Ryntihlang CLF-- Agents of Change

Every village in Meghalaya has stories of individuals or groups who have gone out of their way to bring about significant change. Travelling around Meghalaya, it is not uncommon for one to hear tales of community members who have worked tirelessly for local development and to improve the lives of people in their communities. The Integrated Basin Development and Livelihoods Promotion Programme (IBDLP) aims to nurture such change makers across Meghalaya and help them in their efforts to transform their local communities. Here we present the story of the Ryntihlang Cluster Level Federation under Cham Cham village cluster, a stellar example of how a group of individuals has been to come together to effect significant social and economic change at the local level.

Cham Cham is a village located in Khliehriat block in East Jaintia Hills district, Meghalaya. The village was established 300 years ago. Currently it comprises a total of 300 households with a population of 1995 community members. Cham Cham has a temperate climate and had lush forests and extensive green cover. Unfortunately, large scale unsustainable land use practices have resulted in the depletion of primary forest and colonization of the degraded sites by Pinus kesiya, a local variety of pine tree. The presence of isolated patches of degraded forests amidst the grassland imparts a savanna like appearance to the landscape of the region. Major crops grown in the village are paddy, maize, potato, sweet potato, ginger, turmeric, mustard, radish, cabbage, beans, pumpkin etc. Fruit trees such as pomelo, pear and indigenous fruits such as Prunus nepalensis (vernacular name – sohiong), Myrica esculenta (vernacular name - dieng sohphie) etc. are grown here as well. 

“CHAM CHAM CLUSTER”: BACKGROUND

About the Community Nursery 

A key initiative of IBDLP under Mission Green is the creation of “Community Nurseries” at the village level through the involvement of the village level groups such as Cluster Level Federation (CLFs), Cooperative Societies, Self Help Groups (SHGs), Village Employment Council (VECs), Natural Resource Management Groups (NaRM-G), Joint Forest Management Committee (JFMCs), Water Shed Committees etc. The Community Nurseries are owned and operated by communities or community-based organizations (CBOs) in a participatory mode with the government. The Community Nursery initiative is designed to increase sustainable green cover particularly in degraded, catchment areas by making planting material available and incentivising afforestation, supporting adoption of green technologies at the local level, and building a grassroots ‘green movement’ by engaging working with green ambassadors and encouraging the idea of ‘clean and green villages’ in the state. Village is also a source of key indigenous seed varieties of conventional crops such as paddy (kba laispah), beans (toh pnar) and ginger (sying blai). The Ryntihlang CLF was established in 2011 and incorporates 12 SHGs (10 SHGs from the village of Cham Cham and 2 SHGs from the adjoining village of Lumshyrmit; this adds up to one all male SHG, seven all female SHGs and four mixed gender SHGs. The governance of the CLF is carried out by 24 members- two representatives from each of the member SHGs. 

The Ryntihlang CLF was initially promoted by the Meghalaya Rural Development Society under the Meghalaya Livelihood Improvement Project for the Himalayas (MLIPH) funded by the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) and the Government of Meghalaya. Today the CLF operates a nursery and a highly successful seedbank under the Community Nursery and Community Seedbank initiatives of MBDA. The Community Nursery initiative is designed to increase green cover particularly in degraded catchment areas, supporting adoption of green technologies at the local level, and strengthening a grassroots ‘green movement’ by working with green ambassadors and encouraging the idea of ‘clean and green villages’ in the state. The Community Seedbank on the other hand acts as a genetic storehouse for indigenous food crops and ecologically rare and valuable species in the region. This allows for preserving genetic variations specific to local regions across the state, protecting regional biodiversity, and contributing to climate change adaptation efforts by ensuring preservation of diverse plant and food crop species that can adapt to changing climatic conditions. Both these initiatives are unique in that they are designed as social enterprises, which have both ecological benefits and can provide sustained livelihood to the communities that engage in these ventures.

HIGHLIGHT OF ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE RYNTIHLANG CLF

Since inception, Ryntihlang CLF has made significant strides in institution building and social mobilization. Its progressive internal social dynamics, cooperation among group members, and willingness to volunteer resources and time for local development interventions are all reasons why the CLF was chosen as one of the host communities to pilot both the Community Nursery and Seedbank initiatives.

Community Seed bank

Right from the start, members of the Ryntihlang CLF were enthusiastic about the seed bank concept and unanimously decided to contribute their existing land bank toward setting up the seed bank, and using it to conserve and multiply their local, indigenous, open pollinated, vegetable crop varieties. As of now, vegetables being grown at this Seed Bank site include local varieties of cucumber, tomato, potato, flat beans, pumpkin, bitter gourd, radish, mustard, sponge gourd and spring onions; spices include the Lakadong variety of turmeric, different types of ginger, chillies, garlic, and mustard. The seed bank is more than a storehouse for plant genetic diversity however; it is also a repository of formally documented knowledge on traditional agricultural practices, including preparation of indigenous varieties of bio-inputs (in lieu of chemical fertilizers). This knowledge not only helps retain organic, ecologically sustainable agriculture in Meghalaya, but also saves farmers the cost of expensive chemical inputs such as fertilizers. 

