal and urban citizens in India, who are part of these experiences. They took a different path that is less travelled and troublesome. There were several challenges, at each step and milestone. But they continued their journey and proved that "producing more with less" is possible. They also ensured that the ecological and environmentally sustainable processes are feasible for improving economic standards and quality of life of poor communities…"Aruna Rangachar Pohl, IFHD, Bangaluru. "……these experiences are invaluable and are certainly useful for provoking thoughts in the minds of participants of "Leaders for Nature" programs, which is organized by IFHD, IUCN, CII, Wild Life Trust of India, HIVOS and other likeminded organizations.The entire process of producing this compilation was an enriching and fruitful experience. It is a humbling experience for us to learn lessons from the interactions and visits to their villages/ sites. We genuinely believe that this compilation truly enriches the learning processes of "Leaders for Nature" program" - MV Rama Chandrudu, WASSAN