Sunita Rao recently joined ATREE as an Adjunct Fellow. She is also a member of and coordinator at Kalpavriksh Environmental Action Group, a Pune based NGO.
She did her postgraduate degree in Ecology at the Salim Ali School of Ecology, Pondicherry in 1989. Later, Sunita worked at the Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi on the management of national parks and sanctuaries. In 1991 she began working with Kalpavriksh, mainly on environmental education and sustainable agriculture.
Sunita has worked on bringing out environmental handbooks for ecologically fragile areas like the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, and BRT Wildlife sanctuary. She believes that education must be experiential and relate to real life happenings.
Since 2003 Sunita has been based on a forest farm near Sirsi, a small town in the western ghats of Karnataka. She works with Vanastree – the Malnad Forest Garden and Seed Exchange Collective, that she helped set up in 2001.
The two day seed festival in the first fortnight of June has been a regular event in Sirsi ever since Sunita set up the seed collective in 2001.In this interview with the Eco-Informatics Centre, Sunita shares interesting insights about the Malnad Mela and the Malnad Seed Collective and how she intends to take the movement forward... and of course on the way, you get some interesting glimpses into her childhood and youth too.
Tell us about your childhood?I grew up in Bangalore and Madras (I REFUSE to call it Chennai!). The beach and the sea are still very much a part of me. The first novel I read was "Around the world in 80 days" and I was fascinated. Books have become my staunch and steadfast companions since. Gerald Durrel's books were my long time craze.
I did NOT like to study - it was all just so boring and insipid. I did fairly well in academics just to stay out of trouble. My favorite time of the year was summer vacation, and the most depressing part was the last day of the holidays. I really enjoyed swimming and cycling. And day dreaming. I connected with dogs in a way that made me feel complete.
The first cake I baked was at 14 - it was PERFECT....light and spongy and aromatic. I had followed Tarla Dalal to the T literally! When I put the first piece of it in my mouth, my soul crashed to my feet - I had completely missed adding sugar to the recipe. I did not give up and have become quite a good baker since. I don’t use sugar still - mostly honey or jaggery.
I really wanted to become a vet but that did not work out. I was sad a long time till I found that entering adulthood was more about looking at what you had and not about what you did not.
How were your college days like?Less lines wasted on college the better! Well I did make some really nice friends. On the whole I don’t think I learnt much and ended up far more confused about what I wanted to do, who I was, and what I was good at. The Ecology Masters course in Pondy was not too bad. Yes, some of the courses, field trips and treks were nice. I liked cycling up and down the streets of Pondy. It was quite meditative those days. So meditative that I once cycled straight into a policewoman on JN Street. Gosh! She was so annoyed.
But on the whole, I couldn't wait to have my education done with and behind me. Perhaps it was because I was restless and unable to articulate what I really wanted to do and where I would best be able to direct my energies and learning.
I was happy to finish my MS and finally roll off the conveyer belt of education.
Who were your mentors? And whose work do you find inspiring in India and internationally?
Unfortunately no one mentored me. Maybe that would have been helpful. I did admire the work of Prof. Meher-Homji of the French Institute in Pondy. And I was truly inspired by my brief meeting with Masanobu Fukuoka, the Japanese farmer who wrote the One Straw Revolution.
I was also drawn to some of the people in Auroville who were doing land restoration work and organic agriculture. I also liked the work of Romulus Whitaker and the way he encouraged me to just go off to the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and begin writing a book for schools there. That really was the start of an undreamt of adventure and I will always be thankful to Rom for that.
Before you started the Malnad Seed Collective, did you work on other similar projects?
I had decided not to stick with pure science as my gut feeling told me that was not the thing for me. Thank God. So after much wandering through slush, I finally ended up getting into environmental education, where eventually I began to see that it was experiential learning that counted. High faulting science could be brought to the level of a lay person and understood and used instead of sitting on a dusty shelf as a thesis or report.
So my work took me to the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep and other places. I worked on compiling localized environmental handbooks for teachers that took into account the flavor of the local community and conditions without compromising on all the scientific and social information. My work and years with Kalpavriksh have been important ones.
Through this all, I longed to have a small farm of my own and do ground level work, physical work, grow vegetables and trees, and become part of the micro situation rather than the grand macro. Which I did in 2001 and I started living on the land from late 2002.
The Malnad Seed Collective work was something totally new for me. It was not a project...it was about making a dream, an idea, a staunch belief come true. And discovering that many people also had a similar secret dream, and loads of skills to help make it happen.
Was there some special reason why you chose to start your work in Sirsi?
I fell in love with the place....and I felt that it fell in love with me! I actually started living there before beginning work.
