Don't Sale, Don't Donate & Don't Mortgage Your Land in NE India

Don't Sale, Don't Donate & Don't Mortgage

The three Don'ts that we the farmers of Northeast India has to learn in terms of conserving our God-gifted 'Land'

Farmer Samir Bordoloi

Northeast India is the most looked-for region in the country to grow healthy organic food for the people of India. The Government of India is promoting the whole region into a hub for Organic food production. The youths of the region can sustain their livelihood by becoming successful Agripreneurs if we realize the potentiality of our Natural Soil. Farming in the region must be designed in a systematized way where we do not over exploit the potentiality of the region to produce good food.

The Country has experienced the soil quality degradation in many leading food producing states and zones and had to payback at the cost of life of many farmers who committed suicide and many more who lost their land to indebtedness. We cannot repeat that mode of large scale Industrial methods of farming in the name of Organic Food Production this time. The region is still virgin land with full of natural resources except few states following big mono culture of cash crops mainly in the plain regions of the Northeast. This is a truth that there will be high demand of food for the big population of the country and most of the soils of the major food growing areas has given up due to heavy exploitation through Industrial farming methods. So everybody is looking towards the half unexplored green northeast to feed good food. So we the farmers of the region has a big role to meet the demand in a very careful way so that we do not exploit our resources and the beautiful nature. 

We the farmers of the Northeast must realize that giving value to our land and  grow healthy food through ecological farming practices on it, we can retain our young people in our villages where they will get a sustainable livelihood opportunity and will not migrate to urban areas in search of jobs. We must involve them in profitable farming without making them depend on external inputs. Reuse and recycling of our natural resources through ecological farming, use of indigenous varieties of seeds and crops, our hospitable nature used to promote farm and village tourism, ethnic food tourism etc. can be the vehicle to the overall development of the region without exploiting the beautiful nature. 

In this world of fast and the furious, our people in the villages are blessed to lead a lazy life where even today nature supports us with lots of our needs like local forest food, good soil and good harvest to have sufficient rice grains for the whole year, indigenous fishes and other food items to lead a healthy life and most importantly good air to breath in. These assets of nature like the nutraceutical plants, local herbs and vegetables, different coloured rice varieties, beautiful villages and our rivers, people with hospitable nature are the future market potential assets. 

We have the resources that the whole world is looking for but we have not become the custodians of our resources when it comes to socio-economic development of the region. We do not value our land and the resources. We are happy selling trucks of soil which we dig from farmlands to fill up low lying areas of the cities. Its frightening when I see farmers selling land from paddy fields and chopping off mountains to fill up buildings and highways just for 300 INR per truck. Its frightening to see thousands of brick fields coming up in fertile paddy growing land. Its very disheartening to see mountains being chopped off in our hill states to sale the soil to Highway projects. Its very sad when you see agricultural land made into industrial zones.

Our people are so simple and hospitable that they are so fast in donating their farmlands to many projects where in people from the business communities get the free hand to tame our land and resources including the human resource in the villages. The laziness in us to not even use our farm lands to produce our own food and earn a sustainable livelihood through it leads to creation in the needs in terms of health,education,access to drinking water, infrastructure for living etc. In many remote parts of the northeast now a days, you can see many organizations and business houses with their own agenda of works take lead in meeting the needs of those simple minded, hospitable and lazy with nature people and ends up getting the most valuable asset 'Land' as donation to create their own food and tourism industry and eye on the whole Southeast Asian market with our valuable nutraceuticals and beautiful nature. Many time we the farmers land up in giving the land in mortgage for money we take as loan for hi tech industrial farming.

Its time to arise and awake for the youths of Northeast to take lead and understand the potentiality of our beautiful region and design social enterprises based on our indigenous resources. When Punjab led the Food production movement, those were all indigenous Punjabi farmers who took the charge. Now it is the time to produce good food for the people of the country, so indigenous farmers from the Northeast has to lead. Lets become agripreneurs, form social enterprises and come together and grow healthy food and establish marketing collaborations with other parts of the country by branding NE food and making the whole country prosperous. Double up income through Farm and Village tourism and establishing small scale food processing units like the Community Enterprises. 

For our kids to be happy and prosperous, we must not turn our needs into greeds and should have a circumference of our development. we must not forget: our land,nature,local food,forest food, fresh air and water and lovely hospitable people and a slow life is what the world will seek for. Lets cash on that and build our local economies. 

                 Lets  Keep our Land with us to grow food for the world's children. Lets regard it and promise not to sale, mortgage or donate.