SALT: An effective alternative to shifting cultivation?
Pradeep Baisakh
Shifting cultivation or ‘slash and burn system of farming’ is widely practiced in the tribal areas all over the globe. It goes without saying that the burning of large areas of forest in the hilly areas has done incalculable damage to the ecology and environment, and there are no signs of relenting till viable alternatives substitute this traditional practice. Can the Sloping Agriculture Land Technology, SALT in short, wriggle us out of this serious but inevitable crisis? The example from the Brahmani Gaon area of Kandhamal district of Orissa suggests that SALT has not only led to substantial reduction of forest burning in the area but also provided viability and sustainability to the agriculture in the hills by making it profitable.
Let us briefly discuss the harms caused by and the shortcomings associated with the traditional practice of shifting cultivation. The primary problem of shifting cultivation is the exponential loss of fertility of soil due to soil erosion making it uncultivable in two years or so, forcing the community to search for new green patches to burn. This prevents the tribal people to lead a settled life. This trend is also increasingly becoming unsustainable as the population of the communities is rising day by day, whereas the availability of fresh green forest for burn farming is declining. This form of cultivation is also characterized by seasonal mono cropping (cultivation only in rainy season). As a result, the people do not have income distribution through out year, which forces them to resort to borrowing in off seasons for consumption and other needs exposing them to various forms of exploitation and their implications like land alienation, bonded labour etc.
SALT hits directly at the causes of soil erosion and introduces ‘contour bonding’ by use of stones and pebbles along the sloppy patches. Though the technique of ‘contour bonding’ is not a new technology, it was done rather unscientifically. SALT introduces scienticism to it and makes use of what is called the ‘A-frame technique’ to make the shape of the contour like a half-moon. The idea is: when rainwater flows down, it hits the contour equitably, not at one place; as a result the contour is saved from being broken. Along the edges of the contour, hedgerow species like Flemingia macrophylla, Gliricidia sapium and Sesbania sesban etc are planted. These hedgerows serve multiple purposes. They act as nitrogen fixers, fodder and organic fertilizer (green manure) in a row. These plants cling to the soil and successfully prevent the cleansing of the soil keeping the fertility of the soil intact.
SALT is originally the technology of Philippines. It was brought to India by S.N. Patra of Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) for research. First it was experimented in the Brahmani Gaon area in 1996 by the Council of Professional Social workers (CPSW)-a NGO working in the area. For nearly two years the technology failed the test of acceptability by the people. Mr. Sanjay Khatua, an agriculture consultant, deserves the credit for operationalisation of SALT in Orissa. He redefined SALT as Sustainable Agriculture Land Technology and brought within its purview all types of lands existing in hilly areas, not only the sloppy land. He made very minute classification the hilly land. They are: (a) shifting land (b) panga land (c) fertile padar land (d) degraded padar land (e) low land (f) home estate and (g) sloppy land. Accordingly, SALT was made a comprehensive technology to cater to the needs of all types of land with the ultimate objective to provide secure and sustainable livelihood to the tribal people. In place of Philippine hedgerow species he suggested indigenous species like pine apple, red gram, cowpea, black gram, beans, castor etc. which have all the qualities of the Philippine species. These species were acceptable to the tribal as they yielded some tangible produces. In order to prevent the people to desert their farmland, three types of crops were introduced. They are: short term (ginger, turmeric, cowpea, mustard, paddy, black gram and vegetables etc), medium term (papaya, pine apple, banana, bird-eye chili and castor etc) and long-term crops (mango, jack fruit, orange and guava etc.). The idea has worked. For instance, a farmer of Lamba Kiari village has built a permanent house near his farm and does not desire to migrate anywhere as he awaits to reap the product of the medium term and long term trees he has planted.
