 "Sowing the right seeds")
At a time when small farmers across India are quitting agriculture in favour of more lucrative professions - even as the world worries about food security and long-term effects of chemical-dependent crops - a quiet movement is working its way up from the grassroots. Vividhara, a Delhi-based group of urban gardeners, has been slowly sensitising people about the pleasure of growing one's own organic food, even as it markets the organic produce of small farmers across the country. Vividhara promotes native (desi) seeds collected by small-scale organic farmers mostly in Uttarakhand amongst its growing collective of urban gardeners in Delhi, thereby giving the farmers commercial impetus to save their seeds and connecting city-dwellers with the earth that nurtures them.
Forging such connections and understanding the value of native seeds is imperative, especially in the present-day context, asserts Ajay Mahajan, founder of Vividhara. "Our country's food economy is currently imperiled by the government's plan to approve the commercial cultivation of genetically modified (GM), herbicide tolerant mustard," he says. "We have such a rich heritage of native seeds and beautifully adapted local strains of crops. Why should farmers use GM seeds that require expensive and labour-intensive inputs of water and fertiliser?" Vividhara's advocacy against GM seeds takes on greater significance when one considers the rich biodiversity of India that this would threaten. "The first variety of rice as we know it today came from the Odisha-Chhattisgarh belt," he says. "Brinjal and even mustard originated in the subcontinent." Geneticists the world over accept that it is folly to tamper with the gene pools of food crops in and around their centres of origin. "We believe that rather than introducing GM crops in India, the government should give impetus to small farmers to sow only native seeds, thus conserving our biodiversity," says Mahajan.
To generate awareness about these issues, Vividhara - one of the many off-shoots of the Chipko Movement - disseminates gardening tips and a variety of native seeds to home gardeners across the country. Using WhatsApp and Facebook to stay connected with a fast-growing community of urban gardeners, Mahajan educates organisations and individuals about various aspects of organic gardening - sowing seeds, making compost and collecting seeds. "Also, through these groups, we troubleshoot wherever required," he says. "But by and large, I believe that gardeners learn the most when they make mistakes. So I never spoon-feed anyone." The community has grown to over 3,000 on Facebook alone, while Mahajan estimates that they have helped over 7,000 people set up their gardens, small and big. Vividhara also conducts regular workshops on gardening for hands-on practical training.
In doing so, Mahajan isn't simply promoting urban gardening and selling native seeds. He is helping people experience for themselves how differently desi and hybrid seeds behave. "While desi seeds grow in any medium, tolerate low water conditions and attract more bees and butterflies, hybrid seeds produce high yields only when they are given more fertilisers and water. Their resistance to pests and diseases is also lower," he says. The premise Vividhara operates on is that once people have grown native and heirloom seeds at home, they will be more likely to want farmers to use them as well. Further, spending time sowing, planting and reaping has other deeper implications as well. "When I used to teach pre-school children in an alternative school in Delhi, I discovered that the regular practice of nurturing plants helped them to become less aggressive."
Vividhara is an independent initiative, self-funded and non-commercial. Mahajan dreams of setting up an extensive seed library that showcases and preserves India's biodiversity. In the meantime, he remains engaged with small farmers and city gardeners, happy to share seeds, seedlings and cuttings with the Vividhara community. Echoing Gandhian principles and the ethos of the Chipko Movement, Mahajan says, "To me, growing these organic food and herb gardens symbolise what spinning the charkha meant to our freedom movement - they are small, constructive actions that help us connect meaningfully to the larger cause."
Forging such connections and understanding the value of native seeds is imperative, especially in the present-day context, asserts Ajay Mahajan, founder of Vividhara. "Our country's food economy is currently imperiled by the government's plan to approve the commercial cultivation of genetically modified (GM), herbicide tolerant mustard," he says. "We have such a rich heritage of native seeds and beautifully adapted local strains of crops. Why should farmers use GM seeds that require expensive and labour-intensive inputs of water and fertiliser?" Vividhara's advocacy against GM seeds takes on greater significance when one considers the rich biodiversity of India that this would threaten. "The first variety of rice as we know it today came from the Odisha-Chhattisgarh belt," he says. "Brinjal and even mustard originated in the subcontinent." Geneticists the world over accept that it is folly to tamper with the gene pools of food crops in and around their centres of origin. "We believe that rather than introducing GM crops in India, the government should give impetus to small farmers to sow only native seeds, thus conserving our biodiversity," says Mahajan.
To generate awareness about these issues, Vividhara - one of the many off-shoots of the Chipko Movement - disseminates gardening tips and a variety of native seeds to home gardeners across the country. Using WhatsApp and Facebook to stay connected with a fast-growing community of urban gardeners, Mahajan educates organisations and individuals about various aspects of organic gardening - sowing seeds, making compost and collecting seeds. "Also, through these groups, we troubleshoot wherever required," he says. "But by and large, I believe that gardeners learn the most when they make mistakes. So I never spoon-feed anyone." The community has grown to over 3,000 on Facebook alone, while Mahajan estimates that they have helped over 7,000 people set up their gardens, small and big. Vividhara also conducts regular workshops on gardening for hands-on practical training.
In doing so, Mahajan isn't simply promoting urban gardening and selling native seeds. He is helping people experience for themselves how differently desi and hybrid seeds behave. "While desi seeds grow in any medium, tolerate low water conditions and attract more bees and butterflies, hybrid seeds produce high yields only when they are given more fertilisers and water. Their resistance to pests and diseases is also lower," he says. The premise Vividhara operates on is that once people have grown native and heirloom seeds at home, they will be more likely to want farmers to use them as well. Further, spending time sowing, planting and reaping has other deeper implications as well. "When I used to teach pre-school children in an alternative school in Delhi, I discovered that the regular practice of nurturing plants helped them to become less aggressive."
Vividhara is an independent initiative, self-funded and non-commercial. Mahajan dreams of setting up an extensive seed library that showcases and preserves India's biodiversity. In the meantime, he remains engaged with small farmers and city gardeners, happy to share seeds, seedlings and cuttings with the Vividhara community. Echoing Gandhian principles and the ethos of the Chipko Movement, Mahajan says, "To me, growing these organic food and herb gardens symbolise what spinning the charkha meant to our freedom movement - they are small, constructive actions that help us connect meaningfully to the larger cause."
For more, see its Facebook page, or contact Ajay Mahajan at vividhara@gmail.com
Next fortnight, the story of a small NGO that has lit up remote high-altitude desert outposts of India with solar power
Next fortnight, the story of a small NGO that has lit up remote high-altitude desert outposts of India with solar power