We took an overnight bus from Secunderabad and arrived in Anantapur, early one chilly morning in January. Accompanying me was my mother, who had heard a great deal about the Timbaktu Collective from me, and was interested in seeing their work first hand. The Collective, a group of committed activists, has been working in this area for over a decade, acting as a nucleus of change. They have been addressing issues of ecology and sustainability, and the imperative of building alternative, people-centered institutions and practices. Its latest effort is Seeds of Hope, an innovative initiative to relieve the local farmers of their reliance on costly, commercially available seeds, and preserve the diverse array of traditional seeds that have historically been freely exchanged between farmers. Seeds of Hope is being supported by 'Asha for Education' through its novel, annual online fundraiser Work an Hour.

Anantapur: Then and Now

Bangalore-bound buses reach Chennekothapalli village en route, an hour and a half outside Anantapur. The Collective's office is a short walk from the village bus stop. The ride goes through dramatic but desolate scenery: scarred boulders, barren hills, stunted and gnarled trees and empty fields. The district seems to have always been arid and parched, a forgotten backwater. But appearances can be deceptive. Once, Anantapur District was of profound historical and ecological significance. The district belonged to the powerful Vijayanagara Kingdom. Penukonda, situated 70 kms south of Anantapur town and 140 kms north of Bangalore, was the summer capital of King Krishnadevaraya over 500 years ago. The region was renowned for its fecund vegetation. In the late 19th century, a British forester described Penukonda's fine summer deciduous forests. Teak and Hardwikia Binata, two of the finest timber trees to grow in India, were exported from here to lay the railway line between Gudur and Madras. The Pomegranates and Sitaphal of Penukonda were known as far away as the courts of Delhi. From the Vijayanagara Rayalus to the Bahamani Kings, from Tipu Sultan and the Nizam of Hyderabad to the British, great armies fought over this rich and fertile land.

Until recently the region's food and fruit crops benefited from over three hundred irrigation tanks, some having Ayacuts of over 1000 acres, able to store water for two if not three crops a year. There were also numerous minor tanks, kuntas and perennial springs. Thanks to the generous irrigation, different local varieties of rice, major and minor millets were grown. These biological resources were used suitably and shared equitably and collectively by members of the community through institutions such as the Panchayats. Knowledge of local crops, herbs and plants, and their manifold uses, was available within and between the communities of the commons through cultural and trading ties.

But sadly, today Anantapur District is fast on its way to becoming a desert. It is the second most drought-prone district in India. The hills are bare, there are hardly any forests to speak of and the famed tanks and kuntas are falling into disrepair. The majority of the district's people work as agricultural laborers or as marginal farmers. The district has a literacy rate of approximately 12%.

Two views of the degraded land near Chennekothapalli village

To the Timbaktu Collective, these ecological problems are, at least in part, caused by the onslaught of hybrid crop varieties sold by transnational companies and the Indian government, which require environmentally abusive agricultural practices for their cultivation. The new hybrid varieties of seeds are not as hardy as traditional varieties and will not yield much unless chemical fertilizers are used. Being more pest-prone, the hybrid seeds demand the use of harsh pesticides to ensure a reasonable yield. At a superficial level, introduction of the new hybrid seeds has resulted in increased cash earnings. But a closer look reveals a gradual decrease in the productivity of the land and in the actual earnings, as a result of the land being slowly poisoned by the chemicals used.

Traditional seed varieties are disappearing, creating an increased dependence on transnational companies and the government for seeds, chemical fertilizers and pesticides. For all practical purposes, Anantapur has become a single crop district, being the largest Groundnut growing area in the country. On our bus ride and our visit to the Collective, groundnuts were everywhere. In fact most of the food we ate included sauces made from groundnuts and chilies. Just 25 years ago, the situation was very different. Two-thirds of the agricultural land in Anantapur was then under food crops and the remaining under cash crops. Today, the situation is entirely the reverse. Agriculture is solely dependent on groundnut crops, which comprise 90% of cultivable area. Of the remaining 10% farmed as food crops, only four primary crops are now cultivated, as opposed to the eight grown in the past. Though an edible crop used by the farmers as a side dish, groundnuts are grown as a cash crop, to be sold to big traders for conversion to oil. Growing far fewer food crops, the farmers cannot support themselves from the land. At the same time, the revenues from groundnuts have dropped due to a glut of cheaper oils from abroad, leaving the farmers and their families without any means of sustenance.

