Magic of millets

The marginalised women of Medak district have shown the way to other farmers, scientists and policy makers to regenerate sustainable and citizen controlled food systems
Akash Bisht Medak (Andhra Pradesh)

Balamma, a 60-year-old dalit woman from Edavulapalli village in Medak district of Andhra Pradesh, is savouring her new-found freedom. Not too long ago she was a bonded labour who led a difficult life living on the margins of the village. Now she is a self-sufficient farmer. How did this transformation take place in a span of a few years?

Balamma's narrative is quite stirring. "My husband was a bonded labour. We owned a small piece of fallow land on the fringes of the village. We are dalits so we were given infertile land by landlords under  the Land Ceiling Act. We could grow nothing on it as the top soil was rocky and we did not have the resources - bullocks, seeds, fertilisers - for farming."

Few years later, Balamma with some other dalit women from her village decided to lease a small piece of fallow land collectively with the help of a non-profit organisation, Deccan Development Society (DDS). On it, they grew multiple crops, primarily millets and pulses. That changed their lives. It has been more than 15 years now. Balamma owns cattle and her grandchildren go to school. "My children never had a chance to go to school because they had to start working at an early age to sustain the family," she says.

Many other dalit women like Balamma adopted similar cropping patterns in the wake of severe natural calamities like drought and floods. They, too, have been phenomenally successful in ensuring food security not only for themselves, but for the entire village. More than 5,000 dalit women, with the help of DDS, have formed sanghams (village-level communities) in 70 villages where they sit together and discuss issues pertaining to agriculture among other things. They have also devised an alternative public distribution system and set up seed banks in different villages of Medak district.

Collective farming by small groups of dalit women helped them conquer poverty. They leased fallow land for which DDS paid them 75 per cent of the total amount. Then they set about improving the soil quality using animal manure and local water harvesting techniques.
The women decided to grow multiple traditional crops - millets and pulses - instead of a single crop. If the harvest of a single crop failed due to natural conditions, pest attacks et al, they would have lost it all. However, with multiple crops the women had the advantage of saving at least 40 per cent of the harvest in extreme conditions and these crops are naturally resistant to pests as well.

Once the harvest was ready, these women, in a wealth ranking exercise, gave different coloured cards to each family depending on their economic status. That determined what portion of the produce each family would get. Also, they sold their produce at a rupee less than the market price. They paid back the DDS with a sack full of jowar for each acre. The surplus crop was sold off and the money it fetched was invested in a fixed deposit for five years. This money was taken out only to bring more fallow land under cultivation. After long struggle, they also got the work of bringing fallow land under cultivation in the NREGS, too.