,
Dear Friends/Family
GREETINGS FOR THE NEW YEAR 2009
Please accept my sincere gratitude, for many of you have sent us X-mass cards even without receiving any from us. Because of my charity activity in India every year around this time, I have purposely pushed my greetings to the January of next year. However, this void is normally filled by Niru to the extent she can handle it alone. This year, however, she was also out of the country and could not send a card to any of you. On a personal note, I was blessed to have my wife, daughter, son-in-law and son visit me in Orissa, though only for a couple of days. Since our children became adults, this was the first time in decades we were able to be at the same place at one time as a family. I could not have wished a better X-mass and New Year gift.
As usual, this is my annual invitation to each of you to be a partner in the progress of Orissa through your generous donation to IAFF. It is my hope that you will continue to be charitable towards those who can use your support to climb the economic ladder, even though ever so slowly, and often, invisibly. If you have not participated in the past, I hope that you will use this opportunity to participate this year. Please note that all donations should be payable to IAFF. Those of you who wish to donate in Indian Rupees need to send the envelope to the India address above and those who wish to donate in dollars should send the envelope to the US address above. All donations in US dollars are fully tax deductible. Rupee donations are not tax-deductible because IAFF is an USA-registered organization. Although ODT (Orissa Development Trust) was registered in 2007 as a non-profit trust, procedure needed to make it tax-exempt has not been completed yet. I am hoping some of the initial steps will be completed this year and the remainder steps will be completed in succeeding years. After that, donations in rupees will also be tax exempt.
Before, I proceed further, I wish to present before you the imperatives of my technology transfer work through “soil-less agriculture. In an April 2008 article in the Time magazine, Mr. Ban, the Sec.General of UNO has stated: “Hunger in Africa will be solved party by helping the farmers get the improved seeds, water pumps, and soil nutrients they need for a good harvest. It also requires the traditional UN developmental efforts” With these perceptions at the highest level of World’s government, hunger can never be removed from the globe. We need to recognize that none of the above mentioned by the Secretary General is actually needed to remove world hunger. We further need to recognize that “hunger” and “affluence” are two ends of the same stick (agriculture). While both can be tackled through agriculture, the approach must be completely different. This brings us to my work on “soil-less agriculture”, which is actually an off-shoot of my previous research on “space agriculture” and “CELSS (Controlled Environment Life Support System)”. As long as we depend on traditional soil-based agriculture, hunger will be an unavoidable consequence. Therefore I am offering the annual on-farm workshop on “Eradicating poverty/hunger and attaining prosperity through Integrated Firming System, Soil-less Agriculture, Controlled Environment Agriculture, and Eco-farming”. Although the trainees pay Rs.1000 each for this workshop, this does not cover even the expenses of the workshop, much less the infrastructure needed to offer the workshop. The cost involved for materials and manpower to set op more than 50 demonstrations for the trainees could not be accomplished through my retirement pension alone. I spend my own money to go to India, to travel the mountains and valleys of rural Orissa and supply my own food and lodging where needed, not to speak of hundreds of dollars for coordination from the USA through telephone. I can not over emphasize the role your support to IAFF is playing in this Endeavour. Individually and collectively you all are making the difference between not doing any thing or doing something that brings hope and faith for the hapless. You have countered the often said words “Oriyas are individually rich but collectively poor”.
The brief accounts below and other aspects of IAFF operations, including financial statements, will be expanded in the FORUM, the official publication of IAFF.
1. POST ARRIVAL ACTIVITIES (Oct. 13-21): This period included my travel, immediately after my arrival in Orissa, to my village in Dhenkanal District where I had to start various demonstration models to be used in the on-farm workshop offered in late November.
