STUDIES and surveys indicate that of all the marginalized groups in India who face a serious threat to livelihood and food security, the tribals are the worst off. Besides cultivation, they depend on forests and the local neighbourhood to get wild food, small game, medicinal plants and timber to make agricultural implements, construct their homes and to use for fuel.

A major reason cited for this marginalization and subsequent loss of traditional livelihood and food source is the alienation of land or forests from tribal communities. This process began during the British era when the colonial rulers found the need to bring the entire population under one administrative head for purpose of governance and establish communication links with the entire country. Engineers, contractors, provision suppliers and traders went to the tribal areas and acquired land used by the local community that did not have the kind of documentation that secured proof of ownership. Hence, many communities lost their right to land and hunting and fishing.

In the post-independence era, the commercial value of forests became important and this led to the large-scale exploitation of natural resources by the mainstream population causing a serious threat to the environment. The state’s attempt to check exploitation by declaring several forests as reserved areas backfired, in part since this posed a problem for the tribals who could not access them anymore. Evidently our officials find it difficult to accept that the tribals do not pose a threat to the forests – they have a material and spiritual connect and have strict codes of utilization that help conserve rather than destroy natural resources. Unfortunately, policies evolved to conserve forests did not blend with the unique needs of the tribal communities. In addition, developmental projects such as the construction of dams led to large-scale displacement of tribal communities from their own land to an alien environment with which they were unfamiliar and where they did not have ownership rights.

Tribals in India can be broadly classified into one of the following categories based on their dominant economic activity. They are hunter gatherers, shifting/settled cultivators, pastoralists, artisans or engaged in manual labour. Currently a majority of the tribals are settled agriculturists, while hunting and other such activities are restricted to a few communities.

Unlike in other parts of the world, tribals in India were never completely alienated from the mainstream population. Despite unique linguistic, social and cultural identities, they engaged with the rest of the population and regularly traded with non-tribals for minor forest produce such as honey. This association also led them to adopt local agricultural practices.

 

Several tribal groups practised shifting cultivation. Also known as ‘slash and burn cultivation’, it consists of clearing a forest slope, burning the fallen trees and broadcasting the seeds (a method of seeding that involves scattering seed, by hand or mechanically, over a relatively large area). No other agricultural techniques are used. After cultivating this land for one or two seasons, the cultivators take up another area. This method, which is uneconomical due to low productivity and arguably depletes the fertility of soil, has since been banned and the practice has declined significantly.

Even as most tribal communities have little exposure to modern agricultural methods, their knowledge of traditional farming practices is impressive. They have also shown remarkable resilience in their will to survive. The Mizos of Mizoram and the Apatanis in Arunachal Pradesh present excellent examples of communities willing to adapt and change from shifting to plough cultivation. Both grow rice and have adopted terrace cultivation in the mountains slopes and this indicates an ability to adapt culturally and ecologically.

Sadly, most of the development programmes have bypassed them. While the problems of marginalization and substandard quality of life is common to tribal communities across India, the degree of deprivation and its subsequent impact on the health and nutritional status of the population varies considerably from one region to another.

 

It is in this context that the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) has been engaged in participatory research, education and capacity building of tribal communities in three locations in India, namely Jeypore in Koraput district of Odisha, Wayanad in Kerala and Kolli Hill in Tamil Nadu. Exceptions apart, most tribal groups in these regions are settled agriculturists and depend on the forest for timber and other minor products. Surveys carried out by the foundation have highlighted multiple problems faced by these communities. Lack of good quality seeds, especially of staple crops such as rice and millets, low yield among staple and other crops, lack of awareness about soil health, improved production technologies and water harvesting measures are major issues.

While seeds of high yielding and hybrid varieties are available from the agriculture department, the farmers do not receive any support for the propagation and conservation of traditional varieties of rice and millets, which they grow for their own consumption as well as for festive occasions. In addition, landscape conversion also poses a threat since traditional agro-ecosystems are giving way to cash crops and there is lack of availability of wild edibles. The wild edibles that the tribals accessed from forests were tubers, especially several yam varieties, wild mushroom, leafy greens and fruits and seeds. A steady loss of ‘knowledge transfer’ is also found as the younger generation is unaware about wild edibles and assigns greater importance to market food.

With a pro-poor, pro-nature, pro-women and pro-sustainable approach, the foundation is engaged in a variety of activities to promote the food and nutrition security of tribal households, both at the micro and macro levels. At the micro level, it undertakes participatory research with tribal communities in the areas of conservation, food production and sustainable agricultural practices, usually in collaboration with government and non-government agencies to provide end to end support for the entire gamut of agricultural operations, including on farm and non-farm activities and in demanding and receiving entitlements. In addition, the foundation focuses on building social capital through awareness generation, capacity building and forming, supporting or strengthening community based organizations.

