Check out this news at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/6916134.stm
Contributed by Dr. K.N.Ganeshiah, Trustee and Executive Board Member, ATREE, and Professor, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore
Thursday, August 2, 2007
SSCP inspires debate on what is public purpose
2nd Aug, 2007, 0445 hrs IST,
Jacob John
Whether it is the opposition parties asking for the justification of the public purpose behind the land acquisition at Singur, or the Supreme Court querying the largescale acquisition of land from farmers, the meaning of public purpose is today under scrutiny. Traditionally, the public purpose doctrine has been for public infrastructure projects like electricity, roads, railways and other projects that were deemed to be of strategic or particular importance.
The Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project (SSCP) is similarly justified, with project proponents stating that it would save up to 36 hours of shipping time. However, the detailed project report (DPR) itself states that the biggest saving will be for journeys from Tuticorin to Chennai, and it will, in fact, be 30 hours and not 36 as frequently claimed.
Recently, many naval experts have repeatedly stated that with the exception of voyages from ports on the Indian west coast to the Indian east coast, there are unlikely to be any significant gains for ships that are making the voyage through the Sethusamudram canal. This information is not reflected in the L&T Ramboll DPR, as it assumes that voyages for all ships begin either at Tuticorin or Kanyakumari. The savings for these ships may be acceptable: a reduction in time between 10 and 30 hours. In dollar terms, a 20,000 dead weight tonne (DWT) ship save about $17,962 per voyage as per DPR. DPR hopes to charge 50% of this amount ($8,981) for ships using the canal. This represents a saving in time charter and fuel costs for ships using the canal.
For ships coming from places like Europe and Africa, the average savings is just 8 hours! A journey from Mauritius to Kolkata would actually be longer by nearly four hours for an average ship. The average savings for a 20,000 DWT ship, making a voyage from either Europe or Africa, is just $3,989: just 22% of the savings projected in DPR. The lack of gains for ships from Africa and Europe may not have been significant had it been a part of the project design and factored in the risks of the project.
However, 65% of the voyages (and hence revenue), as per DPR, originate from Africa, the Middle East and Europe. For ships from Africa and Europe, using the canal would mean making a loss of $4,992 on every voyage at the proposed tariff structure. Ships could be incentivised to use the canal (by reducing tariff rates). The catch with that scenario is that the pre-tax IRR of the project then falls to just 2.6%! This is a level at which even public infrastructure projects are usually rejected.
The project rests on a set of assumptions that are fundamentally flawed. It assumes savings for all ships are the same while they are actually very different. The public purpose of a reduction in shipping time is, in fact, not valid for most of the ships using the canal. Neither does the project provide revenue for the government. If the aim of the government is to boost shipping along the peninsula, there are very good alternatives. The annual interest savings of the project could provide a subsidy of around Rs 250 crore that could be spent on upgrading the ports in Tuticorin and Chennai, as well as providing a subsidy to all ships calling at these ports.
Central to the debate on the public purpose of SSCP is the idea of public purpose itself. While projects are routinely justified on the grounds of a larger public purpose, there is little scrutiny or accountability to the public purpose that has been used to justify it. If SSCP does not benefit the number of ships outlined in DPR, what are the mechanisms to ensure that the country at worst cuts its losses and at best penalises the project promoters?
Building in an accountability mechanism to make sure that projects like SSCP do not prove to be a constant drain on the economy is an important step that we need to take to scrutinise the very generously overused terms of public purpose. It will help build realism into the project design unlike the present where there is an incentive to exaggerate the benefits while neglecting or minimising cost.
(The author is a infrastructure economist) Email: j.t.john@gmail.com [This article is an abridged version of a chapter from a larger report titled ‘Review of Environmental and Economic Impacts of the SSCP’ by Sudarshan Rodriguez, Jacob John, Rohan Arthur, Kartik Shanker and Aarthi Sridhar which is to be published soon.]
The Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project (SSCP) is similarly justified, with project proponents stating that it would save up to 36 hours of shipping time. However, the detailed project report (DPR) itself states that the biggest saving will be for journeys from Tuticorin to Chennai, and it will, in fact, be 30 hours and not 36 as frequently claimed.
Recently, many naval experts have repeatedly stated that with the exception of voyages from ports on the Indian west coast to the Indian east coast, there are unlikely to be any significant gains for ships that are making the voyage through the Sethusamudram canal. This information is not reflected in the L&T Ramboll DPR, as it assumes that voyages for all ships begin either at Tuticorin or Kanyakumari. The savings for these ships may be acceptable: a reduction in time between 10 and 30 hours. In dollar terms, a 20,000 dead weight tonne (DWT) ship save about $17,962 per voyage as per DPR. DPR hopes to charge 50% of this amount ($8,981) for ships using the canal. This represents a saving in time charter and fuel costs for ships using the canal.