2. IAFF-TWS (TRIVAL WELFARE SOCIETY) COLLABORATIONS (Oct. 23-Nov. 1): Before I start describing various activities, I wish to say that until now I was feeling constrained because although IAFF stands for Indo-American Friendship Foundation, my activities were limited to Orissa only. However a strange circumstance allowed me to expand IAFF activities to states outside Orissa for the first time. Because the strange circumstance evolved over a period of several months, it will be too long to give the details. In short, Mr. Pravin Patel of TWS (Tribal Welfare Society), after reading my many postings in various internet discussion groups, wrote to me a personal e-mail saying “what you are saying is new to us and are not believable. But if they are true, I believe your approach should help the Tribal Communities we serve because a) Tribal people have no money to invest and you claim that Agriculture is the only undertaking that can be started with zero investment, b) The land they possess are marginal at best and you claim fertile land is not necessary for sustainable agriculture, and c) You can provide interest-free loans. Will you be able to help our Tribal people?” Although I put these within quotations to separate them from other texts, these are actually paraphrased by me. I responded by saying “All technologies have advantages and limitations. I only know the advantages of my technology because they have not been applied in wider or larger scale to expose their limitations. If you are willing to take this risk, I will be happy to try to help the Tribal people because I also feel they would be the primary beneficiaries of my technology. Mr. Patel then asked me how much time I can give, to which I responded that I will give as much time as necessary it will help the tribal people. Then he requested about 15 days initially. My 2008 work in Jharkhand and 36-Garh states thus started against the above backdrop. This experience alone would have fulfilled my 2008 tour objectives even if I could not have any thing else.
I. SUNDARGARH DISTRICT/ORISSA: (Oct. 23-25): Before we set out on field trips, we first met on Oct. 23 at the Pantha Nivas of Rourkela for introduction and brainstorming on various problems. At this session, my first challenge was to underline the crucial role of wholesalers (popularly known as middlemen by the locals) in any agriculture related undertaking because the growers often do not have the logistics to send their produce to the market and the retailers also can not afford the time to close their store and arrange logistics to bring the produce from the farm to the store(s). Such an emphasis was necessary because not only the tribal people but also their leaders had a misconception that the wholesaler’s role is exploitation of the growers. I will address this more clearly later. I also had the opportunity to present my views on the role of industry and mitigation of industrial pollutions. Although the session was scheduled for couple of hours (3-5pm) it continued well beyond 8pm because of vigorous participation and interest of the tribal leaders present. This gave us a good head start in defining a common purpose and methods to accomplish this in the days to follow. When we did not go out on field trips, the tribal leaders and hurdled together and analyzed the problems, possible solutions and ways to solve them through long range and short term approaches.
a. Kalushiria: Tribal leaders showed me piles of charcoal (Fig. 1) and Fly ash (Fig.2) pollution coming out of the numerous sponge iron (Fig. 3) plants in the area. When I addressed the locals (Fig. 4) I brought to their attention that what they consider pollution are actually important assets because “Charcoal in Agriculture” is among the hottest field of Agronomic research. In fact many universities are appointing new faculty and staff to study “biochar”. This interest has arisen from grand success in converting the deforested Amazon basin to fertile agricultural land in Brazil. They soon recognized that if they adopt soil-less agriculture touted by me, all types of “so called” industrial wastes can be used as an alternative medium for plant production. This will not only preserve the valuable land resource but will also at the same time help waste disposal.
b. Salangabahal: Here I talked to tribes from 8 surrounding villages who feel that they are being deprived of their property and prosperity in the name of development (Fig. 5). I was pleased to see their faces brightened up when I pointed out them that their peace and happiness is actually in their hands because they can bring their prosperity back through soil-less agriculture.
c. Bihabal. In the morning we went to the Gangpur College of Social Work, where students offered me a grand welcome with flowers and tribal songs (Fig. 6). I presented a seminar on “Challenges for Social Worker in Rural Orissa”. The main theme of the talk was to implore the students of the college that if they do not keep themselves refreshed about modern and changing technologies, they can not help adequately development of rural Orissa. On behalf of IAFF, I pledged Rs.5000 library grant when the college moves to its new campus under construction. After finishing lunch at the college, we proceeded to a meeting with villages from 32-mauza which is chronically affected by flood resulting from the Mandira dam in the Sankha river. Several hundred people were waiting under sweltering heat to greet our party. My talk there emphasized the same theme presented earlier: people must take control of their own future without depending on government dole outs, and if they choose to walk on this path, IAFF will be with them every step of the way. People in the audience were so overwhelmed with joy that Mr. Joseph, the local leader, composed a song just for me and sang it himself (Fig. 7). Many a locals could not retrain their joy and danced spontaneously. From there, several villagers and I walked about a kilometer to examine the effect of “sand casting” by flood. The locals were even more enchanted by my remark “like charcoal and fly ash, this sand is also God’s gift. I have already spent more than Rs. 5000 to buy sand to grow plants whereas you all are getting the sand free”.
