Aaranyak, one of the region’s foremost research-driven biodiversity conservation organisations, facilitated a training cum exposure visit for the human elephant conflict (HEC)-affected women of Badlapara village in Udalguri district to Pabhoi Greens at Biswanath Charilai of Assam.
The initiative has been designed with the aim of instilling a deeper understanding of how to establish and manage a homestead garden and nursery among the women.
In fact, the women who don’t even get a chance to come out of their villages were encouraged to step out of their village homes for the first time. On March 4, the women of the village had the opportunity to interact with the entrepreneur of Pabhoi Greens Neelam Dutta (Assam Gaurav Awardee, 2023) who is an excellent example of entrepreneurship in this field.
Homestead gardens are effective means for conservation of forest & biodiversity holding significant contribution in increasing forest cover, decreasing forest dependency and sustaining livelihoods.
This initiative was part of Aaranyak’s ongoing project “Community based integrated approach to facilitate Human Elephant Coexistence and Biodiversity Conservation” in Udalguri District, Assam under the aegis of UNDP-GEF Small Grant Programme and Ministry of Environment Forest & Climate Change (MoEFCC), Govt. of India Implemented by TERI.
The HEC-affected women were elated to see hundreds of varieties of tomatoes, capsicum, chillies, eggplants, lettuces, herbs among other vegetables. They were introduced to concepts which were new to them such as Zero tillage farming, Paddy cum Fish cultivation, Tissue culture, Seed conservation methods and panchagavya, jivamrit, cow urine and neem based biopesticides.
They were exposed to the whole process starting from field to collection, preservation and packaging of seeds. Land preparation to post harvest management for selected crops in their homestead garden was also a part of the training.
Apart from farming practices they were also exposed to fisheries farming, paddy cultivation, paddy cum fish cultivation and vermicompost preparation. The participants were spellbound by the beauty and potential of the farm.
“After visiting here, I am motivated to do something of this kind on my own and I am certain I will do it”, Magrita Mochahary, a woman who took part in the exposure trip, said.
This exposure visit provided the farmers with proven farming techniques and they could see the practical example of sustainable practices which they can integrate in their farming system.
The programme was led, managed and coordinated by senior official of Aaranyak Jayanta Kumar Pathak. Other Aaranyak officials Bobby Nath, Arup Kumar Das, Dr Banasree Sharma, Rabiya Daimary, Bikas Tossa and Haben Mochahary also attended the programme.
