Members of the Agroecology Learning Circle (ALC) at Jatah Lakadong village in East Khasi Hills shared the findings of their experiments with a team from the Meghalaya Basin Management Authority (MBMA) in a knowledge sharing session held yesterday.
The event was organised as part of the ‘Empowering Indigenous Communities through Agroecology Learning Circles (ALCs) for resilient, integrated and innovative natural resource management’ innovation project initiated by NESFAS and with funding from MBMA as part of an innovation grant under the World Bank-aided Community Led Landscape Management Project (CLLMP), for supporting the scaling up of innovative practices to enable communities to better manage natural resources.
Seinglung Mukhim, Secretary of Jatah Dorbar Shnong, stated that the event has been organised to showcase the work done by members of the community.
An overview of the work that has been conducted in Jatah highlighting the key activities of the community was presented by Gratia Dkhar, Lead Associate at NESFAS. Antilest Suting, farmer from Jatah Lakadong, on the other hand, shared the findings of the experiments that have been carried out under the Jatah ALC in regards to finding viable solutions to replace the use of chemical inputs in the farming system.
The members have experimented on cultivating potato using farm manure and biopesticides to substitute the use of urea and chemical pesticides. She shared that members observed little difference between potatoes harvested from control and treated plots. While there is a reduction in yield, the expenditure on inputs was largely reduced in doing organic cultivation.
ALC member, Otilia Mukhim, shared, “We will continue to preserve traditional farming and seeds that are available in our community. We will also move forward to make organic biopesticides for a chemical-free community while encouraging and promoting school and kitchen gardens”.