 

As part of improving farm productivity in a participatory manner, promising local varieties of crops were identified and multiplied on the field. This included paddy and millet in Jeypore tract of Odisha, paddy and cassava in Kolli Hills and paddy and elephant foot yam in Wayanad. The varieties selected by farmers were raised in demonstration plots close to the road. Farmer visits were organized to these demonstration plots facilitating farmer-to-farmer exchange of knowledge. For revitalization of farm level conservation, participatory plant breeding with tribal families in Koraput district was done in order to improve the yield potential and agronomic qualities of local strains. This led to the development of the kalinga kalajeera strain, which is both high yielding and has a high market value.

To help the communities become more self-reliant in seed production and ensure a secure food chain mechanism, community food grain and gene banks have been set up from which the village community can borrow during times of need and repay in kind, with interest – also in kind. Households can become members of the grain bank and the initial stock is built up with a contribution from the foundation as well as excess grain available in the village. The banks operate on the principle of social inclusion, and help enlarge the food basket through the addition of local grains.

 

In Koraput, 30 community food and gene banks established with support from MSSRF over the last 12 years have been functioning well and provide villagers easy access to food grains. The grains include paddy, pulse and millet. Quality seeds of both local and improved varieties of paddy and millets are exchanged among farmers, mediated by seed banks in both Kolli Hills and Jeypore. Each village has a grain bank management committee that oversees the day-to-day transactions of the bank. The management committees meet at regular intervals to take decisions on the functioning and management of the banks. In all banks, the committee displays grain stock and other details on the storehouse wall so that all members are aware of the stock status. When stocks are in surplus, the excess grain is sold and the funds utilized for village development work. The banks cater to scheduled tribes (STs), landless, small and marginal farmers. In order to strengthen skills of the management committee, capacity building sessions are organized.

To address micronutrient malnutrition and to help compensate for the loss of access to forests, about 400 nutrition gardens or kitchen/home gardens as they are popularly known, have been set up, all developed and designed through community mobilization. Taking into account the poor nutritional status of the geographic regions, specific crop varieties have been selected, with an emphasis on leafy vegetables, pulses, tubers, aroids and fruit trees. Nutrition gardens in the Kolli Hills are based on a crop calendar of local and other species of vegetables, greens and some fruits to supplement household nutrition. These activities are backed by a series of nutrition awareness and training programmes for women, households and adolescent girls.

Another important action research initiative in the Kolli Hills is the creation of on-farm livelihood diversification activities to reduce the out-migration of tribal farm families. This is done by creating wadi farms that integrate silviculture, horticulture and animal husbandry. Based on plot locations, the tribal farmers are grouped and registered with a public sector bank at the Kolli Hills taluk headquarters. The farmers are advised to level, plough and clear weeds and rocks in their plots. Facilitation with horticulture research stations and farms, veterinary and agricultural colleges and research institutions as well as nurseries was undertaken to provide the farmers with quality saplings of jack-fruit, clove, silver oak, mango, cashew and fodder grass as planting materials.

 

Another key intervention promoted in the Kolli Hills and Jeypore is vermicomposting. Farmers in Kolli Hills are harvesting vermicompost and using the manure on paddy, tapioca, banana, coffee and pepper crops. Similar livelihood enhancement, agriculture and food security (LEAFS) initiatives are ongoing in Wayanad in partnership with the Kerala State Tribal Department. Several varieties of tubers, legumes, seasonal vegetables and fruit crops are being supplied to the nutrition gardens of tribal households. Capacity building has been undertaken on various subjects including home nutrition gardening, herbal gardening, vegetable crop cultivation, rice cultivation, bio-input production and nursery techniques. The bio-input production units run by two women self help groups (SHGs) have produced and marketed two biofertilizers: Trichoderma and Pseudomonas.

 

In order to reduce drudgery, improve efficiency and save time, the use of small farm machinery is critical for those with small holdings. In Wayanad and Jeypore, small farm machinery, especially threshers and power tillers, were provided to farmers’ groups and a team of people were trained in their use. In the Kolli Hills, pulverizers have been promoted as a non-farm enterprise. Improved land and water management strategies have been envisaged as key components in sustainable agricultural practices. The community has joined hands in creating open shallow wells, rainwater harvesting through water storage structures, percolation ponds and community tanks. Bunding in the fields was undertaken in the hilly regions and this enabled wastelands to be brought under cultivation. Today these lands have crops of millets, maize, horsegram, niger and vegetables.