For ships coming from places like Europe and Africa, the average savings is just 8 hours! A journey from Mauritius to Kolkata would actually be longer by nearly four hours for an average ship. The average savings for a 20,000 DWT ship, making a voyage from either Europe or Africa, is just $3,989: just 22% of the savings projected in DPR. The lack of gains for ships from Africa and Europe may not have been significant had it been a part of the project design and factored in the risks of the project.
However, 65% of the voyages (and hence revenue), as per DPR, originate from Africa, the Middle East and Europe. For ships from Africa and Europe, using the canal would mean making a loss of $4,992 on every voyage at the proposed tariff structure. Ships could be incentivised to use the canal (by reducing tariff rates). The catch with that scenario is that the pre-tax IRR of the project then falls to just 2.6%! This is a level at which even public infrastructure projects are usually rejected.
The project rests on a set of assumptions that are fundamentally flawed. It assumes savings for all ships are the same while they are actually very different. The public purpose of a reduction in shipping time is, in fact, not valid for most of the ships using the canal. Neither does the project provide revenue for the government. If the aim of the government is to boost shipping along the peninsula, there are very good alternatives. The annual interest savings of the project could provide a subsidy of around Rs 250 crore that could be spent on upgrading the ports in Tuticorin and Chennai, as well as providing a subsidy to all ships calling at these ports.
Central to the debate on the public purpose of SSCP is the idea of public purpose itself. While projects are routinely justified on the grounds of a larger public purpose, there is little scrutiny or accountability to the public purpose that has been used to justify it. If SSCP does not benefit the number of ships outlined in DPR, what are the mechanisms to ensure that the country at worst cuts its losses and at best penalises the project promoters?
Building in an accountability mechanism to make sure that projects like SSCP do not prove to be a constant drain on the economy is an important step that we need to take to scrutinise the very generously overused terms of public purpose. It will help build realism into the project design unlike the present where there is an incentive to exaggerate the benefits while neglecting or minimising cost.
(The author is a infrastructure economist) Email: j.t.john@gmail.com [This article is an abridged version of a chapter from a larger report titled ‘Review of Environmental and Economic Impacts of the SSCP’ by Sudarshan Rodriguez, Jacob John, Rohan Arthur, Kartik Shanker and Aarthi Sridhar which is to be published soon.]
A larger version of this article was published in the Economic and Political Weekly, VOL 42 No. 29 July 21 - July 27, 2007.
www.epw.org.in/epw/uploads/articles/10823.pdf http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/Economy/Policy/SSCP_inspires_debate_on_what_is_public_purpose/articleshow/2249751.cms
Contributed by Sudarshan Rodriguez, Senior Research Associate, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) Mobile: +91 9840680127
Email: sudarshanr@yahoo.com
Address for correspondence :
CHENNAI
Flat 2B, Aditya Apartments,
38 Balakrishna Road,
Valmiki Nagar, Thiruvanmiyur,
Chennai-600 041
Tamil Nadu, India.
Phone:+91 44 420 19470
Fax: +91 44 420 19468
BANGALORE
Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment
No 659, 5th ‘A” Main, Hebbal,
Bangalore 560024
Direct line: 080 - 65356130
Tel: +91 80 23533942, 23530069, 23638771
Fax: +91 80 23530070
Post- Tsunami Environment Initiative
(http://www.ptei-india.org/)
CHENNAI
Flat 2B, Aditya Apartments,
38 Balakrishna Road,
Valmiki Nagar, Thiruvanmiyur,
Chennai-600 041
Tamil Nadu, India.
Phone:+91 44 420 19470
Fax: +91 44 420 19468
BANGALORE
Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment
No 659, 5th ‘A” Main, Hebbal,
Bangalore 560024
Direct line: 080 - 65356130
Tel: +91 80 23533942, 23530069, 23638771
Fax: +91 80 23530070
Post- Tsunami Environment Initiative
(http://www.ptei-india.org/)
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Here's a nice article about Dr Vanaja Ramprasad and her work
Saviour extraordinaire
Sumana Bharadwaj
Dr Vanaja Ramprasad, a gutsy lady who had dedicated her life to saving biodiversity believes that unless small farmers are saved from the onslaught of global pressures and indigenous crops revived, we are looking at a bleak future.
