| Revathy's report after visiting Aila affected areas - Revathi visits Sunderbans |
Page 1 of 3 Cyclone Aila ravaged areas of eastern India on May 25th. AID Saathi, M. Revathi
and her colleague Swamy, visited the affected areas of the Sunderban
region in West Bengal. The visit sought to gauge the extent of
salination of agricultural land and understanding the perspectives of
the people on reviving agriculture. Along with the staff of
Baikunthpur Tarun Sangh (BTS), Mukti and AID volunteers, they visited
Nogonabad, the worst-impacted village. She shared the techniques she
applied to help farmers recover saline lands after the Tsunami of 2004,
clearly stating the steps that AID and partner organizations need to
take to reclaim the land for farming. Although the approaching monsoon
and cultivating season has cut the time-frame for soil improvement
short, volunteers and villagers view their goal with hopeful prospects. A report from the technical team about the visit to AILA affected Sunder Bans region, Kolkata – West Bengal Revathi & Swamy Context: A powerful cyclone AILA hit the East Coast of India on the 25th of May, leaving many people homeless, loss of their most valuable assets, livestock and the devastation further worst damaged their main source of livelihood, their paddy fields and cultivable lands. The most affected regions are the 24 South Parganas and 24 North Parganas which are at the Sunderban region. This is the information we received through media about the level of the devastation which attacked the Sunderban and Bangladesh coastal areas. We are keen to know about the level of the disaster, its impact in the coastal eco systemand about the agricultural damages as we are also mainly involved in coastal farming which is a frequent disaster area. Unfortunately, we received very minimal information as media attention immediately diverted from AILA to other like formation of new ministry and of course the internal state crisis. At this context, we received a mail from Mr. Govind on 26th of June from AID sharing his concern that the AILA brought in heavy salinity to the farming lands and the farmers are hopeless about their paddy farming in the current season. He and Mr. Somnath connected us to the AID Kolkatta volunteers Mr. Pritiviraj and Ms. Debolina. Immediately we decided to make a visit to the affected areas to estimate the level of damage to the agriculture lands and to jointly explore suitable techniques for a fast recovery of affected fields. Meetings: We started our journey on 30th June from Coimbatore and reached Kolkatta on 3rd early morning. All arrangements were very well coordinated by Mr. Pritivi. We reached his house and received a warm hospitality from his family. Pritvi explained the plans for the coming days. We decided to have an internal meeting with AID volunteers on the evening of the same day to discuss and plan for the meeting on 4th with BTS, Mukti and Service Center. For the evening meeting, we three joined with Ms. Aparna and Mr.Ragul and we arrived for the specific plan. On 4th July morning, we were taken to meet Dr. Roy by Kiran from Mukti. As we all know Mr. Roy is a rich experienced agriculture scientist. He really exposed us to the specific features of Sunderban cultivation. He was doubtful whether these lands can be treated by the way we explained and he shared that his personal opinion is it would take at least four or five seasons to get back the pre AILA conditions. Anyhow he immediately shared his willingness to conduct trails and demonstrations in affected area. Further he committed that he can support for the research part of this program. He himself developed a proposal for reclamation and for the follow up. After the useful interaction we rushed to Service Center where the meeting was fixed. The participants were Pritivi, Debolina, Aparna, Ragul, myself, RT Swamy, Dr. Roy, Two each representatives from Service center, Mukti and BTS. The two hour long discussions helped us to understand the socio economic background of the communities and the agronomical practices of that region. We were particular about the results of the soil sample analysis. Unfortunately we didn’t get any such report. The service center shared that they had collected samples and some results are available with them. But they said it will take time for them for an authenticated data. They said the EC level “may be” maximum 9 milli moles. They shared that they already started some initiatives with their network organisations in several affected villages. Dr. Roy shared his views and he stretched for the immediate systematic large scale soil analysis. We presented the various technical packages we applied in different location specific salined lands and our confidence that the reclamation and revival of saline lands in a short span of time is very much possible. Finally it was decided to have a plannery meeting on 13th July at the Service Center. Field visit: Soon after the meeting we rushed to location which took us nearly 4 hours to reach by Jeep. The vehicle could not move further as the roads are affected by heavy rainfall. The interesting part of the journey started when we shifted to a local designed motorised cart. The cart took through the interior village Kaccha roads which we enjoyed very much under the moon light with the rhythmic sound of the vehicle. We stayed that night in the health center of BTS. On 5th July morning, we started our field visit. The BTS team took us to the worst affected area named Nogonabad. We were amazed by the way of a very simple life led by the communities of the affected area. They have very minimum land holding like 1/3rd of an acre. According to them the “rich farmer” is the owner of two or more acres. They don’t have proper roads. They don’t have electricity. They don’t have easy access to drinking water. They don’t receive any technical support from any department, they shared. But they have a tremendous level of self confidence and self dignity. They didn’t complaint about anything. They didn’t expect any material support. After the disaster, they themselves started