Making a livelihood by working in unison with nature has great dividends. Women farmers of Kashipur region in Odisha (India) have proved it by effecting small changes to their farming practices to make agriculture eco-friendly. The results have been enormous and eye-opening. In just three years, not only they have been successful in dealing with the ecological ruins and adapting to climate change, but they have also overcome issues like starvation and malnutrition.

1. 2014
[ECO-VILLAGE]
REPORT
BY
BASUDEV MAHAPATRA

2. Empowering women and communities through
eco-friendly agriculture
Making a livelihood by working in unison with nature has great dividends. Women farmers of Kashipur region
in Odisha have proved it by effecting small changes to their farming practices to make agriculture eco-friendly.
The results have been enormous and eye-opening. In just three years, not only they have been successful in
dealing with the ecological ruins and adapting to climate change, but they have also overcome issues like
starvation and malnutrition.
From distress to delight – a case
Rukmini Majhi (60) of Y-Kebidi village in Chandragiri gram panchayat of Odisha’s
Kashipur block now sees a ray of hope and an end to her prolonged struggle
with poverty, for a survival based on an unfeasible and unreliable agriculture and
the distressful life in a condition where economic opportunities were too meagre
to fulfil the personal and social needs.
[Seeing a hope in agriculture: Rukmini Majhi of Y-Kebidi village in her family farm]
“Five years ago, life as farm labourer was miserable because there were not
much of work opportunities. And, as agriculture didn’t remain feasible or a
reliable profession, we had to borrow money from the Sahukar (local people
engaged in the business of money lending) more often and all our efforts were
to repay the money with interest. Life was really difficult then,” Rukmini said.

3. It was because of the financial difficulties that Rukmini couldn’t even make
proper medical treatment available to her husband who died of fever that lasted
for months.
“There was absolutely no hope but just to struggle to make a living,” said
Rukmini recalling the days of the past.
But now, she has a reason to smile!
“Since last two years, as we have been practicing multi-crop farming in our
family land and the community land on the hill slopes, life seems to be changing
for better now,” said Rukmini adding, “I have grown maize, brinjal, kandul or
arhar (yellow pigeon peas) and beans in my family farm land. Apart from
vegetables and cash crops, I have also planted Mango, Banana, Neem and
Papaya in the farm that has a vegetative fence,” Rukmini said while showing her
farm with great pleasure.
A cold rainy day in the end phase of monsoon, for Rukmini, it was the time to
work in her family farm.
Now, with her son and daughter, Rukmini lives a better life as the new way
farming adopted by her has not only been reliable but has increased her income
as well and motivated her son to pursue farming as the main profession instead
of migrating to other states in search of job.
[Earlier migrating in search of jobs, Balsingh Majhi now sees a future in agriculture.]

4. The change that has come in the lives of Rukmini and hundreds of women has
been the result of an IPAF (Indigenous People’s Assistance Facility) supported
project jointly managed and implemented by Amasangathan and Agragamee,
both non-government organisations working for socio-economic empowerment
of women and holistic development of tribal communities in the Kashipur Block.
First implemented in four villages, Y-Kebidi, Maligaon, Durkhal and Dandabad, of
the Chandragiri gram panchayat, the project, named as “Reclaiming the
commons with women’s power: Eco-village development in Tribal Odisha,” has
benefitted over 115 families of Kashipur Block.
The gory past
This region in Odisha’s Raygada district has always been in news and discussion
for wrong reasons. More than 50 starvation deaths were reported from this area
in 1986-87, which forced the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to pay a visit
along with his wife Sonia Gandhi. He made loads of promises to the people of
Kashipur but over the years, the situation has only worsened.
There were 21 alleged starvation deaths reported from the region in 2001 July-
August. However, the government blamed it on food poisoning. As per news
reports, now the block has over 700 children with symptoms of malnutrition. It
suggests that various government programmes haven’t done well in ensuring
food security.
The Block has over 85 per cent of its people in the category of “below the
poverty line” (BPL).
Kashipur is a sub-tropical hilly and forested region inhabited by both tribal and
non-tribal communities who are primarily agrarian and shifting cultivation on the
hill slopes has been the age old practice.
However, people also use to grow paddy on the relatively plane lands available
at the bottom of the hills.
Shifting cultivation
Prevalent in the tropical regions of India, people of eastern and north-eastern
regions of the country mostly practice shifting cultivation on hill slopes. Also
known as Swidden farming, it involves the ‘slash and burn’ procedure to start
with. In Odisha, this kind of farming practice is called “Podu Chasa.”