II. SIMDEGA DISTRICT/JHAKHAND (Oct. 25): We devoted the whole day at the Malchara Village in the Bolwa Block of the Simdega District. Because these people live in inaccessible community we had to leave our vehicle and walk nearly a kilometer to reach the village. These people (Fig. 8) are not only industrious, but are also eager to adopt whatever new ideas and technologies are given to them. For example, they built a wood check-dam to collect water to irrigate their crops (Fig.9). They are so determined to improve their sustainability that they try to grow rice wherever they can, even a few sq.ft. Area (Fig. 10). Among all the tribal villages I visited, this was the only place where I found people taking diverse approach such as growing vegetables in addition to rice instead of only rice (Fig. 11, 12). It was, however, obvious that they have a long way to go to get results worth their efforts. Towards that objective I visited several farmers’ fields and gave a demonstration of wrong they are doing showed them the improved method of transplanting and sowing seeds. The farmers and TWS leaders were amused when by looking at the plants I predicted what was wrong in the poor plants and what was right in the healthy plants. This convinced them that they can indeed increase their yield (and hence income) by introducing only slight improvements in the methods they are following.
III. BILASPUR DISTRICT/CHHATTISGARH (Oct. 30):
a. Deharipara: I was told that the inhabitants of this village are among the most primitive tribes still adhering to their original life style. Naturally, therefore, not much could be communicated with these people, except one person named Mohan, who showed considerable interest and offered to build, with IAFF funding, a demonstration plot at his site. However, of particular interest was another nomadic tribe from Gujarat which travels wherever it can with its camels and ships (Fig. 13, 14).
b. Kotmi: After meeting with the villagers at Deharipara, we headed to Kotmi. We had to not only driven on as bad a road as one can imagine, but also had to cross several “Ghats” in the high mountains. Because this arduous journey put us behind nearly 2 hours, our meeting with the villagers had to be very brief. However we managed to make sufficient time to examine the potential of building an “Agricultural Technology Park” in a 3-acre plot donated to TWS by the villagers. Land demarcation is expected to be completed before my 2009 tour to the same area. The work will begin on soil-less agriculture. It is also envisioned that eventually a purchasing, processing and marketing center will be located inside the park.
IV. RAIPUR DISTRICT (Oct. 31-Nov. 1):
a. Rawaan: Although our plan was to leave Bilaspur as early as we can, which we did, we got held up inside the Bilaspur city because that was the last day of candidate registration for the upcoming election. Hundreds of cars loaded with supporters of one party or another took over the highway for more than two hours. If I had not seen it myself, it would be impossible for me to imagine that Indian election scenario has undergone such a sad transformation, where the power of number has overtaken the power of persuasion. More pathetically, I was told that the vast majority of the people loaded in unending rows of vehicles are not true party members but are paid to “show support”
Any way, finally we reached the village of Rawaan, near where several large cement factories are located, the largest of them belonging to the Ambuja Cement Company, itself the largest cement company of India. When I began to talk to the assembled villagers, there was instant protest from a group of villagers because the speaker (i.e. me) can not speak or understand Hindi. This lead to physical confrontation between two groups of people, as a result of which I had to wait nearly half hour before I could speak. This was possible (Fig. 15-16) because those who wanted to hear me physically removed the trouble makers.
