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Traditionally marginalised dalit women in Andhra Pradesh set up community grain and seed banks to gain control over their land as well as their lives.
Upper-class men buying seeds from Dalit women! Members of the Deccan Development Society (DDS), an organisation that aims to empower women and reverse ecological degradation in rural areas, accomplished this first in Zaheerabad, Andhra Pradesh. By growing mainly food crops and gaining control over seed banks, these women have achieved 'intellectual leadership' in their villages. Zaheerabad is a semi-arid region, drought-prone and with a plummeting water table. Increasing amounts of agricultural land are turning fallow and untenable. The DDS is trying to reverse this process through activities like community grain, green and gene funds and village medicinal commons. DDS is also regenerating local health systems. DDS works through Sanghams, which are village-level groups of poor women, mostly Dalits, who suffered substantial losses while buying and selling in the mainstream market. Through the Sanghams, the women form markets of their own, with prices fixed according to their own needs and priorities. Coarse millets, which are sold at rock-bottom prices in the mainstream market, get a higher price here. Farmer's produce also has an assured buying. Through the community grain fund programme, which aims to rejuvenate marginalised lands, the women brought 1,000 hectares of fallow land under cultivation. They produced an extra 8,00,000 kgs of sorghum in the very first year of the project. This meant nearly 3 million extra meals in 30 villages or 1,000 extra meals per family. The extra fodder from the fields fed 6,000 cattle in 30 villages. In each village 2,500 extra wages were created, thus creating 75,000 wages in 30 villages. The community gene fund programme emphasises biodiversity in agriculture and the restoration of traditional crop varieties. Marginal lands that used to produce crops worth Rs 250-300 per acre are now producing crops worth Rs 4,000 per acre. A seed bank to crop 4,000 hectares of land has been built up in four years. Traditional crops and agricultural methods are being promoted. Tractors, which bring up the hard and infertile subsoil while ploughing, are being discarded in favour of bullocks. In two years, 500 women have recovered 50 traditional crop varieties and set up banks for traditional seeds in 30 villages. The fact that poor, illiterate and marginalised women are managing such a complex system is an achievement in itself. Contact: Deccan Development Society
101-Kishan Residency,
Street no 5 Begum pet,
Hyderabad
Phone 040-27764577/27764744
Fax 040-27764722
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