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Lapshishour, a village at the quake’s epicenter in rural Nepal

4/28/2015

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ImmagineTikaram's family - Tikaram is pointing the damaged house, the mother is the one next to him.
By Gabriele Sutera writing from Kathmandu, Nepal
This blog is also available in
Italian

April 26, 2015.The last strong tremor occurred around midday and right after we took the motorbike to go to the village. Along the road we come across several villages. The houses are all closed and shops’ shutters drawn down, they are like ghost villages. Far from the buildings people are sitting on the road and are only meagerly protected from the elements by improvised tents. People are too afraid to go back inside the houses. Since yesterday people have been living on the road or the fields next to their homes. The power of the earthquake’s first tremor is still very fresh in people’s minds. 

Veering off the Priviti highway, the main road that connects Kathmandu and Pokhara, we enter Ghorka‘s district. The further we travel, the more the damage from the earthquake becomes evident. Ten kilometers before Ghorka city we take left onto a gravel road. About half an hour later Tikaram, my colleague and friend, tells me to pull over and stop. We are in front of a stable of which only half a roof remains from its previous structure.  We park the motorbike and start walking; we are now in Mirkot’s VDC (Village Development Committee). We cross the little creek that runs alongside the village and then we follow the path uphill. Suddenly, Tikaram points to a little forest which borders the path and tells me “Eh Arjun, you see this forest? Ten years ago there was no forest”. Puzzled, I wonder why and he explains that a lot of people have left the village since they prefer to live in the city, in India or the in the Terai (Nepal’s lowland plains). The path continues uphill and the forest gives way to a landscape of hillside terraces, recently planted with rice and corn. At some point the path led us in front of two houses belonging to the village of Lapshishour. The inhabitants of the two houses are sitting in front them and are staring blankly at their houses; it is very hot at that time. Both houses are evidently damaged, but still standing. The metal roofs are intact but the thick stone walls, bonded with cement and soil and plastered with red colored soil are cracked. 

I ask if it would be possible to go inside the buildings to have a look. A tiny wooden staircase brings me up to a small balcony on the first floor. The floor is full of stones, dust and plaster flakes. A big hole, one meter high and almost two meters wide, allows the light to enter the rooms which, until then, had been used as bedrooms and storage rooms. From outside the buildings almost looked good, from inside, however, they are devastated. The inner walls have collapsed; the beds are covered in debris under which only the corners of the bed frame can be seen.  Six quintals of rice and three quintals of maize are entirely covered by dust and big stones. The conditions are similar in the adjacent building, just that in this building not even the door of the bedroom and storage room can be opened. The next harvest, and consequently period of income and food availability, is going to be in almost three months. We have to return to the valley before it gets dark. While we are walking with Tikaram we discuss the fate of the little village and its 100 residents. He thinks the earthquake marks the end of this community. At the village down in the valley the people invite us to drink tea and they tell us how violent the first tremor was.

I was at the farm when the first earthquake struck the day before, and it caused the water from the water storage tank next to which we were working tip and spill. It was supposed to be a happy day; we were harvesting cow horns with inside the BD500 preparation, a treasure for those who practice bio-dynamic farming. About one hour after the first tremor there was a second very strong earthquake. Our neighbor Gimre, who came to help us that day, literally jumped as far as possible from the water tank and held onto my arm squeezing it strongly through the shaking. We still did not realize how bad the situation was in the rest of the country. Right after lunch we heard the first news. I contacted a friend who was traveling toward Kathmandu and he described a destroyed city in chaos. Tremors continued throughout the night. The next morning, same as every other normal working day, the farm workers came punctually at 5.45, since the work day begins at 6 o’clock. At 10 o’clock after the daily breakfast meal of daal baat tarkari (lentils, rice and vegetables) the workers left to take care of their houses, belongings and families since they expected more earthquakes. Tikaram, the farm’s manager, was able to get in touch with his mother who lives in a village not far from the earthquake’s epicenter, about 20 km. Her house was partly destroyed. I proposed Tikaram to take the motorbike to pay a visit to his mother’s village, it was almost midday. 

