Till last year, Shiv Singh, a landless labourer from the Pinarayi village of Damoh district knew of only one survival strategy-migrating to Delhi to earn his living as a construction worker.
This year, with the Rs. 8,000 he had saved from his Delhi earnings, Shiv took a 3-acre piece of land on lease and grew rice on it. The harvest in September fetched him Rs.55,000 besides enough rice for his family to last for a year.
But, unlike most success stories, his is not an isolated case.
Several villages of Damoh, which was last in news for being the hub of farmer suicides earlier this year, are witnessing a small, quiet, yet successful green revolution-of the organic kind.
Farming has not been a successful proposition in this very backward district of the parched Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh since the late 1980s due to a rapidly receding water table and scarce rainfall.
Last December and this January, Damoh witnessed the first of the several farmer suicides across Madhya Pradesh when large tracts of pulses crop perished owing to frost bite.
But over the last year and a half, over 1200 farmers of 32 villages of the Tendukheda block of Damoh, have taken to farming rice organically. Most of them are small and marginal farmers; some, like Shiv Singh, are even landless labourers.
Helped by Gramin Vikas Samiti, a local pro-organic farming organization, and People's Science Institute, a Dehradun based non-profit, these farmers together cultivated rice on a total of over 1500 acres.
The trend started with just four farmers of Beldhana village and has now spread to other villages like Ajitpur, Hardua, Harrai etc.
The farmers in these villages shunned the High Yielding Varieties and the “progressive”, high-input, fertilizer-pesticide dominated farming practices often advocated by the government and took to completely traditional methods along with a set of cultivation practices collectively called System of Rice Intensification (SRI), initially developed in the early 1980s by a French priest in Madagascar.
The results have been more than encouraging.
While the average rice yield in Bundelkhand is around 17-20 quintal/hectare, these villages recorded average yields of at least 75-80 quintal per hectare this season. While the lowest yield in these 32 villages was 44 quintals/hectare, the maximum yield stood at 115 quintals/hectare.
Even agriculture scientists, who usually advocate modern and scientific farming over traditional practices, agree.
“These are miraculous results, considering the low rice productivity found in most of Madhya Pradesh and the extremely low productivity found in Bundelkhand,” says Dr. Sanjay Vaishyampayan, Senior Scientist, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Damoh, which comes under the Jawaharlal Nehru Agriculture University, Jabalpur.
“Moreover, these farmers used very less seed, 2.5 kg/acre compared to 40kg/acre required in non-traditional methods. They also saved on pesticide and fertilizer costs as they only used organic manure,” says Dr. Sanjay.
The farmers used traditional varieties of rice like Lochai, Ganjakali, Kesar etc which they found in the neighbourhood homes of Gond adivasis.
Along with that, they used organic manure prepared from household ingredients like cow dung and urine, lemon juice, banana pulp, milk and curd etc which were all mixed together in specific quantities and kept under a lid in an earthen pot (matka) for about 15 days.
“Earlier, most farmers of our village were hesitant so we used these techniques on a small part of our lands. Last year I cultivated half an acre. After seeing the good yield, I have brought two acres under this system,” says Moolchand of Ajitpur village, who owns four acres.
The plant thus grown is 6 feet long compared to the 3.5 feet long HYV variety and has over 300 grains compared to about 100 grains in the latter.
“This is entirely the result of the hard work of these farmers, we only suugested them to take to organic farming and use other SRI which involves planting less seeds, planting them in rows spaced 10 inches from each other and using organic manure,” says Govind Yadav of Gramin Vikas Samiti.
The new methods have also made lives simpler for women, who used to toil hard, standing for hours in ankle-deep water taking out the weed. That task (taking out the weed) is now done by the menfolk with the help of a locally made de-weeder, which costs about Rs.1000.
The farmers don't want to form a cooperative yet, but they are seriously thinking about setting up a seed bank of traditional varieties, “which are so hard to find these days”.
The little success story of these farmers is like a ray of hope in Madhya Pradesh where rice productivity is far from satisfactory, especially since the high-productivity areas split to form Chhattisgarh.
Keywords: Damoh farmers, organic rice cultivation
Dear Pavitra Singh, We the farmer, not expecting the question like "why production of traditional method is low in the same area". It is the time for the research fellows to research on the traditional methods.
Dear adarsh why production of traditional method is low in the same area
in comparison with SRI.
