By H H Mohrmen
When people are asked what the International Terra Madre means to them the response is quick to come because it is not something new nor is the idea foreign and which is imposed on us. As a matter of fact the idea behind the ITM is to reinforce what is already there in the community and which has been handed over from generation to generation. ITM is an opportunity to go back to our roots, our cultures, our traditions our best practices in agriculture and other livelihood activities. It is moving forward with our roots firm on our value systems and the principle of life of the community. But more importantly, ITM also helps us realize that there is much we can learn from the other indigenous peoples and that we also have so much to offer to the world.
The coming of ITM is like sprinkling cold water on our faces to wake us up from our deep slumber and make us realize that ours is a traditions which has profound relationship with nature and that everything that we do, we do with total reverence to mother earth. The Khasi-Pnar people understand that the earth is not only a dwelling place of the animate beings but it is also a place where the demigods associate with the hills, the rivers and the forest lives. The Khasi-Pnar traditionally had no temple or church and they worship everywhere because they considered the world a sacred place and every bit of this land as holy as any other. They therefore considered the mountains, the rivers and forests as sacred.
In the ITM which it is known locally the International Mei-Ramew Festival, there will also be talk about food sovereignty and initially I thought this is a foreign idea but then when I scratched a little further I realized that this is something that is still being practiced in our villages till today. With the little experience that I have in promoting livelihoods in the villages I found that in every household that we surveyed, farmers are engaged in multi-livelihood activities. We tend to look at it from our salaried economy perspective and interpret this phenomenon as income security. We thought that farmers involved in farming many crops and also engaged in other livelihood activities like livestock rearing and even doing daily wages is all about income gathering, but now we know we are wrong. We assume that they plant multiple crops and engage in many livelihood activities to be on the safe side; that in case one crop or one activity fails them, then they would always have something to fall back. They do not depend on one crop or one activity so, this is a perfect case of income security, we conclude.
In fact the farmers have already made it starkly clear that they involve in multiple livelihood activities not for any other reason but for household use or self sustenance only. It was us who assumed wrongly because as livelihood promoters we failed to read what is already obvious. If one were to ask any farmer what crops or vegetables he/she grows, they will say, “Oh many things! (bun jait),” and then add, “well it is just for household consumption.” Whatever they plant is for household consumption only and the little extra that they produce from their garden is sold in the market to buy their miscellaneous needs. On our visit to Moosakhia the other day we noticed that in a small garden of maybe less than one thousand square feet, farmers planted garlic, mustard, beans, peas, beetroots and many other vegetables in one place. This is multi-cropping and food sovereignty in action.
We also supplement our nutritional needs by eating food that we collect from the forests like mushrooms and hundreds of other wild fruits and vegetables. I must thank my facebook friends on the ‘I tkong jong War’ page who had helped me come up with the list of more than 20 types of wild vegetables that people in War Jaintia (Amlarem Sub division) area consume. In fact each community in a different geographical area has its own varieties of wild, edible vegetables. This also reminds me of the interview that I had with an old lady in Lumchnong village many years ago who lamented the fact that the community had lost their land to cement companies which had also denied her the opportunity to collect wild vegetable from the forest. The lady said that she can no longer collect wild vegetables from the forests because the land in the area is now owned by cement companies. “We use to wander in the forest to collect vegetables and wild fruits, but now we can’t do that anymore,” she lamented.
We did not realize that our people have followed this system of multi-crop farming because it is part of tradition and in doing so we also practice food sovereignty since time immemorial. In fact we even have a saying in Khasi, “U khaw na iing; ka doh na sem, u jhur na kper.” Translated this means that we have everything we need – rice from our fields, meat from our sheds and vegetables from the garden and we are in control of our nutritional needs. I think this is food sovereignty- the Khasi-Pnar way.
ITM is also going to give us the opportunity to talk about our local seeds which we are gradually losing to the hybrid or genetically modified seeds. Indigenous seeds have been handed over to us from our forefathers from generations to generations which have passed the test time and could withstand the vagaries of weather and pest attacks. Unfortunately these seeds are gradually being replaced by hybrid or GM seeds. In Jaintia hills alone according to Dawmanchuh Lamar (an Agriculture officer who had documented seed variety) the districts have more than 120 types of local rice varieties. We also have many varieties of millets and other vegetables like cucumber, tomatoes, chilies, pumpkins and others but these are on the verge of extinction because the government had introduced commercial seeds to the famers. Not only crops and vegetables are on the verge of extinction but even the numbers of our traditional live-stock is dwindling. Local chickens and pigs are being replaced by foreign or hybrids animals. These are some of the issues that need to be highlighted.
The hosting of the International Mei-Ramew Festival is also like looking at a mirror and realizing how wrong we were to fall for the government’s suggestion and to use pesticides and chemical fertilizers only to be advised to take and u turn and go back to our earlier type of farming. The government is now suggesting that the farmers return to organic farming which was a farming practice that our ancestors has followed since time immemorial.
ITM is also an opportunity to reflect on our traditional value systems and question ourselves whether we have been able to live by those values as a community. Have we been able to live by the community’s cardinal principles of earning righteousness, knowing our fellow human beings and know God and to know and respect our relations from both the mother and the father’s side? Do we still follow these principles or are they becoming just empty rhetoric that we brag about during public debates but which are conveniently ignored at the personal level? If we still practice ‘earn righteousness’ and live by this principle and bear in mind that God is with us every moment of our lives then why is there so much corruption and crime against women in the community and also why is there rampant destruction of the environment in the state? Where has the righteousness gone?
ITM reminds us of our tradition which is rooted on a profound and cordial relationship with nature. The relationship whereby we know every herb or blade of grass by its name and every animal shared a story with human its fellow traveler on this big blue boat. A relationship that is so close that we can easily distinguish an edible plant from a non edible one and also enable us to identify medicinal plants from others. Hopefully the celebration will help strengthen the community’s deep respect for nature which is our temple, our home and the habitat of our fellow being. This should teach us that nature is everything to us and that it is not only our home but it is also our school from which we learn our lessons for life.
Most importantly may it remind us of the importance of collective responsibility which has always been the hallmark of the community – that everything we do is for the common good (ka bhalang uba bun balang). A community that believes the well being of the community is paramount to everything else.