It is not just in the case of seeds that the farmers are suffering a loss of bio-diversity, but also with their livestock. In some places local breeds of cattle have been consciously wiped out to introduce foreign strains such as Holstein and Jersey. These have not done so well in the harsh conditions in this region and in the bargain the local hardy breeds, capable of surviving the harsh conditions, has also been lost. The situation is a little different with the local poultry. Anantapur district alone was supposed to have had more than 40 pure strains of fowl. Today there are barely 23 varieties. The market has been flooded with “Broilers” that are grown under unnatural and cruel conditions and given food supplemented with chemicals that can be carcinogenic.

The impact of this rapid desertification and loss of diversity is most felt in the nutrition and culture of the people. Alarmingly, nutrition levels have dropped drastically in the villages -- for humans, animals and the land -- accompanied by an increase in health problems. Most people eat highly polished white rice and rasam with a little bit of chutney. Mudda, sadda rotti, korrannam, and jonna rotti are already things of the past. Most of the villages do not have milk to offer. Wherever there is milk, almost all of it is exported to the chilling plants in major towns. The result is a low nutritional intake for humans, animals and land. The loss of traditional seeds has been accompanied by a loss of much of the traditional knowledge base. Many of the youngsters in the villages today have never seen a korra or sadda (local millets) crop, let alone having eaten them. Many are unaware that Anantapur district had more than 300 to 400 traditional varieties of rice at one time and almost none of them are sure how, where and when they were grown. Much of the medicinal herbs that used to be seen commonly even 20 years ago are not easily found today. Those who used to know about them have taken their knowledge to their graves.

The Collective has long felt that the process of globalization, based on handing over of centralized power by the state to corporate monopolies, defeats the very objective of Panchayat Raj institutions and is a threat to the survival of the village community. MNCs, through Intellectual Property Rights or Patents, are usurping the rights of the local communities over their own seeds, medicinal plants and other biological resources. In this situation the people are fast losing control over their resource base in ways they had never experienced before. To address such pressing issues, the Collective has been organizing the rural poor (especially women, children, agricultural laborers and marginalized peasants -- those most immediately affected by environmental degeneration) to protect their fragile environment, while at the same time build sustainable, decentralized, people-oriented lifestyles.

The Collective

The Timbaktu Collective comprises social activists with experience working in various voluntary organizations for 12 to 18 years prior to coming together as the Collective. Individual members have been involved in participatory training, cultural action, education, organizing the rural poor, people's theatre, documentation, campaigns and support services. They share a critique of development that emphasizes cultural autonomy and ecological sustainability. The Collective sees ecology and traditional art forms as two important foci in the peoples' lives; conserving agro-bio-diversity of the district is key to combating drought while encouraging a sustainable agricultural lifestyle rooted in cultural understanding.

A stone slab welcomes you in Telugu and English as you enter the eponymous piece of land owned by the Timbaktu Collective.

The other side of the slab bids you farewell with 'Live Simply, That Others May Simply Live'

The Collective works in Chennekothapalli, Ramagiri and Roddam Mandals of Anantapur district. They take a holistic approach in addressing the problems of the people they work for. Their activities include: regeneration of the area by organizing the people to manage their natural resources; revitalization of village life by encouraging people to recount old stories and practice their cultural art forms; organization and empowerment of women by means of setting up alternative banking systems, teaching them to read and write and talk about issues that pertain to women in particular; and creation of spaces for children to experience a joyful childhood, by means of alternative learning systems.

The Collective was recently awarded the 'Vinoba Bhave Volunteer Award' for 2001 by the National Foundation of India. They received this award for their program 'Yuvatha' (which translates loosely from the Telugu to 'youth'), which works with the educated youth of the villages (who are either self-employed farmers, or otherwise employed), to organize them into a cadre of volunteers and encourage them to remain in the village and work for the betterment of their community. These volunteers are given training by the Collective through cultural programs, theatre, kolatam (a local dance form), etc. and act as a resource for the village community and eventually, as responsible members of the local Panchayats.

