Traditional Tribal Farming In Odisha
To safeguard the nature’s changes, farmers of the Dongria Kondh tribe in the south-western parts of Odisha follow traditional practices that include a lot of diverse cropping.
In the year 2017, crops in Odisha faced a lot of failure due to increased period of dryness, pest attacks and untimely rains. But the farmers still think that the nature should not be affected by the farming methods they practice. This makes them prefer the traditional farming methods every time.
A 55 year old Dongria Kondh farmer of Leling Padar village in Rayagada district says that, people in his region heard stories about farmer suicides in different parts of the nation. But,
He claims that his tribe never faced such situations where every crop is lost and there is zero hope of survival.
Odisha Farming Scenario
Due to increased period of dryness, pest attacks and untimely rains in 2017, the crop loss was reported to be 5 lakh hectares and 33% due to drought in 70 administrative blocks of 15 districts.
Odisha has been suffering from natural calamities one after other almost every year in the past 10 years. Some studies say that thousands of farmers have committed suicides due to these disasters.
In the past decade, the state has suffered one natural calamity after the other almost every year. Thousands of disaster-affected farmers have committed suicide. Experts say that the increasing frequency of natural calamities is a result of global warming and climate change.
The monsoon delays very often in Odisha which results in drought like situations in the early kharif stage i.e the summer cropping season. The untimely rainfall that occurs during October and November worsens the situation by disturbing the humid temperature. This results in increased crop diseases and pests.
Some experts predict that crop yields may be reduced due to severe warming, floods and drought. Increase in the number of weed and pest ranges would also be harmful for crops unexposed in the past to these different ranges.
Odisha Traditional Farming
The agrarian crisis in Odisha has been prevailing for a long time now due to different climate changes. Indigenous farmers who prefer traditional farming are usually free from the agrarian distress.
In Odisha, the agrarian tribe Dongria Kondhs live in the forests of Rayagada, Koraput, Kalahandi and Kandhamal districts. This tribe usually raise their crops on lower hill slopes. Crops like millets, leaves, legumes, tubers, vegetables, pulses, sorghum and rice are raised throughout the cropping season and are harvested one by one from October to the February end. This process happens every year.
Multi Cropping by Odisha Farmers
The Kondh farmers usually go forward with 50 varieties of crops with any single farm. A Kondh farmer says that she has grown over 80 varieties of crops like finger millet, paddy, foxtail millet, barnyard millet, pearl millet, sorghum, little millet, edible leaves, maize, hoarse gram, black gram, cowpeas, pigeon peas, several type of vegetables and variety of beans in her 5 acre farm. In tubers, she has grown yam, arum, tapioca and sweet potato.
The Kondh farmers named their farms as ‘Dongor’
The Kondh farmers say that, their farms are influenced by the forest culture around them. Their farms have diverse crops just as the jungle has diverse plants in it. This kind of practice keeps the farmer away from agrarian crisis because if one crop fails, they have many more to depend upon. Kodnh farmers also state that they haven’t noticed a situation till date where any single crop in the dongor has failed completely.
The sowing period lasts for 5 months starting from April ending in August based upon the climatic suitability.
The millet seeds are sown on the hill slopes in summer. With the arrival of Monsoon, the upland paddy seeds are sown. Vegetables and other crops are grown simultaneously. The farmers get vegetables from their farms everyday whereas millets and paddy are harvested over five months period i.e from October to February of the following year. The seeds they use are traditional seeds that are conserved by the Kondh farmers and are also shared in the community.
Resistant to Climatic Changes — Odisha Traditional Farming
The traditional agrarian practice of the tribal communities has evolved with time. Genomic profiling of millets like pearl millet, finger millet, and sorghum suggest that they are climate-smart grain crops ideal for environments prone to drought and extreme heat.
The traditional upland paddy varieties used by the Kondh farmers are less water consuming that makes them resilient to drought like conditions. These are harvested between 60–90 days of sowing.
So the possibility of complete failure of food crops like millets and upland paddy grown by the farmers is very low even in extreme climatic conditions.
During extreme rainfall, the rain water cannot flow in full speed to wash away the plants and damage the crop. This is because, the speed of the rain water flowing down the hill slope is broken by the thick shrubby black gram and groundnut plants
The tribal farmers don’t need to do anything for pest control. All they do is raise the dongor as a food opportunity for 10 families (dus parivar) including that of the grower, pests, insects, ants, flies, spiders and birds.
As the crops grow, pests and insects come. The ants, flies and spiders eat them. Birds, searching for food, also come to the dongors to eat the flies and insects. This cycle makes the entire process a complete traditional and free from pesticide farming.
Conclusion
These farmers prove that agriculture is not just about the yield or producing more. It is about cultivating a crop without harming the nature, soil and ecosystem. It is about creating food opportunities to many other co-existing species and contributing to the universal peace and harmony.
The traditional agrarian practice of these indigenous farmers proves to be a study that can be followed by the world for sustainable and organic farming to achieve global nutritional and food security in the era of climate change.
The Odisha government can take a step forward to help its state to overcome the agrarian crisis and strengthen climatic change adaptability.