Having been very successful in their initial phase of growing these crops, getting a yield of high quality seeds, and storing it without spoilage, CLF members have now decided to diversify their seed bank in the next phase. Now they plan to also include local varieties of high value cereals such as rice and millets, roots and tuber crops, and temperate fruits. Results: Reports from rigorous, third-party laboratory testing of seeds yielded by the indigenous open-pollinated vegetable crops at Ryntihlang Seed Bank prove that the quality of seeds grown through these indigenous organic techniques has improved both seed quality and quantity from 53.52 % to 76% (on average).

Community Nursery

In comparison to other communities, the Ryntihlang CLF members quickly recognized the environmental but also long term economic benefits of the Community Nursery initiative. During interviews with CLF members, they mentioned that they saw this as an opportunity to restore degraded land in and around their own village and preserve the indigenous tree species of their region, many of which were valuable but declining. In fact, even during the initial period of the initiative, when MBDA was supporting communities in sales of the saplings grown at their nurseries, members of Ryntihlang CLF had already taken the initiative to explore broader market opportunities for independently selling their saplings without MBDA’s sales support. Ryntihlang Community Nursery has also become a model nursery. It is frequently used as a training centre for other CLFs who have newly started their own Community Nurseries. The CLF has 3 master trainers who have been trained by MBDA and external partner organisations. These individuals now get a steady income from regularly acting as resource persons for training community members across the state in seed bank and nursery management practices.

Social Achievements

It may be noted that the Ryntihlang CLF was already reputed as a strong community institution at the time that the Seed Bank and Community Nursery initiatives were started. It had been highly rated (B1 Grade, or “good”) in the statewide grading exercise that was carried out by the Indian Institute of Bank Management, Guwahati at the time that the MLIPH Project was wrapping up in 2012. As the seed bank and community nursery related activities have progressed, this CLF has not only become stronger in its internal operations, but has also emerged as an important steady grassroots partner for MBDA, supporting it in implementing sustainable development initiatives in communities across the state. Key approaches and achievements of the Ryntihlang CLF: 

  • The Community Seed Bank and the Community Nursery of the Ryntihlang CLF have become designated as a “Model Seed Bank” and “Model Community Nursery”; today they are used as Training Centres for other CLFs that have newly started their own Community Seed Banks and Nurseries.
  • CLF members have contributed labour in the form of sweat equity i.e. members earn their share of the seed bank by working in it, and contributed various materials and also cash as required for operations of the seed bank and nursery. For instance, if 10 individuals are required for a day’s task, then typically all SHGs are requested to send in equal numbers of members to participate in the activity; rosters are maintained to record the hours contributed by an individual. This even distribution of work reduces the potential for conflict within the Community Nursery and makes activities equitable.
  • The CLF has take the initiative to drive engagement with local officials in the Community & Rural Development Block of Khliehriat (within which administrative unit the CLF is located) to mobilize financial assistance to construct compost pits and acquire livestock, particularly cows which act as a source of fertilizers for the CLF. The assistance mobilized during the period 2016-17 was approximately INR 70,000 and had enabled the scaling up of organic farming input production. Assuming the role of local environmental leadership, Ryntihlang CLF also took the initiative to organize exposure programs for college students from Martin Luther Christian University Shillong. During this, CLF members shared their learnings from their efforts to conserve indigenous open pollinated crop varieties and discussed the importance of their work for environmental sustainability

 

COMMUNITY EXPERIENCES AND LOCAL DYNAMICS

During our visit to the CLF we were able to speak to a number of the members and record the key issues that emerged during the discussion. Some of these have been discussed earlier in this article. A few others are summarised as follows. The Ryntihlang CLF has had the advantage of having access to land at the time that the Seed Bank and Community Nursery initiatives started. This was an advantage over other CLFs that had to negotiate land access with individual group members or with land owners that may not have been CLF members and who did not share the CLF’s interests. When asked about their reasons for participating in these initiatives, Ryntihlang CLF members mentioned both ecological and economic benefits. They explained that the seed bank provides the opportunity to bring back indigenous and organically grown crops into local mainstream agriculture, while the nursery allows them to reclaim previously degraded land. They said that both these initiatives were smart ways to conserve indigenous species and conserve ecology, while also providing a sustained source of livelihood to the people.

Another point is the lack of locally available, viable livelihood options in the Cham Cham area. This limitation was acutely felt by community members subsequent to the ban on coal mining which used to be a primary livelihood activity for many communities in this region. This forced community members to seriously invest time and resources into making their Seed Bank and Community Nursery viable activities that could serve as alternatives sources of livelihood (via sale of seeds and saplings) and also strengthen local agriculture and make it more economically viable (via enhancing quality of seeds and restoring hardy, popular crop varieties particularly vegetables, spices and food crops).

CHALLENGES

The CLF encountered a number of operational challenges during the initial phases of implementation of the initiatives. The members however have expressed that these challenges served as learning opportunities and ended up strengthening their operations. Key challenges stated by CLF members during the interviews are as follows:

The Ryntihlang CLF has been a great source of knowledge and inspiration for many communities engaged in sustainable agriculture and ecological interventions, besides being a critical institutional partner for MBDA. We at MBDA wish them the best of luck as they progress forward and scale up their activities.

For more such stories, visit our website www.mbda.gov.in