By Azera Rahman, IANS,
New Delhi: She may not be able to define climate change, but Ethel Sumi of Nagaland knows it delayed the monsoons in her region this year, which in turn affected the paddy crop drastically.
Boasting of perfect weather and rich flora and fauna, the eight states in India’s northeast are often said to be cradled in the lap of nature. But climate change, with all its manifestations in the form of delayed monsoons, unprecedented drought and floods, is making its presence felt in the region.
Sumi said there have been erratic changes in the monsoon pattern over the last few years.
“This year there was hardly any rain in the months of June-July, which is crucial for a good harvest. The result was that the paddy crop flowered, but there was no seed inside,” Sumi told IANS.
Rice is the staple food in the northeast and is one of the most important crops in the region. The otherwise dependable rainfall pattern in the region makes it a suitable place for rice cultivation.
“For the farmers in our region paddy cultivation is the main practice. But this time in our field itself, instead of getting about 100 bags of grain after harvest, we got just 30 percent of it. This has affected our family income drastically,” Sumi said.
Vaikulam Mathei of Manipur similarly said that the paddy cultivation in her state has been affected by erratic monsoons this year.
“Instead of June-July, the rains came properly only by September, but by then the harm to the paddy was already done. There were flowers, but no seeds. Even then, the rice that we harvested was not of very good quality but the prices have shot up in the market,” Mathei told IANS.
According to Mathei, the prices of some varieties of rice like Moirang have increased from Rs.15 per kilogram last year to Rs.25 per kg now.
“The middleman buys the rice from us but doesn’t give us good price, saying that the quality is bad. But he goes and sells the same thing in the market at a much higher price. Either way, we are the losers,” she said.
While changes in the climatic pattern is affecting a cross section of the population, rural women whose livelihoods depend on natural resources and agriculture are the worst hit.
Sandhya Venkateswaran of the NGO Wada Na Todo Abhiyan said: “If a pond disappears, it’s the women who have to walk longer for water. They are the ones looking for firewood. Whatever be the calamity it’s the women who bear the brunt because they are the ones who have to run the kitchen on a limited economy.”
“Climate change does not impact the typical urban woman’s livelihood as badly as those of rural and marginalised women whose lives are dependent on the forests, agriculture and natural resources,” she added.
Women like Sumi and Mathei were a part of the more than 220 rural women who were brought together in the capital this week by NGOs Oxfam India and Wada Na Todo Abhiyan to speak on the challenges they face in their daily lives because of climate change.
Am Rijiju of Arunachal Pradesh said that besides paddy, it was a bad harvest for vegetables like beans and potatoes too.
“We grow beans and potatoes in our field and this time because of less rain, the bean plants flowered but bore no seeds. Similarly the potato plants became red in colour and were spoilt. We plant the saplings in February and harvest in June, but because of this year’s fiasco we suffered a loss of 60 percent,” Rijiju said.
“Even the apples, which are normally big and juicy and exported, have become smaller and infested with insects,” she added.
While they demand that the government intervene and help them with modern agricultural practices or new drought- resistant seeds to combat the climatic challenges, the community has been evolving its own techniques and adapting to the changes.
Sumi said: “Since Nagaland is a hilly region, we are going to start our paddy cultivation in a different place now, which is on a higher altitude. This will prevent the saplings from being exposed to too much heat in the summers.”
Mixed cultivation — when a number of vegetables are grown in different patches of the field — and shifting cultivation are some other agricultural methods that these women said the farming community is resorting to.
Mathei added: “Our potato harvest was very bad this time; so next time we are planning to go for cabbage and cauliflower farming instead.”
(Azera Rahman can be contacted at [email protected])