Traditional plate rangoli with cucumber seedsYou set up the Malnad Seed Collective in 2001. How did you get started the work? Did you go with a clear roadmap with objectives clearly defined? or did you follow a more flexible work style?No road map. No bullock cart track map either. Somewhere, I think I just fell off the map. I did know that it was important to begin listing out the diversity of the home gardens, looking at nutrition issues, somehow bringing together the tremendous amo
unt of knowledge that the women of the area have about their gardens, seeds, planting and cuisine. The rest has just followed.
Of course, if it had been on project mode it would have worked differently with a clear plan, time activity budget etc. But maybe it would not have had the soul that it does now.
So, how does someone living in Kerala who wants to start a similar seed collective get started? What are the key things they need to do? and what kinds of skills sets must a person have?Depending on how ambitious you are, one could start with a handful of seeds and 2-3 people with a lot of interest and some basic skills or you could have a typical funded, project type of model. Regarding skills, it depends on how you define skills. Sometimes, a scientist with a PhD may have fewer skills than an experienced seed saver and gardener. Sometimes not. The best is to use and merge skills from all groups concerned.
Focus on what is available locally, and then within your region. Start small. Be persistent. Try and visit local vegetable or seed markets to see what they have. Get in touch with some NGOs you may know of (the internet would help for those who have access).
The local Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK) could also be helpful if you are insistent on getting what you want. That overall energy will take you ahead.
I feel that given what's happening with the Seed Act, all of us whether we grow our own food or not, must become aware of the need to conserve seeds. Without pollination th
ere would be no seeds, without seeds no food. It's time to sit up and take a look around and start acting.
Malnad Seed Collective Member - Lalitha with her display of organically grown local varieties of jackfruit, mango and traditional snacks
It is vital to have local indigenous seed groups everywhere. And it needs to be part of the government's mandate to make provisions for the same.
We are hoping to bring ou
t a handbook on the home gardens of the Malnad region which will also include simple ways to begin seed groups and begin/continue using local seeds.
Do you offer training programs?Yes we do - internally for our seed group members as well as for outside groups on request. I am particularly interested in developing experiential learning modules for children and youth from urban areas like Bangalore.
Imagine being able to come and live with farmers' families in the western gnats. You learn by doing.
Training covers a wide area of issues and skills - gardening, forest nursery work, natural kum kum making, bee keeping, patchwork quilting, seed saving etc.
Even cleaning a cow shed and making sure you mix the cow dung properly for
biogas needs training! Digging, filling a basket with compost and spreading it efficiently, walking with a pot of water on your head or hip without spilling a drop - these are skilled tasks you know. It helps if you have good drawing skills.
Were the women in the community enthusiastic right from the beginning? Did you face any teething problems in starting off in the first year? And what about funds?
The work with the seed collective has grown very slowly. Some of the women were enthusiastic while others were not. So, it's a mixed bag really. Some others got convinced later. Even within the collective, we have members who are here for a variety of reasons. Some who see the whole vision of the effort and are part of it, others out of deep interest in home gardens and seed exchange, while for some it may mean some extra income and some because it's a chance to go out of the house.
Largely there is a belief in the home garden system, and it's the women who have fuelled its growth. Although I too am a resident of one of the villages, and have a forest farm, I see myself as only a catalyst. In about 5 years from now, if I am out of the collective working or starting something elsew
here and Vanastree goes on, that will be a true indicator of success.
Funding has not been too much of an issue since a lot of voluntary work goes into the running of the collective and we are not an institution that needs everyday inputs and whose overheads are high. Most of us have other sources of income - farm produce, wages from being laborers, outside assignments etc. ATREE has funded us twice under the small grants programme, and a private donor supported me with a stipend for part time work for 18 months. All that has helped a lot. We need to get into a project now to go ahead in a systematic way. Some of us now feel the need to work full time with the collective and build it up.
Is this a women's only initiative? And are children, senior citizens and men allowed to join the collective?The name Vanastree may seem like it's only for women and our collective largely consists of women, but we also have children and some very enthusiastic men. We are not gender biased you see!
Malnad Seed Collective Member and Entrepreneur - Shripad interacting with visitors at his stall
How many different varieties of vegetables, cereals, fruits, nuts and medicinal plants has the Seed Collective documented so far?Since none of us have worked full time on this, a lot of the documentation work still remains to be done. So far about 120 vegetable varieties and 60 flower varieties have been documented. We do not document cereals. The tree list is also incomplete. By vegetables I mean tubers as well. Medicinal plants also get included in the list. Much work needs to be done with documentation.
How many villages in Sirsi are members of the Seed Collective? And how many members does the Seed Collective have?There are about 12 villages and 100 women roughly. But through the NGOs we collaborate with many more. So, about 300 people directly and indirectly are part of the collective.