In Nepal and in the area affected by the earthquake there are many villages such as Lapshishour. Right now all the attention is turned toward Kathmandu and highly populated residential areas. Rural areas and their inhabitants have not been not considered much by media as remote are very difficult to reach. Time for reconstruction is likely to be long and the rainy season is forthcoming. What will become of the smallholder farmers and the inhabitants of remote areas who rely almost fully on their own harvests and energies to survive?

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Lapshishour, un racconto dalle campagne vicino all’epicentro del terremoto in Nepal

4/28/2015

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PictureTikaram e la sua famiglia - Tikaram indica la casa danneggiata, la madre è accanto a lui
Di Gabriele Sutera

Questo blog è anche disponibile in
inglese

26-04 -2015. L’ultima scossa verso mezzogiorno, subito dopo ci siamo messi in moto per andare al villaggio. Lungo la strada attraversiamo centri abitatiche sembrano fantasma, tutte le case sono chiuse, le saracinesche abbassate. Lontano dagli edifici la gente è sdraiata per strada,protetti solo da tendoni impprovvisati. La paura di rietrarenelle case è troppo forte, ormai da ieri si vive per strada. La prima scossa è stata troppo forte e il suo ricordo è ancora fresco. Lasciamo la Prihviti highway che collega Kathmandu e Pokhara e ci addentriamo nel distretto di Ghorka. Più ci inoltiramo e più sono evidenti i danni causati dal tremore. Una decina di kilometri prima della città di Ghorka, deviamo sulla sinistra e ci immettiamo su una strada sterrata, continuiamo per una buona mezzora finchè Tikaram mi dice di accostare e fermarmi propio accanto ad una stalla di cui resta solo il tetto, mezzo tetto. Parcheggiamo la moto e cominciamo a camminare. Siamo appena arrivati nel VDC (Village Development Committee) di Mirkot. Attraversiamo il fiumiciattolo che costeggia il villaggio, e poi cominciamo a salire verso delle case che si vedono in cima alla collina. Tikaram indica un piccolo bosco che costeggia il cammino e mi dice, “Eh Arjun, you see this forest? Ten years ago there was no forest”.Incuriosito gli chiedo il perchè, lui mi spiega che molta gente è andata via preferendola città, l’India o il Terai (la zona pianeggiante del Nepal). Il percorso continua a inerpicarsi su per la collina, il bosco lascia posto alle terrazze in cui il riso e il mais è stato piantato da pochi giorni. Il cammino ci porta di fronte a due case che appartengono al villaggio di Lapshishour, i suoi abitanti stanno fuori, fissano le case e hanno gli sguardi un po’ persi, c’è molto caldo a questora. Entrambi gli edifici sono evidentemente danneggiati, ma stanno ancora in piedi.I tetti in alluminio sono ancora al loro posto, gli spessi muri in pietra, legati con cemento e terra, e ricoperti da terra rossa sono evidentemente crepati. Chiedo se è possibile entrare per dare un’occhiata. Una piccola scaletta di legno porta al balconcino del primo piano, il pavimento è cosparso di pietre e calcinacci, un grosso foro alto circa un metro e largo un paio permette alla luce di entrare nelle stanze che fino ad allora erano servite come camere da letto e deposito viveri. L’edificio, che da fuori sembrava appena danneggiato, è internamente devastato, i muri interni sono collassati, dei letti si vedono appena i cuscini, i 6 quintali di riso e i 3 quintali di mais, sono sotterrati da grosse pietre, polvere e calcinacci. La situazione è simile nell’edificio adiacente. Nel secondo edificio la porta del deposito non si può neanche aprire. Il prossimo raccolto sarà tra quasi tre mesi. Bisogna cominciare a scendere a valle prima che si faccia buio. Mentre camminiamo con Tikaram discutiamo le sorti del piccolo villaggio di appena 100 anime, secondo lui questo terremoto segna la fine di questa piccola comunità agricola. Al villaggio giù a valle gli abitanti ci invitato a bere un the e ci raccontano la violenza del terremoto.