reshaping their small huts with the immediate neighbourhood resources available. Some of the places they together work to rearrange the damaged paths. Really this scene surprised us, as the external expectation is less even after facing a disaster like this and heavy losses to their valuable assets. We started an informal discussion with them and very soon many people joined in it. They shared that the AILA salinity issue is very new to them and they don’t know how to overcome from this situation. Their only belief is about the monsoon rains which may help them for the leaching process of the salt settled in the land. They said after the rain they can start cultivation in some areas which are slightly affected but for the heavily affected areas they are hopeless for the coming season as few of them conducted field trials and nothing germinated. Few of them shared that they have a plan of fresh water fish farming in the affected paddy field. We shared our experiences in treating the saline lands by using the locally available resource materials and expressed our confidence that a speedy recovery is definitely possible. People showed interest to know about the techniques involved in the process. We interacted with them and finally many of them said that they are ready to take these trials and observe the results. They asked help for seeds and for the technical support. The second meeting was held at the place near to BTS center. In the informal meeting, number of farmer representatives expressed their worried about the cultivation in the saline land. They asked many doubts about the process and time schedule. They concluded that they are ready for initiatives if the technical guidance is timely provided. One of the farmers of that group who already tried the SRI method of paddy cultivation in the last season encouraged his fellow farmers sharing his excellent benefits we were next taken to K Plot Island, another worst affected area where BTS is coordinating the efforts. The boat travel took us nearly one hour in the backwaters surrounded by mangroves. The people are very poor and farming is the main source of income. During our interaction we found out that the season is fast approaching. The deadline for raising the nursery for paddy saplings may be the end of this month and the plantation must be started in the third week of August to synchorinise with the monsoon rains. When we asked about their plans for the season, they said they have less confidence for the current cultivation as the salinity is threatening them. We explained them that a solution is definitely possible and the required resources are already near them. We shared some of our specific techniques in raising paddy. They expressed their interest and they said they can try these techniques here. They shared that they don’t have anything to start. Even in this condition they said they can take care of ploughing, land preparation expenses and the labour cost for the entire cultivation. What they expected from us is the seeds and techniques. We respected their dignity and we promised them very soon we will come back.Our 4th and final visit was to the affected area where Mukti is concentrating. We went to the people’s library run by Mukti where the meeting was organised. Many farmers and volunteers of Mukti were present there. They were interested to know the techniques which can be applied here. We shared our observations of the damage level of affected area and explained the process which can be applied here. The participant raised some questions and expressed their willingness to try the techniques. Observation: Still in many fields saline water is stagnating. But at the same time the perennial trees are not affected and they survive. This indicator supports us come to a conclusion that the salinity level is not so high. (If the salinity is more, the plants would have died and changed into black because of the phenomenon, reverse osmosis). In some places, we observed that weeds have started growing. This also indicates that the problem is not at its worst. In some places, trees were dried because of the velocity of the cyclone. But we observe the young leaves emerging from the dry branches. The interaction with the community brings the clarity that there are two paddy crops per year. One paddy season is from August to December and another is from February to May. Usually people start raising the paddy nursery during the month of July and they engage themselves in land preparation & transplantation activities in August. The average yield per acre is nearly 1500 Kgs. For the chemical inputs alone they are spending an average of Rs. 1000/- per season. They don’t have their own seeds. Every season they buy from the agricultural department depots at the cost of Rs. 25/- per Kg. After the harvest when they sell their seeds i.e., paddy they receive they got only Rs. 8/- per kg. As they don’t have electricity, they depend on fossil fuels very much for their many of the routine activities both in home and farm. When we went around the affected areas, we observed many children have skin allergies and skin diseases. When we enquired about this, the elders replied that this is the after effect of AILA and day by day it is increasing. Till today no medical examination by any and thus no medical treatment so far. Most of the farmers depend on their farm ponds as their only irrigation source. Because of AILA the farm ponds became saline and unsuitable for irrigation. We came to know that already Sunderaban Development Board is entered into the scene and started clearing of many ponds. Wherever we go, we saw number of cows and goat, mostly native breeds in every farmer’s house. They do fish farming in their farm ponds. A small scale of poultry activities is also seen. In many of the villages, there are number of women self help groups already functioning. But there are no farmer groups or any collective forum to raise the voice of the farmers. The villages sell their products in their village market for a very minimum price.
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