On this 2nd International Year of Rice,
people working in 57 organisations from 10 rice growing states in India assemble at Kumbalangi during 9-11 December
2004 to launch the campaign to save rice. This workshop where grass root farmer
groups, researchers, women’s organisations, and environmental and other social activists are coming together is organized
by Thanal along with Self Employed Womens Association-Kerala (SEWA-Kerala) and Pesticide Action Network Asia Pacific. (PAN AP)
The workshop is attended by nearly 100 participants from the states of Chattisgarh,
Orissa, Punjab, Jarkhand, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Andhrapradesh, Kerala, Mizoram
and West Bengal. Prominent among the participants are Dr. Devinder Sharma (Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security, New
Delhi), Sri. Nammalvar ( Thamizhina Vazhviyal Multivarsity, Tamilnadu) , Dr.
Vanaja Ramaprasad ( Green Foundation, Bangalore), Sri. Rony Joseph (INFACT, Kerala), Sri. Jacob Nellithanam (Richharia Campaign,
Chattisgarh), Prof. M K Prasad (KSSP, Kerala) and Sri. Gomathinayakam (Vivasaya
Seva Sangam, Tamilnadu). The workshop is also attended by Farida Akhter( UBINIG,
Bangladesh), Wilhemina Pelegrina( SEARICE, Philippines) and Karsten Wolff ( Asian Rice Campaign, PANAP).
This workshop on rice is expected
to launch a nation wide discussion and action to save our rice in the coming years.
The participant organisations have been working in their own capacity towards sustaining rice and protecting seeds,
farmers wisdom, food sovereignty and rights for safe food. Now, they are coming
together to join in a single concerted campaign to address the challenges that rice cultivation is facing in all the states.
We invite your attention to this national workshop and request you to highlight the
need to sustain rice. As this workshop has many participants, some of them
who have been working in peoples movements, please do feel free to contact us to arrange for exclusive interviews with the
personalities.
“Save our Rice” Campaign,
c/o Thanal, L-14, Jawahar Nagar, Kowdiar, Thiruvananthapuram – 695 003, Kerala,
India.
Contact : C. Jayakumar (9447016587) (9847246681), Shibu K. Nair (9895182067),
email : saverice@thanal.org, web : www.thanal.org
Background
Rice is the most important food crop of the Asian community and in the south and eastern
states of India rice has a long history. Farmers have been nurturing rice through centuries and it is their identity. Their
life, festivals, rituals everything is connected to rice and rice comes to their help in times of even sorrow. The future
of rice was safe in their hands.
This is the Second International Year of Rice.
This year is being celebrated by Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), International Rice Research Institute (IRRI),
Agricultural Universities and scientific community. But most of the farmers in our country do not even know about it and do
not know the relevance of such a celebration. If we look back, we can see that
the first International Year of Rice in 1966 was also celebrated without our farmers being informed about it. The celebration was followed by the introduction of ‘miraculous’ ways of improving our farming
systems and lives of farmers. They called it ‘Green Revolution’ and
many technologies were dumped upon our farmers and fields as part of this programme.
While the revolution aimed at increasing productivity and through that improving the lives of the farmers and the rural
sector, we now have a clear understanding of how in three decades, the farmers’ woes have only increased, their lives,
social security and health have been ruined and the environment and food produced in the country have been miserably contaminated. Never in our history have we heard about farmer suicides, but now it has become an
everyday phenomenon. This years’ celebration of rice also does not want to discuss about these issues, rather these
big institutions are busy finalising the new trade policies that are promoting biotechnology agendas which they claim (once
again !) is going to save our farmers.
But all through these years, the farmers learnt a hard lesson. Many of them followed
the scientists and institutions and companies but later shifted their paths realising the hidden danger of losing control
over resources and knowledge and poisoning themselves. There is also a growing
realization that the traditions nurtured by farmers through the centuries, protected and perpetuated by them holds the key
to solving the food needs of the country.
“Save
our Rice” Campaign
Thanal along with Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA-Kerala) and Pesticide
Action Network-Asia Pacific (PANAP) like to use this opportunity and take the responsibility to bring people together to discuss
about issues related to rice. The primary intention of this attempt is to bring
together all who are concerned about rice, share experiences, and deliberate on ways to sustain rice and the culture of rice
cultivation. The campaign aims to reach out to the farmers, consumers and other
mainstream groups of respective regions, and join hands in challenging the onslaught of technology and money power that has
been instrumental in destroying this crop and the lives involved. The workshop
intends to launch the campaign to sustain rice in all its quality and integrity.