There are instances of crop failure in the tribal areas leaving the farmers in complete helplessness. In order to hedge such risks, SALT suggests mixed cropping pattern, so that if one crop fails for some reason, the others would provide a safe return to the farmer. Rotation of crops also is suggested in order to maintain the fertility of the soil. SALT encourages adopting aggressive cash crop cultivation. The said NGO (CPSW) has helped the local people in terms of seed and finance to cultivate ginger, turmeric and arraroot in a large scale. It has also helped them to some extent in marketing the produces. As a result of all these efforts the income level of the tribal farmers has increased manifold proving agriculture a profitable business for tribals. A rough calculation of the income of a medium farmer comes out to be nearly twelve thousand per annum excluding the production of paddy, which he keeps for consumption. SALT has made possible the simultaneous practice of three models namely, agro-forestry model, agro-horticulture model and agro-animal husbandry model in the area. For instance, farmers collect forest produces like tamarind, mahua flower, broomsticks and siali leaves etc.; they plant pineapple, guava, mango and jack fruit etc; they keep goats, chicken etc. for consumption and business purposes. All in all, the ingredients of SALT may be summed up as crop diversification, soil conservation measures, cash crop cultivation, maintenance of bio-diversity and nitrogen fixation.
The key to success of SALT farming lies with successful preparation of ‘Micro Plan’. Micro planning is all about preparing a complete blue print from the stage of ploughing and sowing of seeds to harvesting and marketing of the produces for a season. It also reckons the amount of investment required at various stages. In initial phases the social workers of the NGO were helping the tribal people of the said area to prepare the plan; presently however some of them are able to do it on their own. The people have formed SALT committees in each of the forty-two villages where SALT is being practiced in the area. It includes the farmers of the village who have adopted this method. It is a form of community management of the matters related to SALT farming. The committee ensures the accountability of the members on using the assistance (financial, seed etc.) they get from the NGO in proper way, provides labour to the individual member in case he on his own is unable complete the work in the field, facilitates collective bargain with the traders to get a better price to their produces etc. The farmers are also planning to constitute a SALT federation at the district level, which may facilitate learning from the practice of each other and spreading the practice to areas not covered yet, lobby with the government authorities and bankers for loan to invest in the SALT farming, create marketing linkages for the sell of their products etc.
The people in the SALT villages are now more into protecting the forest than to burning it. In the Lamba Kiari and Balgudi villages the villagers have formed Vana Suraksha Samiti (Forest protection committee) to protect the forest.
The villagers face some problems like lack of irrigation, paucity of capital for investment and lack of infrastructural and technical support for processing and marketing of their products. The tribal people also do not have the legal rights over the land they cultivate. It is hoped that the much-hyped Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill, 2005 will bring some relief to them in this regard after it becomes an act.
Pradeep Baisakh
Shifting cultivation or ‘slash and burn system of farming’ is widely practiced in the tribal areas all over the globe. It goes without saying that the burning of large areas of forest in the hilly areas has done incalculable damage to the ecology and environment, and there are no signs of relenting till viable alternatives substitute this traditional practice. Can the Sloping Agriculture Land Technology, SALT in short, wriggle us out of this serious but inevitable crisis? The example from the Brahmani Gaon area of Kandhamal district of Orissa suggests that SALT has not only led to substantial reduction of forest burning in the area but also provided viability and sustainability to the agriculture in the hills by making it profitable.
Let us briefly discuss the harms caused by and the shortcomings associated with the traditional practice of shifting cultivation. The primary problem of shifting cultivation is the exponential loss of fertility of soil due to soil erosion making it uncultivable in two years or so, forcing the community to search for new green patches to burn. This prevents the tribal people to lead a settled life. This trend is also increasingly becoming unsustainable as the population of the communities is rising day by day, whereas the availability of fresh green forest for burn farming is declining. This form of cultivation is also characterized by seasonal mono cropping (cultivation only in rainy season). As a result, the people do not have income distribution through out year, which forces them to resort to borrowing in off seasons for consumption and other needs exposing them to various forms of exploitation and their implications like land alienation, bonded labour etc.
SALT hits directly at the causes of soil erosion and introduces ‘contour bonding’ by use of stones and pebbles along the sloppy patches. Though the technique of ‘contour bonding’ is not a new technology, it was done rather unscientifically. SALT introduces scienticism to it and makes use of what is called the ‘A-frame technique’ to make the shape of the contour like a half-moon. The idea is: when rainwater flows down, it hits the contour equitably, not at one place; as a result the contour is saved from being broken. Along the edges of the contour, hedgerow species like Flemingia macrophylla, Gliricidia sapium and Sesbania sesban etc are planted. These hedgerows serve multiple purposes. They act as nitrogen fixers, fodder and organic fertilizer (green manure) in a row. These plants cling to the soil and successfully prevent the cleansing of the soil keeping the fertility of the soil intact.