Later I was told that the village is still divided among supporters and opponents of the Ambuja Cement factory because building the nearby factory had caused a lot of people lose their land and livelihood. To pacify the villagers’ emotions the Ambuja Cement Company has founded the Ambuja Foundation, which in turn runs a 13-acre farm-demonstration center for the benefit of the local farmers. I was, however, pleasantly surprised to find that the villagers are not only well versed in modern agriculture, but many of them also understood the intricacies involved in fertilizer application and plant nutrition. I also met several young people in the mid 20s who are very enthusiastic about modern farming and probably would have liked to spend much more time with us if we could afford. Several people accompanied me to the Ambuja Foundation Demonstration Plot and asked me to critique the foundation’s approach. Because by that time I had already sensed the political sensitivity of the whole situation, I only offered measured responses by not pointing out the mistakes and by emphasizing how a better approach could have been taken. One of the local farmer insisted that we visit his house, which we did, and then he offered that he will build a demonstration plot of soil-less agriculture at his own cost with technical advice from IAFF and TWS. Then we proceeded to Raipur from where I had to catch the train to return to Bhubaneswar.
b. Raipur: It was dark when we reached Raipur and checked into a hotel on Oct. 31. After having a comfortable sleep we got up leisurely and started a strategic planning for technology transfer in the Tribal belt of Orissa, Jharkhand and 36-Garh. Based on this discussion we decided the following actions for the 2008-2009 year, i.e. until my 2009 visit to India. 1) Eight people from TWS will take the 2008 on-farm workshop offered by IAFF. 2) One soil-less production unit will be built at IAFF cost by TWS at Mangu’s location in Kalushiria. 3) One soil-less production unit will be built at IAFF cost by TWS at a farmer’s field at Salangbahal. 4) One soil-less production unit will be built at IAFF cost by TWS at the Women’s hostel of Gangpur College of Social Work at Bihabal. 5) One soil-less production unit will be built at IAFF cost by TWS at the location of Kalo Khalko in Bolwa. 6) One soil-less production unit will be built at IAFF cost by TWS at the location of Mohan in Deharipara. 7) One soil-less production unit will be built at the farmer’s cost by the farmer with technical assistance from TWS and IAFF. 8) An agriculture technology park will be built at Kotmi of Bilaspur District. The cost will be borne primarily by TWS with partial funding from IAFF and technological assistance by IAFF.
At the conclusion of the planning session both I and Mr. Patel of TWS agreed that all the collaborations between IAFF and TWS will be guided through a MOU, which I will initiate after my return to USA. Finally, I took a train in the PM of Nov. 1 and arrived back in Bhubaneswar on Nov. 2 to start meetings with selected NGOs and individuals invited earlier at the IAFF office in Bhubaneswar.
V. LATE DEVELOPMENTS: After my return back to the USA I received an e-mail that the Vice Chancellor of the Pundit Sunderlal Sharma Open University at Bilaspur is also interested to open an Agriculture Technology Transfer Center through collaboration with TWS and IAFF. Communications are in progress in this regard.
3. NGO MEETINGS AT BHUBANESWAR (Nov. 2-6): Every year, I meet with NGOs and selected individuals with whom collaboration is in progress or there is potential for collaboration. These meetings are usually arranged through e-mail contacts long before I leave USA for Orissa. This is normally done right after I set up experiments at the IAFF Agriculture Center in my village. In 2008, however, this was done after my return from the tribal area because of the imperatives of the objectives related to tribal development. I usually give 2-hour slots for each meeting. This way I am able to meet with about four persons/groups in a given day. Accordingly, I met a total of 24 people/groups. These meetings were used as the basis of my subsequent tours and activities in Orissa during my stay there. These are elaborated further in the following.
