Picture courtesy: Kamalendu BhadraStory by Subhro Niyogi
Bijoynagar, Bali Island (Sunderbans): Lush green fields, neat mud houses, abundance of cattle and livestock, a narrow but clean brick-paved road — Bijoynagar village in Bali Island of the Sunderbans presents an unusually pretty picture. The phrase that leaps to the mind is sonar Bangla, a cliché that is often used to describe rural Bengal that is rarely visible in its pristine beauty anymore.
Tucked beyond rivers and a series of islands, it’s not easy to reach Bijoynagar. Many may feel that is what helped preserve its unsullied character. Yet, there’s more to it than meets the eye. For, herein lies the story of a paradise lost; and regained.
The picture was very different till two years ago when idyllic pastures had turned barren, yielding lesser crop each year. Rampant use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and hybrid seeds over a decade had shorn the land of its fertility.
It all began around 12 years ago when a farmer in Hingalgunge in another quarter of the Sunderbans used hybrid seeds to reap a bumper harvest of 15 bags a bigha (each of 60 kg rice). Till then, local farmers only produced indigenous rice variety that yielded 10 bags a bigha. Word of the wonder seed spread like wildfire. In less than two years, everyone had dumped traditional farming and joined the green revolution. "Indigenous varieties of rice like Golgeti, Hogla, Khejur Chari, Durga Bhog, Dudheswar and Kalo Mota were lost in the frenzy," recalled Niranjan Mistry.
Keen to get more from fields, farmers pumped fertilizer into the soil. To rid the field of pests that were turning more resistant, they sprayed insecticides in larger dozes that didn’t just kill harmful insects but also destroyed friendly ones like caterpillars that add to soil fertility."
By the seventh year of moving to hybrid seeds like Swarna 56-56, CR 1518, CR 1009, CR 1017 and CR 1010, expense on fertilizer and pesticide were becoming a strain. I had run up a huge loan but there was no turning back," recalled Radhapada Mondal.
Three years later, he was on the verge of losing his farmland to mortgage as the crop declined drastically to five bags of paddy a bigha. The same land had yielded 10 bags 10 years ago. Some farmers were worse off as incursion of saline water left their fields barren. Hybrid varieties refused to grow in them.
"Not just paddy, crops like pulses also declined. Even hay from hybrid seeds was coarse and inferior. As fodder, it did not have the nutritional value that organic variety did. It showed on the health of cattle that grew thin. The hay was also not durable. Used as roof shade, they now lasted only a year against five years earlier," Prasanta Biswas pointed out.
With farming the only source of livelihood and every family facing the crunch, the slightest argument snowballed into major squabble. One thing led to another. Politics that had remained peripheral, took centre-stage. During the 2006 state elections, the hitherto united people of Bijoynagar became sharply divided. The atmosphere was fast getting vitiated in village after village, across the Sunderbans.
It was pretty hopeless when a coincidence turned things around. An environment scientist and an ecologist who were trying to evolve a project on sustaining man and nature in ecologically fragile Sunderbans spotted the declining productivity in farmlands and relized it was threatening food security. They studied the phenomenon and designed a grassroots-level intervention programme to reverse the farming habits from chemicals to organic so that agriculture could become sustainable. This project was among 20 of 2,500 proposals that received the World Bank award for grassroots innovation in 2007.
"Over 4.2 million people inhabit the 50 islands in the Sunderbans. For many, agriculture is the only source of livelihood. We could have selected any island but zeroed in on Bali because it had a credible local NGO and its people were receptive to change," said Asish Ghosh of Society for Environment & Development (Endev). The other team member was Debal Deb.
The ground work done, the duo held a series of workshops to overcome skepticism, reason that soil had been degraded by use of chemicals and finally convince Mistry, Mondal and Biswas to return to the earlier farming practices.
Productivity at the farms that tried organic improved. They each did 10 bags of rice per bigha. WWF, an external partner, tested the grains from these fields and found them free of pesticide residue. The success gave others confidence to make the switch. Last year, 19 farmers went organic
"The results of the first year impressed the farmers of not only Bali but far off Sandeshkhali block II and Hingalgunge in North 24-Parganas. Area under cultivation with indigenous rice varieties increased 10-folds," said Ghosh. Three seed banks (beejtala) have come up and are managed by local NGOs — Bali Nature & Wildlife Society at Bali, Joygopalpur Youth Development Centre at Dhamakhali and Paschim Sridharkati Janakalyan Samity at Hingalgunge. Collectively, they can now offer more than 50 indigenous rice varieties including salt-tolerant varieties.
"The shift to organic farming has evolved into a movement. This sowing season, we expect a large number of farmers to go the organic way," said Subhas Mondal, representative of the local NGO who acted as the Endev project coordinator. The winds of change have forced the panchayat to go organic as well. This year, it is distributing organic fertilizer
There’s new-found confidence among villagers and a general sense of optimism has rubbed off on the atmosphere. A month to go for the elections, Bijoynagar presents a bonhomie unseen in Bengal’s politically volatile villages. Though this year’s face-off between RSP and SUCI in the Joynagar constituency will be the toughest yet, there’s no wariness in the locality.
"We’ll all vote according to our political leanings. But there’s no tension in the village because the difference in political beliefs do not create a divide. We’ve seen how fellow villagers have stood by in tough times. We’ve also realized that politics is divisive. The politicians were nowhere to be seen when we were on the brink of disaster. They’ll behave like politicians. Let us remain humans," said Biswas.
Ghosh finds it ironic that Indian politics that hinges on the pro-farmer stance is so far removed from the soil. "Politicians will promise loan waivers and free electricity but never talk of environment or sustainable agriculture and water supply," he said, adding that there is still opportunity for state-level support to turn the micro-level model in Bali into Bengal’s macro picture.
