It is surprising to find out how Ramu Ram, a 45 years old man belonging to the Baiga community, one of the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) of Ghoghra Village of Chhattisgarh could take a lead in promotion and adaptation of climate resilient livelihood practices among the small holder PVTG farmers. After being trained digitally by IBRAD he for the first time started his own organic nutrition garden in his backyard to cultivate different types of vegetables.
The Baiga (means sorcerers) is one of the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs). They mainly live in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh. Traditionally the Baiga lived a semi-nomadic life and practiced slash and burn cultivation. They also depend on minor forest produces for their livelihood to a large extent. Some of them are now practicing settled agriculture but lack of access to new skills and technologies, increasing production costs all put the forest fringe tribal farmers at an edge.
Ramu Ram’s Organic Kitchen Garden
Ramu has received tenure right over three acres of land under FRA 2006. Only 60% of the land area is cultivable though it remained mostly as fallow for most part of the year till Ramu received training on establishment of Organic Nutrition Kitchen Garden and production of organic inputs from IBRAD. After receiving the training he has established a nutrition kitchen garden and started cultivating different types of vegetables in organic manner. He also produces Neemastra as pesticide and Amritjal as a growth promoter for the plants on his own which he uses in his nutrition garden. No chemical fertilizer or pesticide is used in his garden. With the adaptation of appropriate technology he can now feed his five children nutritious vegetables like beans, brinjal, bottle gourd, tomato and various leafy vegetables. He is also cultivating Arhar (a lentil) in his land which helps in nitrogen fixing and improving soil fertility. He has started selling some surplus produces to the market. This helps in diversifying his livelihood options and expands opportunities for coping with climate related shocks and stresses.
A well informed and skilled Ramu is also encouraging other people of his Baiga community for establishing organic nutrition kitchen garden in their vacant land. He encouraged Chotelal* and Hiralal*, his fellow villagers to initiate organic farming in their vacant homestead land. Inspired by Ramu, both Chotelal and Hiralal have started producing organic vegetables in their nutrition kitchen garden. This is an example of how cultural traits spread from one culture to another, one person to another as propagated by Franz Boas in his Theory of Diffusionism.
Ramu Ram is an example of how new climate resilient livelihood practices can be promoted, replicated and expanded fast by local change agents
** Here pseudo names are used so that their identity is not disclosed.