At first glance, she seems like any other grandmother playing with her granddaughter in her study amidst piles and piles of books on a wide range of subjects, including books authored by her. But what belies the seeming ordinariness is the extraordinary and exemplary work she has done to preserve biodiversity and help the small and marginal farmers in the semi-arid regions of south India. Meet Dr Vanaja Ramprasad, Director of Genetic Resource Ecology Energy Nutrition (GREEN) Foundation (GF).
A nutritionist by training, Dr Vanaja has dedicated herself to the cause of empowering the custodians of our biodiversity, the food producers of our country — the small farmers from the backward regions. Her vision, along with her team of committed individuals at GF, is to help them lead a life of dignity and to help sustain their livelihood in agriculture in a manner which is both ecologically and economically viable while at the same time ensuring food security for one and all.The beginningWhat started off as a quest for answers to the paradox surrounding her during her career at the Community Health Centre in the 70s, eventually culminated in the movement called GF.
It was the decade of the Green Revolution and the entire nation was rejoicing over it, while she was treating children for malnourishment! So Dr Vanaja set off on a mission to find answers. She worked with various other grassroot organisations and after years of research, the answers to her search slowly began to unravel. As the connection between food production and poverty became clearer, Dr Vanaja realised that, poverty is not result of lack of development, poor technology or scarce resources, but is, ironically, the manifestation of the extensive and invisible costs of resource intensive and resource destructive processes, which form the very foundations of a 'developed nation'.
She was convinced that the western model of development while seemingly offered solutions, was simply not sustainable and was in fact depleting and polluting natural resources. And finally, it was the small farmers in backward areas who bore the brunt of it all, steeped in debts and dying from hunger. Most of us are looking westwards for solutions to problems of poverty and underdevelopment, which have come to falsely mean not having high consumptive power and lifestyles perched on western science and technology, with the naïve belief that by increasing investments, creating jobs and raising incomes, poverty can be eliminated.
But Dr Vanaja firmly rooted in her convictions, believes that unless the small farms are saved from the onslaught of global pressures and traditional agricultural practices and indigenous crops are revived and the fast dwindling biodiversity conserved, we are looking at a bleak future. This eventually led to the emergence of Green Foundation as a proactive initiative to empower the small farmer by conserving agricultural diversity through a network of seed banks across the state.
Green Foundation was thus formalised as an organisation in 1996 with 5 farmers and a handful of seeds in 2 villages and the whole team of committed individuals GF today boasts of about 2,000 farmers in 161 villages who participate in seed conservation programs through out Karnataka. And since its inception, GF has facilitated conservation of approximately 382 indigenous seed varieties of millet, paddy, vegetable and oil seeds, which would have otherwise been threatened by extinction due to non-organic farming practices. In the process, the movement has been instrumental in elevating the economic status of the rural women and revival of traditional farming methods and culture.
GF was awarded the United Nations’ Equator Initiative Prize in recognition of its outstanding community effort for reduction of poverty and biodiversity conservation over a decade. Among the various programmes run by GF towards this purpose are the concepts of kitchen garden, the one-acre integrated farming practice, and community farming for landless farmers, integrated agroforestry and livestock management to meet the community's need for fodder and fuel and reduce dependence on external inputs, training programmess to encourage community participation, essential for conserving biodiversity, community marketing programs to market the wholesome, healthy food products directly to consumers and holding workshops/seminars/conferences by linking with other organisationss to bring in policy changes.
The future
Looking back, the results that Dr Vanaja's efforts have brought, fills her with hope that things can be changed and by anyone too. The degree of devastation that the earth has seen in just the last 6-7 decades is enormously high and there is still so much to be done, says Dr Vanaja. And so, Dr Vanaja will continue to do her 'bit' to the society for as long as she can, even as she modestly says, "I haven't done anything"! And the least, we the people from 'developed cities', can do, is to applaud her single handed efforts in trying to bridge the big gap between the producer and consumer, which is central to saving our environment.
here's the link to the article published in Deccan Herald http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Jul282007/she2007072715482.asp
Contributed by Ms Kalpana Prasanna, Executive Assistant to the Director, ATREE
Sumana Bharadwaj
Dr Vanaja Ramprasad, a gutsy lady who had dedicated her life to saving biodiversity believes that unless small farmers are saved from the onslaught of global pressures and indigenous crops revived, we are looking at a bleak future.
At first glance, she seems like any other grandmother playing with her granddaughter in her study amidst piles and piles of books on a wide range of subjects, including books authored by her. But what belies the seeming ordinariness is the extraordinary and exemplary work she has done to preserve biodiversity and help the small and marginal farmers in the semi-arid regions of south India. Meet Dr Vanaja Ramprasad, Director of Genetic Resource Ecology Energy Nutrition (GREEN) Foundation (GF).