Pavitra Singh,
Research Scientist at PSI,
Regional Coordinator of SRI programme of Bundelkhand
Dear Witan, You must go to find the genetic nature of some traditional varaity of Paddy in local region like ganja kali and others. the average height of these plants if grown in good condition is Aproxiately 5-6 feet. I was involved in the whole activity and is the witness of all stories
No Doubt Organic Farming is the Way to Go! I pray farmers of Shiv Singh's league rise up to improve lives of other members of his ilk.
SRI is making a difference in the life of Indian farmers, it has been proved that practising SRI results in 3-4 fold increase in the production of Paddy with less effort input. if we dont want to hear newz of farmers committing suicide then just we have to adopt SRI n System of root intensification method. lets hope in near future the irony of indian farmers committing suicide will be a history!!!
I happened only because of too much rain this year.
Paddy need water, and it has got it.
So its all luck, depends on rain.
Everyone knows these techniques.
M.P. has problem of water. Shiraaj Singh's government has solved it up to some extent,means better than congress.
So moral of the story is, "In M.P. production will depend on luck/rain until the problem of water and electricity will not get resolved."
Why don't you believe our traditional techniques while you have faith in Agricultural scientists?
In Tamilnadu there are plenty of programmes broadcasted in AIR exclusively for farmers - morning and evening -for the past several decades. But the field staff of Agriculture dept. particularly extension workers do not show the devotion to discuss with the farmers the real issues and motivate these people to try various organic methods. The local traders who have been giving credit to the farmers and reaping very good margins (in the sale of spurious products -fertilizers and pesticides) discourage the farmers about biofertilizers or organic methods. One side the agriculture dept. officials are not making the full effort of visiting the villages and conducting informal get together on a weekly/bimonthly/monthly basis; on the other side the traders are not going to let go the grip on the farmers. The entire department of Agriculture with their team of field extension workers must strive hard to mingle with the farmers now and the metamorphosis will occur.
Thank you very much Mr. Ram, for this very helpful article. I, too, belong to a farmer family. We grow BT cotton at our fields. We expect more of this kind from your noble-self. Thank you 'The Hindu'.
Governments -- both centre and state -- must come forward to provide assistance in traditional agriculture mode. The present green revolution mode is not only causing air, water, soil and food pollution with severe health hazards but also increasing costs of cultivation lead farmers suicides under unfavourable weather conditions. The low input organic farming when coupled with cooperative farming mode using progressive farmers innovations along with animal husbandry we can achieve the "Green" Green Revolution. See my book "Green Revolution" at www.scribd.com. See the strugle of paddy cultivating farmers in Andhra Pradesh. Even with high government subsidies farmers are in troubled water. Let the government transfer the same subsidy to "Green" the Green Revolution.
While the GoI is going heavily(read investing huge money) with the second green revolution for the eastern part of the country mainly based on Rice cultivation to "help" farmers with adoption of new technology high yielding varieties, i guess the above case is a good example to follow with and rework the present approach.
This assumes special significance in the light of present debate over the Bio-diversity bill and GM crops. There have been numerous experiments and efforts in various parts of the country not only in food grains but also into fruits and vegetables. Its time they should be integrated into one large frame for a comprehensive policy debate, since these will help in presenting a strong case for a cautious approach towards GM crops not just in India but also at the Global policy debates.
All these can be integrated into the agriculture development framework of the 12th plan.
While the GoI is going heavily(read investing huge money) with the second green revolution for the eastern part of the country mainly based on Rice cultivation to "help" farmers with adoption of new technology high yielding varieties, i guess the above case is a good example to follow with.
This assumes special significance in the light of present debate over the Bio-diversity bill and GM crops. There has been numerous experiments and efforts in various parts of the country not only in food grains but also into fruits and vegetables. Its time they should be integrated into one large frame for a comprehensive policy debate, since these will help in presenting a strong case for a cautious approach towards GM crops not just in India but also at the Global policy debates.
This story is difficult to believe. Some information could hve been deliberately kept out, and false info added.
Take the statement, "The plant thus grown is 6 feet long compared to the 3.5 feet long HYV variety and has over 300 grains compared to about 100 grains in the latter." The huge growth of the plant suggtest that it is all vegetative growth brought about by excessive (detrimental) and inappropriate application of fertilizer. Such plants would usually collapse under their own weight.
It is better to have some faith in our agricultural scientists, particularly agronomists/soil scientists, and plant breeders.
Great News! This is what Mankind want. Organic food!
good . damoh's example of where there is a will there is a way is ray of hope and an eye opener for those who are reluctant to try out creative ways to make a living.a truly cap is better than beung obsessed by phirangi.
Please Email the Editor