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4. IAFF-NYSASDRY COLLABORATION (Nov. 7-13, 23-27):
I. ALL ORISSA NGO VETION (Oct. 7-9): Ever since 2000, when I started working on the development of rural Orissa with NGOs as the main partners I have been trying, without success, to unify the NGO infrastructure under one umbrella to not only enhance their capabilities but also to introduce certain degree of self-policing and to fight against unilateral government actions against the NGOs. The all Orissa NGO convention was devised as a tool to accomplish this goal. After two such conventions, the NGOs gathered in the third convention in 2008 (Fig. 17) finally came together and formed the All Orissa NGO Association (to be known through the acronym AONA). None of these would have been possible if it were not for the organization skill of Sarang Samal, Director of NYSASDRI, IAFF’s host partner for the 2008 convention. At this writing, the charter members of AONA are working on the constitution and by laws through which AONA will be registered under the 1860 society registration act. Among the many highlights during the convention the most note-worthy is the talk by Justice Sarat C. Mohapatra (Fig. 18) on “The Role of NGOs in Maintaining Peace and Harmony in Rural Orissa”. This was done against the following back drop: a) Kandhamal District had recently experienced horrendous communal violence between Hindu’s and Christians; b) Following visible social discomfort on the issue, the Government appointed Justice Mohapatra as the one-man commission to investigate the circumstances and events that resulted in the violence; and c) Almost concomitant to Justice Mohapatra’s appointment, the Government announced that it is going to increasingly depend of the NGO infrastructure of Orissa in bringing and maintaining peace and harmony in the Rural Orissa.
II. AGRICULTURE TECHNOLOGY PARK AT KASHIPUR, DHENKANAL (Nov. 10-13, 23-27): First, I need to give the background before I describe the events. Sarang Samal (Fig. 18, Right), Director of NYSASDRI, a Dhenkanal NGO, had visited USA in the April of 2008 and spent several days with me. This had given me an opportunity to take him to my agriculture research farm at Warrenton, NC to show soil-less agricultural technologies under development. During that visit, and often thereafter, he would ask me proddingly: “Dr. Mohapatra, you claim you have trained more than 100 people in your technologies, but why then your technologies are not spreading all over Orissa?” My standard answer to any one who asks this question has been: “Transfer of technology and spread of technology are two different issues and must be handled separately. My hope is that because I train the NGOs and they spend a lot of money to get the training, they would see it fit to spread the technology in their areas of operation. IAFF is not a government, whose job is to take technology to people. I am transferring the technology to Orissa because such technologies are not available there. If people wish to take advantage of my technologies they must find appropriate mechanisms to spread this technology”. In response to my answer, Sarang suggested that if I work with NYSASDRI my dreams can become reality. This is how IAFF-NYSASDRI partnership got a solid footing. As I have stated above, NYSASDRI’s role was critical in forming the ALL ORISSA NGO ASSOCIATION. My work at Kashipur was a natural extension of that. Kashipur is a beautiful location where NYSASDRI has more than 10 acres of training center for the surrounding communities. We decided that we will also convert this place to an agriculture technology park. The first soil-less production system was set up there during my two stays at Kashipur (Fig. 19). The topic is too long to give in details here. In short: 1) Although Kashipur has no electricity I and William (Fig. 20) used the LED head lights (Fig. 21) supplied by IAFF to NYSASDRI used not only to work, but also to conduct our dinner and other activities at night. 2) The first soil-less production system was so successful that it has already attracted several hundred visitors including some foreign visitors. 3) The soil-less production consisted of several technologies: plasticulture, siliculture, hydroponics, drip irrigation, plastic and glass waste as a part of plant growth medium, gravity-fed auto flow, and controlled environment agriculture.
With respect to the LED head lights, I wish to draw your attention to my 2007 report that IAFF is attempting to replace dangerous open kerosene lamps (Dibiris) with LED light in rural Orissa. Several years trial has shown that the LED head light is the most efficient and cost effective system to date to serve this objective. It not only leaves both hands free, but because it is powered by 3A batteries, the rechargeable batteries can be used for this purpose, and these batteries, in turn, can be charged with solar power, thus making the operating cost negligible. The NGOs can use these LED head lights in their income generation scheme by renting the lights to locals at the cost of kerosene. Because of this potential NYSASDRI has purchased 15 LED lights at a cost of Rs.16,000.