A nutritionist by training, Dr Vanaja has dedicated herself to the cause of empowering the custodians of our biodiversity, the food producers of our country — the small farmers from the backward regions. Her vision, along with her team of committed individuals at GF, is to help them lead a life of dignity and to help sustain their livelihood in agriculture in a manner which is both ecologically and economically viable while at the same time ensuring food security for one and all.The beginningWhat started off as a quest for answers to the paradox surrounding her during her career at the Community Health Centre in the 70s, eventually culminated in the movement called GF.
It was the decade of the Green Revolution and the entire nation was rejoicing over it, while she was treating children for malnourishment! So Dr Vanaja set off on a mission to find answers. She worked with various other grassroot organisations and after years of research, the answers to her search slowly began to unravel. As the connection between food production and poverty became clearer, Dr Vanaja realised that, poverty is not result of lack of development, poor technology or scarce resources, but is, ironically, the manifestation of the extensive and invisible costs of resource intensive and resource destructive processes, which form the very foundations of a 'developed nation'.
She was convinced that the western model of development while seemingly offered solutions, was simply not sustainable and was in fact depleting and polluting natural resources. And finally, it was the small farmers in backward areas who bore the brunt of it all, steeped in debts and dying from hunger. Most of us are looking westwards for solutions to problems of poverty and underdevelopment, which have come to falsely mean not having high consumptive power and lifestyles perched on western science and technology, with the naïve belief that by increasing investments, creating jobs and raising incomes, poverty can be eliminated.
But Dr Vanaja firmly rooted in her convictions, believes that unless the small farms are saved from the onslaught of global pressures and traditional agricultural practices and indigenous crops are revived and the fast dwindling biodiversity conserved, we are looking at a bleak future. This eventually led to the emergence of Green Foundation as a proactive initiative to empower the small farmer by conserving agricultural diversity through a network of seed banks across the state.
Green Foundation was thus formalised as an organisation in 1996 with 5 farmers and a handful of seeds in 2 villages and the whole team of committed individuals GF today boasts of about 2,000 farmers in 161 villages who participate in seed conservation programs through out Karnataka. And since its inception, GF has facilitated conservation of approximately 382 indigenous seed varieties of millet, paddy, vegetable and oil seeds, which would have otherwise been threatened by extinction due to non-organic farming practices. In the process, the movement has been instrumental in elevating the economic status of the rural women and revival of traditional farming methods and culture.
GF was awarded the United Nations’ Equator Initiative Prize in recognition of its outstanding community effort for reduction of poverty and biodiversity conservation over a decade. Among the various programmes run by GF towards this purpose are the concepts of kitchen garden, the one-acre integrated farming practice, and community farming for landless farmers, integrated agroforestry and livestock management to meet the community's need for fodder and fuel and reduce dependence on external inputs, training programmess to encourage community participation, essential for conserving biodiversity, community marketing programs to market the wholesome, healthy food products directly to consumers and holding workshops/seminars/conferences by linking with other organisationss to bring in policy changes.
The future
Looking back, the results that Dr Vanaja's efforts have brought, fills her with hope that things can be changed and by anyone too. The degree of devastation that the earth has seen in just the last 6-7 decades is enormously high and there is still so much to be done, says Dr Vanaja. And so, Dr Vanaja will continue to do her 'bit' to the society for as long as she can, even as she modestly says, "I haven't done anything"! And the least, we the people from 'developed cities', can do, is to applaud her single handed efforts in trying to bridge the big gap between the producer and consumer, which is central to saving our environment.
here's the link to the article published in Deccan Herald http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Jul282007/she2007072715482.asp
Contributed by Ms Kalpana Prasanna, Executive Assistant to the Director, ATREE
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Kochi City Municipal Corporation dumps garbage in Chellipadam village
You can read the full story here at http://www.indiatogether.org/2007/jul/env-bpuram.htm
Contributed by Samuel Thomas, ATREE's Communications Officer
Contributed by Samuel Thomas, ATREE's Communications Officer
Information about Rotary World Peace Fellowship
Contributed by Mrs Kalpana Prasanna, Executive Assistant to the Director, ATREE, based on an email communication from Rotarian Mr Sanjay Aggarwal.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Sethusamudram project mired in controversy
written by Prachi Bhuchar
Sunday, July 15, 2007 (New Delhi)
The Sethusamudram Canal project, which will cost the government Rs 2400 crore, is once again mired into controversy, as a new report has questioned its economic viability. The canal, which will run from the Gulf of Mannar to the Bay of Bengal, plans to create a continuous navigable sea route around the Indian Peninsula, which will drastically cut down shipping time.