Indigenous seeds, local varieties of mangoes and gourds
Tell us about the seed banks that you helped to set up?
I helped set up one seed bank at Namma Bhoomi in Kundapur which is now being run and maintained by the children of the campus. We do not have any other seed bank. It is rather decentralised among the home gardens.
So you could say that the entire region functions as a seed bank. There is a central collection which is small that we maintain. Our next plan is to indeed have a full fledged seed bank where seed storage, documentation, testing, and exchange can take place.
Vanastree has three major areas of work - one involves starting seed groups, networking and providing training and outreach. The second area of our work involves research and documentation while the third is related to promoting conservation oriented livelihoods.
Right now, a couple of us are juggling all of these whereas ideally we need to split up the work among a larger number of people so that it does not get too stressful for us. Among all the different areas of our work, the seed bank is top priority.
Would you share with us the highlights of the Malnad Mela?
The fact that we could house it in an old traditional Malnad home and orchard helped us create the right ambience for an event like this. About 30 stalls were there, and nearly 2000 people visited, and the spirit of participation was very evident.
There was a variety of products on display - plants, seeds, organic eats, clothes, folk art, crafts, a green pages stall and so on.
We had outstation participants, which was good too - Green Foundation from Bangalore, Charaka from Sagar, Namma Bhoomi/Namma Angadi from Kundapur, Sneha Kunja from Honnavar on the coast, Keystone Foundation from Nilgiris, and Soligas from BR Hills who are part of ATREE.
The interaction with visitors most of whom were residents of Sirsi was also very interesting and we exchanged a lot of ideas. The general air of celebration, as we forgot all our usual aches and pains and cares,
was also personally a nice highlight for the group. We are already talking of next year's Malnaad mela.
The three Soligas who had come from ATREE / BR Hills told us they would participate again next year bringing along a big women's group, lots of maize and other produce. The Soligas also promised us that they would sing "gorukana' and other songs in the evening!
Folk artist weaving rice stalks into a garland. Hasechitra artwork is displayed in the background
The fact that we got funded by an individual donor is also significant. We had no funding agency tag and I think that gives the mela a special touch and a punch. In the future we are wondering if we will be able to generate funds ourselves to have a mela, but that's being rather ambitious. Let's see.
What are your plans for expansion?Since all the work is decided on a collective basis, right now all I can say is we hope to have an office in Sirsi soon, have three clear streams of work (networking and training, research and documentation, and conservation oriented livelihoods), get a project for a couple of years so at least 2-3 of us can work full time and be paid, and others can work part time. We are clear that we don't want to go beyond having 50 seed groups.
Malnad Seed Collective Leader - Ganga with her stall of indigenous vegetable seeds, native forest tree saplings and organic snacksIt would then be a small enough model for any NGO or government programme to replicate. I am also apprehensive of what institutionalization would do to such a programme. So, that's as far as the expansion plans go.
Whatever we do, it will always be important to remember the basic philosophy/ethos behind this effort. We started off saying, “save local seeds, exchange them, spread them around, and celebrate biodiversity"...slowly the livelihood and therefore the trade aspect crept in. We must be careful not to allow it to overtake everything else, while ensuring that we do have a judicious livelihood / income generation programme.
I think any expansion programme, whether it's a small collective like ours, a well endowed NGO like ATREE, or a large corporate must scale up operations only as much as is doable.
I see around me people trying to pack in four lifetimes into one - all in the name of so called expansion! It's just not sustainable - even if you claim to be saving the world! You need to keep in mind limits to growth. More than ever now, I can really appreciate what old Schumacher meant when he said "small is beautiful".
What's your advice to young people and young women who want to follow in your footsteps?I would say don't follow anyone's foot steps, just make your own. Frankly, I am not the type to advice anyone, so have nothing really to say.
Do you have programs for interns? Can interns come and work with you in Sirsi?Yes, we do have programmes for interns that can last between 3 months and 9 months. The interns can some to Sirsi and stay in the villages and work there.
What are your hobbies?I like that question. No one these days talks about hobbies. I think there is a passion you develop through hobbies that define your life more than maybe work or other things do. Currently, my hobbies include reading, creative writing, patchwork quilting, and dabbling with eco-friendly interior design. Cooking was a hobby when I was young, but now it's an everyday chore - so though I still enjoy it, I also try and escape it when I can. Cycling was also a hobby, but now it's a necessity that I enjoy. I also like swimming when I get the chance.
Thank you, Sunita for taking time out to attend to this interview.
If you would like to get in touch with Sunita, you can contact her at Karkolli village,
Hulekal: 581336, Sirsi. Ph: 9480299200 or
email her at
malnadseeds@gmail.com or
vanastree@gmail.com
