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Honey bee publish details |
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16th Shodhyatra |
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Visiting Wisdom in God's Own Country |
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There was a splendid face off with reality in a little known village called Anakara. Around fifty Shodhyatris had gathered in the community hall of Anakara to celebrate the spirit of sustainability and innovation. Two hours after the celebration of sustainability, hundreds of women were mourning the death of the farmers who committed suicide failing to pay off huge debts. The local priests had gathered to counsel the message of hope. The contrast was stark yet telling. It is now obvious to farmers that a model of development that is externally driven, not based on the knowledge resources of poor and does not care for their surrounding environment, is not viable. When invited to share our perspective over the situation, we tried to link their problem with their inability to see the merit of many solutions in their own backyard. Why has learning from each other become so difficult even when some people are at the end of their tether ?
If such a collective experience against high input farming is gathering the storm, are we ready with the alternative when hopelessness among farmers is intensifying?
The sixteenth Shodhyatra in the Idukki district of Kerala from the 27th December 2005 to 2nd January 2006 opened our eyes again and again to the world of simple solutions at their best. Is that why these solutions remained obscure or inaccesible and never got on the radar of public extension agencies ? Why should a simple idea of spraying high pressure water with a pump on cardamom plants to wash the external pests not be diffused as a simple low cost solution ? Whose interests could it come in the way of ? The issue of sustainability in agriculture came to fore through the initiatives of KT Thomas, Sabu Verghese and bio-fertilizer prepared by the local farmers but also brought into focus the vibrancy of creativity that exists at the grassroots. The Shodhyatra saw the emergence of many green grassroots innovation champions who hold promise for ushering a new paradigm of development based upon people’s resources i.e. their unique knowledge system.
Augmentation of a new Methodology: Challenging People’s Curiosity
The yatra started from Kumili and ended in Kattapana. The journey covered a distance of about 100 km and twenty three villages. However, the highlight of the yatra was the street meetings that were organized on the road-side in Anakara, Cumbumeetu and Thookupalam. There could have been no better experience for the Shodhyatris than the night meeting at Thookupalam which produced as many as seven new innovations within a time span of two hours. The meeting at Thookupalam was no different from other night meetings organised during the Shodhyatras where people were told about our database. The initial indifference of people at Thookupalam forced the Shodhyatris to pose a challenging question to the assembled crowd- 'have you seen any similar system like the one devised by Trailokya and Champak Bora of Assam where the music can be transmitted without the wires in a house?' There was silence for some time. People wanted us to start the display of multimedia multi language Honey Bee database. But we insisted on waiting till they came out with some example of innovations. Gradually the silence turned in hush and the hush was converted into a flurry of new ideas. Suddenly there were too many activities. One of the persons reported that Tomy, in the vicinity of Thookupalam also practiced the same technique. In response to the Biju Verghese’s innovation of disabled friendly driving system in Kumili, Mr Ajith gave information about Mr Niny, who had also designed a disabled-friendly driving system on the lines of Biju. Mr Ninny was immediately contacted and a vehicle was sent to request him to come to the meeting. His father, Mr Gopi came to the spot with the car and was felicitated. His physically challanged son who designed the system worked as a PCO operator and was busy. Hence he could not come. Mr Sibi Thomas reported about the cardamom drier designed by Daniel, which could dry upto 5000 kg against the 500 kg, which was the strength of the currently available driers in the region.
Mr Hari Kumar mentioned the innovative windmill of Mr Prabhakaran. Mr P J Mathew reported about the machine designed by George Prakasgram that could separate green and white pepper. Mr Uttaman reported about the innovative vanilla processing unit of Mr Rajasekhar Nayar. Apart from the innovators, all the people who had given information about the innovators were also felicitated on the spot. All these moments of break in presentation, wait for discoveries to be made (holding our breath, for we could have easily failed to elicit any new idea at that moment), pressure to hurry and rush but our insistence to learn from people standing there made everyone feel the ultimate pulse of creativity. If a proof was needed to show that Kerala was a creative society, it was there.