5. ON-FARM WORKSHOP ON “ALLEVATING PROVERTY AND ATTAINING PROSPERITY THROUGH INTEGRATED FARMING SYSTEM, CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT AGRICULTURE, SOIL-LESS AGRICULTURE, AND ECO-FARMING” (Nov. 14-16, 21-23, 28-30): This is the seventh year of the workshop, and like previous years, three workshops were held in three successive weekends. Each trainee (Fig. 22-23) pays Rs.1000 and is required to report to the training on Friday afternoon and leave on Sunday afternoon. The training consists of two lecture sessions, one demonstration session, and a hands-on-experience session, four hours each. The training is offered through a “money back guarantee” such that if a trainee does not get back the money he/she spent on the training through the application of the technologies he/she was trained within one year from the training, he/she will get a full refund of the money. I normally take no more than five persons in each workshop; thus a total of 15 persons are trained each year. Although more than 100 persons have been trained in the last seven years, not one person has yet requested a refund. As shown above, the soil-less production system at Kashipur, Dhenkanal is a result of NYSASDRI’S staff being trained at the 5th work shop in 2006.
6. IAFF-AICF COLLABORATION (THE NIVEDITA ASHRAM ORPHANAGE AT PATALIPANK, KENDRAPARA DISTRICT)(Nov. 17-20, Dec. 10-13): Although this collaboration was initiated to attain agricultural sustainability, initial success has resulted in major management inputs from IAFF. This became necessary because it was found that management philosophy and procedures at the orphanage have become direct determinants of agricultural success. Consequently, major changes in management procedures are in progress before major agricultural activities can be undertaken. The philosophy of “dependence almost solely on govt. and private donations”, despite the presence of strong agricultural infrastructure and the potential for complete agricultural sustainability, is linked to underutilization of existing personnel and infrastructure. This, in turn existing, is a direct result of constant pressure on the management from the surrounding community, and the state and central government for services and accountability. Thus, the management has little or no time to pass on important instructions to the staff, much less staff supervision for during plan execution. However, a recent change in management and staff accountability protocol is producing excellent results, at least until now. Thus the Orphanage is well under way to start two poultry farms at two different locations and also to convert a sizable portion of the campus land to chili pepper production. In addition, a roof top soil-less production bed (Fig. 24) has also been installed to mitigate flood situations; all these in a period of only two weeks. It is hoped that more progress will be made through the directions/instructions left with the staff before my 2009 Orissa Tour.
7. IAFF-JITM COLLABORATION (Dec. 1-5): During the 2006 OSA convention near Detroit, MI, Dr. Shradhananda Mishra of Canada had given a proposal to IAFF to start an Agricultural Vertical Integration (i.e., production, processing, packaging, storage and marketing) project at a suitable place in Orissa and had further indicated that he would extend substantial financial support for this project. A thorough personal survey by me of Orissa various Agro-climate zones showed that the forested mountains of undivided KBK area hold maximum potential for this purpose because this area has places where the temperature rarely exceeds 45 C or drops below 4 C. These temperatures not only offer optimal growth potential of various crop species but also, at the same time, provided the vernalization requirement (popularly known as “cold slaps”) of species like oranges, apples, strawberries, and many other winter/temperate crops. It was further found that JITM (Jagannath Institute of Technology and Management) is also located at Paralakehmundi at the fringe of the said zone. Because I am in the advisory board of JITM, it was easier for me to develop a program where JITM can also play many crucial and critical roles in the area of “reverse engineering”, “process engineering”, “machine design”, “biotechnology” and, above all, “management technology” etc. Further, because, JITM’S “weekly kitchen budget” easily exceeds Rs.100,000, there is also an excellent potential for marketing research and quality control.
Because JITM’S management and administration were excited about not only the economic potential but also the academic and technology transfer potential of the above project, they offered, at no cost, as much land as would be required for this purpose. After crossing the major hurdle of land requirement, the proposal was sent to Dr. Mishra for his inputs and funding for hiring a mid-level employee who would execute the project at JITM on daily basis through my inputs. Although approval by and funding from Dr. Mishra has not yet been received, I went ahead with the kind cooperation of Dr. Mukti Mishra, the Chairman of JITM and Dr. Gopinath, the Principal of JITM, to start the project with resources available with IAFF. In this regard the facilitation role of Mr. Ramakrishna Raju Mr. Jogesh can not be over emphasized. This step was necessary because of the over all importance of the project not only for IAFF and JITM, but also for the whole state of Orissa, and more particularly for the Tribal Economy of Orissa. It is hoped that some of you will be philanthropic enough to offer further support for this project. Your support financial support is particularly important because IAFF has embarked upon the mission to show the citizens of Orissa that much “DEVELOPMENT CAN BE ACHIEVED WIHOUT GOVERNMENT” through private initiatives.
