Agrobiodiversity and livelihoods in Andhra Pradesh, India
Case Study C0280
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| Date | February 2007 |
| Agency | Deccan Development Society |
| Project type | Self implemented |
| Context(s) | Productive landscape |
| Geographic coverage | India |
| Locality | Zaheerabad region, Andhra Pradesh |
| Biodiversity focus | Ecosystem/landscape |
| Development focus | Local communities |
| Conservation goals | Restore environmental and ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity |
| Poverty reduction goals | Increase food intake and improve health and nutrition status |
Summary
The Zaheerabad region of Andhra Pradesh, India, hosts a wide variety of agricultural crops including sorghum, a range of millets, pulses and oilseeds, all of which grow in rainfed conditions. The diversity of this cropping system and its capacity to grow in infertile soil without demanding much water or external inputs, makes it uniquely important for the survival of ecologically sustainable agricultural systems. For these culturally rich, vibrant, self-reliant communities, the government’s neo-liberal economic policies, introduced since the year 2000, constitute a harsh intrusion. Moreover, the government move towards biotechnology was seen as negative both for food security and for environmental sustainability. In response to these policies, the women of the Deccan Development Society sanghams (village-level women’s collectives) decided to build an alternative public distribution system, through a community grain fund. This initiative was meant to resist the havoc over the dryland food system caused by the government-sponsored public distribution system (PDS), which was originally intended to provide essential foodgrain at subsided rates, but actually proved to be the death knell for dryland food-producing communities. To fight this attack on their traditional farming practices, the communities decided to institutionalise their own community-controlled local grain-based alternative public distribution (APDS) system. The APDS is dependent on local production, local storage and local distribution, which alone would ensure community autonomy over food production and consumption.
Conservation impact
Traditional varieties of sorghum, millets and of other plants, which are adapted to dryland and semi-arid conditions, have been planted on 5,000 acres of land which had gone fallow.
Poverty reduction impact
- An extra 1.5 million kilograms of sorghum is produced every year
- The fodder provided by the newly cultivated fields sustains over 10,000 head of cattle in 50 villages every year
- In each village, 2,500 extra wages/year have been created
- Dalit women have become the patrons of a system designed, controlled and managed by themselves, resulting in a massive status reversal
Strategy for Conservation/Poverty Linkages
Ecoagriculture
Enabling local participation in policy-/decision- making processes
Reference 1
http://www.infochangeindia.org/agenda7_06.jsp
Reference 2
http://www.iied.org/NR/agbioliv/ag_liv_projects/t5proj01.html
More information
Michel Pimbert, Project Co-ordinator, IIED
Email: michel.pimbert@iied.org
P.V. Satheesh, founder member of Deccan Development Society