Bijoynagar, Bali Island (Sunderbans): Lush green fields, neat mud houses, abundance of cattle and livestock, a narrow but clean brick-paved road — Bijoynagar village in Bali Island of the Sunderbans presents an unusually pretty picture. The phrase that leaps to the mind is sonar Bangla, a cliché that is often used to describe rural Bengal that is rarely visible in its pristine beauty anymore.
Tucked beyond rivers and a series of islands, it’s not easy to reach Bijoynagar. Many may feel that is what helped preserve its unsullied character. Yet, there’s more to it than meets the eye. For, herein lies the story of a paradise lost; and regained.
The picture was very different till two years ago when idyllic pastures had turned barren, yielding lesser crop each year. Rampant use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and hybrid seeds over a decade had shorn the land of its fertility.
It all began around 12 years ago when a farmer in Hingalgunge in another quarter of the Sunderbans used hybrid seeds to reap a bumper harvest of 15 bags a bigha (each of 60 kg rice). Till then, local farmers only produced indigenous rice variety that yielded 10 bags a bigha. Word of the wonder seed spread like wildfire. In less than two years, everyone had dumped traditional farming and joined the green revolution. "Indigenous varieties of rice like Golgeti, Hogla, Khejur Chari, Durga Bhog, Dudheswar and Kalo Mota were lost in the frenzy," recalled Niranjan Mistry.
Keen to get more from fields, farmers pumped fertilizer into the soil. To rid the field of pests that were turning more resistant, they sprayed insecticides in larger dozes that didn’t just kill harmful insects but also destroyed friendly ones like caterpillars that add to soil fertility."
By the seventh year of moving to hybrid seeds like Swarna 56-56, CR 1518, CR 1009, CR 1017 and CR 1010, expense on fertilizer and pesticide were becoming a strain. I had run up a huge loan but there was no turning back," recalled Radhapada Mondal.
Three years later, he was on the verge of losing his farmland to mortgage as the crop declined drastically to five bags of paddy a bigha. The same land had yielded 10 bags 10 years ago. Some farmers were worse off as incursion of saline water left their fields barren. Hybrid varieties refused to grow in them.
"Not just paddy, crops like pulses also declined. Even hay from hybrid seeds was coarse and inferior. As fodder, it did not have the nutritional value that organic variety did. It showed on the health of cattle that grew thin. The hay was also not durable. Used as roof shade, they now lasted only a year against five years earlier," Prasanta Biswas pointed out.
With farming the only source of livelihood and every family facing the crunch, the slightest argument snowballed into major squabble. One thing led to another. Politics that had remained peripheral, took centre-stage. During the 2006 state elections, the hitherto united people of Bijoynagar became sharply divided. The atmosphere was fast getting vitiated in village after village, across the Sunderbans.
It was pretty hopeless when a coincidence turned things around. An environment scientist and an ecologist who were trying to evolve a project on sustaining man and nature in ecologically fragile Sunderbans spotted the declining productivity in farmlands and relized it was threatening food security. They studied the phenomenon and designed a grassroots-level intervention programme to reverse the farming habits from chemicals to organic so that agriculture could become sustainable. This project was among 20 of 2,500 proposals that received the World Bank award for grassroots innovation in 2007.
"Over 4.2 million people inhabit the 50 islands in the Sunderbans. For many, agriculture is the only source of livelihood. We could have selected any island but zeroed in on Bali because it had a credible local NGO and its people were receptive to change," said Asish Ghosh of Society for Environment & Development (Endev). The other team member was Debal Deb.
The ground work done, the duo held a series of workshops to overcome skepticism, reason that soil had been degraded by use of chemicals and finally convince Mistry, Mondal and Biswas to return to the earlier farming practices.
Productivity at the farms that tried organic improved. They each did 10 bags of rice per bigha. WWF, an external partner, tested the grains from these fields and found them free of pesticide residue. The success gave others confidence to make the switch. Last year, 19 farmers went organic
"The results of the first year impressed the farmers of not only Bali but far off Sandeshkhali block II and Hingalgunge in North 24-Parganas. Area under cultivation with indigenous rice varieties increased 10-folds," said Ghosh. Three seed banks (beejtala) have come up and are managed by local NGOs — Bali Nature & Wildlife Society at Bali, Joygopalpur Youth Development Centre at Dhamakhali and Paschim Sridharkati Janakalyan Samity at Hingalgunge. Collectively, they can now offer more than 50 indigenous rice varieties including salt-tolerant varieties.
"The shift to organic farming has evolved into a movement. This sowing season, we expect a large number of farmers to go the organic way," said Subhas Mondal, representative of the local NGO who acted as the Endev project coordinator. The winds of change have forced the panchayat to go organic as well. This year, it is distributing organic fertilizer
There’s new-found confidence among villagers and a general sense of optimism has rubbed off on the atmosphere. A month to go for the elections, Bijoynagar presents a bonhomie unseen in Bengal’s politically volatile villages. Though this year’s face-off between RSP and SUCI in the Joynagar constituency will be the toughest yet, there’s no wariness in the locality.
"We’ll all vote according to our political leanings. But there’s no tension in the village because the difference in political beliefs do not create a divide. We’ve seen how fellow villagers have stood by in tough times. We’ve also realized that politics is divisive. The politicians were nowhere to be seen when we were on the brink of disaster. They’ll behave like politicians. Let us remain humans," said Biswas.
Ghosh finds it ironic that Indian politics that hinges on the pro-farmer stance is so far removed from the soil. "Politicians will promise loan waivers and free electricity but never talk of environment or sustainable agriculture and water supply," he said, adding that there is still opportunity for state-level support to turn the micro-level model in Bali into Bengal’s macro picture.
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