While at JITM, I also presented a talk to the faculty and some local farmers on “my dreams of JITM”. Although the talk was scheduled for only one hour, questions and discussions were so interesting and vigorous that it not only continued for nearly an extra hour, but they also spilled over to the street during parting. I wish to share one discussion that was not only very striking for me but addressed one of the cores of my basic approach in the economic vitalization of rural Orissa. One Mr. Raju, a highly respected and influential local farmer raised many issues that questioned the basis of my philosophy and approach. As an example, to rebut my theory of the importance of wholesalers in the economic cycle, he said “One year I had exported mangoes worth several hundred millions to Singapore through a middle man (whom I call wholesaler), but he was so manipulative and greedy that he did not buy my mangoes on the pretext that quality of my mango was poor”. I responded “Sir, by saying this you are actually confirming my theory and I will show you how”. Then I lead him through the following steps of discussion: a) As you say, that man is still buying mango and exporting to Singapore, but he is not buying your mango. b) This speaks more about you than him. c) He is in a mango business to make a decent profit and a dignified income. c) he is still doing that, but he decided not to do business with you because you did not meet his expectations. d) Because instead coming to you he is going to other growers, you need to look closely at your self and your operations. e) This is exactly what is happening to the growers of Orissa. Wholesalers are going to Andhra Pradesh to buy commodities at great cost while they would love to do the same thing in Orissa with better margin of profit. f) Because of the hatred and suspicion towards wholesalers/middlemen created by the NGOs in the minds of Orissa’s growers, the wholesalers prefer to go to Andhra Pradesh farmers instead of coming to Orissa farmers. We need to change this scenario, and I intend to show to the farmers of Orissa how this can be done very easily.
8. OTHER COLLABORATIONS:
I. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION (HDF)( Nov. 6): Two of my good friends, Dr. Dhanada Mishra and Mr. Sudarsan Das of Agamiorissa, are not only the originators of this foundation but also have founded a management college under this foundation in the outskirts of both Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. Both Dhanada and Sudrashan were kind enough to spare four hours of their valuable time to give me a tour of the college. They were also kind enough to invite me to address the students and the faculty/staff. During the latter we had a discussion on how HDF and IAFF can collaborate. Because of the importance agricultural sustainability for both organizations, it was decided that collaboration will be initiated in the area of agriculture first. HDF will send a staff to be trained at IAFF’s 2009 on-farm workshop and I will visit an agricultural farm under development near Baripada, Mayurbhanj district, to explore possibilities of technology transfer in the area of soil-less agriculture and “hunger/poverty eradication”. I am excited about and looking forward to participate in converting these possibilities to realities.
II. PREM (Dec. 4): This is a major NGO of Orissa with headquarters at Berhampur, Ganjam District, and programs in different parts of Orissa. PREM had sent one of its staff and had sponsored four other NGOs to the second training session (unfortunately pictures got lost) of the 2008 on-farm workshop described earlier. It turned out to be that one of the campuses of PREM is located adjacent to the campus of JITM in Parlakhemundi. Mr. Saheb of PREM was kind enough to give me transport to the PREM campus, followed by an exhaustive tour and discussion session on the implementation of “soil-less agriculture” agriculture. We surveyed and identified a patch of land which will be used for this purpose. Serendipitously, and with great creativity, one of the PRIM staff asked “if your technology is as simple as you claim, why we can’t start right now in the cemented drain which has a natural slope for drainage of water?” I was imply overwhelmed with the creativity of this creativity and was speechless at the same time. So we agreed that the project will be started immediately. I am waiting for some photos. While there, I was also pleased to see the “rain water-harvesting” technology installed at the PREM campus and shared with them some new soil-based production technology for chili pepper.
