In February 2019, PANAP partners working with youth and are Field Learning Sites of the International People’s Agroecology Multiversity (IPAM) converged and exchanged learnings in the different agroecological zones of Sri Lanka via igenum*.
Igenum: Learning Exchange for Agroecology was a 4-day activity attended by organisations from seven (7) countries in Asia which included participants from PAN Asia Pacific, Vikalpani (Sri Lanka), Bangladesh Resource Center for Indigenous Knowledge or BARCIK (Bangladesh), Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture or CEDAC (Cambodia), KUDUMBAM, Society for Rural Education and Development or SRED and MIJARC (India), Partners of Community Organisations in Sabah or PACOS Trust (Malaysia), Khoj Society for People’s Education and Pakistan Kizan Masdoor Teherek or PKMT (Pakistan), Magsasaka at Syentipiko para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura or MASIPAG/Farmer-Scientist Partnership for Development, Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura or UMA/National Federation of Farm Workers (Philippines) and People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty or PCFS (Global).
Home gardens improve livelihoods, combat climate change, build agroecology movement
The highlight of the learning exchange programme was the first two days which was spent in Monaragala, a district in Uva Province where host organisation Vikalpani National Federation of Women are doing inspiring work with rural women.
But before arriving in Monaragala, the team first dropped by Mathara, an area in the Southern Province, to visit a cinnamon farmer. The farmer discussed about the process of growing a cinnamon tree until it’s ready for cutting. He demonstrated how to cut the tree and then took the team o his house, in the room where he stores the cut cinnamon until they are dry enough and ready for selling. The team then travelled to Monaragala and reached by mid-afternoon, greeted by Vikalpani officers and members who prepared local organic food for lunch.
In the communities of Saamamawatha, Galthammendiya, Gaminipura, Niyadella and 102 Colony in Monaragala, women farmers have found a powerful way of organising themselves, creating livelihoods for themselves and their families and combating the threats of climate change in their communities- through a home gardening project with Vikalpani.
In the first day, the women in each of the communities gave a tour of their home gardens planted with various vegetables- multiple local varieties of tomatoes, onions, pumpkin, bitter melon, radish, beans and so much more. These organic home gardens they cultivate using agroecological principles and methods, which means using indigenous knowledge and innovations, have only started more than a year ago but already are contributing to their incomes, improving their leadership and organising skills and are literally greening the communities amid being in a dry region.
The women leaders have demonstrated how to make fertilisers, insecticides and other farm inputs that are completely organic and produced by the communities though their local organisation’s initiatives. All ingredients and materials are locally-sourced, making it cost-efficient and sustainable.
This organic home gardening by women in the said communities is not only anchored in improving their livelihoods and combating climate change. It is also about leadership. It is about their collective struggle for people’s health, a struggle against the onslaught of corporate agriculture which brought about illnesses to the members of the community apart from deception made by giant agrochemical corporations that gave empty promises. It is anchored in organising themselves and contributing in building movement for agroeocology. They are conscious of their roles in advancing agroeocology as an alternative to chemical-based corporate agriculture and towards achieving food sovereignty. They have claimed it as their role to be leaders in their own communities-in different levels, with Vikalpani as their organisation.
On their second day in Monaragala, participants were greeted with youth cultural artists and children from the communities who performed traditional songs and dances as community members gathered with them, before everyone enjoyed local and traditional Sri Lankan dishes for lunch. The highlight of the day’s gathering was a performance of the women community leaders and members of Vikalpani. It was a theatre performance that dramatised the communities’ transformation- from the time they didn’t know better, as they were deceived by big agrochemicals that reached them, to the period they started getting diseases and losing economically, up to the point of realisation and standing up and organising to resist agrochemical corporations and turning to agroecology as an effective alternative.
Demonstrations of more agroecological techniques ensued before the participants started to travel back to Negombo.
More exchanges, more learnings
Apart from the experience of rural women in Monaragala, host Vikalpani also brought the team to have meaningful exchanges with a government agency and other farm owners.
In Kurunegala, the Centre of Excellence for Organic Agriculture in Kurunegala assistant director Mrs.Priyanaga Dissanayaka, the agency’s assistant director shared her extensive knowledge on researche and practice of organic farming. She shared how she struggled to be heard in the government as a woman championing organic farming. She also gave a tour of the centre’s demonstration farm.
On the other hand, participants from the different countries also shared their experiences in agroecology, their countries’ government contexts and the struggles of farmers and rural women in organising and in pushing for agroeocology as an alternative and as a means to achieve people’s food sovereignty.
In the Philippines for instance MASIPAG and UMA are practicing agroecology and at the same time organising and building movement to struggle against anti-farmer policies in the country and as a means of asserting farmers rights to land and resources. In Pakistan on the other hand, KHOJ has established school for children that integrates agroecology in the regular curriculum. It is a strategy to cultivate young minds into appreciating and giving value to agriculture with sustainable and life-long benefits while PKMT organises rural women and youth and at the same time integrates agroecology in their organising and movement-building. In Malaysia, PACOS Trust continue to organise communities of indigenous peoples while CEDAC in Cambodia is continuously innovating and exploring strategies to further advance organic farming with farmers groups, focusing on marketing and youth’s involvement. BARCIK contribute in agroeocology in Bangladesh through their research work and organising in the rural and urban communities and trying to bridge the gap between rural and urban youth. Kudumbam, MIJARC and SRED in India are all practicing agroecological farming in their collective farms and training youth to encourage them to stay in the communities. While KUDUMBAM and MIJARC have focus on youth, SRED on the other hand are also championing rural women’s rights, especially Dalit women.
After the exchange in the above-mentioned institution, the team pushed towards Maththegama, Giriula to visit Veneetha, a woman-farmer also practicing home gardening and is part of a government programme that supports organic farming in the area.
After Veneetha, the team had lunch before taking off to visit one of IPAM’s Field Learning Sites, the Ecological Farming Training Center in Pannala where Vikalpani consultant Premarathne shared his knowledge on System of Rice Intenstification, a method in rice farming which yields more rice by increasing the productivity of land, water and using intensive. It is widely practiced by organic farmers in Asia. Premarathne also shared about composting using biocharcoal, a technique known to positively change microbiology of the soil and in turn increase crop production.
Crafting strategies for action
After three days of learning and exchanging knowledge and practices with communities in Sri Lanka, the fourth day was spent in crafting strategies and plans for youth in agroecology initiative in each country.
Among the strategies formed were campaigning, education, movement-building, organising, networking, marketing, collective land cultivation, training on agroecological techniques and policy advocacy. These strategies will be carried on through each of the groups and countries plans of activities.
The Youth in Agroecology Initiative is focused on strengthening the organisations of rural youth to enhance capacities including awareness-raising, policy advocacy at local and national levels, campaigning and learning exchanges to share agroecological practices and innovations. It aims to contribute to movement-building and international youth solidarity for agroecology in the framework of food sovereignty through consultation, capacity building, policy advocacy, learning exchanges with farmers, the IPAM Field Learning Sites and linkages among youth groups.
After the strategy session, the team capped the 4-day exchange programme with a visit in a fishing community in Negombo under threat by an ongoing China-funded ports project. The visit and dialogue with women in the community was facilitated by another PANAP partner in Sri Lanka, the National Fisheries Solidarity Organisation (NAFSO). Before the community visit, NAFSO first facilitated a discussion and dialogue about the project between the igenum participants and representatives from multi-sectoral organisations opposing the project. ###
*Igenum means ‘learning’ in Sinhala, the national language of Sri Lanka
For more photos of “Igenum”, visit the IPAM website.
Menu
Discussion about this post