SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2007 Edition

 

 

 

ALMOST from nowhere Bhuvaneswari jumped into the tsunami recovery and response process, with verve and commitment, to work with coastal agriculturists all the way down from Nagapattinam to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu.

The agriculturists were badly hit by the tsunami but their needs were largely unrecognised. Within months Bhuvaneswari found her feet and created an active federation of 3,000 coastal farmers. Interestingly, Bhuvaneswari is not a farmer. It wasn’t easy for her to lead poor coastal farmers and to think of salinity ingress as an opportunity. But she did. She introduced many innovations to tackle saline farmlands: organic agriculture, vermi-culture and permaculture.

Thousands of farmers benefited. They are now on the path of economic and ecological revival. At a time when coastal farming and poor farmers are being left out in the race to corporatise agriculture, Bhuvaneswari’s work shows a way to follow. She has forged coastal farmers, mostly ignored, into a strong federation. No wonder Mani Shankar Aiyar, Union Minister, Panchayats and Youth, found time to see her work and bestow her with the Anita Sen Memorial Award in July 2007.

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