Badi as such, is not a plantation programme but focuses on the human development and self-organization aspect of the tribal families at micro and macro level to ensure that the people get a good market and fair prices for their horticulture yield and develop a self dependent economy. Badi uses low cost technology to develop the barren lands for cultivation. Trenches and Farm ponds within the Badi have increased the water retention capacity of the land and facilitate intercropping. The emphasis on increased compost production and trainings in preparation of various organic inputs multiplies the production capacity of the soil. Badi is an ecosystem in itself, with components such as agro forestry species in the boundary of the plot that would provide firewood and timber in the future helping reduce pressure on the nearby forests. Badi seeks to develop farmer initiatives and peoples organizations to take control of the fruit of their labour through production by masses and marketing through people’s cooperatives. Quality control and value addition through the people themselves are incorporated in the Badi for the horticulture yield. The Badi encourages cultivation of other diverse food varieties in the Badi that will ensure food security. Farmer to farmer exchange programmes and exposure visits within the State and outside to different farms are conducted to optimize indigenous knowledge and information flow. Badi is a flexible model that is researching on and adapts new technologies and information for the development of the agriculture sector and disseminates the same to the community ensuring demystification of technology and recognition of indigenous techniques. Badi is also a small way to do our part to help reduce global warming by increasing tree plantation.
Badi makes agriculture profitable
The granting of special economic zone status to several upcoming mineral-based industries and information technology parks in Orissa has sparked of much opposition not just from political parties but also People’s Organisations and social activists. The SEZ Act was passed in 2005 in the hope that it would help build up infrastructure, promote exports, and hence generate employment. The danger is in the form of massive displacement of people from agricultural areas in the sake of industrialization and IT development. One of the norms for acquitting land to SEZ is that the land should be uncultivated, un irrigated / rain fed irrigated lands; but this has not been followed in States like Maharashtra and Punjab were many thousands of acres of well irrigated two time crop yielding lands have been sold out for SEZ. This is risky because in the case of the Tribals, cultivation is mostly rain fed irrigated.
Here is how Badi helps protect their land from being acquired for SEZ:
- By bringing the farmer to retain and revive land with increased income activities linked to agriculture.
- By helping the farmer identify with the land the farmer holds through development of horticulture crops and fencing around their property.
- By developing alternate income sources on barren lands that are rain fed irrigated through intercrops that require minimal water in consequent years from plantation.
- By helping reduce seasonal and daily migrations which later assume chronic stages of permanent migration and abandoning of agriculture by the Adivasi farmers.
- By helping farmers to have decent income from the land making them strong to resist evacuation. Ensuring income for at least 15-20 years from the Badi.
- Flexibility to allow the farmer to cultivate intercrops based on traditional food habits or other interests.
- By facilitating the power to control the benefit of the production through people cooperatives rather than handing over the reigns to some outside market power like in contract farming!
New windows of opportunities through Badi!
When the Badi activity was first started the waste lands were totally unfit and it required special attention and organic input for the horticulture crops to remain healthy. So, intercropping in the Badi was like a distant dream without proper irrigation sources in most of the areas. However the low cost water retention structures- trenches and farm ponds were constructed in and around Badi plots according to the land types. We started witnessing changes in the moisture content of the soil and quality of the land, almost a year after the Soil and Water conservation structures were made. Farmers began to do intercropping in the Badi which were now protected from the menace of open grazing by tough fences around the Badi. The farmers started reaping profit from the Badi even before the fruiting of the horticulture crops! Three beneficiaries in Bangriposi who planted cucumber, brinjal and ground nut in their 5 acre patch of Badi land (cumulative holding) and got Rs.17600 profit from the sale of the vegetables. Some farmers have reported earning Rs.12000- Rs.15000 from intercrop of vegetables and pulses in their Badi in the Kharif season alone (2007). The farmers are sparing no chance in experimenting ways to increase the yield from the Badi through crop planning, mixed and rotational cropping. Since the farmer to farmer exchanges and awareness on food security, farmers have also started reviving food crops such as millets, tubers and maize in their Badi areas as intercrops.