Io ero in azienda quando la prima scossa fortissima ha fatto trasbordare l’acqua dalla gebbia accanto alla quale stavamo lavorando. Doveva essere quasi un giorno di festa, infatti stavamno dissotterrando i corni di bovini con dentro il preparato BD 500, un tesoro grandissimo per chi fa agricoltura bio dinamica. Circa un’ora dopo un’altra scossa fortissima. La gente a questo puntoera ancora più spaventata.Il nostro vicino, Gimre, che era venuto a darci una mano è sobalzato e con un salto si è allontanato il più possibile dalla gebbia aggrappandosi con forza al mio braccio. Ancora non ci eravamo bene resi conto della gravità della situazione. L’azienda è situata ad appena 40 km dall’epicentro del terremoto. Subito dopo pranzo le prime notizie sono arrivate, ho contatto unamico che stava viaggiando verso Kathmandu, mi raccontava una città mezza distrutta e nel caos. Le scosse hanno continuato più leggere durante la notte. La mattina del giorno seguente, puntuali come ogni giorno, i lavoratori sono venuti in azienda alle 5.45, il lavoro inizia alle 6. Hanno raccontantato che hanno passato la notte in bianco. Alle 10 dopo il daal baat tarkari quotidiano (lenticchie, riso e ortaggi) tutti sono rientrati a casa per occuparsi dei loro averi e delle proprie famiglie. Sistemare le cose in vista di altre scosse, portare le cucina a gas fuori, mettere al sicuro il raccolto, e preparare le tende dove passare la notte. Tikaram, il manager dell’azienda,era appena riuscito a mettersi in contatto con la madre che vive in un villaggio a una ventina di km dall’epicentro. La sua casa è inagibile. Ho Proposto a Tikaram di prendere la moto e andare a fare una visita al villaggio, era quasi mezzogiorno.

Come il villaggio di Lapshishour ce ne sono centinaia in Nepal e nella zona interessata dal terremoto. Adesso tutta l’attenzione è rivolta verso Kathmandu e i grandi centri abitati trascurando le campagne e i suoi abitanti. La stagione delle pioggie è imminente e il tempo per la ricostruzione probabilmente non sarà sufficente. Che ne sarà di tutti i piccoli agricoltori e delle loro famiglie che vivono in zone remote e che per la loro sussistenza contano quasi interamente sui proprio raccolti e le proprie energie?

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Knowledge intense vs input intense agriculture - perspectives from the "Food Otherwise" conference

3/11/2014

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Picture
By Gabriele Sutera writing from Wageningen, Netherlands

The relation between people, their food, the way of producing it and the way to have access to food saw big changes in the last decades. The mainstream idea that food production is not enough to feed the world’s increasing population is changing. The principles prescribed by the green revolution to achieve food for all are today controversial and arguable. Scientists, farmers, students and civil society gathered in a conference at the University of Wageningen  (Netherlands) to discuss the changing environment of our food systems. Today, an important portion of our food production is lost, for reasons which can be attributed to: inefficiencies of our food chains; in other cases a lack of adequate storage facilities or poor post-harvest techniques; or the opportunistic mechanisms created by policies that drive farmers to discard their own production . There is a growing consensus that in order to reduce poverty, hunger and exclusion, we don’t need to increase production but we must link people to food by increasing food accessibility, both physically and financially, rather than remaining focused on increasing the supply of production. The chemical industry, which during the 60’s saw the agricultural sector as a great business opportunity, is omnipresent in our global food systems; the aggressive lobbying put in place by the  industry allowed them to reach their dominant position in the food production sector. This industry is pushing the agenda toward a “privatization” of the genetic resources that nature has provided us since life on earth began. 