5. Shifting cultivation or “Podu Chasa” is a system of field rotation, which involves
spatial and temporal impermanence with regard to the structure of land
occupation and use.
Developed in tune with the climatic conditions of the southern Orissa districts,
the Podu system is practised on primarily two categories of land – medium land
and upland.
Under the system, each family choose a patch of land on the hill slopes to grow
Ragi, Jawar, vegetables and other millets for two to three years and then shift to
another patch leaving the used land for natural regeneration and re-fertilisation
to come back to normal condition.
The reduced fallow cycle of only two to three years, which is believed to be the
result of increasing requirement of land for cultivation, has led to significant
break down of the resilience of ecosystem and increasing deterioration of the
land quality.
Frequent shifting from one land to the other has greater impact on local ecology
as well because it leads to rapid decline of natural forest, forest-canopy gaps,
fragmentation of habitat and disappearance of native species. It’s also
established by studies that water and nutrient losses in shifting cultivation areas
are far greater than in the virgin areas.
Climate change impacts
Ecological damages caused by shifting cultivation resulted in climate change and
doubled the miseries of people by affecting the rainfall, cultivation practices and
fragile environment. The communities had to face the brunt from all sides.
“The combined result of it is an almost total end of the podu system of
cultivation, threatening the livelihoods of the tribal communities. Hunger is now
commonplace, and some live on the brink of starvation,” says Vidhya Das of
Agragami.
Agriculture remained reliable till forest cover was intact to check flash floods and
soil erosion, till the rain was timely and climate was conducive. As forests
depleted to make space for developmental works and, also, to support the
household, commercial and industrial needs of timber, the local climate and rain
pattern changed. Increasing events of extreme rain, while causing flash floods,
frequently washed down the loose soil of the cultivated lands on the hill slopes
causing damage to the farms on the hilly slopes and the plane lands at the
bottom of the hills.

6. “Rains have been delayed by almost a month and the length of the crop season
has decreased to only three months, which has to be about five months for
agriculture. Again, it’s less rain or heavy rain. Anyway, it damages crop,” says
Balsingh Majhi, a young farmer of Dandabad village.
Change in seasonal cycle has been a factor as well. “While late rain delays field
activities for cultivation of ragi, a major crop in the region, early winter comes as
the next enemy to kill the harvest,” farmers of the whole region complain.
“We incurred loss every year as nature and climate betrayed continuously for
years together. Our financial condition was so bad that I even couldn’t afford to
the treatments of my husband who died of prolonged illness a few years back,”
said Jaimati Majhi (40) of Dandabad.
As climate change made agriculture unreliable, there was less income and
growing food insecurity, which deterred the youth from taking up farming as
profession, and distress migration started in these villages.
“A decade back, there was hardly any migration in these villages. These days,
one or two members from each family migrate to outside states to work as
labourers. Some of them even die at their workplace. Last year, two youth of
Madigaon village died in Andhra Pradesh,” says Sumani Jhodia of Siriguda
village, who is also a community leader and the president of Amasangathan.

7. [Rain in Dandabad: Extreme rainy days are a worry for farmers of Kashipur block]
It’s time for intervention
There really was an urgent need for intervention of some kind to check and
reverse the trend of ecological degradation, to promote practices among the
agrarian communities in adaptation to climate change, to restore the old status
of farming as a reliable economic activity.
[Fruits of hope: Baida Dhangda Majhi checks the first papayas in her farm.]

8. This need inspired and prompted developmental think-tank Vidhya Das of
Agragamaee, who also happens to be an advisor to the women’s society of
Amasangathan, to design the eco-village development project and implement it.
“Idea behind the project was to integrate farming with eco-system conservation
and strengthen the relationship between communities and the bountiful nature
of the region while ensuring their rights over land and the natural resources
granted by several legislations like Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas
(PESA) Act and Forest Right Act (FRA) and acknowledged in several government
policies. One of the unique features of the project was that the traditional
knowledge of the community was respected and trainings were imparted for best
use of it,” says Vidhya Das, referred to as “BadaMaa (Elder Mother) by almost
everybody in the villages.
“Implementation of the idea, however, required meticulous action and
continuous engagements with the communities,” Das says recalling the initial
days of implementation of the project.
Converting the idea into reality
Initiating engagement with the communities was never an issue for the
animators because Amasangathan had its committees of women, called Mahila
Mandal, in all the target villages.
[An animator from Agragami talks with women in the village Kabatsil, which is to be
included in the eco-village programme]

9. In the process of community mobilisation through meetings in the villages,
villagers were told about the project and about a few modifications they needed
to induce to their agricultural practices that didn’t only bear possibilities of
making agriculture reliable and better paying to bring change in their socio-
economic status, but also of protecting the environment and conserving the eco-
system.
The idea received wide appreciation of the community in every village. In order
to build on women’s role as traditional keepers of commons by helping them
demonstrate viable alternatives to shifting cultivation, two types of farming
models – family farming on individually owned land and community farming on
the land of the commons – were decided for practice.
Land emerged as an issue when the project came to its implementation stage.
Even though a few of the families had got title rights over land under Forest
Rights Act (FRA), most other didn’t have. So, after land areas were identified for
farming, claims for title deeds were filed in accordance with FRA.
So far, 155 individual and four community claims have been filed and the
communities are now using the land for farming.
Keeping in view the changing climate and its impact on rain and the seasonal
cycle, the farming practice needed a bit of modification.
Through dialogue and discussions with the communities, “a common design for
farming land was created which combined plantations, orchards, rain-fed

10. cropping and hedgerows to provide an integrated agro-ecological system to
support the livelihood of each farming family and the community as a whole,”
says Vidhya Das.
The initial task was to prepare the land as they were not in a ready condition.
“Two years back, this piece of land was in an unusable condition, like a forest. I
cleaned it and develop the land for family farming,” says Sonamati Majhi (50) of
Dandabad village.
Sonamati has got the title rights over the land, where she has now raised her
family farm, under FRA. She has grown variety of crops that include maize, ragi,
khosla, kangu, caster, arhad or yellow dal, kolath or horse gram, chilly,
cucumber, beans, pumpkin and yam. Last year, apart from vegetables and
beans throughout the season, Sonamati got about 92 Kg of ragi, 10 Kg of arhad
dal from her farm. She made some income by selling her farm produces after
fulfilling the family consumption needs.
This year, she hopes for a better harvest.
“Earlier, the total harvest often fell short of our consumption needs,” Sonamati
adds.
[Sonamati Majhi: A happy farmer of Dandabad]
Apart from seasonal and annual crops, she has planted mango and jackfruit
trees in her farm. “The mango trees are already 3 years old. They may bear
fruits next year and add to my income,” says Sonamati while showing her farm
with great contentment.

11. The story is almost the same with Jaimati and other women folk in the village of
Dandabad that now sees its children attending schools these days and the youth
not interested in migrating to distance places outside the state to search for
jobs. “Two years back, migration was rampant in this village,” says Jaimati.
Farming in unison of nature
The communities have effected a little modification to erstwhile way of farming
as an adaptation to the changing climate though it is largely based on the
knowledge these communities inherit through generations of practice. And, quite
amazingly, this has changed agriculture from an unreliable source of livelihood
to an economic activity with new opportunities.
From developing the land for agriculture to raising the farm, women took the
lead as was the basic objective of the project.
“Women in the community felt that it was not enough to protect just the private
lands, however. They pointed out that this would not provide them with enough
firewood and fodder that they considered as essential as agriculture. So it was
decided to protect the land from open grazing by raising vegetative fences,
allowing them to rejuvenate. Women took the initiative in this, ensuring their
commons were properly fenced and no cattle entered, deciding what trees to
plant, and also taking up some annual intercropping,” Vidhya Das says while
explaining about community engagement in the process.
[In harmony with nature: Live fencing of a family farm in Maligaon]

12. Taking clues from the non-interfered natural growth of tropical forests and
Masanobu Fukuoka’s idea of one-straw revolution, a modified model of farming
was derived on the basic principles of no tilling, no weeding, no use of inorganic
fertilisers and chemical pesticides.
However, this method was not new to the tribal farmers but was out of practice
because of the invasion of commercial and corporate promoted agriculture into
these tribal hinterlands.
“We have stopped shifting cultivation realising that the practice adversely affects
our forest, the local climate and our agriculture. Now, we don’t go for slash and
burn, we don’t till the soil to make it loose what we used to do earlier for our
agriculture because we are convinced that loose soil made our farms vulnerable
to erosion during extreme rain events in the past and caused complete damage
to our agriculture on the hill slopes,” says Maina Dhangda Majhi (40) of Maligaon
village who, in her farm, has grown a variety of crops, beans and vegetables and
has planted cashew and mango trees as well.
[In her farm: Maina Dhangda Majhi of Maligaon with husband Biswa Dhangda Majhi.]
“While the seasonal and annual crops are grown primarily to fulfil our food
demands, cash crops are to add to our income. The income generating trees
planted are also going to become a stable source of income in three-four years,”
says Amika Chalan of Maligaon.
“Again, it’s all organic farming. We don’t use chemical fertilisers and pesticides,”
Suna Dhangda Majhi (40) adds quickly.

13. As alternative of fertilisers, these women farmers leave the vegetative wastes
like leaves, shrubs and chopped grasses scattered in the farm land itself so that
they get decomposed into compost and boost the fertility of the land while
carrying moisture at the subsurface level to support plant growth for a relatively
longer period. Scientifically, apart from revitalising the land for agriculture, this
natural process helps formation of soil as well.
Like Rukmini and Sonamati, all the farmers have adopted intercropping model in
their farms and have planted various income generating trees and while have
grown seasonal, annual and cash crops in their farms. Some specific plants are
also planted to add live support to the vegetative fence while enabling the
farmers to fulfil their firewood demands.
Community rights over the commons
While women farmers have been encouraged individually to raise farms on the
family lands and backyards, Mahila Mandals or the village women groups have
also taken up community farming on the land of the commons to create a
resource of the community to support its individual members in time of distress.
In Y-Kebidi, Dandabad and Drukhal, Mahila Mandals have been raising
community farms and orchards on 15 acres of land each whereas it’s 10 acres of
land in Maligaon.
For effective management of the commons, as Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom has
suggested as principles of managing a commons, rules are framed to govern use
of the resources of the commons keeping in view the local needs and conditions.

14. In order to make sure that the rights of the community members over the
commons are respected by outside authorities, resolutions of local Governance
bodies have been passed to ensure the rights of the women’s groups over the
commons, claims for titles have been filed and members of the Mahila Mandals
have demanded community rights over the commons by meeting the Welfare
Extension Officer and Block Development Officer.
Rules are also set to ensure equity in contribution, participation and income
sharing.
“All the members join each and every activity to raise community farms and
orchards,” says Tulsa Majhi of Y-Kebidi village.
The commons land used for community farming has live fencing and stone walls
for protection. Community members have planted income generating trees like
mango, cashews, jackfruit etc. along with firewood species while growing
seasonal and annual crops between them.
[Maligaon: Women farmers developing the commons land for farming]
Women hold the baton
Women are believed to have invented the practice of agriculture by minutely
observing the growth of seeds into plants, as per “The Flow of History.” Here, in
Kashipur, too women have taken the lead in implementation of the eco-village
project that aims at reviving agriculture as a reliable economic activity while
conserving the eco-system.

15. From developing a common design for farming to carrying out agro-ecological
activities and taking up plantation as part of intercropping measures, the women
farmers played a key role at every stage.
“They took up the challenge with courage and conviction. Agragamee only
stepped in with support for fencing, tree seeds and seedlings, nursery equipment
and capacity building for better implementation of the project and management
of the commons,” says Vidhya Das.
Even, Mahila Mandal raised nurseries in their respective villages and produced
about 42000 saplings of different species such as mango, cashew, cassia,
simaruba etc. for plantation in the family farms and in the commons land
marked for farming.
Impact and way forward
Since the village farmers have taken up this eco-friendly farming practice, it has
almost completely replaced shifting cultivation in those villages and the
periphery.
[Nursery raised by women farmers of Y-Kebidi village.]
Although it’s a fact that such plantation of income generating and firewood trees
cannot compensate the loss of natural forest that has already taken place in the
region to meet the industrial demands, this is certainly a positive step to check
soil erosion and conserve the ecosystem.

16. Coherence in the community and between communities has improved because of
the frequent engagements of its members during various activities, which
ultimately helps building a peaceful living condition while creating an effective
dispute resolution mechanism.
And, there is no doubt that the farmers are now seeing agriculture as a reliable
and viable livelihood option. There has been improvement in economic condition
of the farmers and food security of the communities.
The success achieved by the project and the change that has come in the lives
of the women farmers during these two years of implementation makes it an
alternate model of development through eco-friendly agriculture and proper
management of the commons.
In view of the fact that climate change and ecological degradation have become
global concerns, such models need to be replicated widely, at least in the hilly
tropical and sub-tropical regions as measures for ecosystem conservation and
climate change adaptability.
But there are certain issues that need to be addressed for effective replication of
the model.
[Women of Y-Kebidi village take saplings to plant in the farm raised on the commons
land.]
The first and foremost is ensuring the rights of people, as granted by PESA, FRA
and other constitutional provisions, over the common resources so that the

17. communities can plan for their management keeping in view the local needs and
conditions.
The other issue is creating a link between the farmers and the market so that
the farmer can sell its produces at a genuine price. Even though organic farm
produces have greater export potential, tribal communities across the state and
even across the country are deprived from getting its benefits because of the
apathetic attitude of various government agencies and officials.
Since mining, industrialisation and the western models of development have
grossly failed in India and the particular region of Kashipur as well in bringing
the indigenous and rural communities up to the desired economic level, this eco-
farming model can be seen as an opportunity to achieve the development goals
set by the governments at the state and the centre and by the United Nations
(UN).
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