Education

The Collective's most important activity may be their ongoing program of alternative education. They operate 4 day schools in different villages and one residential school. Most of their children have dropped out of government schools, generally because they are frequently abused by the teachers there (either physically or verbally, in the form of demeaning comments about their caste, appearance or background), or because of the dreary nature of the government schools (overcrowded dingy class rooms and a curriculum taught without much imagination, emphasizing rote learning).

Children at the Collective's day school in Chennekothapalli village playing and learning to knit

The Collective strongly believes that childhood and learning should be a joyful experience, so they employ alternative teaching methodologies in their schools to engage the interest of the children. For instance, they emphasize hands-on work, as in making models with clay or hard paper. Teaching is through dialogue and the children are encouraged to be inquisitive and ask questions, rather than just memorize facts. The children are also taught about their own local customs and culture, such as the local folklore, traditional dances and songs, and local art forms. This is so that the children do not grow up alienated from their own customs and so they feel secure in the value of their local traditions.

When we visited one of their schools (Prakruti Badi or 'nature school'), many of the children were engaged in activities like clay modeling, knitting and embroidery. After a while, they had a break and ran around and played. After some time of this, we all sat down together, and they were introduced to me, and asked me questions about my work (developmental genetics). One of the children was particularly well aware of the things reported in the newspaper recently about the possibility of cloning humans. After interrogating me thoroughly, the children performed some impromptu dances for me that they had learnt at school. It was enchanting to watch the children enjoy themselves so much dancing and singing.

Eco-Restoration

In addition to their educational work, the Collective's other crucial activity is eco-restoration. They have been making a dramatic change to the hillsides of the area simply by protecting them from scrub fires and unchecked grazing. It is remarkable how much greener and lush the hillsides protected by the Collective are, in comparison with the more distant barren hillsides.

The Collective sows denuded hillsides with seeds for a variety of local trees. In this way, they have been slowly changing the area, making it much greener. But more importantly, they have also been educating the local people of how it is in their own long-term interest to preserve and nurture the local biodiversity. They convince nearby villagers of the benefits of increased forest cover so that they can fruitfully partner together for reforestation. Since it is the villagers' cattle and goats that graze on the fragile land-cover of the area, their cooperation is crucial for re-forestation. The Collective also organizes fire watches to prevent any brush fires.

On a previous visit to Timbaktu, I had the opportunity of seeing the eco-restoration work first-hand. All the members of the Collective (not just the ones in the eco-restoration group) went to the hillside, which was to be reforested, armed with digging implements and seeds they had bought to plant on the hillside. The atmosphere was one of a picnic, with the members of the Collective singing songs and joking as they walked along the hillside in the blistering sun, digging small holes in the hard unyielding earth, to plant the seeds in.

Members of the Collective taking handfuls of various seeds to be planted on the hillside

If the rains come (it often doesn't in this drought-prone area), the seeds germinate, and with enough care, enough survive to start the process of reforestation. The first plants that take hold provide shade for other less hardy plants. The roots of the plants bind the soil of the hillside, reducing erosion, and helping the soil retain rain water. They also provide shelter for animals and birds, which play a natural role in keeping pests that harm the plants at reasonable numbers. The birds and animals also help pollinate plants, and disperse seeds.

After the entire hillside had been covered, the Collective had lunch hosted by the villagers whose hill they had seeded. While the lunch was being prepared, there was a discussion, with the Collective reiterating to the villagers the importance of taking care of the hillside and seeing to it that the seedlings aren't eaten by grazing animals. Members of the Collective also spoke with the people of the village about other problems they were facing, and made suggestions on how to resolve them. Then the members of the Collective and the villagers sang some local ballads before eating lunch. The lunch started with jaggery-rice. This was followed by rice and pappu-- lentils and vegetables boiled in water. In this case, the vegetables consisted of hot chili peppers. The rains had been delayed, and it was very generous gesture of the villagers to provide us with this simple lunch.

