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NEW AGRICULTURAL MOVEMENT
IN BANGLADESH:
Nayakrishi Andolon
Farida Akther
Farmers of Bangladesh are organized against 'beesh'. The word literally denotes poison in Bangal and that is how pesticides and harmful chemicals are normally termed by the farmers of Bangladesh. Obviously, a correct and absolutely perfect term the genuine wisdom can produce. The women farmers started to organize themselves to save their 'deha' from poison, that is the Body, with a capital B. There is no margin between the female body in the shape of a woman and the spatial extension of the universe, the 'Pakriti' - the Body of all bodies. Thus the Nayakrishi Andolon (New Agricultural Movement) started as a women's movement in order to defend the Body and to celebrate the joyful originary posture of Prakity in her profound act of creation. It has soon extended to a unique practice of agriculture through mixed cropping, crop rotation and other subtle arts producing 'Ananda'. The 'Ananda' is of course food and other agricultural products depending on what you mean by 'food' or 'product'. It is definitely a movement in ecological food production and economically viable activity for farming community of Bangladesh. Nevertheless, it is above all a creative joyful activity to celebrate life and relations between human beings and the rest of nature. Ask a farmer belonging to the movement why do you practice Nayakrishi? Almost in all cases she will reply, I want to be happy and enjoy my life. That's all! You will not hear any fancy ecological rhetoric, or any teleological projection of a future claiming iterational promises. The farmers, particularly the farming women, want happiness right Here, in this Real world, and right Now.
There are more than 25 thousands farming households in Bangladesh practicing Nayakrishi. The movement proved that the small farmers owning 50 decimals to 5 acres of land can manage, regenerate and produce amazingly diverse crops, timbre, fuel wood, medicinal plant, fish, livestock and other products. It is clear that biodiversity is directly related to the existence of the farming community to whom agriculture is a way of life, not simply a 'sector' of production for investment and profit.
The 'beesh' was introduced in the mid-sixties as a component of High Yielding Varieties (HYV) technology. The farmers were given fertilizer free of cost. They were also given all sorts of incentives, such as credit and free training, to use pesticides and fertilizer form the agricultural department. With the fertilizer they were given paddy seeds developed in the laboratory known as HYV variety. In addition they were given pump machines to extract ground water for irrigation.
Monoculture of HYV seeds narrowed the genetic base of agricultural practice. From at least fifteen thousands varieties of rice Bangladeshi farmers ended up into 8 to 12 varieties of rice. The extraction of ground water has resulted in a major crisis .Overall experience is disastrous.
The women who wanted to kill themselves were using the same beesh, to kill pests. Pesticide was available in every farm household. Along with the unhappy situation in the families, the increasing poverty and distress, the disrespect to women, the violence has increased. The fertility of the soil started to decline, after initial years of increased 'productivity'. Men in the families do not need women any more for seed preservation, germination and post harvest activities. Her value within the agrarian economy declined and the new technology disempowered her drastically without any positive transformation. Violence against women rose to the peak causing increasing rate of suicides.
Now in an area like Tangail, which has been declared as 'beesh free zone' farmers cultivate at least 110 different varieties of rice. In some villages farmers do not require ground water any more. Surface waters are used sustainably. The seed network between farmers of different areas is collecting and conserving seeds of local varieties and where possible Community Seed Wealth is instituted. The farmers are becoming aware of the privatization of seed and genetic resources in the name of 'patenting', and resistance against biopiracy is being built up.
For more information about
Diverse Women for Diversity, contact:
Secretariat of Diverse Women for Diversity
c/o Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology
A-60, Hauz Khas
New Delhi - 110 016, India
Tel: 91-11-6968077
Fax: 91-11-6856795
Email: vshiva@giasdl01.vsnl.net.in
Listserver for Diverse Women
for Diversity
c/o Edmonds Institute
20319-92nd Avenue West
Edmonds, WA 98020 USA
email: beb@igc.apc.org
Farida Akther, activist for
diversity, living in Dhaka, Bangladesh
email: ubinig@citichco.net