The aromatic Basmati rice is no longer the exclusive food choice of relatively rich families alone, and a few poor farmers of distant Palamau villages too now are relishing it, albeit with a difference. While the rich pick up Basmati rice packets from grocery outlets, the farming families in these villages have grown it in their own fields.
And hence, while their neighbouring villagers this summer worry of food insecurity, over 40 farming families of Kararkala, Kararkhurd and Kala Pahad villages of Paton block are having the naturally scented Basmati rice.
“Four years back, we got Basmati varieties of rice seeds from Punjab to grow in our field after we had managed to revive the traditional Ahar-Pyne rainwater management system that had its origin in the Chanakya days. As there is sufficient water for our fields now, we are getting good Basmati rice yields,” said Nand Kumar Mahato (48), a farmer of Kararkala village, as he proudly shows off the Basmati rice along with his wife lalita.
Since centuries, many villages of rain-shadow Palamau district depended on Ahar-Pyne system of rainwater conservation for their agriculture, particularly paddy cultivation. But since 1980s, the system had been completely destroyed due to the mismanagement of the State Government. Four years back, Paton villagers with the help of Germany-based Welthungerhilfe’s Integrated Water Resource Management system, managed to revive the traditional system, thereby ensured sufficient water for their fields.
A few families like that of Mahato had then started cultivation of Basmati rice, and their success had later inspired nearly 50 other families to go for the cultivation of the aromatic variety of rice.
“Our grandfathers used to cultivate Basmati in 1980s as there used to be enough water those days for our fields. But for the last 30 years, this variety of rice had gone nearly extinct due to scarcity of water. Now, Basmati rice is back in our villages,” said Ram Brat Shah (55), another villager who is cultivating Basmati rice.
Ahar-Pyne is a traditional system of water harvesting in which water from the nearby hills are collected in series of ponds built below and later released into the paddy fields economically. And what are the Basmati varieties that the villagers are growing now in their fieldsIJ The varieties include Sonachur, Sonam, Mansuria, lalka Sitwa, Charka Sitwa, AR 64 and the like.
‘These varieties consume lot of water as their gestation period is about four months. Now that the villagers have water for their fields after the revival of the traditional water resource management system, cultivation of Basmati varieties is easy,’ observed Shyam Behari Singh, a social activist of Sampurn Gram Vikas Kendra, a Daltonganj-based NGO that worked with the villagers.
On the other hand, neighbouring Suta village, where rice yield last season wasn’t enough due to water scarcity, has adopted a new system to ensure that no one in their village starves this summer due to food insufficiency.
‘The villagers have created Food Grain Bank, in which each family contributes five kg of rice every month. They have now about two quintal of rice in the Food Grain Bank so that any family that requires urgent food grain during this summer could be helped from this,’ Singh added. The story is a part of Media Fellowship on ‘Water’