According to maritime experts, it is a deadweight project and sure to sink. The report, being published independently by a team of infrastructure and environmental economists, has found huge loopholes in the L&T Ramboll feasibility study, which was commissioned by the government and was the basis on which the project was approved.Navigation experts point out that in coast to coast travel - from the west to east coast of India - ships could save significantly on time and distance.
They can save up to 36 shipping hours by using this canal. Till now all of these ships had to travel via Sri Lanka. The project was given the go ahead on the premise that almost 70 per cent of its traffic and revenue will come from non-coastal ships, meaning those ships that travel into the country from Europe, Africa and elsewhere.''For ships that arrive from Europe and Africa, the savings in distance is on an average half or more of what is claimed in the report.
These savings are negligible so why on earth should anyone use the canal. It is completely economically unviable,'' said Jacob John, Infrastructure Economist, Author of the report.The L&T Ramboll feasibility report had predicted that India would earn a few crore a year from the toll collected from vessels that would use the channel. But now it seems the figure may be a little optimistic.Project loopholesAccording to the report, there are other loopholes as well. The government took a loan from the United States for the project in 2005. Since then interest rates have gone up, so project costs will go up too.
Costs of dredging the channel every year will actually be 10 times the amount conceived by the L&T Ramboll report. To keep carbon deposits in the channel at a minimum, ships will be asked to use a higher quality fuel. This will reduce any running costs saved by ships by taking the shorter route.''I was part of the team that assessed the project in the 1980s when I was chairman of the Tuticorin Port Trust. When I left, report was still pending. I expressed my dissent with the project. It is a corrupt project, it does not make nautical sense and it is purely driven on a political basis,'' said V Sundaram, First Chairman, Tuticorin Port.
Perhaps the biggest indicator of the skepticism associated with the project is the lack of business. The canal will be operational by end-2008 but until now almost no national or foreign shipping companies have signed on the dotted line. This has prompted experts to further question whether it is worth putting in thousands of crores into a project that's being questioned even before it's begun.http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070019038
--
Contributed by Sudarshan Rodriguez, Senior Research Associate,
Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)
Contact address : Flat 2B, Aditya Apartments, 38 Balakrishna Road, Valmiki Nagar, Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai-600 041. Tamil Nadu, India. Phone:+91 44 420 19470 Fax: +91 44 420 19468
Mobile: +91 9840680127 Email: sudarshanr@yahoo.com.
Post- Tsunami Environment Initiative (http://www.ptei-india.org/)
You are not what you do , you do what you are
One's profession and career should be their hobby, passion and cause
written by Prachi Bhuchar
Sunday, July 15, 2007 (New Delhi)
The Sethusamudram Canal project, which will cost the government Rs 2400 crore, is once again mired into controversy, as a new report has questioned its economic viability. The canal, which will run from the Gulf of Mannar to the Bay of Bengal, plans to create a continuous navigable sea route around the Indian Peninsula, which will drastically cut down shipping time.
According to maritime experts, it is a deadweight project and sure to sink. The report, being published independently by a team of infrastructure and environmental economists, has found huge loopholes in the L&T Ramboll feasibility study, which was commissioned by the government and was the basis on which the project was approved.Navigation experts point out that in coast to coast travel - from the west to east coast of India - ships could save significantly on time and distance.
They can save up to 36 shipping hours by using this canal. Till now all of these ships had to travel via Sri Lanka. The project was given the go ahead on the premise that almost 70 per cent of its traffic and revenue will come from non-coastal ships, meaning those ships that travel into the country from Europe, Africa and elsewhere.''For ships that arrive from Europe and Africa, the savings in distance is on an average half or more of what is claimed in the report.
These savings are negligible so why on earth should anyone use the canal. It is completely economically unviable,'' said Jacob John, Infrastructure Economist, Author of the report.The L&T Ramboll feasibility report had predicted that India would earn a few crore a year from the toll collected from vessels that would use the channel. But now it seems the figure may be a little optimistic.Project loopholesAccording to the report, there are other loopholes as well. The government took a loan from the United States for the project in 2005. Since then interest rates have gone up, so project costs will go up too.
Costs of dredging the channel every year will actually be 10 times the amount conceived by the L&T Ramboll report. To keep carbon deposits in the channel at a minimum, ships will be asked to use a higher quality fuel. This will reduce any running costs saved by ships by taking the shorter route.''I was part of the team that assessed the project in the 1980s when I was chairman of the Tuticorin Port Trust. When I left, report was still pending. I expressed my dissent with the project. It is a corrupt project, it does not make nautical sense and it is purely driven on a political basis,'' said V Sundaram, First Chairman, Tuticorin Port.
