Dotana
Village
Bhagirath
Gujar is Dotana's village leader. He explains that, in addition to
the biogas plants there, each family has been equipped with a smokeless
chullah, and 8 families have taken up horticulture, which is in each case
supported by drip irrigation provided by the Institute. Originally, there
was no interest in the biogas initiative, but with persistence of KIGS,
Kamala Devi and Moti Devi started to use smokeless chullahs and horticulture
and realized its benefits. When the plants come to maturity and begin
yielding fruit, and income, the typical pattern will emerge, wherein other
families will realize the soundness of the new practices, and also resort
to these practices for their own development. The main obstacle in this
issue is not the prohibitive costs but the stubborn and rigid behaviour
of the villagers to resort to new practices. Once they are persuaded and
start using, the subsidies are gradually withdrawn. When the interest
of the villagers is generated and they are able to build their own community
fund of Mahila Mandal new families can draw finance and begin to adopt
the new programmes to support themselves in a sustainable manner.
Kaluram
and Sheoji are from the village Dotana. They took up the cultivation
of fruit plants, including lemon (50 trees each), guava (30 plants each)
and karondas (also 30 plants each), which are an excellent source of iron.
They had never deviated from the straightforward cultivation of wheat
and mustard, before their contact with KIGS. Their new diversification
is one year old now, and is mixed with their normal practices, which are
maintained. They contributed 20% of the price of the fruit plants. As
it becomes clear that they represent a valuable source of additional income,
and also a healthy new dietary dimension, other villages are asking about
taking up similar initiatives. These new plants provide work, which fills
in the long months of inactivity between monsoons when the villagers have
little conventional work in the fields.
Mrs.
Sair Gujar, from Dotana village, explained the benefits of smokeless
stoves, or chullahs. Her husband, Jadish, is a chullah master, trained
by KIGS to make smokeless stoves. He has constructed one in each house
in their village of 100 families. Sair says the stoves are far more efficient
than the old style ones, saving 50% of fuel (cow dung and crop waste).
Not only are the stoves an extreme improvement in terms of health, but
also the dung and crop waste can now be used to make compost, using techniques
introduced by KIGS. This means the fields can be made suitable for a more
diversified crop, and provides an excellent example of the knock on effects
of improved farming practices. Managed correctly, farming in this harsh
area can be refined to a self contained, self-sufficient system.
Mrs.
Kamala Devi is also from Dotana. She wants to tell me about the benefits
she has received from a biogas initiative. She contributed 25% of the
cost (Rs 4000) of her plant, one of two in the village. Enough gas is
generated to do the entire household cooking, with the added benefit that
no smoke at all is produced. Once the cow dung has been used for gas generation,
it can be used to produce compost, which are what Kamala and her husband
do. This means they are self sufficient in organic fertilizer for their
fields, and do not have to spend their income on MNC chemical fertilizer.
This simple practice reverberates through their other activities, and
contributes substantially to a more secure existence.
Mrs.
Rup Kala Devi is a social activist, coordinating the 3 separate women's
groups in Dotana, a position she was voted into in an election. The village
has 70 families, so she decided that it would be best to split the women
into smaller groups in order to preserve the participatory philosophy,
which she says she considers essential to the effectiveness of the initiative.
In this way, the women, who are not accustomed to participating in community
activities, are not afraid to raise their voice in matters that affect
them. Each woman contributes Rs 20 per month to the community fund. At
each monthly meeting, members might request a small loan from the fund,
perhaps to fund a family marriage. Rup says that without an energetic
leader the group would not work. Gita Devi, leader of one of the individual
Mahila Mandal's concurs.
Ram
Swarup is from Safipura and is the leader of the village. When KIGS
approached the villagers, he was interested in community work from the
beginning, and now all new initiatives in the village go through him.
He has received training in both worm-based compost and ordinary compost
making from the Agricultural Sciences Centre (Krishi Vigyan Kendra), and
has become an instructor in these techniques to others in the village.
He has taken up diversified vegetable cultivation and last year sold tomatoes
of Rs. 40,000 and cumin of Rs. 80,000. He has understood that reinvestment
is the most sustainable practice, and has used this money to dig a new
well, which has enhanced the reliability of a water supply for his fields.
Prior to his exposure to the advice of KIGS, he grew only cereals, and
the change in his fortunes is attributable almost entirely to the wealth
of information he has acquired from KIGS. The cost of the water harvesting
methods that KIGS applied to his land is negligible as compared to the
income his new practices have generated.
Mojiram
is from a family with 4 brothers in Safipura village. They and their
families live together, and farm jointly, but cook and eat separately.
Mojiram has shown great interest in being trained to protect seed himself.
He has been given a good variety of seed and next year will be able to
produce his own. The seed is wheat and mustard. His is an example of the
desire shown by KIGS to reacquaint the people with their own traditional
practices. Twenty years ago, it was normal practice for farmers to produce
their own seeds, until the government began to promote the practice of
buying attractively marketed and packaged seeds from the market, which
turn out to require chemical treatment and fail to reproduce year on year.
This is the price for their allegedly 'high yield' properties. People
like Mojiram no longer need to resort to the moneylender to buy the seeds
in the hope of greater productivity. Some people still bear the debts
from this practice and others have even had their land repossessed, turning
them into virtual slaves. Hansraj has adopted similar practices, and they
are the first two farmers in their village to resort to new practices
of having their own seeds for cultivation. It is hoped their example will
inspire others to adopt similar practice.
Rajwas Village
Mrs.
