The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Initiatives launched to redefine the concept of food security

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Sunday, Oct 28, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Initiatives launched to redefine the concept of food security

Alladi Jayasri

The aim is to fight the crisis in the farm sector
Workshop on the theme to be held on November 2, 3

BANGALORE: Many farmers in the State are engaged in initiatives to redefine the concept of food security and fight the current crisis in the farm sector, which is marked by shrinking acreage under cultivation, soil poisoning, over-exploitation of groundwater and lack of access to techniques, technology and social support.

Farmer C. Nanjappa’s five-acre field in Alur village of Devanahalli taluk is now the laboratory where the Bangalore-based NGO SVARAJ (formerly Oxfam India) is conducting a new experiment to demonstrate that diversity holds the key to food security.

In April 2005, SVARAJ carried out an agriculture baseline survey of two agricultural settlements in the Arkavathi river basin near Bangalore to assess the pattern of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, organic inputs, soil fertility enhancement practices, livestock and crop pattern to understand the crisis in the livelihood system and agrarian stress.

The survey of 50 farmers showed that nearly 50 per cent of the land was under monoculture – eucalyptus plantations. Water run-off was very high, and indigenous plant species were on the decline because of eucalyptus domination. Plant species used traditionally for pest control were on the brink of extinction. Biomass production was declining and this meant that the community depending on local biodiversity for a livelihood was increasingly disoriented, SVARAJ’s L.C. Nagaraj, who is coordinating the bio-farm project, told The Hindu.

For 18 months, Mr. Nanjappa’s farmland was fallow and barely able to grow an indifferent crop of cabbage, potato or tomato. Today it is a lush patch of biodiversity, an oasis of variety in the middle of vast expanses of fields owned by farmers who thought Mr. Nanjappa was being foolish in lending his land for an experiment that was bound to fail.

Under Mr. Nagaraj’s watchful eye, soil remediation to “detox” it of chemical pesticides and fertilizers has already become successful, and the land is ready to trap moisture and micro-nutrients the organic way. Mr. Nanjappa is a happy man, as he and his wife potter around their piece of land, which has everything from papaya patches, ragi fields, herb gardens, fruit trees and vegetable patches and vermicompost pits.

Women’s contribution

The story from another taluk near Bangalore, Kanakapura, and its Tamil Nadu neighbour, Thali, is one that celebrates the contribution of women in agriculture. The NGO GREEN Foundation (GF), which won the prestigious UNDP Equator Prize for its work in reviving interest in agricultural biodiversity, has been working with women farmers who traditionally save and bank.

GF started in 1996 with five farmers and a handful of seeds in two villages. Today it has touched 2,000 farmers in 161 villages all over the State, and GF has facilitated the conservation of over 382 indigenous varieties of millet, paddy, vegetable and oilseeds, which were threatened by extinction due to non-organic farming practices.

GF promotes concepts such as kitchen garden, one-acre integrated farming and community farming for the landless, integrated agro-forestry and livestock management to meet the community’s need for fodder and fuel and reduce dependence on external inputs, GF director Vanaja Ramprasad said.

Bharti Patel, director, SVARAJ said, “We are trying to look at food security as the empowerment of communities to define their own food, farming and agricultural policies.”

SVARAJ and GF have made common cause on food security and will organise a workshop on the theme on November 2 and 3.

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