SPOTLIGHT
Celebrating agrodiversity
KANCHI KOHLI AND SHALINI BHUTANI
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The Mobile Biodiversity Festival is an attempt by women farmers to revive millet farming.
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Photo: Kanchi Kohli.
Variety on wheels: The types of millet grown by the women on display.
EXHILARATING, rejuvenating and much more. For six years, we had heard of the annual Mobile Biodiversity Festival organised by dalit women farmers in Deccan Andhra. We had seen pictures of the decorated carts, the bedecked bullocks and the outstanding seed variety. This year on the eve of the festival of Sankranti, we were lucky to be there, and witness it all in person.
Seeing was living
Some say, seeing is believing. For us, seeing was living in the few hours we spent celebrating the agro-biodiversity of Deccan Andhra. The women farmers of the region, with the help of an NGO, Deccan Development Society, have revived their lost crops. They flourish on their farms and in their hearts. These crops of truth (that's what the women farmers call them) or millets are the essence of dryland farming. We know them as jowar, bajra, ragi and so on. These crops can grow without any irrigation, using the moisture in the soil, in the most arid regions of our country.
Honestly, there is so much that is good about these crops. But they are ignored in our agriculture policies, in our markets, and finally our diets. There is no encouragement for these crops in our Public Distribution Systems. Farmers don't get prices for them, so they don't grow them. There is no popular demand, for, they carry the stigma of being "coarse grains". But tasting them, as we did at the millet meal served at the festival and the Café Ethnic, is a finger-licking experience!
Every year this mobile biodiversity festival with seed displays on bullock carts travels through several villages in Medak district for a full month. Its mission is to promote the revival of millets in our farms, in our plates and in our policies. It is a unique way of advocating what they live by. No black and white memorandums but a confident and forthright display of their seeds as their pride.
Wide participation
The Eighth Mobile festival had farmers from 12 States across India attending. Those from Uttaranchal exchanged notes on a variety of millets which are also grown in the hills. Farmers from Punjab were truly inspired to see the rich wealth of crops which the women farmers grow on their tough, hard soil which is much less fertile than what is found in their State. There were farmer leaders from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra who lauded the efforts to revive agrobiodiversity. Farmers from North Bengal were motivated to push for organic farming.
As for us, we recharged our soul, body and mind. In a world where small is no longer beautiful, we saw one acre farmers challenging the lack of biodiversity of fields 10 times larger. In a society which has forgotten its traditional foods, we got a plate full. Each step behind the bullock carts as they began their beej yatra was one of determination, hope and strength. We danced to the music, and clapped to their songs and tasted their manna. We shared the dream of a better tomorrow, where there will be more to celebrate in our fields and on our plates.
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