The message was clear from the meeting: you give challenges to people and they will tell you that either it is already solved or will be solved. This is what Shodhyatra aims at: Reviving a sense of self confidence among the grassroots innovators about their knowledge and making their neighbourhood appreciate the value of such knowledge. Sixteenth Shodhyatra confirmed our belief in the process of deriving solutions through collective brain storming and it should be further formalized by strengthening local level lateral forums like ‘Shodh Sankal’ and ‘Shodh Panchayats’ as tried in Gujarat.
Innovations par Excellence
So far as unearthing the grassroots innovations and traditional knowledge during the shodhyatra was concerned, sixteenth
Shodhyatra was no exception. As many as seventy two innovators and traditional knowledge holders were felicitated during the course of the yatra. In Mannakudy, we felicitated Biju Verghese for designing a disabled friendly driving system, where all the essential functions of a car like using brakes, gears etc., that need foot support can be performed by hand. During the felicitation ceremony at Mannakudy, Biju was seated outside the community hall in his car and the Shodhyatris reached out to honour him. In Thookupalam a similar driving system was found. It was also designed by another physically challanged person called Ninny. In Kumili, Ms Valsamma Thomas was felicitated for her unique anti-dandruff oil. In fact, the effectiveness of the innovation can be gauged from the fact that the oil is going to be commercialized by a Chennai based company very soon.
‘Cardamom Wonder': a high yielding indigenous variety of cardamom innovated by Elecy and Sabu Verghese attracted a lot of attention of shodhyatris. The variety was initially spotted by Elecy, the wife of Sabu Verghese and later on it was improved by Sabu. Feature-wise and production-wise, the variety was considered as superior. His innovation has also been accepted by National Innovation Foundation for the next round of competition. Sabu has already distributed 20, 000 clums to the farmers in Kerala and Karnataka.
While felicitating the herbal healers (Mr Damodaran, Mr Pooneseriyil and Mr Anthony Mathews) at Nettithozu, it was realized that Ayurveda is not simply a system of codified medicine but a living tradition in the villages of Kerala. One of the herbal healers, Mr Anthony Mathews said that the secret of longevity lies in taking proper diet and he suggested that an ideal diet must have 80% alkaline and 20% acid. Another interesting innovation was that of ‘dehusking machine' devised by Mr George Mathew. The machine separates husks from rice using an electric table fan. The innovation of Benny Thomas in plant variety section was equally interesting. He had developed a high yielding variety of pepper by cross breeding two varities of pepper.
We came across many small and large useful innovations during the shodhyatra in Kerela. Most of the technologies were low-cost, efficient and environmental-friendly.
Competitions for awareness on biodiversity
Like all the previous Shodhyatras, bio-diversity and recipe competition were organised among children and women respectively to spread the awareness of conservation, diversity and ecological ethics. More serious and threatening than the erosion of the natural resources is the ‘erosion of the knowledge’ because it is the knowledge that provides institutional framework for the management of natural resources. Biodiversity and recipe competitions aim at stemming the knowledge erosion by acting as ‘knowledge dams’.
During the Shodhyatra, bio-diversity contests were organized in three villages, whereas recipe contests were organized in two villages. In total there were ninety six participants in three bio-diversity competitions. The student participants knew names and uses of 2355 plant samples (many in duplicate). Geethu Gopalkrishnan, a student of class IX, who stood first in the competition held at Anakkara, was outstanding in her effort. She knew the plant names of around 65 plants and had brought with her all the samples. What was astonishing about her was that she could name any plant with detailed usage information without looking at her texts . She also told what kind of precaution one should take while taking the plants as medicine. The show stealers in the Cumbumeetu competition were a group of nine students, who collectively knew uses of 170 plants brought by them - highest number by any participant(s) during this Shodhyatra. The children demonstrated the ethics of collaborative learning that has been missing from our educational system for a long time.