Perhaps the biggest indicator of the skepticism associated with the project is the lack of business. The canal will be operational by end-2008 but until now almost no national or foreign shipping companies have signed on the dotted line. This has prompted experts to further question whether it is worth putting in thousands of crores into a project that's being questioned even before it's begun.http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070019038
--
Contributed by Sudarshan Rodriguez, Senior Research Associate,
Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)
Contact address : Flat 2B, Aditya Apartments, 38 Balakrishna Road, Valmiki Nagar, Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai-600 041. Tamil Nadu, India. Phone:+91 44 420 19470 Fax: +91 44 420 19468
Mobile: +91 9840680127 Email: sudarshanr@yahoo.com.
Post- Tsunami Environment Initiative (http://www.ptei-india.org/)
You are not what you do , you do what you are
One's profession and career should be their hobby, passion and cause
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
ATREE's People : Meet Sunita Rao
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 seeds
You 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 snacks
It 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
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 seeds
You 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 snacks
It 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
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Seminar at ISEC on June 28th
Professor L.S. Bhat
National Fellow,
Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR),
and former Professor, Indian Statistical Institute(ISI), New Delhi.
will be presenting a seminar on
'Decentralised Planning with Spatial Dimension: Issues and Perspectives'
at 3.00 PM on Thursday, 28th June, 2007
at ISEC Seminar Hall
All are welcome
Tea/ Coffee will be served before the Seminars
Dr.V.Anil Kumar
Seminar Coordinator
and Asst. Professor,
Centre for Decentralisation and Development
Institute for Social and Economic Change, Nagarabhavi PO, Bangalore - 560 072
Phone: 080-23215468; 23215519; 23215592 Extn.417
Fax: 080-23217008
E-mail: seminarcoordinator@isec.ac.in
You can visit ISEC online at www.isec.ac.in
National Fellow,
Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR),
and former Professor, Indian Statistical Institute(ISI), New Delhi.
will be presenting a seminar on
'Decentralised Planning with Spatial Dimension: Issues and Perspectives'
at 3.00 PM on Thursday, 28th June, 2007
at ISEC Seminar Hall
All are welcome
Tea/ Coffee will be served before the Seminars
Dr.V.Anil Kumar
Seminar Coordinator
and Asst. Professor,
Centre for Decentralisation and Development
Institute for Social and Economic Change, Nagarabhavi PO, Bangalore - 560 072
Phone: 080-23215468; 23215519; 23215592 Extn.417
Fax: 080-23217008
E-mail: seminarcoordinator@isec.ac.in
You can visit ISEC online at www.isec.ac.in
The Malnad Mela : An interesting initiative to restore the biodiversity of forest home gardens in Sirsi
For six years now, Sunita Rao, an Adjunct Fellow at ATREE has been working hard to lead a biodiversity conservation movement in the villages of Sirsi.
Today, the concept of forest home gardens has grown strong roots in Sirsi. Each year, in the first week of June the people in the community, especially the womenfolk celebrate The Malnad Mela.
The article below gives you the full story about the Malnad Seed Mela.
Sharing green treasures
reported by Anitha Palloor
Every house in Malnad boasts of a kitchen garden. However, with the change in lifestyle, native recipes have disappeared. Before everything is lost, a few groups and organisations are attempting to bring back the lost legacy in tune with the present trend.
As rain poured outside the hall, women farmers participating in the fair cheered in joy. Monsoon had supported their efforts to spread the green word. Happier was Suma who found khadga avare, a vegetable variety, which was her favourite during childhood days. Most of the consumers who attended the Malenadu Mela (Malnad Fair) recalled their days of 'eating fresh and staying healthy'. Vegetables and wild variety seeds which were in good demand at the event spread the scent of local treasure.
The fair held in Sirsi reflected the efforts of women's collectives in rejuvenating indigenous food diversity.Uttara Kannada, known for its biodiversity and traditional recipes, has changed its pace in the last few decades. As easy-to-cook market vegetables entered the kitchen shelves, diverse home-grown recipes took a backseat.
The Malenadu home garden and seed exchange network started in 2001 by development activist Sunitha Rao, aims at rebuilding the concept in this region. Concrete steps like training, exposure visits and seed exchange programmes have helped many women farmers in this region to earn their livelihood.
