"Experts" and "activists" prescribe contradictory development paths for Kalahandi. For the governmenent agricultural and forest department "experts," irrigation, hybrid seeds and the usual industrialisation methods are prescribed. But even those promoting hybrid seeds express dismay at their lack of acceptance.
NGO activists (there are almost no non-funded people's movements in the district), on the other hand, call for preserving traditional nonchemical agriculture and local varieties of rice and other crops and building small "check dams" and "water harvesting schemes" at the village level. These are seen as alternatives to unsustainable "green revolution" agriculture and to dam-provided irrigation. As can be clearly seen in the ambitious and useful 1990 report, The State of Orissa's Environment, all dams in t he state and nearly all development projects seem to be opposed by one section or another of Orissa's environmentalists.
But, though NGOs have very visible offices throughout Bhubaneshwar, their impact at the ground level is hardly visible, and most of the water harvesting schemes which the state government has obligingly tried to finance are failing, perhaps due to bureauc ratisation. Kalahandi thus seems to be in the situation of neither effectively developing traditional methods and micro-irrigation projects, nor of benefiting from green revolution development. Its rice productivity per acre is low by all-India and even m ore by world standards. Yields of 12 quintals per hectare can provide more than sufficient food for low population densities but not in periods of population growth.
The many objections against over-dependence on chemical agriculture and big dam projects are valid, but it seemed clear to us, that simply maintaining traditional methods would be insufficient to allow the people of Kalahandi to move forward out of their misery. The need is development, not simply preservation or "conservation." None of the farmers we met were in fact rejecting improved seeds, "modern" irrigation or other aspects of "development" they were only saying these things hadn't yet worked for them.
Perhaps the NGO "activists" are not activist enough yet to really represent the people, and the "experts" do not know enough about local conditions to suggest useful ways of developing the indigenous capabilities. Some kind of "middle path" of sustainable development has to be found with the leadership from local people themselves but with the help of adequate research and extension agencies.
Manushi, Issue 97
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