Recipe contests were held in two villages viz. Anakkara and Cumbummetu. In total, there were 26 participants with 30 recipes. Several local recipes made from less cultivated crops or crops with medicinal values like ‘nelika karbichar’, ‘puwakachar’, ‘sukien’ were on display. The significant part of the contest was that many of the recipes were ready to be launched in the market with some amount of value addition. NIF, in association with the local SHG groups would take up this activity soon.
Learning in the laboratory of life
Learning in most of our lives has been quite fait accompli, structured and regulated. The educational environment around a child hardly encourages him to be creative and think out of the box. Shodhyatra deconstructs the whole process of learning and encourages the participants to learn from the ‘laboratory of life’ (as suggested by Dr R A Mashelkar, chairperson, NIF). Shodhyatra provides both horizontal (peer learning) as well as vertical (from elders) learning space for the yatris.
On the way to Puliyanmala, the Yatris stopped to interact with a farmer, who manually pollinated vanilla (Vanilla planifolia). Originally, a crop of central Mexico, the crop is self-fertile but incapable of self-pollination (a membrane separates the male or anther and the female or stigma of the vanilla flower). The method involves using a needle, to fold back the membrane separating the anther and the stigma, and then pressing the anther on the stigma for pollination.
As the Yatris, walked along, they stopped at the house of a Vaidya (Traditional Healer), Mr Chakochen, who uses aroma therapy. His house was like a grassroots botanical garden. He showed the Yatris a variety of plants whose leaves emanate aroma of several spices. The spectacle of a blacksmith giving temper to the sickle was both rapturous and painful. It was rapturous because of the sheer amount of concentration that the blacksmith was devoting and it was painful because everybody knew despite a day of uninterrupted dedication, he will earn nothing but a paltry sum. Most probably, the blacksmith himself knew that all his efforts will only fetch him a day’s subsistence but he reminded the yatris that perfection is not determined by award, appreciation or approval. Zest for perfection is a way of life that depicts the constant striving to reach pinnacle despite low gains. But if not award, appreciation and approval, then what makes people pursue perfection? There was no answer with the yatris. The question still lingers.
On the way to Kozhitholu, the yatris met Mr Thomas Myladyil and his wife Thresiamma who developed an organic bio pesticide from arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea). Traditionally arrowroot is grown in coconut farms for avoiding the pests and termites. The tuber of the arrowroot is ground several times with water. The water collected after the grinding is diluted and sprayed as pesticide. It is widely believed that the tuber contains cyanide and the decanted water contains the toxics which help in controlling pests. It was indeed ironical that a few kilometers from his house, farmers had been committing suicide consuming the pesticide and an environmental friendly and effective bio-pesticide had remained unknown.
Some Random Reflections
Every morning of Shodhyatra began with all-religion prayer and concluded with some kind of reflection on daily learning, community experience, future challenges, etc. During the shodhyatra, the reflective night meetings evoked spirited participation from Shodhyatris on such issues as traditional methods of conflict resolution, traditional methods of education, and complaints of young generation over the older generation etc. Yatris had their own light moments: a bitter defeat in tug-of-war from the local youth, a trek to the hills of Ramkelmeetu, an educational approach to New Year celebration etc. ‘Before attending shodhyatra, I thought what I knew about farming, veterinary diseases was enough. But now I realize, the vastness of the things that I am yet to learn’ expressed Vajubhai Bala, young farmer from Saurastra, Gujarat. Shodhyatra created a kind of dilemma in the minds of many. Sense of satisfaction over getting to learn something that previously they did not know was contrasted with the feeling of restlessness over the thought that there is so much to be done for furthering the cause of grassroots creativity.
The Shodhyatra, as confessed by several Shodhyatris, taught several lessons: from the importance of outstanding standards of cleanliness observed in Kerala villages to the knowledge about the importance of organic farming, ayurvedic perspective on sustainable health and victory of will power over odd circumstances as exemplified by Biju Verghese and Ninny. The learning basket of the Shodhyatris is still half empty; for learning is not only iterative but life long.
(For detail report on sixteenth Shodhyatra, log on to our website www.sristi.org). |
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| Volume No. |
Honey Bee, 17(1) & (2): 9-13 & 30, 2006 |
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