Tribals in Kerala revive an age old tradition by cultivating millets

Tribals in Kerala cultivate millets, revive an age old tradition

Millets have been an integral part of the adivasi culture and lifestyle in the highlands of Attappadi, Kerala. Millets were consumed in south India since a long time and have been a staple food for centuries, but were gradually pushed to the highland margins, along with the adivasis. State policies also favoured rice and wheat as part of the Green Revolution and this gradually led to a decline in the area under millet cultivation. Uncertain rainfall, foraging wild animals and shortage of land have further made millet cultivation challenging in recent years.

However, government support and a newfound market interest have now increased the demand and support for millet farming in the region. The agriculture department’s Millet Village project, now part of the Rebuild Kerala Initiative, along with the Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP)’s Namithu Vellame initiative promotes millets in more than half the hamlets in Attappadi, including finger, little, foxtail, proso, kodo, barnyard and pearl millets and sorghum — as well as groundnuts, vegetables and mustard. 

The project covers 643 hectares of farms in the first season and 543 hectares in the second and promotes the conservation and exchange of indigenous seeds. Minimum support prices and subsidies provide the much-needed support for cash-strapped adivasi communities. Processing units buy the produce from farmers and sell them to bulk buyers. In one year, the plant at Cheerakadavu village in Pudur panchayat has sold about 7000 kg of processed grain (Mongabay, India).

Farmers in Rajasthan resurrect Khadeens, ancient water harvesting structures to protect biodiversity and prevent migration for water

In the Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan, farmers harvested the limited available rainwater with an indigenous technique called ‘khadeen’, that has worked for thousands of years and helped them irrigate their fields.
However, many quit khadeen-based cultivation to opt for canal irrigation over the last decade and Khadeens were slowly ignored and the traditional knowledge of rainwater harvesting became restricted. Introduction of canal irrigation, stone mining in the area further threatened the khadeens.

A khadeen is integral to the availability of drinking water for the villages. Beris or small wells are dug in these khadeens and each khadeen could contain many beris and around 3,000 to 4,000 people drink water from these beris during the harvest time. During the monsoons, khadeens become natural wetlands. Winter migratory birds make these harvesting structures their temporary home. Ber, Khejri, and Desi babool are the three main trees found near the khadeens. Mango, Jamun, Maulsari and other trees are also grown in the Khadeens. .

Local tribal communities and farmers in Jaisalmer are now reviving hundreds of khadeens with an aim to protect biodiversity and also stop farmers from migrating for water. This has been due to the persistent efforts of Chhatar Singh, a resident of Jailsalmer who decided to dedicate his life to revive khadeens and has not looked back since. With the support of local communities, he has helped revive hundreds of khadeens.

Over 200 beris have been revived which now have year-round drinking water. These wells have stored water, two to 20 feet under the ground. This water is locally known as rejwani pani or hidden water. Several other wells (other than beris) and big ponds and lakes (palar pani) have also been cleaned and revived. Chhatar Singh now plans to revive 40 more khadeens in Jaisalmer, for which the work is already going on (Mongabay, India)

Fisherwomen in Thal village of Maharashtra fight against all odds to preserve their fishing economy 

The fisherwomen of Thal village in the coastal expanse of Raigad district in Maharashtra have to undergo a daily struggle to maintain their dwindling fishing business, but continue to practice traditional fishing in the region.

Thal grapples with challenges unique to its distant location and a lack of modern infrastructure and is  inhabited by the Koli community, the indigenous fisherfolk of the region. Women continue to work hard and offloading the fresh catch from the sea using bullock carts. The fish are manually processed by women and almost all the processing tasks are done by them with their bare hands in the absence of modern equipment and machines. Migration trend makes men seek jobs elsewhere, leaving women to champion the ancestral fishing trade. The women toil with pride on the village beach day and night, their children keeping them company. 

The work involves offloading, cleaning, segregating and drying fish. Thal faces numerous challenges, including a lack of infrastructure, water and electricity issues, old boats, outdated tools and limited transport facilities to sustain the fishing business. Moreover, larger fish markets located in close proximity, like those in Alibaug and Varsoli, are favoured by buyers due to their accessibility and diverse selection.

The obstacles for Thal’s women are aplenty. There is no infrastructure in the village. Water and electricity are still a problem. The other challenge is lack of transport facilities and accessibility that makes conducting the fishing business very difficult. Yet, amidst these challenges, Thal’s fisherwomen persist (Village Square). 

India starts construction of one of the largest renewable energy projects in the Rann of Kutch 

India is building world’s largest renewable energy project in salt deserts bordering Pakistan, which will be the world's largest renewable energy project when completed in three years from now and it is located the middle of the Rann of Kutch in western India’s Gujarat state. Once completed, it will supply 30 gigawatts of renewable energy annually, enough to power nearly 18 million Indian homes.

As India aims to install 500 gigawatts of clean energy by the end of the decade and to reach net zero emissions by 2070, this project site will contribute significantly to the transition to producing energy from non-carbon sources. Presently, coal is used to generate more than 70 percent of India's electricity while renewable energy contributes about 10 percent of India’s electricity needs.

While acknowledging the importance of transitioning to renewable energy, environmental experts and social activists say India’s decision to allow clean energy projects without any environmental impact assessments is bound to have adverse consequences on the biodiversity of the region (Live Mint). 

Community participation and governance important for effective management and restoration of forests, finds study

New research has found tgat discovered that strong decision-making power for local communities, like formalised community forest management with local participation in governance, leads to effective management and restoration of forests over a simplistic emphasis on tree planting.

The researchers analysed a dataset of 314 forest commons in human-dominated landscapes across 15 tropical countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America to study their relationship with carbon sequestration in above-ground woody biomass, tree species richness and forest livelihoods. 

It was found that tree plantations were positively associated with subsistence and sustainable forests, but negatively associated with carbon and conservation forests. Tree plantations decreased the relative odds of being either a conservation or a carbon forest as compared with degraded forests and had no significant association with sustainable or subsistence forests.

The study found that institutional reforms that supported more effective local resource management had the potential to serve as an important policy strategy for supporting multiple human and environmental outcomes from forest restoration.

The most important finding of the study was that empowering local governance in the form of formal community forest management organisations, as well as local participation in rule-making, was linked to positive outcomes such as carbon, biodiversity and sustaining rural livelihoods (Down To Earth).

This is a roundup of important news updates from 1st December 2023 to 15th December 2023. Please read the policy updates this fortnight here.