Several studies point to a growing disconnect between agriculture and nutrition. To address this, MSSRF has conceptualized and developed a programme on an Integrated Farming System for Nutrition that is being tried out in a village cluster in the tribal belt of Koraput district in Odisha. It involves four steps. To begin with, understand the natural endowment base, prevailing farming systems and the nutrition situation in terms of the prevalence of chronic, transient and hidden hunger. Then, redesign the farming system so that agricultural remedies are introduced to address nutritional maladies, such as the cultivation of pulses and vegetables, and crop-livestock integration. Bio-fortified crops like iron rich sorghum should be introduced to help address micronutrient malnutrition. Finally, and most importantly, providing accurate knowledge on nutrition, sanitation, healthcare and childcare within the community in the study area.

 

Integrated farming includes animal husbandry activities and pisciculture in the existing farming system. In Jeypore, fish fingerlings of major and minor carp have been released in public ponds and are managed by local communities. The species chosen are a combination of surface, middle and bottom feeders that efficiently make use of nutrients in the pond. Fish raised in the ponds is provided at subsidized rates to households in the village.

Knowledge and skill empowerment is a prerequisite for sustainable development. Village Knowledge Centres (VKCs) and Village Resource Centres (VRCs) provide location-specific and demand driven information to tribal communities, especially on annual and perennial crops, livestock and government programmes. The VKCs are operated by trained rural women and men with the goal of providing a host of knowledge services following the principle of last mile last person connectivity. They also provide a platform for the scientific community to engage meaningfully with the tribals in generating a two way process of information sharing. Operating on the hub and spokes model, the VRC which forms the hub has satellite connectivity and telecommunication facilities that are supported by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). It provides audio-video conference facilities.

As part of its programme of enhancing social capital, MSSRF has created a cadre of community hunger fighters (CHFs). This is an action-education model where critical awareness and desire for action among the village communities is generated through training five representatives, men and women, belonging to different social groups from each village. The capacity building consists of residential training on the concepts of food and nutrition security spread over three modules which include the concept of balanced diet, role of macro and micro nutrients in the health of human beings, hygiene and sanitation, the social causes of undernutrition and the various schemes, programmes and entitlements pertaining to food and nutrition security. In addition, visits are organized to other areas to gain knowledge on varied subjects such as village sanitation and agricultural practices. The CHF programme has been initiated in 18 hamlets in the tribal belt of Koraput region of Odisha. The trained CHFs have been provided with a certificate. Each village has come up with an action plan for elimination of hunger and undernutrition which is then submitted to the block development officer for action.

 

Another initiative in the tribal belt of Koraput district of Odisha is the Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP). This programme addresses empowerment of women farmers, who are actively engaged in agriculture, operating in either own or family land or labouring for wages, through a range of capacity building measures. These include grassroots institution building, sustainable agriculture and household food security. Facilitating access to eligible entitlements is a cross-cutting activity across the three focal themes. The women farmers are brought together in a common plat-form by grouping them into samitis of 10-20 women in each village. In 2010 the GOI in its Union budget announced the launch of the MKSP scheme as a government programme.

 

At MSSRF’s suggestion, the Government of India has instituted two recognition and reward systems: the Genome Saviour Award for tribal and rural families who have conserved rich genetic diversity and the Breed Saviour Award as recognition and reward for rural men and women for their contribution to the conservation of indigenous animal breeds. These awards remind the world at large that far from endangering ecological security, the tribal men and women have in fact contributed to the protection of the environment.

Based on detailed documentation prepared by MSSRF, the Traditional Agriculture System of Koraput, Odisha was declared as one of the Globally Important Agriculture Heritage Systems (GIAHS). GIAHS acknowledges the role of women in the origin and development of crop and animal husbandry, fisheries and forestry. Recognition as GIAHS is not only a matter of celebrating our heritage, but could also be a pathway to achieving sustainable food and nutrition security in an era of climate change

 

References:

Indra Munshi (ed.), The Adivasi Question. Orient Blackswan, New Delhi, 2012.

C. Manjula, Girigan Gopi, M.K. Nandakumar, Benudhar Suchen and C.S. Mishra, Wild Food Plants: Status of Knowledge and Usage Among Communities in Agrobiodiversity Hotspots of Koraput and Wayanad, India. Poster presentation made at the Dialogue on Food Security at University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, 30 April-2 May 2014.

Nadeem Hasnain, Tribal India. Palaka Prakashan, New Delhi, 2011.

Twenty-Second Annual Report 2011-2012, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai.

Twenty-Third Annual Report, 2012-2013, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai.