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Dialogue |
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The strength of the Network lies in its ability to give voice, velocity and visibility to the ideas of grassroots innovators, traditional knowledge holders, unheard voices, unseen faces. |
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Evolution of the Honey Bee Spirit: Notes from the Network Daphne Thuvesson Editor, Forests, Trees and People Newsletter, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, International Rural Development Centre, Sweden. Forest, trees and people Newsletter is a quarterly publication of networking activities run by the IRDC in Sweden, the Community Forestry Unit, FAO, Italy and regional programme facilitators in Asia, Africa, Latin and North America. The network is designed to share information about improved methods of planning and strengthening community forestry activities and has members in more than 100 countries. The network members organise activities like travelling workshops, documenting local innovations, stimulating an exchange of information about innovative practices that can provide very interesting ideas for their respective areas. Network members are also concerned about conservation of habitats and ways of life and report on how they have supported ‘excluded communities’ to gain a voice in political processes to protect their interests. An offer to join hands with the Honey Bee Network was made by the Editor of the Newsletter. Vol 3(1) Jan- Mar 1992 S.B. Kadrekar, Vice-chancellor, Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Depoll, Maharashtra Vice Chancellor Kadrekar has passed copies of the Honey Bee Newsletter to scientists in his university to increase their awareness of farmers’ creativity and to consider how they might contribute their scientific knowledge to improving the traditional agricultural practices scouted by the Honey Bee Network. He believes that a systematic and scientific approach can play an important role in developing cheap and particularly feasible technologies that can be quickly and easily adopted by farmers to augment agricultural production and their incomes. In this way the Honey Bee Network links farmers with research institutions. Vol 3(1) Jan- Mar 1992 Dr H David Thurston Department of Plant Pathology, Cornell University, 300 Plant Science Building, Ithaca, NY He found some of the examples of indigenous agricultural practices revealing and valuable. He has sent us a copy of his Traditional Agriculture & Plant Pathology (TAPP) database which contains practices with a rich store of information. According to him, “It is high time to re-examine the potential for traditional agriculture to contribute to an improved sustainable modern agriculture. Unfortunately, funding agencies are looking to modern agriculture and molecular science, and seem to have little interest in “traditional agriculture. His book will be reviewed in the next issue. Those interested in his database can write to him directly or to us. Vol 3(2) Apr-Jun 1992 A Camel Cannot Have a Big Head Nagaraj Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu I agree with you when you say that the worst kind of threat is from the so called “liberalsâ€. It is these pseudo-progressives who have been the most vociferous supporters of the kind of development which is really devastating our land. I told one of the Planning Commission members at Chandigarh a couple of months back that a camel cannot have a big head nor an elephant a long neck. Development is an organic concept. Well they did not question me but would not change their views either. The one great force that we should mobilise today on a state-wide basis with an all-India coordination today is the vast section of poor peasants with a clear view to conserve our life, water, soil, forest, cattle and seeds. There should be an end of this kind of industrialisation. India can live only when its millions of villages flourish. The urban-based “liberals†are the greatest threat to the lives of the millions. We understand and appreciate your frustration with what you call ‘urban liberals’. However, we must take care not to jump from the fire into the frying pan. The new conservatives inventing a “glorious tradition†are no less a threat to a self reliant and eco sustainable economy than pseudo liberals. May be the labels have lost their meanings. -Ed. Vol 4 (2&3) Apr-Sept 1993 Naseeb H Dajani Chief Technical Adviser, Global Harmony Foundation, Switzerland I shall gladly pass Honey Bee to a member of our Board who produces magazines in German. I am sure he will include in future issues some of the down-to-earth wisdom from the Indian farmers recounted in your magazine. Vol 3 (3 &4) Aug- Dec 1992 Local terminology is not meant for us W J Ascough Development Technology Centre, Harare, Zimbabwe Unfortunately, most of the plants mentioned in the Honey Bee do not grow here although we have plants in some families such as Syzgium spp. and Combretum spp. Your local language terminology of course is not meant for us, as we are concerned with more effective transfer of often existing technology to needy end users in this region of ours. Unfortunately, there often appears to be an increasing gap between the haves and have not. I find your “farmers’ own perception regarding agriculture†Vol. 3(2):6 very interesting. Vol 5(1) Jan- Mar 1994 Can Honey Bee reach Ifugoas? Dr Emmanuel M Lleva ERMP-DAP ISCAF, Lamut, Ifugao, Philippines I had the happy opportunity of reading most interesting article about HB in Forest, Trees and People Newsletter. The issues you raised regarding indigenous technical knowledge (ITK) are indeed very important and it is fortunate that you have done a significant stride in this regard. At present, I work with an indigenous people in northern Philippines – the Ifugaos who have given us the Banaue Rice Terraces. The project which is called the Environment and Resource Management Project – Development Action Program (ERMP-DAP) is currently conducting several studies including indigenous farming systems and forest utilization. It hopes to come up with strategies / schemes which would empower the community to manage their resources in a sustainable basis. It is hoped that the lessons learned from this research activity would serve as springboards for successful community based projects. Please do share some of the findings with the readers of HB. Is it possible to have a written (if Ifugaos have a written script) or oral (through cassettes) version of HB in local language for sharing with Ifugaos what we learned from them & of course others. Please think about it and write soon. -Ed. Vol 6(1) Jan- Mar 1995 Will there be Honey Bee in Yoruba language? Abimbola A Olusola, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria I am from a village called Okeso in the Southwest of the capital city of my state in Nigeria. I can volunteer to contribute examples of local ecological knowledge & creativity, encourage people to set up a SRISTI-club in my area and even interested in translating into my local language (yoruba) the relevant practices in Honey Bee for circulation among the farmers and workers in my region. We are very keen to explore the opportunity of bringing out Honey Bee in ‘yoruba’ language. The whole idea of Honey Bee is to link creative communities and people around the world through communication in the vernacular medium. English language obviously will not go very far in connecting rural people either in India or abroad, we look forward to hearing from you about this exchange and hope that we can make a modest beginning. -Ed. Vol 6(2) Apr-Jun 1995 More innovations by Uplenchwar! P.D.Bhayyasahib Uplenchwar Krushi Ayurvedi Research Centre Maharashtra I received a copy of your magazine and a letter describing the result of a sample of my formula for pest control from Shri Dilip Kordia of Honey Bee network. I am glad you are satisfied with the result. This year kerosene has been removed completely from the formula. Even at twice the strength, the crop is safe and results obtained are indeed very good. Many cultivators are ready to use my formula because the results obtained with chemical insecticides this year have been rather poor. My second formula, Vichardhan, which I have prepared this year, has shown good results for disease control. It is prepared from materials that have masala (spices) like properties; it consists of about 15 ingredients and edible oils in a base of vavding. I prepared an extract of the ‘zendu’ flower which is used in festoons hung on doors during the Dipawali festival. The results of the Vichardhan formula are satisfactory. I have also been successful in preparing liquid copper. The cost is only one fourth the costs of copper packets available in the market while the result is several times better. At present, we are keeping all the methods confidential. We are glad to know that you have succeeded in removing kerosene from the formula. We hope that you will also remove washing-powder from it. We wish you continued success in your endeavours -Ed. Vol 7(2) Apr- June 1996 Are these innovations patentable under Indian law? Prof Tom Greaves Bucknell University, greaves@bucknell.edu I was curious about the statement in your recent messages that the intellectual property rights were protected “by documenting each innovation with the name and address of individual innovator as well as community and communicator.†It’s unclear whether the fish traps and other innovations you are recording are original, patentable, new inventions, or whether they are essentially traditional devices that are employed in particular local settings. Are these innovations patentable under Indian intellectual property law? The innovations/practices published in Honey Bee consist of both traditional practices as well as contemporary innovations of the farmers and other grassroots innovators. Many of these ‘petty’ innovations cannot be patented under Indian Law because it accepts only process patents and not product patents. Hence we have argued for an alternative registration scheme -Ed. Vol 7(3) Jul-Sep 1996 Late Honey Bee causes loss to me! Vidyadhar Vasant Kulkarni Kanagale, Karnataka Today I received a copy of Honey Bee vol 7(1), January-March, 1996. I fail to understand the delay of about 6 months. I could have used the butter milk spray on my groundnut crop if this issue had reached me in time. Hope you will be regular in future. Honey Bee is very useful for organic farmers like me. We regret the delay in bringing out Honey Bee this year. You will see us becoming regular soon -Ed. Vol 7(3) Jul-Sep 1996 Sustainable Agricultural Movement in North and South Radhika Balasubrahmanyam, Fayetteville, Ar, USA My colleague Steve Diver and I recently came across your very interesting and informative article on Bhaskarbhai Save, in the January-March 1996 issue of the Honey Bee. We work at a nation-wide sustainable farming information center called ATTRA Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas, here, in the United States, located at the University of Arkansas. We will be in India on separate business in December-January, but we do plan to participate in the International Conference on Creativity and Innovation on January 11-14th. We would be especially glad to meet agricultural professionals and visit innovative farms and permaculture projects in the region following the conference. We would appreciate it very much if you could provide us with Bhaskarbhai’s address, as well as those of other farmers in the area who practise sustainable farming methods, including organic, sustainable, biodynamic, natural, and permaculture. In turn, Steve would be glad to speak about the ATTRA program and its unique service to American farmers, and share information on sustainable farming systems currently being practised in the United States. I am happy that Steve Diver is attending the conference. Hope it will promote South to North transfer of technology. -Ed. Vol 7(4) Oct-Dec 1996 One more attempt for African Honey Bee Steve Langill, IDRC, Ottawa, Canada I am working on a project in Kenya which involves collecting and recording indigenous knowledge related to dry land resource management and coping strategies for desertification. I have been asked to help set up a database which would systematize and store this data. I was wondering if SRISTI could help me in this endeavour. We have already sent some information along with some publications. Hope you will help us in building bridges between innovative farmers of India and Kenya by publishing a local version of Honey Bee in Kenya -Ed. Vol 8(2) Apr- Jun 1997 “Give me a place to stand, I will move the world†Evaggelos Vallianatos, Thayer avenue, Alexandria, USA I wish I were at your grassroots conference! Archimedes was right: If only the peasants had a place to stand on, they could easily move the Earth (and beware those who have tyrannized them for centuries!!). Is it not ironic that no peasants even steal the peasants’ knowledge in the current fashion of sustainable development? I am interested in the theory of sustainable development and would appreciate information on that issue. We have sent you some papers recently. We would like to hear more about your search for sustainable alternatives -Ed. Vol 8(2) Apr-Jun 1997 HB generates demand for Annasab’s Raingun in Sri Lanka! Dr E S Mahendrarajah, Sri Lanka, Email:lex_mail@sri.lanka.net It was quite interesting to read about the sprinkler designed by Anna Saheb Udagavi. I showed the article to couple of my friends and they are quite interested. It would be nice if you could convey our greetings and good wishes to Anna Saheb. Further, we are interested in purchasing a few of his rainguns to test in Sri Lanka. Any information in this regard can help the innovator and us. You can act as a bridge to spread and sprinkle the gospel of good work. We are very happy about your feedback. We will convey your greetings to Anna Saheb and ascertain the information about sending few sprinklers to Sri Lanka. Is it not interesting. that none from the Indian research system, ICAR or even the corporate sector has yet responded but your letter came so promptly. Keep it up. This is one of the major goals of Honey Bee, to generate global markets for local innovations. -Ed. Vol 9(1) Jan-Mar 1998 Not a ‘discovery’! Rupa Desai Abdi, Bhavnagar With reference to HB 9(4) October- December, under the ‘Discovery’ section (p.12), a new species of Datura has been reported. I hate to disappoint you, but the Datura plant with a double corolla tube is not a ‘discovery’. Double and even triple corolla tubes are morphological variations found in Datura metel (please refer ‘Flora of the Indian Desert’ by M.M. Bhandari, p. 240). These variations are not very rare either. I have photographs of flowers of Datura metel with double corolla tubes growing along roadsides and garbage dumps in Bhavnagar. In one of your earlier issues, a particular plant species was incorrectly illustrated. It would be a good idea to have someone with a botany background on your editorial board in order to avoid such mistakes in the future as these are detrimental to the sound reputation of your magazine. Thanks for pointing out this mistake. We have four botanists and then having made a mistake of this kind is inexcusable. Please do join the effort to help us prevent this kind of error altogether. Your watchful eye will help Honey Bee become totally flawless in due course. Keep it up. -Ed. Vol 10(1) Jan- Mar, 1999 Interest in Tribal Innovation Manager (Admin.) Enfield Agrobase Private Limited, Chennai, India The article on ‘Scaring Wildboars’ in ‘Honey Bee’ Vol 10(4), October- December 1999 is of interest to us. More details are required showing how the stone tied to a rope is released by the boar disturbing the wire which results in the bursting of crackers lying underneath the stone. Please also let us know the addresses of the farmers of Chonampara village, Kerala, who are using this devise to enable our representatives to visit their farms and see the device. Requests like yours are very welcome. If you can develop this idea for others, please do write to us so that we can tell the Kani community about their innovation which helps solve a problem for a big corporation. -Ed. Restoring Farmers’ Self Esteem in Paraguay Giorgio Gianinazzi, Programme Director, HELVETAS, PARAGUAY We are a Swiss NGO with a serious record of 50 years of cooperation work in 20 countries. We are very interested in the issue of the farmers’ rights and privileges (e.g. within the globalisation process). There is little work done here in this area. In Paraguay knowledge-rich disadvantaged farmers are losing self-esteem and self-confidence (after years of totalitarian system). I believe that revaluing their creativity is central to the process of re-shaping confidence. Farmers’ innovations are of particular interest in this process of re-shaping confidence. We would need some guidance to design methods (a variety of them) to scout innovations, classify, analyse, see if they can be patented for the farmers, The Honey Bee experience can be very valuable to learn. And Paraguay is going to be more and more affected by the negative effects of globalisation. So, basically the first contact would be to see if SRISTI/ Honey Bee would be interested in providing some guidance for this work. We will be very happy to join hands with you. You might have already seen some of the papers available at sristi.org/ pub.html. I am arranging to send some other papers also. You may also see sristi.org/knownetgrin.html. With the help of Luciana, an intern from Brazil, we are trying to convert large part of our web site in Portuguese. This will make some of our work accessible to farmers and NGOs and scientists in your area. However, we would like to solicit your cooperation in converting this database of innovations into Spanish and/or Portuguese. Initially, you may like to focus more on scouting rather on classifying and analysing. The reason is that we often do what we know best, analyse. In the process, scouting suffers. Accordingly, we have less to analyse and we start passing judgments about people’s ability to innovate. I have no doubt that the Honey Bee approach can help in mobilising the forces of globalisation in support of grassroots innovators. -Ed. Vol 12(2) Apr 2001 - June 2001 Shivamma for LEISA Wilma Roem, Documentalist, ILEIA, The Netherlands In Vol 13(2) in ‘A Mixed Bag: the SRISTI Sanman recipients 2002,’ we read about Mrs Shivamma, an organic farmer. We feel that her story is of interest to the readers of our journal LEISA. Can you provide us with an article about her or tell us how to get in touch with her? The details have already been sent to you. We are happy that Shivamma’s efforts are getting international exposure. This is one of the major goals of the HB Network – expanding institutional space for grassroots green innovators and traditional knowledge holders. Please send us any feedback that you may get. -Ed. Vol 13(3) Jul- Sep 2002 Helping a Neighbouring LibraryHussain Amir, hussainamir2000@yahoo.com It gives us immense pleasure to introduce you to the Muhammad Bin Qassim Library, Sujawal, District Thatta, Sindh, Pakistan. It contains more than 28,900 volumes on different subjects and as many as 379 periodicals and 68 national, regional and international dailies. The above reading material is donated by respective editors, publishers and academic and cultural institutions from all over the world. The library makes its collection available to the public without charging them and has no permanent source of income. We look forward to gaining your kind cooperation. The Honey Bee Network appreciates the idea behind your library. We have already dispatched a CD of the back issues of Honey Bee of the last 13 years. We have also sent a complimentary copy of the magazine and a multimedia CD for the benefit of your readers. We hope that with the help of this material your readers become conscious of the importance of grassroots innovators and traditional knowledge holders in your part of the world -Ed. Vol 14(2) Apr-Jun 2003 Numvali Velanmai Tamil Version of HoneyBee, P Vivekanandan, T P M Nagar, Virattipathu, Tamil Nadu. We have helped establish the Grassroots Innovators Association in Tamil Nadu. The Association has 60 members. It was registered in 2001. It has helped innovators to interact and learn from each other. We have also introduced micro credit to help commercialization of innovations. Through the Honey Bee Network, we are linking up with other institutions working in the realm of natural resource management and conservation of biodiversity, particularly medicinal plants. We are promoting herders’ associations of livestock keepers who are engaged in conserving native breeds of animals such as kachakatty black sheep, toda buffalo etc. Through the newsletter Numvali Velanmai and the workshops, we have been able to create awareness about the ill-effects of chemical pesticides and fertilizers. As a result of our efforts, more than 1000 farmers have chosen to switch to organic farming. Another heartening feature is that there is renewed interest in traditional herbal healing practices. People who keep livestock refer to Numvali Velanmai and our other publications. We need to bring out more regional versions of the Honey Bee. Vol 15(4) Oct-Dec 2004 Hittalagida Kannada version of Honey Bee, T N Prakash, Editor, Hittalagida, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Agricultural Science, GKVK, Bangalore What I like best about the Network is its focus on sharing knowledge in regional languages. This focus on regional languages is very important and required. Readers have said that they have benefited from the practices that we publish. The happiness and excitement of innovators and traditional knowledge holders when they see their names in print is a reward in itself. However, I feel that we need to look at the aspect of sustainability more. Something like publications, or any other activity for that matter, needs to sustain itself. As a Network, we need to consider this issue. We intend to ask our readers what they feel about Hittalagida, whether they think it should be continued and in what form. After all, the readers should have a say. Vol 15(4) Oct-Dec 2004 Reaction to the story “A King’s Dilemma†published in Honey Bee 16 (2), 2005. Jagannath Datta, Belgachia, Kolkata The beauty of any garden lies not only in the planned way the trees and plants are planted. It gets a life out of the creatures who have made it their home. The chirping of the bird, the playing of the squirrel on the branches of the tree add life to the surroundings. Moreover, some creatures also help to keep the proper ecological balance. The king will not cut down the special huge tree, because without the tree, the garden will be lifeless. No sensitive king would like to do this. He will build another home for himself or try to procure the material for rebuilding from somewhere else. Vol 16(3) Jul-Sep 2005 Promotion of Traditional Knowledge for Children in Argentina Cecilia Eyssartier, Argentina, quimeyrayen@gmail.com I ìm Cecilia Eyssartier, from Argentina and I’m a biologist. At the moment, I’m working on a project about Mapuche ìs home gardens and all that is related to the traditional ecological knowledge and social networks. The Mapuche people are aborigines, who have been in touch with Earth for ages. They know a lot about plants and their uses. However, over a period of time they have been forced to move away from their original dwelling places and they are strongly discriminated against. I read a paper about “Biodiversity contests: Indigenously Informed and Transformed Environmental Education†which I found extremely interesting. After visiting your web site, I was convinced once more how important is it to improve the education! These days, every school is lacking the connection to life, experiences, earth and I would like to do whatever I can to change this situation. I’d like to take all these traditional knowledge to the schools so that children begin to listen to the voice of the earth. I think children are very special in order to transmit all this knowledge to future generation. I would like you to give me your opinion and advice. I am extremely happy to get your mail and learn about excellent work that you are doing to keep the knowledge traditions of your society alive and vibrant. Please do write to us about the Mapuche community and their ecological knowledge traditions, nature related songs, stories and their local community institutions under stress or otherwise to conserve nature. You may consider organising biodiversity contests among children and then use this