III. UDYAMA (Dec. 21): This is a nodal NGO which has partnership with numerous other NGOs of Orissa. It has a very strong educational program for all its NGO partners. Pradeep Mohapatra and I have regular e-mail correspondence on various matters, among which environmental issues pertaining to global warming occupies a major place. Pradeep is not only a very creative person in providing leadership to UDYAMA, but also hard working.
UDYAMA had sent one of its staffs to IAFF’s 2008 on-farm workshop. My follow-up trip to UDYAMA’S office in Bhubaneswar was to explore the potential of implementing the roof-top soil-less production technology at UDYAMA’S office. An excellent location was selected for this purpose. I am waiting for some photos.
IV. CARE (Dec. 5-7): CARE is among the largest NGOs of the world and has branches in different states of Orissa. My nephew Pritam Nanda (a London-trained management specialist) is the field director of CARE for the state of Andhra Pradesh. We have been communicating off and on through e-mails if and how IAFF’S soil-less agriculture technology can be used to augment some of CARE’S programs of hunger eradication and training on sustainable livelihood. He is hoping to develop a proposal through my inputs and then submit it to higher ups for consideration. If every thing goes well it is possible that some type of collaboration might arise between IAFF and CARE.
9. IAFF’S URBAN AGRICULTURE CENTER: Because of scarcity of arable land, it is not uncommon to see roof-top gardens in urban areas. A closer examination of these activities will, however, show that these operations are not only laborious but also grossly inefficient. For example use of earthen pots, which permits rapid water loss, regular watering a high imperative. Further soil in these pots make them so heavy that considerable strength and manpower is required to handle them. Nutrition management is so dismal that nothing exits without over or under application of nutrients. Those who take pride in “organic farming” can not hide their frustration with the labor required in lifting the “dung” and preparing it for application. One of my good friends took pride that his wife spends hours and hours to prepare her dung-based nutrients. I could not help biting my lip and cringing my teeth at he same time.
IAFF has now produced a “care-free” roof-top soil-less production system at the IAFF office in Orissa (address give on above on the letterhead), which offers production of fish, vegetables (Fig. 25-26), especially chili pepper and lemon etc. for both aesthetic and economic purposes (. From this system, IAFF has earned nearly Rs.1000 through the sale of fish and chili pepper. While the initial investment was high because of “fear factor”, new methods have resulted to make future investments much less.
10. VALEDICTION: Through out this journal, you might have noticed my emphasis on chili pepper. This aspect can not be over emphasized because chili pepper production will be the yard stick to measure success or failure of my soil-less and soil-based technology for economic vitalization of rural Orissa. This is because I have declared openly that “I can make a person with access to just one acre of land of any type a lakh-pati ”. How soon this can be accomplished is of course debatable because this will depend on the available money and manpower and attitude of the people who might benefit from this approach. Although this theme is based on theoretical considerations given below, it is doable in Orissa in view of the fact that this is already being done in Andhra Pradesh.
One acre of land is about 43300 sq.ft. After leaving enough space for man/machine movement, 22000 sq.ft. can be easily used for growing pepper plants, which are set about 1’ apart within and between rows. This will give 22000 pepper plants. My own research and those who have used my protocol for pepper production have shown that each plant will produce at least 0.5kg of green Cayenne pepper (i.e., the long red ones). This should give 11000 kg (110 quintal) per growing season. In view of the fact that from seed-to-seed pepper plants require a maximum of 4 months under Indian conditions, there will be at least two crops per year, thus yielding 22000 kg (220 quintal) green pepper per year. My 5-year market research in all parts of Orissa has shown that the price for 1 kg of green pepper rarely drops below Rs. 10 and often rises to as much as Rs. 40 in urban areas. Thus, at least Rs.220000 (two lakh twenty thousand) can be grossed in a year. Assuming that half of that will go towards expenses, a profit of at least Rs.100000 (one lakh) can be expected per year.
Love and Peace
Subhas
