GUWAHATI, Jan 20 ? Incredible it may sound. But, truth at times sounds stranger, incredibly stranger. For the past over 50 years, a group of Assamese farmers is living in a sort of commune. Initially, the group consisted of 25 to 30 families, now it consists of 63 families. But, even today, when the strong wind of market economy has been shattering all social structures in the developing countries, these farmers are exercising their minds to strengthen this commune more.
Incidentally, the place where these farmers are living is only about 55 kms off this capital city. Winds of change, modern education have touched these people, enlightened them. But, all these have made them reaffirm their belief in the age-old proverb ? united we stand, divided we fall, unlike most of our so-called ?modern elites?! Destiny had tried to throw the ancestors of these people out of their native villages located in various parts of the united Kamrup and Nagaon Districts of the State as foundlings. Those impoverished people from traditional farmer families, assembled in the Ulani areas, under Khetri Police Station, and prepared themselves there to turn on destiny with the grit to script a new history for themselves and for the rest of their tribe.
They broke a plot of around 550 bighas of land considered non-arable by the old residents of the area, and, formed a farmers? cooperative society to manage the farm activities. As the land used to remain (and still uses to remain) under water for about six months in a year and under five to ten feet of water during the high flood season, they took to Bao variety of paddy. They laboured equally in the field. And whatever produce they harvested, they shared that equally among themselves. This practice was started in 1950 and is still continuing in the Ulani areas. Further, those farmers also started managing the beel, called Nijara Beel, which surrounds their paddy field Ulani Pathar, with a water area of 126 bighas, and, with the earnings from the fish of the beel they set up a girls? high school ? Sri Satya Sai Girls? High School, on a plot of land donated by a rich disciple of Sri Satya Sai Baba, around 25 years back. Today, their descendants are running the school with the income from the beel and also with the donations they receive from the people of the neighbouring villages.
The descendants of those farmers live in the five villages of Ulani, Tamholong, Dharbam, Dhopguri and Robin Gaon. Faced with the problem of the dwindling Bao yield, these farmers have now taken to Boro cultivation. But, here too, they have started facing some serious problems. Boro variety of paddy being a sali variety, needs much water for its cultivation, but the Ulani Pathar, despite its remaining under water for about six months in a year, has no provision to facilitiate Boro cultivation. The commune members hence concentrated on installing an irrigation system in the Ulani Pathar.
They came in touch with the district nodal NGO for Kamrup, Society for Appropriate Technology (SAT), which is engaged in micro-financing activities in the Khetri-Dimaria area and the apex NGO Rashtriya Gramin Vikash Nidhi (RGVN) was also roped in to evolve a solution to the problem. Finally, a model for a micro-lift irrigation system, ? Nijara Ulani Community Micro-lift Irrigation System, was devised by a Bihar-based national NGO PRADAN with an estimated project cost of Rs 8.08 lakh.
The commune members were engaged in laying the canals for the irrigation project on Sunday. Talking to this correspondent, Sri Pratap Deka (63) of Tamholong village and the president of the Ulani Krishipam Samabay Samiti, Sri Jiban Deka (50), of Dhopguri Village and the secretary of the Samabay Somiti, Sri Kanuram Baishya (58), secretary of the No 1 Canal Management Committee and Sri Ranjit Barali, SAT Project Co-ordinator for Dimaria area, said that the project was expected to be completed within February next.
The project will help the members of the commune fulfil their long-cherished dream for multiple crops, they said, and remembered with gratitude the technical and administrative help they received from the State Irrigation Department and the Kamrup District administration in designing the project and implementing it. Dr Dinesh Baishya, Honorary Executive Director of the SAT, said that the cost of the project would be borne from the money received from the Assam Rural Infrastructure and Agriculture Service Project Society (ARIASPS) and also by the farmers themselves. Members of the cooperative society will bear 30 per cent of the cost, besides offering voluntary physical labour for the execution of the project, Dr Baishya said.
Meanwhile, the cooperative society has also taken up a Rs 2.85 lakh project to build a godown and a raised platform to store and tread out the grains during the harvesting time, with the fund received from the DRDA, in the midst of the Ulani Pathar. The Society is now the owner of three power tillers and three trailers. It is receiving the delivery of an Escort tractor along with a trailer within a day or two, said Sri Jiban Deka.