RID POVERTY & HUNGER IN 50 INDIAN TRIBAL VILLAGES

THE EARTH TRUST (ET) REPORT JANUARY  TO MAY 2022

 Safe food through sustainable agriculture 

and

Womens Programme For Optimal Health and Skill Development

The first quarter of the year saw annual village festivals including the Pongal festival that is celebrated not just in the district, but in the state. As always, ET works around local cultural compulsions.

In January, focus shifted to the training of our own team which is an ongoing ‘on the job ‘ exercise anyway . We are proud that Nadiya, the little girl who grew up on our farms where her mother worked, is now a mother of a 4 year old daughter. Nadiya, a single mother had lost touch with writing just a year ago when we employed her. She can now do simple maths and even maintain farm records. Nadiya’s bonus is that her own little girl ‘learns through farming’ by mimicking  her mum and grandmum at work!

During February, we visited the small farmers of the Earth Trust collective in Gudalur in the lower Nilgiri hills and brought back their produce ranging from organic red heirloom rice to spices for sale at a farmer protection price. These person to person interactions help in both bonding and networking where contact on the phone fall dismally short. The same team comprising  of a budding solo farmer from the upper hills , ET staff and a trustee also visited  a cattle shelter for old and ‘retired’ cows run by the district Jain Trust followed by IPAN  an initiative that gives succour to abandoned animals. We usually transport and distribute cow dung and vermicompost produced by these organisations to our farms and farmers. This is an ET effort to partner with others who also champion the cause of the biosphere that we share.

In March, a Festival of Traditional Seeds was organised by a small organic farmer in collaboration with another NGO at Degalai village near Kotagiri. This event turned out to be a sacred gathering for the Earth Trust seed savers, Dhana, Chitra and Ranjit who displayed their heirloom seeds with much pride. Seed savers from other indigenous communities also exhibited their booty. The participants returned home with a renewed commitment to saving and sharing seeds, especially those seeds that are in danger of being lost to the next generation.

We celebrated our small women farmers on and after International Women’s days with posts dedicated to them on our Instagram page (@theearthtrustnilgiris).

Our 3 month Womens programme was inaugurated at Kollimalai village, which is home to the Kotha community and our own Biodynamic farm, Manaara too.

Besides the routine skill development platform of tailoring, crochet knitting and optimal health, our students (most of whom are landless), have begun to cultivate a kitchen garden on 5 cents of land lent to them by a generous older woman compatriot, Nachiaamma. This is a small but significant attempt to grow one’s own safe food and an experiment in taking women who are essentially from an agrarian race back to their roots and the soil. We have the magnanimity of Nachiamma to thank for being instrumental in realizing this dream both for herself and for the Earth Trust.

Nachiamma is willing to lend them more of her land  … she will wait and watch to see how things pan out on the small piece of  land she has given our Kollimalai trainees most of whom are related to her.

With the covid numbers dwindling, we hope to move forward with greater zeal and energy in our quest for safe food, good health and livelihoods in the Nilgiri hills over the coming year!