Sharda Devi is from the village of Rajwas. She has been working at
home polishing semi - precious stones which generates Rs 40 per day of
additional income. The machine was subsidized by KIGS, meaning the family
only had to pay a part of the total cost. The money she is making here
is being deposited in a bank account, and will finance the education of
her children, and contribute towards their marriages one day as well.
Before this initiative, she had no work to do other than within the house.
Mrs.
Sarju Devi has also taken up stone polishing work, but she is also
an enthusiastic agriculturalist. In spite of the risk involved, she has
trusted KIGS in their advice that cultivation of fruits and vegetables
is economically beneficial and its inclusion in the diet of family would
also improve their health. She cultivates over 100 fruit plants and tomatoes
and tinda and sells the produce in the market of Niwai town. She has also
consented the implementation of techniques of harvesting of rainwater
in her fields. She keeps two buffaloes and is self sufficient in compost
and milk, some of which she is also able to sell.
Prabhati Devi is from Rajwas, a multi-caste village with a population
of 7000, spread across 600 families. She has developed an interest in
horticulture, and has planted 150 plants in the last 2 years, all of which
are prospering. She has also begun to cultivate vegetables, and sold Rs.
20,000 of beans last year at the nearest market, in Niwai. She maintains
her standard crop of grain and wheat etc, and the new crop diversity has
allowed her to follow a more nutritious diet, as well as providing substantial
extra income.
Virendra
Kumar is also from Rajwas. He has become very active in motivating village
people to take up integrated agricultural development and other income generating
activities, in a village that has borne a burden of caste based social problems.
He has organized meetings to raise awareness of the benefits of adopting
these practices, and can cite his own experiences as an example of the improvement
they can bring. He has taken up compost preparation, and grows fruit and
vegetables, and has been made aware of the nutritional benefits a broader
based diet including these things brings. He enthusiastically imparts this
knowledge to the other villagers.
In
the village of Jola (500 families), KIGS has gradually built up a solid
array of integrated development practices. Uganta Devi is the leader
of the women's self help group movement there, and set up 5 groups, each
with their own head. She is the one who recognized the possibilities in
the suggestions made by KIGS, and sought to generate support for their
implementation. One of the key practices, she has encouraged, is spinning
cotton, which will be sold to the Local Khadi Institute and be turned
into Khadi. Uganta has been trained in spinning techniques, and then imparts
her knowledge to 20 other women in the village. Each lady earns between
Rs 400-500 per month from a practice that is done only in her spare time.
Janki
Devi is the leader of one of the Mahila Mandal in Jola. There are
15 members, and each deposits Rs 50 per month. Janki says the group uses
the monthly collection of Rs 750 to provide small loans, usually for medicine
to treat illnesses; personal needs like clothes, and agricultural requirements
like seeds. If a family decides to stop buying MNC seeds, they can borrow
the funds from the Mahila Mandal cooperative bank, to buy natural seeds
of the kind that will produce a crop for more than just one year. The
Mahila Mandal is established 3 months before with the efforts of other
groups and has defied the shortcoming of her being uneducated. This is
a clear indication of the feeling of empowerment, which has been generated
in the families by the programmes of KIGS. The family of each group member
has a smokeless stove, and all have undertaken to produce compost, using
techniques taught to them by KIGS. Ram Kanya runs the group in a partnership
with Kankha Devi, who keeps the accounts and was educated unto
12th grade and is therefore the most educated woman in the village. She
also keeps accounts for another women's group in the village, and reads
and writes letters as necessary for the whole village. Barjie Devi
is the president of the Puja Mahila Mandal, which boasts 20 members, each
of whom makes a monthly deposit of Rs10. Barjie says all her members are
active, and that this is both a product of and a condition for a feeling
of community togetherness and individual empowerment. None of the women
had the opportunity to meet and discuss village affairs in this way before,
and they all feel that this forum is an exciting way to improve the dynamic
of local life. All the members produce compost and grow vegetables now,
and also keep buffalo, practices which dovetail perfectly and have invigorated
and improved the quality of the women and their families' lives.
Gita
Devi lives in Jola. For the last 5 years, she has served as village
councilor, having been elected by the population of 5000. This position
is voluntary, but still takes up much of her spare time. However, she
has still shown great interest in KIGS' agricultural suggestions, and,
having received land development processes, uncultivatable land is now
suitable for vegetable growing on a seasonal basis. This will commence
next year.
Rajindra
is from Jola, and has embraced the integrated aspect of development fully.
His fields have been leveled and bunded by KIGS, and he has taken advantage
of their subsequently increased productivity by cultivating fodder and
planting fruit trees and vegetables in addition to the cereals he already
grew. Drip irrigation ensures a steady supply of water for the new crops.
He keeps 3 buffaloes and sells milk at the market in Niwai, making Rs
150 from the 15 litres he sells each day.
Ram
Bilas is from Jola also. He is a very active man, and showed such
enthusiasm that he became the mediator between KIGS and the rest of the
village. The measures he has adopted personally are worm-based composting,
and cultivation of fruit trees and vegetables. With the income that he
has been able to achieve through these measures, he was in a position
to request a bank loan, with which he purchased a tractor. He uses this
for his own agricultural purposes, and lends it to other villagers free
of charge. However, he makes most money from hiring it out, for example
to road builders, from which he earns Rs 1,00,000 per year. He has also
adopted seed development, and received training in picking out good seeds
from each seasons crop, and preserving them for the following year, a
practice that had all but died out as modified MNC seeds have increasingly
tended to be bought from the market.