The core of the conference workshop held by Vandana Shiva and the ASEED team members discussed a number of issues related to seeds, seed trading and the new seed law proposed by the European Union. Seeds are basic for the reproduction of the farm; making farmers dependent on companies for this central component of farm life, increases financial risks linked to the volatility of seed prices, their most important input to production. In different regions of the world, and especially in India, the effects of such dependence have been already shown a heavy burden on family farming – the suicide belt (a term to describe the upsurge of rural suicides due to irreversible indebtedness) in India is a perfect example. Vandana Shiva started by highlighting the importance of land races and open pollinated varieties for farmers. The ASEED team presented the results of studies showing that over 50% of the world seed market share is controlled by five multinational companies (Dupont, Syngenta, Kws, Monsanto, Limagrain). This is not only a threat for farmers, but for biodiversity in general. For this reason Vandana Shiva encouraged the creation of local seed banks and the use of open pollinated varieties, which promotes ex-situ and in-situ conservation of genetic biodiversity for future generations. Vandana Shiva concluded with an interesting and inspiring statement “concentration (of power) creates a system of slavery, when you can control food you can control people, when you control seeds you control life, the darkest way of dictatorship”.

Encouraged by the same interest, understanding the importance of biodiversity in providing the world population with fundamental services, the workshop “Food sovereignty in practice” held by the members of ILEIA, FIAN and TNI presented case studies that demonstrate how agroecological practices can make a difference in building more resilient, adaptable and sustainable food systems. In many regions of the planet, projects to encourage farmers to grow cash-crops (e.g. coffee, cocoa) –  mainly to satisfy the western appetite for such goods – were carried out in the past decades (and continue today). The population and the territories involved in such projects in many cases found themselves involved in a “common” spiral; first the projects bring intensification, land use intensification which ends up degrading soil quality and lowering its productivity, which is both a physical loss as well as a financial loss. The said spiral can be also seen from another perspective, as the workshop’s speaker showed. Relying on monocultures in a global markets where prices are subject to fluctuations highlights the instability of such cash-crop based systems. The need for change, the need for practices which are more diverse, such as polycultural (in opposition to monoculture) systems, make people think and question what alternatives could be used to establish a new paradigm. On this regard I would like to bring the example of a Cameroonian farmer, who recognized by his own experience the importance of diversified systems: 

“In 1987 is when I started planting cocoa, before I was only cultivating food crops with my wife; in a period of two years together me and my family planted 5 ha, something like 5 000 plants and along with that I planted 3 000 plantain suckers and about 300 orange trees. After seven years […] I got at least 50 bags of cocoa. 10 years later since plating some of the cocoa plants started to dry out – I think the land was not good, just too much rocks in this plot – and I lost at least 2 000 plants. I started replacing them with oil palm that I knew was more resistant […]” the discussion continues but it switches to the drop on cocoa prices “[…] by now I’ve come to realize that when cocoa is not doing well I can rely on the oil palm and when this is not doing well I’ve my oranges, so I don’t miss any season and the farm pays me well all year round”

This example shows how agroecological practices that encourage the use of agro-forestry systems help maintaining an equilibrium in the food production system from the farm to a global level, from the economic point of view as well as from the environmental one.

The UN special rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter, concluded the conference in a plenary session. By compiling the interesting elements presented in the conference, he drew a road map to lead to a new paradigm for moving forward in the agenda of reducing poverty and hunger and creating of innovative food systems. Still there is a lot of ambiguity on what agroecology is and what it means. Mr. De Schotter made clear how agroecology should be intended and what agroecology is; this, in opposition to industrialized farming –  the result of the green revolution – seeks for the creation of food systems which are circular and capable of reproducing themselves. Our food systems today are fully dependent on fossil fuels, which are injected in the system and consumed in a linear way, creating a circle that could never close. Putting the intensive and industrialized agriculture in contrast with the agroecological approach Mr. De Schutter called for an agriculture which needs to be more “knowledge intense” rather than “input intense”.

The green revolution, its agricultural and environmental policies, were not able to put the many elements that constitute our food system together in a harmonious way. Prioritizing production at very high levels in order to satisfy the growing demand was achieved while disregarding the environment and the socio-economic components of our food systems and societies. The bitter feeling that I sensed at the end of the conference is that mass agriculture created more problems than solutions.

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