Nayakrishi: New (agri)Cultural Movement

Nayakrishi Andolon literally means New Agricultural Movement. It is led by farming communities of Bangladesh practicing biodiversity-based ecological agriculture, but it begs some elaborations.

In bangla the word krishi, means the act of cultivation, but not in the conventional sense as we understand cultivation as an act to produce consumer needs for the human beings using earth as merely means of production. The word 'krishi is rather cultivation of the relation between human beings and nature that transforms both and functions as an integral whole, as the single organism. In this relation human beings are not the supreme agent possessing, commanding and controlling the object of production, i.e.,nature. The nature also transforms the human beings. It is an act of reciprocal nurturing. There is no outside and inside of human existence, since we are both thinking beings and nature. What one finds outside is also what could be found in the human body. From this perspective  krishti is derived from krishi – from the same root implying reciprocal interaction to unfold the potentialities of both human beings and nature as a single organism. Agriculture is 'civilisation" from this perspective and. Nayakrishi is undoutedly about unfolding the potentialities that manifests the unity of human communities and nature.

Andolon is movement -- movement at various levels: cultural, mobilisational, political and organisational. It is also a movement at the site of ideology, discourse and power. At the margins of imagination and determination Nayakrishi is also about promise of future. But most importantly Nayakrishi Andolon is the movement to change our destructive lifestyles, it is a lifestyle movement that is proper for human beings endowed with the capacity to act politically and spiritually against the destruction of conditions of life and livelihood. Nayakrishi is a movement to move from drstructive and preadatory stage of civilisation to creative and joyful lifestyles.

In short Nayakrishi is essentially an idea and practice of life-affirming activities. The very practice carries the seeds to change our existing lifestyles of hierarchical, coercive and exploitative relations and predatory habits and propensities. The practice is based on a very simple guiding tip: observe, learn, taste and experience the processes of life as nature and transform in order to unleash the ananda -- the joy of living. The nature, in Nayakrishi, includes the observer and the observed, the agent and the field of actions, the result and the process, etc. As we have already mentioned, human beings or human communities are not separate and independent from nature; nature has no meaning without beings capable of thinking, imagining and acting upon her.

A typical Nayakrishi village, where diversity is ensured through mixed cropping, crop rotation and various multiple ways of using the 'space' by desinging allocation of 'places' for various species and varieties. While 'place' is fixed and finite, the 'space' is not.

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Nayakrishi is about diversity. Diversity of species and varieties, diversity of ecosystems and habitats, diversity of knowledge and knowledge practice and diversity of relations that maintains the dynamics of all entities as part of the whole. The biodiversity and genetic resources is a major area of work of Nayakrishi. However, ability to appreciate the bounty and the diversity of beings is dependent on the cultivation of the faculties of the observer. Diversity is not merely the property of the observed. There could be no diversity unless faculties are consciously developed to distinguish diverse elements in their difference, unity, connections and relations. While most of us as naturalists, conservationists or passionate ecologists would like to conserve and use biodiversity as if they are only phenomenon of the outside world, outside our own in nature, such as in the forest or in the landscapes, Nayakrishi does the opposite: cultivates the faculties to experience, hear, touch,  smell, taste and enjoy the multiple manifestations of life between experiences and actions. There  is unity in diversity but what we call unity is nothing but enhancing our capacity to become one among many.

TEN PRINCIPLES OF NAYAKRISHI FARMING

Farming practice of Nayakrishi Andolon follows various operational rules. These Rules are summarised in 10 statements adopted by the farmers themselves, mirroring 10 fingers of their hands. They are developed through day to day experience and knowledge.

Nayakrishi Principle 1

Absolutely no use of pesticides, herbicides or any chemicals that kills or harms life. Transform so called 'pest' into biological resources.

Nayakrishi farmers do not use any form of pesticidem herbicide, chemicals or poison, organic or inorganic. Pesticides do not only kill pests, it kills all life forms including those that are necessary for the fertility of land.

Nayakrishi Principle 2

Keep seeds in farmer's hand; In situ and ex situ conservation of seed and genetic resources

Growing food by farmers is integral to keeping seeds for generations. Farmers regenerate and expand their biodiversity and genetic base. Control over seed is the lifeline of the farming community and ensures the command of the farmers over the agrarian production cycle. Strengthening farmer's seed system is essential for innovation and knowledge generation.

Nayakrishi Principle 3

Produce  healthy soil without external inputs, particularly chemical fertilizer

Nayakrishi farming practice rejects the use of artificial and/or chemical fertilisers. A healthy piece of land, that ensures good soil nutrition and activities of living micro-organisms including earth worms insects and other life forms -- do not need any external input, even composts. Production of healthy and fertile land implies increased return from the sopl.