The hillside that was reforested

'World Environment Day' - Paryavarana Pandaga

June 5th, 2001 was a regular Tuesday market day (Santha), and the market place, just off the main Bangalore-Hyderabad Highway, was full of people. The market was on as usual, but today there was something else too. There was excitement in the air. A festival was on and that too of a different kind. There were No Gods, No Politicians and No big lectures. Instead this was a celebration of what the people know -- this was their world, their seeds, their animals, their articles, their medicines, their cultural events and even their foods.

In a novel undertaking, the Collective has resolved to celebrate June 5th, 'World Environment Day', as Paryavarna Pandaga (Environment festival). About 5000 people from various villages of Roddam, Ramagiri and Chennekothapalli Mandals came to participate in the first such festival, in 2001. Traditional crop seeds that had been collected from the local farmers over the last three months were exhibited in beautiful bamboo baskets. A total of 90 varieties had been put on display, along with the name of the farmers they were collected from, how long they have been cultivating the crops, cultivation methods, pest problems, storage methods, etc. Farming implements, traditional herbal remedies, traditional foods not often prepared anymore, and demonstrations by various artisans (on making woolen blankets, baskets made of bamboo, reed mats, pottery and leather working) were also on display.

Most of the people present appreciated the diversity in the things on display. Most were surprised (especially the older generation) that so many varieties of seeds and fowls were still available. Many farmers expressed a desire to cultivate the traditional seeds on display. There were inquiries on where to get particular local seeds. Such interest was the impetus for initiating the Seeds of Hope project.

Seeds of Hope

Seeds of Hope goes to the root of the problem of the recurring cycle of dependencies that shackle the local people in debt to the banks and big companies from whom they have to buy seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. It addresses the loss of nutritional, cultural and bio-diversity suffered by the people of the area as a result of their increasing reliance on the cultivation of 'cash crops'. It has the potential to revolutionize the lives of the people in the area, and act as an example for other rural communities to emulate.

The project will work to build awareness about the benefits of multi-cropping and conservation of traditional crops. It involves gathering different varieties of traditional seeds from various sources and creating a seed repository where farmers can obtain the seeds to reproduce on their land. Workshops and meetings will be held so that farmers participating in the program can receive training and network with other farmers cultivating traditional seed. The Collective also plans to set up a seed multiplication plot to help preserve rare seeds.

Work has already been initiated in seven villages in the three Mandals, and the Collective has identified 30 farmers who are willing to grow the local varieties in the coming season. In the 2001 rainy season, they worked with 12 farmers who initiated the work on local seed multiplication. They also conducted a farmers meeting and interacted with Women's groups and other local groups to develop the strategy for future work. Available seeds and information on traditional varieties under cultivation are being collected and a list of farmers who have them is being prepared.

The major impact of this project in the short-term is the building of an organized movement to conserve and enhance the local agro-bio diversity with the active participation of the farmers, who will be the safe keepers of their heritage -- traditional seeds. The long-term benefits will include better health and increased self-reliance for the people of the area, and the preservation of their cultural and biological heritage. The Collective is confident that in the present climate of patenting, intellectual property rights and the monopolistic rule of transnational giants over agriculture, this effort will provide options that would otherwise be unavailable to the local farmers.

Showing Support

This was the fourth time I visited the Timbaktu Collective in the past eight years. I never cease to be amazed by the dramatic impact of the work being done here. The commitment of the members of the Collective is remarkable. The Collective has a well thought out ideology, respectful of and in tune with the interests of the village folk, but also forward looking. They show a balance of idealism and pragmatism that is hard to achieve. They approach the major issues facing the rural community in an integrated manner, working to protect the environment, empower the women folk and create a space in which the children can grow.

'Asha for Education' is currently organizing it's online fundraiser Work An Hour, and one of its objectives this year is to support the Seeds of Hope effort that require funds to the tune of about $32,500. You can visit http://www.workanhour.com for more information about this unique fundraiser. More information about Timbaktu is available at http://www.ashanet.org/nycnj/projects/tim.html and at http://www.ashanet.org/workanhour/projects/timbaktu.html.