THE majority of the tribal population in India is found in the Central and North East Indian states. The eastern state of Odisha is home to 9.6 million tribals, constituting about 22% of the entire state’s population. Malnutrition is prevalent on a large scale among these communities. Living Farms has been working with 15,000 tribal and Dalit (Scheduled Caste) households in the two blocks of Bissam Cuttack and Muniguda of Rayagada district, addressing their food and nutrition security concerns. The average agriculture land holding of these households is 1-2 hectares. The Household Economy Approach (HEA) survey shows a severe annual hunger period of five months (May-September) as illustrated in Figure 1.¹

The months from April to September are difficult for villagers who have a very low household food security during this time. They neither get any full time employment, nor are able to take up daily wage work owing to the extreme heat between mid-April to June. Further, household food stocks also get exhausted as left over seed is used for sowing. The subsidized rice from the public distribution system only meets the food needs of a family of five for about 5-6 days in a month.

This is why forest foods become critically important for these communities. According to accounts provided by the villagers, they had a tradition of collecting and cultivation to meet their food requirements. Traditionally, they have been growing more than 60 varieties of crops (millets, maize, sorghum, lentils, sesame, flaxseed, spices and vegetables) through mixed-cropping practices on 1-2 acres (2.5 acre =1 hectare) of land and/or on hill slopes. They also cultivate a few local varieties of paddy and collect hundreds of uncultivated foods from the forests (edible flowers, fruits, tubers, leaves, stems, seeds, wild mushrooms, tamarind, bamboo shoots and edible insects, etc.).

 

Odisha has a forest cover of 5,81,36,00 ha, covering 37.34% of the state’s geographical area. By the end of December 2011, 384 proposals to divert an area of 39,720.186 ha of forest land to other purposes had been approved by the Ministry of Environment and Forests. During 2011-12, thirteen proposals were approved for the diversion of 831.18 ha forest area.² The current land use or forest policies and even food security programmes do not appreciate the role of traditional forest foods in the diet of tribal folk. Instead, the focus has been on using plantations as a revenue generating measure at the expense of minor forest produce and un-marketed forest foods.

There is scientific evidence to show that diversity provides a natural insurance against major changes in the ecosystem, be it in the wild or in agriculture. It is also known that genetic diversity will be crucial in highly variable environments, especially in areas experiencing rapid human-induced climate change. The larger the number of species or varieties present in one field or in an ecosystem, the greater the probability that at least some of them will be able to cope with changing conditions.³

 

Unfortunately, the agricultural programmes initiated by the state in Rayagada district between the years of 1993-1995 have been promoting monoculture of paddy and sunflower with heavy use of chemical inputs and non-renewable seeds in the name of ‘higher yields’. At the same time there has been promotion of large-scale plantations of commercial species and horticulture in natural bio-diverse forests, leading to a diversion of forest land for such projects. These practices have led to a hugely reduced diversity of traditional food and degradation of forest and agro-biodiversity.

Living Farms conducted a study in the tribal districts of Rayagada and Sundargarh to understand the issues around collection and consumption of forest foods and the extent of dependence of local communities on such food for their food and nutritional security.

 

The study⁴ recorded 121 different kinds of forest foods being harvested between the last week of July 2013 and December 2013 by the sample households. On an average, 4.56 kg of such foods were harvested per household during each collection foray, which ranged from 21 to 69 different kinds of food. On an average, 0.725 kg of forest foods became part of the cooked food consumed per household per day. The highest diversity was in mushrooms while the largest quantities harvested were that of various tubers. Across six villages, forest foods accounted for 12% to as much as 24.4% of total cooked foods per day on average. The dependence of communities on forest foods ranged from 20% to 50%, depending on the characteristics of a village and the nature of its forests. This is both in terms of diversity and quantity. The study also shows that forest foods provide a critical supplement to the diets of these communities, ensuring diversity in the diets as shown in Figure 2.⁵

On average, they collect over 10 types of oil seeds, 25 varieties of roots and tubers, 35 kinds of fruits, mushrooms, fish and crab, 40 kinds of greens, and a similar number of birds, animals, edible insects and more throughout the year. However, the study found a decline in availability and consumption of forest foods in all the villages. Diversity is ebbing away and entire species have disappeared, according to the villagers. Forests are becoming sparse and getting replaced by mono-plantations.

As a result, women have started resisting attempts to set up commercial plantations and have instead been planting multipurpose trees as a part of the regeneration effort. More than 10,000 acres of forest has thus been protected and nurtured, leading to the revival of more than 275 varieties of wild foods rich in micronutrients. The importance of this in providing a more balanced diet cannot be overemphasized.

 

The mainstream model of food consumption and farming does not recognize the multiple values of (bio) diverse, traditionally consumed forest-based foods of tribal communities and other forest dwellers.⁶ The legal right to food in India neither insists on locally produced food nor includes uncultivated foods from forests or other natural habitats (including the village commons).

Moreover, managing forests for food is not considered crucial in addressing food security, nutrition and well-being for its vulnerable and dependent communities. The focus on sustainable livelihoods from forest produce takes away the attention from life giving food and nutrition for local inhabitants from the forest.