Nayakrishi Principle 4

Copy the forest and produce biodiversity through innovative mixed cropping, crop rotation, and ecological designing

Multi-cropping or mixed cropping, inter-cropping, crop rotation, agro-forestry and other familiar methods are used in Nayakrishi mirroring the diversity of the forest. Such practice retains and enhances soil fertility and productivity. The practice of multi-cropping or mixed cropping is an excellent risk management strategy. Ecological designing is the careful selection of local species and varieties depending on the nature of a farming household and knowledge skill to ensure life support for the highest number of  life forms and maximum systemic yield to meet household need as well as need mediatd by the market.

Nayakrishi Principle 5

Produce and manage both cultivated and uncultivated spaces

Nayakrishi is not only about cultivated crops. The uncultivated plants, fish and animals constitute an important place in the local agricultural system and are consequently a vital part of agricultural practice. The very act of collecting uncultivated biodiversity and using to prepare food or feed livestock brings farmers, particularly women and young children, into a distinct relationship with cultivated and uncultivated spaces.

Nayakrishi Principle 6

Do not  extract ground water, harvest and conserve water, develop efficient management and use of surface water

Nayakrishi farming does not need the use of deep tube wells and works with the farmers to evolve innovative irrigation systems using surface water. The agricultural practices that are heavily dependent on ground water extraction must be radically transformed. Arsenic poisoning and serious crisis of drinking water is already disastrous. Nayakrishi farmers have been able to stop deep tubewell in the villages; and thereby save the farmers from unnecessary expenditures on diesel or electricity and reduces the dependence on deep tubewell owners.

Nayakrishi Principle 7

Learn to calculate the output both in terms of single species and varieties as well as by systemic yield

Nayakrishi calculates total yield of a farming household coming from food, fuel-wood, fibres, construction materials, medicine and other sources. Over and above material gains of the whole community is also qualitatively and quantitatively identified.

Nayakrishi Principle 8

Integrating livestock in the household to produce more complex household ecology to maximize benefits and well being of both humans and life forms

Livestock, poultry and semi-domesticated birds are integral part of the farming household. Nayakrishi farming practices ensure food and fodder for all domesticated animals and birds. The production of local variety of crops provides fodder for livestock. On the other hand, the cows, bullock etc. are needed for the production of crops. Livestock and poultry production is integrally related to the diversity of crops. Nayakrishi refuses the fragmentation and departmentalisation of agriculture into crop, livestock, poultry, fisheries, forestry, etc. Local breeds of livestock, poultry and fish are specially desired, cared, supported and preferred. Local breeds are almost always economically advantageous and ecologically suitable and add to the cultural world of the farming communities.

Nayakrishi Principle 9

Integrate water and aquatic diversity to generate more ecological products

Water is vital for flood-plain eco-systems as well as rain-fed agriculture. Water is the source of conserving biodiversity of plants and fish resources.  Bangladesh is a variation of flood-plain eco systems. The ecology of the dry lands are also determined by the nets of river and the rain water. Aquatic biodiversity, including fish species, is an integral part of agricultural practice. A variety of fish can be maintained only if land and water is kept free of chemicals and poisons and agriculture is designed to support the habitat of different aquatic species and varieties. The fish biodiversity is directly related to the nature of agricultural practice.

Nayakrishi Principle 10

Integrate non-agricultural rural activities to ensure prosperity of the local communities as a whole

Agriculture is not only the source of food, but also provides fuel wood, fibres, construction materials and medicine. Nayakrishi refuses to reduce agriculture into a food-supplying sector only. Practice of agro-forestry and integration of fuel wood, fruit and various multipurpose trees and medicinal plants along with rice and vegetable fields is therefore very crucial for Nayakrishi.

 Nayakrishi integrates with potters, weavers, blacksmith, craft persons and all forms of livelihood activities in the rural area.

Nayakrishi Seed Network: Beez Sangho

Preservation of seed and conservation of genetic resources is the lifeline of the farming communities and ensures the command of the farmers over the agrarian production cycle. The seed resource conservation is organized through a very innovative form of seed network organization, called the Beez Sangho or Nayakrishi Seed Network (NSN).

The Nayakrishi Seed Network (NSN) builds on the farming household, the focal point for in-situ and ex-situ conservation. Farming household is the nodal interactive point for ex situ and in situ conservation. Farmers maintain diversity in the field, but at the same time conserve germplasm within the household to be replanted in the coming seasons. This is where women members of the households assert their role and power. This is also the basis upon which Nayakrishi Seed Network (NSN) has been built. The individual plans and decisions are made into collective decisions through meetings and collective sharing of information. In these meetings decisions are taken to ensure that in every planting season all the available varieties at the farmer's households are replanted and the seeds have been collected and conserved for the next season.

The NSN functions in a systematic networking of seed preservation at the farmer’s household level to village pool of Seed Huts upto Community Seed wealth Centres. Community Seed Wealth (CSW) is the institutional set up in the village that articulates the relation between village and the National Genebank. The CSW also maintains a well-developed nursery. Farming households willing to take responsibility to ensure that all common species and varieties are replanted, regenerated and conserved by the farmers in a cluster of villages are formed as  Nayakrishi Seed Huts (NSH).

 

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