School dropouts from Northeast's interior villages sow the seeds of natural farming and agripreneurship

In many interior villages in the country's Northeast, school dropouts, mainly due to poverty and drug abuse have become a serious concern.

Tailih Wangsu of Arunachal Pradesh's Longding district, bordering Myanmar, is one such student. About two years ago, Tailih, however, resumed her education at Don Bosco Hijuguri in eastern Assam's Tinsukia district and gradually started learning organic farming. Tailih is now in class XII under the National Institute of Open Schooling and is among 20 such students from Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, and Assam staying at Hijuguri. They are not only back to education but have also started growing their own food in the 45 bigha land inside their farm learning centre at Hijuguri "We just buy the seeds from the market and grow vegetables and rice for our consumption," Tailih told DH from Hijuguri. "After completing our education, we will continue natural farming and hope to pursue it as a career," she said.

The students have now started conserving the local seeds and growing them in their field so that those can be preserved for the future.

Read | World would gain $1 tn by closing agriculture gender gap: UN

This became possible after the Don Bosco center took help of Samir Bordoloi, a natural farmer from Assam. "Our purpose is to make sure that when they finish education, they don't become another group of educated unemployed and migrate in search of jobs. We are teaching them conservation of our local seeds, their cultivation and promote consumption of local food. This will help them become self-sustained and agripreneurs in the days to come," said Bordoloi, who has been training young boys and girls on natural farming for the past 15 years. Bordoloi is the founder of SPREAD NE, an NGO promoting natural farming.

Abinash Kerkata, another student from Mariani in Assam's Jorhat district said he is learning how to pursue a career in agriculture and horticulture after completing his education, instead of running after government jobs.

"They are now even sharing their knowledge with students in nearby schools and the farmers, who are going for the harmful chemical fertilizers and the hybrid seeds," Bordoloi said.

Preserving the local seeds:

On April 18, the students organised Bohagi Seed Mahotsav at Don Bosco Hijuguri, where seeds of over 100 varieties of paddy and 101 varieties of greens were exhibited in order to spread awareness about the local seeds and local and healthy crops. The Mahotsav was organised as part of celebrations of the Bogagi or Rongali Bihu, Assam's biggest cultural festival.

"Losing out heirloom seeds means losing our food wisdom. We must conserve our local food crops by growing them in our farms and gardens. Our children must learn to be the custodian of such seeds and crops," Bordoloi told DH. "We are trying to inculcate knowledge at an early age."

"These children will go back to their villages and similarly train farmers and school children there. This will help us gradually promote natural farming, agripreneurship and create employment opportunities in their villages itself," Father John Pudussery, director of Don Bosco, Hijuguri, said.