Adarsh Seuj Prakalpa-a saga of sustainable development
About four years ago, members of the Digboi Rotary Club met briefly with Peggy Carswell, a
volunteer with a small Canadian NGO, Fertile Ground, to discuss how they might raise awareness
about the health risks associated with pesticide use. Supported by Rotary International and with
funds raised by Fertile Ground’s supporters, they started work one year later on “Adarsh Seuj
Prakalpa” - a community demonstration garden. The garden was created to provide information and
encouragement to farmers, tea growers, students and consumers about eco-friendly alternatives to
chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
During the course of regular travel with her husband throughout India’s northeast, beginning back in
1998, Carswell had learned that tea growers in Assam rely on a regular regime of pesticides and
fertilizers to increase production and reduce crop losses due to insect pests. Over the past few
years, significant efforts have been made to curtail use of restricted pesticides in the area’s tea
gardens, but she learned that a number of chemicals banned for use on food crops are still sold in
markets throughout Assam, and some are finding their way to farmers’ fields.
Situated on 2 acres of land on one of the main roads in town, the site on which Adarsh Seuj Prakalpa
is now situated had previously been living quarters for workers from the local oil refinery owned by
Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (Assam Oil Division). Having been abandoned for several years, the site
was littered with building debris and garbage. Carswell spent her first 6 weeks with three labourers
and a small but enthusiastic group of local Rotarians and neighborhood volunteers, creating a
mountain of broken bricks, rocks, old shoes, glass and disintegrating plastic bags that had to be
removed from the site.
Once the soil could be tilled, a series of raised
beds were created. The beds were planted with
a mixture of wheat, field peas and channa, and
the young plants were later incorporated into the
soil to increase organic matter and nitrogen.
In early 2006, 5 more Canadian volunteers
arrived, including Erin Harper, a young organic
farmer from Salt Spring Island. Erin explained
how to layer straw, cow manure, cardboard, rice
husks and water hyacinth (an invasive plant that
is rapidly taking over local wetlands) in long piles,
3’ wide, 4’ high and 16’ in length. The materials
decompose quickly in Assam’s warm climate and
by keeping the piles moist and turning them
regularly, she soon had a large supply of finished
compost to add to the soil.
According to Urmila Baruah, past president of the Rotary Club of Digboi “traditionally, Assamese
farmers have always prepared compost. But when science meets tradition, new knowledge is
gleaned. The Canadian volunteers brought the knowledge that for effective compost there has to be a
balance of carbon and nitrogen in the compost materials.
They also explained that the traditional method of preparing compost in a pit deprives the compost of
oxygen and so it should be prepared above ground. This knowledge, when shared with the farmers,
has been highly appreciated and they have been inspired to try the process.”
With members of the Digboi Rotary Club acting as translators, Fertile Ground’s volunteers met with
farmers and tea growers from a number of nearby villages. They heard from the farmers that local
crops are being attacked by increasing numbers
of insect pests since fertilizer and pesticide use
has become more widespread and that growers
have little or no access to information about
sustainable or organic farming practices.
Carswell has observed that many farmers in
Assam have lost confidence in the traditional
practices used to control insect pests and improve
soil fertility. Most of the resource materials Fertile
Ground has collected and translated into the
Assamese language draw on the wisdom of
indigenous cultures. They encourage growers to
make compost and to use low-cost, locally
available materials like garlic, chili, haldi and
leaves of the local neem tree to make compost
and to use low-cost, locally available materials like garlic, chili, haldi and leaves of the local neem tree
to make preparations that reduce insect damage but don’t harm beneficial bugs such as lacewings
and preying mantis. Other useful practices that have fallen out of practice include placing perches
made from lengths of bamboo in rice fields, or leaving strips of uncultivated land between fields to
help attract birds and other insect predators.
The garden project has begun attracting attention from a number of different sources. Four students
in Camosun College’s Environmental Technology Program have earned course credits by
volunteering for several months at the project site, and other volunteers from Canada including
university students from several other institutions have helped out as well – making compost and
vermicompost for the garden, and assisting with weeding and watering plants.
They’ve also visited with staff and students from several colleges in the area to explore opportunities
for future collaboration, developed a handbook for volunteers interested in working at the project site,
toured an organic tea garden that received technical support from Fertile Ground, and worked with
children from the nearby Muliabari neighborhood to create a slide presentation about making
compost that features the kids themselves doing the work.
Canadian volunteer Laura Colquoun designed some
colourful containers that encourage people to
separate materials like paper and food scraps from
other waste materials. At Adarsh Seuj Prakalpa,
these materials are added to the compost piles to
produce top quality, organic fertilizers.
This
approach was welcomed by members of the Digboi
Rotary Club who have recently embarked on an
awareness campaign to help improve the town’s
waste management practices.
A contribution made by the Cumberland Centennial Rotary Club in Canada helped Fertile Ground
begin construction of a classroom and resource centre at the site, and funding from a Vancouverbased organization, Canada India Village Aid, a Canadian NGO helped furnish the classroom and
launch a new training and work experience program for women in Digboi and nearby villages.
In Digboi, Rotarians have become enthusiastic spokespersons for the project. Many enthusiastic
Rotarians of Digboi have started brewing compost teas for use in their own gardens and are making
compost, and are happy to explain to visitors the techniques they’re using to keep insects away from
vegetable crops. Vegetables grown without chemical pesticides or fertilizers are regularly harvested
from the new beds at the site, and are sold at weekly meetings of their Rotary Club. Flower and
vegetable seedlings are also grown in a new poly house erected this year at the site, and the sale of
these materials as well as vermicompost provide a small source of income for the project.
The project currently provides full-time employment for 3 people from Digboi, who participate in
training sessions conducted at the site and in nearby villages, and are always on hand to greet a
steady stream of visitors looking for ideas and inspiration to help them grow healthy food for their
families and for local markets. A new production unit for preparation of formulas was recently
completed, and plans are underway to construct a small “Green Shop” where organic vegetables,
vermicompost and other products will be sold.
More information about the project, including helpful information about how to grow crops organically
in both English and Assamese languages, is available at www.fertile-ground.org.