SALT is originally the technology of Philippines. It was brought to India by S.N. Patra of Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) for research. First it was experimented in the Brahmani Gaon area in 1996 by the Council of Professional Social workers (CPSW)-a NGO working in the area. For nearly two years the technology failed the test of acceptability by the people. Mr. Sanjay Khatua, an agriculture consultant, deserves the credit for operationalisation of SALT in Orissa. He redefined SALT as Sustainable Agriculture Land Technology and brought within its purview all types of lands existing in hilly areas, not only the sloppy land. He made very minute classification the hilly land. They are: (a) shifting land (b) panga land (c) fertile padar land (d) degraded padar land (e) low land (f) home estate and (g) sloppy land. Accordingly, SALT was made a comprehensive technology to cater to the needs of all types of land with the ultimate objective to provide secure and sustainable livelihood to the tribal people. In place of Philippine hedgerow species he suggested indigenous species like pine apple, red gram, cowpea, black gram, beans, castor etc. which have all the qualities of the Philippine species. These species were acceptable to the tribal as they yielded some tangible produces. In order to prevent the people to desert their farmland, three types of crops were introduced. They are: short term (ginger, turmeric, cowpea, mustard, paddy, black gram and vegetables etc), medium term (papaya, pine apple, banana, bird-eye chili and castor etc) and long-term crops (mango, jack fruit, orange and guava etc.). The idea has worked. For instance, a farmer of Lamba Kiari village has built a permanent house near his farm and does not desire to migrate anywhere as he awaits to reap the product of the medium term and long term trees he has planted.
There are instances of crop failure in the tribal areas leaving the farmers in complete helplessness. In order to hedge such risks, SALT suggests mixed cropping pattern, so that if one crop fails for some reason, the others would provide a safe return to the farmer. Rotation of crops also is suggested in order to maintain the fertility of the soil. SALT encourages adopting aggressive cash crop cultivation. The said NGO (CPSW) has helped the local people in terms of seed and finance to cultivate ginger, turmeric and arraroot in a large scale. It has also helped them to some extent in marketing the produces. As a result of all these efforts the income level of the tribal farmers has increased manifold proving agriculture a profitable business for tribals. A rough calculation of the income of a medium farmer comes out to be nearly twelve thousand per annum excluding the production of paddy, which he keeps for consumption. SALT has made possible the simultaneous practice of three models namely, agro-forestry model, agro-horticulture model and agro-animal husbandry model in the area. For instance, farmers collect forest produces like tamarind, mahua flower, broomsticks and siali leaves etc.; they plant pineapple, guava, mango and jack fruit etc; they keep goats, chicken etc. for consumption and business purposes. All in all, the ingredients of SALT may be summed up as crop diversification, soil conservation measures, cash crop cultivation, maintenance of bio-diversity and nitrogen fixation.
The key to success of SALT farming lies with successful preparation of ‘Micro Plan’. Micro planning is all about preparing a complete blue print from the stage of ploughing and sowing of seeds to harvesting and marketing of the produces for a season. It also reckons the amount of investment required at various stages. In initial phases the social workers of the NGO were helping the tribal people of the said area to prepare the plan; presently however some of them are able to do it on their own. The people have formed SALT committees in each of the forty-two villages where SALT is being practiced in the area. It includes the farmers of the village who have adopted this method. It is a form of community management of the matters related to SALT farming. The committee ensures the accountability of the members on using the assistance (financial, seed etc.) they get from the NGO in proper way, provides labour to the individual member in case he on his own is unable complete the work in the field, facilitates collective bargain with the traders to get a better price to their produces etc. The farmers are also planning to constitute a SALT federation at the district level, which may facilitate learning from the practice of each other and spreading the practice to areas not covered yet, lobby with the government authorities and bankers for loan to invest in the SALT farming, create marketing linkages for the sell of their products etc.
The people in the SALT villages are now more into protecting the forest than to burning it. In the Lamba Kiari and Balgudi villages the villagers have formed Vana Suraksha Samiti (Forest protection committee) to protect the forest.
The villagers face some problems like lack of irrigation, paucity of capital for investment and lack of infrastructural and technical support for processing and marketing of their products. The tribal people also do not have the legal rights over the land they cultivate. It is hoped that the much-hyped Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill, 2005 will bring some relief to them in this regard after it becomes an act.
(The author is a social activist working with ODAF, Bhubaneswar, Orissa)
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