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| Bishnupada working in his vermicompost pit |
On 25th May, 2009, a super cyclone, AILA devasted the livelihoods of Sundarban. Most of the farmlands were under saline water. 6 Blocks of North 24 pargnas were affected by this cylone. Hingalganj and Sandeshkhali-II blocks were the worse affected. Out of 9 Gram Panchayats of Hingalganj block, Kalitala Gram Panchayat (GP) was severly affected by AILA. 90% farmlands of Samsernagar and Pargumti villages of Kalitala GP were under saline water, most of the cattles were died.
At the initial stage, we (Swanirvar and its technical partner, DRCSC) concentrated on relief-response programme. We provided dryfoods, drinking water and medicines, etc to them. After that our prime focus was reconstruction and development. We made a detailed survey to annlysis the graveness of the situation and also to plan our future strategies. We found that most of the farmers had no saline tollerent paddy seeds and no vegetable seeds of indigenious variety.
Our staff visited the Parghumti and Kalitala villages and met the villagers. 26 Small farmers groups were formed and we gave them hand held orientations on –sustainable ecological farming parctises, vermicompost making, bio-pestcontrollers, saline tollerent paddy farming and preservation of seeds, etc.
With our continuous efforts and with hard labour of the farmers groups, most of the farmers are now truned back and getting good return form his salt deposited barren lands.
Bishnupada Baidya (26 yrs) was one the members of our farmers club of Parghumti villages. He had 1 acre farm lands and also had 0.20 acre vegetable gardens adjacent to his house. He had 3 members in his family also had cattles and poultry birds. He took trainings on vermicomposting, folk seed collection and preservation and bio-fertilizers etc from our agri-schools.
He got 4kg Marichshal paddy seeds (a saline tollerent folk paddy) from us as loan. He was so successful with this folk rice and got 180Kg paddy and 1700 bundle of straw as fodder. He had very little expenses as he used vermicompost as manures and followed Integrated Pest Managemnt (IPM) methodologies in farming. He also motivated 9 other successful farmers to form a Grain Bank and they had contributed 50 kg paddy/ member as intitial reserve grains.
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| Rain water use in vegetable garden |
He also got trainings on rainwater storing and using. (95% palces in Sundarban are mono-cropped and only produce paddy in monsoon. After that the farmers keep their farmlands vacant and used as a gazing field for the cattles). He also got folk vegetable seed support from us. Presently, he was producing pumpkin, bitter gourd, ladiesfingers, flatbeans, and longbeans, red amaranth, Indian spinach etc in his home kitchen garden. He said No to chemical pesticides and only using home made bio-pest controllers and bio-nutrients. In each week he was earning ~Rs. 250.00 by saleing the vegetables and also getting the sufficient vegetable for his family. He also harvested fooders in the paddy field for his cattle. He had realized the goodness of fold seeds and ecological farming. He also asked for more hand held trainings from us and also trying to produce other fold paddy in his field. He has become an icon in his area and has inspired many farmers.
Reported by,
Sujit Adhikari
Swanirvar