The qualitative aspect of forests is often neglected with much attention given to its quantitative targets of food production, accessibility and availability. Nurturing forests is as much about ensuring food and nutritional security as about guaranteeing diversity. In policy circles, forest foods have not been identified as a focus area that would take into account the accessibility to and the maintenance of diversity in the commons.

How to bring about policy changes remains a big challenge, affecting the possible impacts. There is little or no valuation of forests as food sources when diverted for ‘non-forest purposes’. Even the ‘special provision to safeguard food security’ applies only to ‘irrigated multi-cropped land’ as a source of food. The challenge is of bringing in the areas of uncultivated food that fall outside the notion of ‘net area sown’, though they are vital in the local food chain.

 

A serious attempt to improve the national capacity to monitor and assess the contribution made by forests and trees to food security is needed. India’s forest policies must be realigned with food security objectives. Forest clearance procedures for projects must also factor in loss to forest foods and governments must formulate rules to implement the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act of 1996 in Schedule V areas.

Monitoring progress and impact is a critical aspect of national and regional food security strategies. A successful strategy to deal with the issue of malnutrition will need to go beyond the National Food Security Act. National reporting frameworks that distinguish where and how food is obtained (produced, purchased or gathered from the wild) must include the contribution of forests and of trees on farms, both planted and wild. Recognition of the full contribution of the forest sector is fundamental for increased investment as a long-term adaptation strategy in the light of climate crisis. Forest agencies and national statistical bureaus such as the National Institute for Nutrition and The Food and Nutrition Board and its 43 community food and nutrition extension units (CFNEUs) under four regional offices in the country need to be more effective in recording and promoting the contribution of forests and trees at all levels of society.

 

Re-prioritizing agricultural policies with state specific nutrition programmes (as opposed to being centrally designed) would help develop mechanisms for coordination across the ministries of women and child, health, agricultural, forestry, livestock, fisheries, energy, mining and other relevant sectors to ensure stronger coherence of food security and nutrition interventions.

In Odisha, at least, 32,711 villages are eligible for recognition of their CFR.⁷ These villages are concentrated in the tribal, upland districts of the state. The government needs to acknowledge this right and provide titles to the concerned villages.⁸

 

More importantly, women play a critical role in gathering forest produce and in income generation opportunities. Recognizing the intimate relationship between forests and women’s empowerment must protect this aspect of gender equality. Improved tenure and access rights to forest resources, particularly for women, could support more sustainable resource management for food security.

In conclusion, the alarming expansion of large-scale industrial production systems in tropical regions threatens the contribution of forests and tree based agriculture systems to food security, diets and nutrition. Despite this, the role of forests in supporting human food security and nutrition remain largely under-researched and understood. With food security and nutrition high on the agenda in many political and scientific spheres, it is crucial to understand the contribution of forests and trees to a food secure and nutrition sensitive future.

 

Footnotes:

1. V.L. Plän, Household Economy Approach Rayagada District 2011: Fact Sheet, working version 3. University of Marburg, Welthungerhilfe. South Asia, Living Farms, 2011.

2. Government of Odisha, Economic Survey 2012-13. Planning and Coordination Department, Government of Odisha, Bhubaneswar, 2013.

3. Cotter and Tirado, Food Security and Climate Change: the Answer is Biodiversity. Greenpeace, UK, 2008.

4. D. Deb, K. Kurungati, V.R. Rao and S. Yesudas, Forests as Food Producing Habitats: an Exploratory Study of Uncultivated Foods, and Food and Nutrition Security of Adivasis in Odisha. Living Farms, Odisha, 2014.

5. Ibid.

6. B. Vira, C. Wildburger and S. Mansourian, (eds.), Forests, Trees and Landscapes for Food Security and Nutrition: A Global Assessment Report (IUFRO World Series Volume 33). Vienna: International Union of Forest Research Organizations, 2015.

7. Community forest rights allows communities to protect and manage their customary forests. In combination with various community forests rights under the FRA, the CFR provision effectively democratizes forest governance in India by providing sufficient legal powers to gram sabhas to govern and manage forests.

8. Rights and Resources Initiative, Vasundhara and Natural Resources Management Consultants. Potential for Recognition of Community Forest Resource Rights Under India’s Forest Rights Act: A Preliminary Assessment, 2015.

 

References:

S. Bhutani, Forests, Our Food! (Policy brief). Living Farms, Odisha, 2014.

Census India. (2011). Executive Summary. Retrieved from http://www.censusindia. gov.in/2011census/PCA/PCA_Highlights/pca_highlights_file/India/4Executive_ Summary.pdf

Forest Survey of India. State of Forest Report. New Delhi: Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, 2003.

I. I. Meshram, N. Balakrishna, N. Arlappa, K.M. Rao, A. Laxmaiah and G.N.V. Brahmam, Prevalence of Undernutrition, its Determinants, and Seasonal Variation Among Tribal Preschool Children of Odisha State, India’, Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health 26 (5), 2012, pp. 470-480.