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A tractor ploughs the fallow |
Problems of unsustainable
grains
In the dry land farming area of Andhra
Pradesh, the government Public Distribution System supplies each
family with 25 kg of rice, 2kg sugar and kerosene. The rice is
produced intensively in other parts of India, and its sale is
subsidised to poorer areas. Subsidised rice sales of Rupees 2
per kg were very cheap. Although this appeared a life-line in
the food-scarce seasons, rice is an alien grain. The local crops
were sorghum (jowar), pearl millet, pigeonpea and pulses. The
supplied rice requires no preparation and is easy to cook, while
sorghum needs to be milled into flour, kneaded, and rotis cooked
one by one.
After a few years, women observed an effect
on their health as the less nutritious diets invaded their
kitchens. Women and children were becoming anaemic. By then,
however, farmers had stopped growing their traditional crops on
the dry land.
Move towards traditional crops
While hard work, agriculture in the region had taken
care of a variety of needs, providing a nutritious crop mix of cereals, pulses,
vegetables, fodder for cattle, fencing material and straw for thatch.
Women of the sanghams (village associations) of the Deccan
Development Society (DDS), a non-governmental organisation, in their meetings
discussed the issue and decided to reclaim their fallows. The problem was
finding funds for investment, which were not available through banks to resource
poor farmers. With the help of DDS, the women approached the government, which
agreed to the request for Rupees 2,500 an acre for ploughing, sowing, manuring
and weeding. The loan was to be repaid over a five year period in grain. The
women held meetings to develop the modalities for management and repayment of
the loan, and signed the agreement in December 1994.
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Sorghum crop and women working on sorghum fields |
Winnowing the jowar crop |
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Women prepare grain storage bins and store sorghum with traditional techniques like adding neen leaves |
Successful returns
Reclamation activities on 2,471 acres began. Tractors
were rented to deep plough, farm yard manure was purchased and when the land was
prepared, sowing commenced on time. It appeared to be a good season, promising
an unprecedented yield. But just before harvest a cyclone hit the area, and with
rain lasting 18 days most of the crops were uprooted and lost. Determined to
keep going, women contributed to meet the loan repayment.
The salvageable remains of the crop were prepared for storing
in a decentralised manner, using traditional containers, indigenous techniques
such as neem to protect from infestation.
Wealth ranking
Then women decided that the 100 poorest households
would be entitled to buy 25 kg of sorghum per month at subsidised prices during
the rainy season, when work was impossible to find. Devising their own criteria
on a five point scale of poverty, the women decided which among them qualified
for subsidised access.
Proceeds from sales were deposited to reclaim more land, and
cast the food security net wider and wider. In 1995 nearly 3,000 acres of
fallows had been reclaimed, and there were 1,698 beneficiaries from 13 villages
in the Community Grain Fund.
Sustainable outcome
Government expenditure subsidising agricultural
production generally goes towards agricultural inputs for resource rich farmers,
long distance transport moving the grain, warehouse and storage, and extending
distribution networks.
In the villages around Zaheerabad, women have now
created and alternative Public Distribution System, which remains in local
control, based on use of local inputs. For the cost a of one time government
expenditure, the community has increased resources, nutrition and
self-sufficiency in this arid area, and poor women - often illiterate - have
created the foundations of a stronger and more sustainable community.
Video: Community Grain Banks, from Deccan Development Society (DDS), A-6 Meera Apartments, Basheerbagh, Hyderabad 500 029, India, Fax: +91 40 231260. Price US$ 20, (£15).
DDS is supported by Christian Aid, a UK development agency.
[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 33 as part of the Focus on Food supplement, September 1996, pages 16-17]