They say variety is the spice of life
SRI LANKA – For Subhramanyam and his wife Marudai, adding variety to their 500-square-metre garden in Maeskiliya, Sri Lanka was the key to its success. They used to grow vegetables and fruits in the garden using chemical fertilizer and pesticides and weren’t concerned about maintaining variety in their crop selection. They didn’t think about the nutritional needs of the family because their crops were grown to earn income, not to feed their family. Growing crops this way cost them 3,000-3,500 Rupees each four-month growing season, with crop sales totalling only 5,000-5,500 Rupees.
In 2008, Subhramanyam and Marudai received training from MONLAR, the Movement for National Land and Agricultural Reform that coordinates a network of farmer organizations focused on developing an alternative sustainable agrarian development approach. They now plant 10 to 12 different varieties of vegetables each season and grow a variety of fruits including guava, papaya, banana and jack fruit. They learned to use compost instead of chemical fertilizer.
MONLAR taught them to prepare fermented juice from fallen leaves and cow dung and use the concoction as a natural pesticide. They now favour native crops that grow well, conserve biodiversity and need less support. Each season, they preserve some of their own seeds from the varieties they plant. This means they don’t have to depend on costly commercial seeds and has helped them reduce their costs to between 500 to 1,000 rupees.
Subhramanyam and Marudai’s family is healthier since they began eating the organic produce of their home garden. Each day the family eats at least four different vegetables. Since they stopped using chemical fertilizer, they have also been able to gather more types of leafy vegetables that are growing naturally in their garden and are very nutritious.
MONLAR’s Peasant Information Centre (PIC) program works with farming communities to implement eco-friendly small holder farming methods of food production as well as providing training for skills and business development. Farmers were trained in bee keeping and women farmers were trained in food processing such as mango jam and pickles, using energy efficient stoves that help them in preserving the surplus for their own consumption as well as to sell in the local market for additional income.