Now there are twelve self-help groups under this network.Ganga Mohan Channaiah is one such woman whose vegetable garden brings home a major share of the family income. “I had a passion for growing vegetables. I have been doing this for the past 25 years. Still, by practice, some market vegetables were also used. After I came into contact with this network, I started growing vegetables in all the available space around my house.”Ganga has a little more than an acre of land where her husband grows paddy during monsoon. But she finds place in her backyard and the surrounding hillock to grow her vegetables. Post monsoon, she grows more than ten varieties of vegetables from radish to palak and cucumber.
A mobile vendor, Ganga sells four to five quintals of vegetables in a year. This has helped her stop working as an agricultural labourer.Ganga says that her husband has a share in her success. He has backed her in all her activities, from preparing soil bed to packing seeds. There are also instances of seed movement bringing families together.
Slow, but sure progress
Sugandha Sahadeva Gavade, a tribal woman in Yellapur, earns twenty percent of her family income from growing vegetables.
Observing the prospects of growing vegetables, she works full time in the vegetable garden. Her group has clearly understood the health and economic aspects of non-chemical food produces.
A few members have left tiresome jobs like brick making and have taken up vegetable farming. Sugandha says, “The variety of vegetables in my farm increased as we started participating in seed exchange programmes.”Initially, the programmes were held at the village level. Later, seed exhibition and exchange fairs were held in Sirsi, Yellapur and Kumta. “Hundreds of varieties at a place naturally make visitors take home a few seeds. In 2006, we organised seed exhibition and exchange along with sale. The event was rechristened as Malnad Fair,” says Manorama Joshi, one of the frontline members of the collective. Remembering last year's overwhelming response, organisers made it a two-day event this year.
Even the array of things on sale increased.Value-added food products like jackfruit chips, papad, appe midi pickle and sweets refreshed the taste buds, while products like dry banana, dry cocum, organic turmeric and tamarind powder were sold quickly. Ornaments made of vegetable seeds, paddy designs, hats made of areca leaf, colourful cotton bags, cotton wear and designer bedspreads like kaudi and pagadi added a touch of folklore to the entire fair.
However, the most popular items that were sold in no time were Neernalli group's maghekayi dosa (a dosa unique to Sirsi region) and jackfruit idli. This fair truly taught the essence of biodiversity to hundreds of visitors.Around 35 different groups, including the Halakki community in the south and the Kuluvadi Marathe in the north participated in the fair on invitation.
Apart from women's collectives, Snehakunja, TEED, Namma Bhoomi, BAIF, Green Foundation, Prakruthi, ATREE and Charaka also took part. Women showed that biodiversity conservation begins in the kitchen. Each of them played the role of a seed bank, storing tens of varieties and spreading it across. Meeting people in such occasions has helped them develop new ideas and learn growing methods.This is not all. Earning money has made a huge difference to their status, both within the family and in the society. Coming out of the house to take part in public functions was not easy earlier. The movement has sown the seeds of change even at the family level. Women are now key decision makers. A strong social relationship has developed among these women for a good cause.
Sunitha Rao, the person who dreamt of such a start, has many more to be groomed. “Though we have developed a good reserve of seeds, fields have acted as banks. We now need to develop a small store for seeds, which would cater to those who are interested. An outlet for native produce may also boost the interest of farmers. We don't want to grow in number, but we want to strengthen ourselves. Being a local group, we want to respond to larger issues,” she says.
Training, trade and exposure visits are the key activities of this movement. Research is another aspect the network wants to focus on along with documenting available diversity. With more than 200 varieties of seeds grown in the gardens of these women’s collectives, The Malenadu home garden and seed exchange network has developed a reliable conservation model.
Sunitha Rao can be contacted at Karkolli village, Hulekal: 581336, Sirsi; Ph: 9480299200;
Email : malnadseeds@gmail.com
Source : http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Jun262007/spectrum200706259357.asp
Today, the concept of forest home gardens has grown strong roots in Sirsi. Each year, in the first week of June the people in the community, especially the womenfolk celebrate The Malnad Mela.
The article below gives you the full story about the Malnad Seed Mela.
Sharing green treasures
reported by Anitha Palloor
Every house in Malnad boasts of a kitchen garden. However, with the change in lifestyle, native recipes have disappeared. Before everything is lost, a few groups and organisations are attempting to bring back the lost legacy in tune with the present trend.
As rain poured outside the hall, women farmers participating in the fair cheered in joy. Monsoon had supported their efforts to spread the green word. Happier was Suma who found khadga avare, a vegetable variety, which was her favourite during childhood days. Most of the consumers who attended the Malenadu Mela (Malnad Fair) recalled their days of 'eating fresh and staying healthy'. Vegetables and wild variety seeds which were in good demand at the event spread the scent of local treasure.