mechanism to connect grandparents’ generation with that of the grandchildren. Encourage young children also to bring out new ideas and innovative projects they have in mind. We should let children fuse modern with tradition in their own terms. Also you can encourage them to set up a knowledge forest or park where they put a small sign board on each plant having information about local and Latin names, uses and other important information. Whenever any new person comes to the community knowledge garden, he/she is asked to share his/her specific knowledge about that plant with the community representative. Please think about the way the children also learn to make herbarium sheets, make an exhibition for plants; invite community members and then churning of knowledge, folk lore and other cultural knowledge takes place. They make notes of the same and keep in the community library. -Ed. Vol 17(1&2) Jan-Jun 2006 Replicating HBN Magdy Said, magdyas@hotmail.com I am an editor & writer from Egypt and the President of Arab Science Journalists Association. I am also the Coordinator of Egyptian Forum for Scientific Uprising. I had written an article a year ago about your experience in the Honey Bee Network, and I’m looking to help in replication of it in some of the Arab countries (i.e. Egypt, Sudan etc). I know that your organization is looking to transmit its experience outside India, so I am looking for your advice and help how we can start and what we can do. Vol 22(4) & 23(1) Oct 2011- Mar 2012Organic farmers’ experiments Friedrich Leitgeb, friedrich.leitgeb@doku.ac.at I am a PhD student from the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Science (BOKU/ Vienna, Austria). Together with Racheli Ninio and Susanne Kummer, we are working on the topic of “Organic Farmers’ Experimentsâ€. Dr. Christian R. Vogl from the Department of Organic Farming supervises the project and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) finances it. During my work, I read one of your publications dealing with this topic and I found the “Honey Bee†webpage. An Innovation database is a really excellent idea to share the experiences among farmers. Your expertise and knowledge about the topic is very important for our work. Therefore, I would be happy if you could share some of your most recent papers about farmers’ innovation and experimentation. It would also be very nice to meet you and to have a talk with you personally about the project. AASTIIK will be very keen to build long term linkages with your institute so that research on alternatives developed by farmer innovators is pursued in a rigorous manner for generating applications, some of which might work well in Austria also. -Ed Vol 17(4) & 18(1) Oct 2006- Mar 2007 ‘Medicine Men’ Mora McLagan, Keo Films, mora@keofilms.com I am writing from Keo Films in London, who make documentary films for worldwide distribution, with a strong anthropological focus. We have just finished work on a new series ‘Medicine Men’ which is exploring different health problems around the world and local solutions - whether in the form of ‘alternative’ or traditional medicines, or shamanistic treatment. In conjunction with the series, we are exploring the possibility of setting up a global information website about Medical Biopiracy, and the necessary protection of Indigenous Knowledge Systems. We have also been exploring the possibility of building on the database sites of TKDL http://203.200.90.6/tkdl/Lang,Default/common/Home.asp?GL=Eng, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2858253.stm Obviously there are some very large practical and ethical issues to consider in undertaking such a project, and it would be very helpful to speak to somebody working in the campaign field already at this very early stage, to seek advice on what current medical bio-piracy campaigns exist, and who the best experts would be to advise and collaborate within such a venture. It would be wonderful to discuss your ideas. We appreciate your efforts. -Ed. Vol 18(3) & (4) Jul- Dec 2007 Honey Bee Zambian programmes P M Makungu, Farming systems, Research Programme, Private Bag 8, Mufulira, Zambia Since we started receiving this magazine, our farming systems research programme in the Copperbelt province of Zambia has benefited a lot. We can only thank you for this very useful newsletter. But is that enough? Why not encourage your colleagues to identify local innovations and send them to us for publication. We await your contributions. May be we will have a Zambian version some day: -Ed. Vol 8(3) Jun- Sep 1992 The following people have helped in compiling the Honey Bee 25th year issue: Judith Hollows, Anamika Dey, Chetan Patel, Chintan Shinde, Pooja Tole, Sanket Gaikwad, Siddharth Bhatia, Tahera Daud, Unnikrishnan Nair, Manish Doshi. |
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Honey Bee 25(4) & 26(1) 135-142, 2014-2015 (25 years celebration) |
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