Sahariya tribals emerge as successful small farmers overcoming hurdles, create model farm

By Bharat Dogra* 

Ghanshyam and Sona are Sahariya adivasis and own a one hectare farm in Bamauri village of Lalitpur district, Uttar Pradesh. One acre out of this has been devoted to creating a garden which itself has three components. Firstly, a diversity of fruit trees including Indian gooseberry or amla, guava, lemon, jackfruit and other fruit trees have been planted in the main  garden area. Secondly, many vegetables like brinjal, cucumber, onion, bottle gourd, cucumber and even a spice like turmeric are inter-cropped in the same area. Thirdly, on the border of the garden several other useful trees, such as neem, and in addition bamboo have been planted.

During Covid when there was a shortage of vegetables, Ghanshyam went on a cycle to sell vegetables in several places and his earnings increased at that time.

Apart from using a part of the farm to meet basic food needs like wheat and millets, another part is kept aside to meet the cash needs of the family by growing groundnuts. This is mainly cultivated by sons of Ghanshyam and Sona, each of whom is given a certain portion of land. It is interesting how individual initiative is also promoted while maintaining the united farm for the entire family. They are known to be hard-working cultivators. This year their groundnut crop could give cash earning of more than Rs. one lakh (100,000).

This farm also has one buffalo, two calves and eight goats.

What is very interesting is how in very difficult conditions attempts are being made all the time to find satisfactory sustenance for the family. For some people this land may not have been cultivable as there is water shortage and wild animals, particularly nilgais try to enter the fields and graze the crop in night. So the family now lives very close to the farm and they appear to be leading a fairly satisfactory life, although keeping away wild animals is a tough task that tires them quite a bit.

Ghanshyam says that ideally he would like to shift entirely to natural farming, but he says that it is more practical to shift gradually and he is already in the process of doing so.

Sona is also a jal saheli, or volunteer linked to Parmarth voluntary organization for the cause of water conservation and meeting water needs. Apart from her more routine tasks such as trying to prevent water wastage, she has also contributed voluntary labor at the time of creating more water sources in the village by constructing check dams.

Due to difficulties involved initially in cultivating this land, Ghanshyam spent an earlier part of his life toiling as a migrant worker in cities like Indore and Bhopal. However when during one of his visits back to his village he came to know about the work being done by Parmarth for creating gardens called baaris he decided to stay back to try to make a success of his neglected farmland, something that he had always wanted to do, but had not really got any opportunity for this. 

Sidhgopal, team leader of Parmarth in Lalitpur and some neighboring areas, says that in the area covered by his team efforts have been made to provide opportunities to nearly 700 such farmers and there has been a special focus on dalits as well as Sahariya tribals (who are also called rauts in several of these villages).

The ability of Sahariya tribals to emerge as successful small farmers is particularly good and heartwarming news keeping in view the extreme injustice and neglect that they have suffered in many villages in the past. The sincere and creative work of farmers like Sona and Ghanshyam helps to create a model of how more of them placed in similar difficult circumstances can still overcome these difficulties to emerge as successful farmers.

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The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include ‘India’s Quest for Sustainable Farming and Healthy Food’ and ‘Protecting Earth for Children’