Subhas Mohapatra's trip to 36garh& Jharkhand and west Orissa

Before I start describing my tour experiences, 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 something new and hard to believe. But if they are true, I believe your approach should help the Tribal Communities we serve because a) Most of the poor tribals do not have 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 tribals we work with?” 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, since 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.

Oct. 13-21: This period included my travel from USA 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.
Oct. 23-25: SUNDARGARH DISTRICT:
23: Introduction and Brainstorming at the Panth Nivas of Rourkela about the nature and dimension of various problems.
24: Kalushiria and Slangbahal.
a) Kalushiria: Tribal leaders complain charcoal (Fig. 1) and Fly ash (Fig.2) pollution being piled up by the numerous sponge iron plants (Fig. 3) 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 to them that their peace and happiness is actually in their hands because they can bring their prosperity back through soil-less agriculture.
25: 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 villagers 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”.
Oct. 26: JHAKHAND STATE: 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.
Oct. 30-Nov. 1: CHHATTISGARH STATE:
30: BILASPUR DISTRICT: Deharipara and Kotmi.
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 Gujurat 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 drive on as bad a road as one can imagine, but also had to cross several “Ghatis” 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.
Oct. 31-Nov. 1: RAIPUR DISTRICT: Rawaan and Raipur
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 Rawan, 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 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). Nov. 1. 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.
LATE DEVELOPMENTS: After my return back to the USA I received an e-mail from Pravin Patel that the Vice Chancellor of the Pandit Sunderlal Sharma Open University at Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh has shown keen interest to open an Agriculture Technology Transfer Center through collaboration with TWS and IAFF. Communications are in progress in this regard.

Subhas Mohaptra, President, Indo American Friendship Foundation. USA.