The fair held in Sirsi reflected the efforts of women's collectives in rejuvenating indigenous food diversity.Uttara Kannada, known for its biodiversity and traditional recipes, has changed its pace in the last few decades. As easy-to-cook market vegetables entered the kitchen shelves, diverse home-grown recipes took a backseat.
The Malenadu home garden and seed exchange network started in 2001 by development activist Sunitha Rao, aims at rebuilding the concept in this region. Concrete steps like training, exposure visits and seed exchange programmes have helped many women farmers in this region to earn their livelihood.
Now there are twelve self-help groups under this network.Ganga Mohan Channaiah is one such woman whose vegetable garden brings home a major share of the family income. “I had a passion for growing vegetables. I have been doing this for the past 25 years. Still, by practice, some market vegetables were also used. After I came into contact with this network, I started growing vegetables in all the available space around my house.”Ganga has a little more than an acre of land where her husband grows paddy during monsoon. But she finds place in her backyard and the surrounding hillock to grow her vegetables. Post monsoon, she grows more than ten varieties of vegetables from radish to palak and cucumber.
A mobile vendor, Ganga sells four to five quintals of vegetables in a year. This has helped her stop working as an agricultural labourer.Ganga says that her husband has a share in her success. He has backed her in all her activities, from preparing soil bed to packing seeds. There are also instances of seed movement bringing families together.
Slow, but sure progress
Sugandha Sahadeva Gavade, a tribal woman in Yellapur, earns twenty percent of her family income from growing vegetables.
Observing the prospects of growing vegetables, she works full time in the vegetable garden. Her group has clearly understood the health and economic aspects of non-chemical food produces.
A few members have left tiresome jobs like brick making and have taken up vegetable farming. Sugandha says, “The variety of vegetables in my farm increased as we started participating in seed exchange programmes.”Initially, the programmes were held at the village level. Later, seed exhibition and exchange fairs were held in Sirsi, Yellapur and Kumta. “Hundreds of varieties at a place naturally make visitors take home a few seeds. In 2006, we organised seed exhibition and exchange along with sale. The event was rechristened as Malnad Fair,” says Manorama Joshi, one of the frontline members of the collective. Remembering last year's overwhelming response, organisers made it a two-day event this year.
Even the array of things on sale increased.Value-added food products like jackfruit chips, papad, appe midi pickle and sweets refreshed the taste buds, while products like dry banana, dry cocum, organic turmeric and tamarind powder were sold quickly. Ornaments made of vegetable seeds, paddy designs, hats made of areca leaf, colourful cotton bags, cotton wear and designer bedspreads like kaudi and pagadi added a touch of folklore to the entire fair.
However, the most popular items that were sold in no time were Neernalli group's maghekayi dosa (a dosa unique to Sirsi region) and jackfruit idli. This fair truly taught the essence of biodiversity to hundreds of visitors.Around 35 different groups, including the Halakki community in the south and the Kuluvadi Marathe in the north participated in the fair on invitation.
Apart from women's collectives, Snehakunja, TEED, Namma Bhoomi, BAIF, Green Foundation, Prakruthi, ATREE and Charaka also took part. Women showed that biodiversity conservation begins in the kitchen. Each of them played the role of a seed bank, storing tens of varieties and spreading it across. Meeting people in such occasions has helped them develop new ideas and learn growing methods.This is not all. Earning money has made a huge difference to their status, both within the family and in the society. Coming out of the house to take part in public functions was not easy earlier. The movement has sown the seeds of change even at the family level. Women are now key decision makers. A strong social relationship has developed among these women for a good cause.
Sunitha Rao, the person who dreamt of such a start, has many more to be groomed. “Though we have developed a good reserve of seeds, fields have acted as banks. We now need to develop a small store for seeds, which would cater to those who are interested. An outlet for native produce may also boost the interest of farmers. We don't want to grow in number, but we want to strengthen ourselves. Being a local group, we want to respond to larger issues,” she says.
Training, trade and exposure visits are the key activities of this movement. Research is another aspect the network wants to focus on along with documenting available diversity. With more than 200 varieties of seeds grown in the gardens of these women’s collectives, The Malenadu home garden and seed exchange network has developed a reliable conservation model.
Sunitha Rao can be contacted at Karkolli village, Hulekal: 581336, Sirsi; Ph: 9480299200;
Email : malnadseeds@gmail.com
Source : http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Jun262007/spectrum200706259357.asp
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