Sanskritization of Food

If you decided to read this article because of the heading, well I'm happy you are here.

The term sanskritization in anthropology refers to the process in which the lower castes adopt the cultural practices of the higher castes to raise their status in the caste hierarchical order, giving them more social mobility.

So what does sanskritization of food mean? Food is universal. However, when the idea of sanskritisation of food becomes our reality, it means there is a prioritisation of one culture (or practice) over the other. This is problematic and this is essentially the problem in agriculture. We understood this term in greater detail thanks to Mr. GV Ramanjenuyulu.

My batch had the opportunity to spend the day with Mr. GV Ramanjenuyulu. He is the Executive Director at Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA). CSA is an independent research organisation in Hyderabad, partnering with NGOs and community-based organisations to establish Sustainable Agriculture models. He has spoken about the harmful effects of pesticides affecting agricultural practices in Satyamev Jayate (a popular TV talk show hosted by actor Aamir Khan). For more context about the work he has done in the field of agriculture, you can watch this wonderful TED talk.

Mr. GV Ramanjenuyulu talked about his journey as a student and how he entered the field of agriculture. Surprisingly, Mr Raman didn't come from an agriculture background, and neither did he come from a farming family. According to him, agriculture seemed like a better option to pick as the entry level barrier was very low in comparison to medicine and engineering.

One thing that bothered Mr Raman when he was a student was the dichotomy of what we was taught and what he observed. He was taught that different technological advancements (fertilisers, farm mechanisation etc.) had substantially improved the lives of farmers, while in 1986, he observed the first wave of farmers' suicide in Guntur, Andra Pradesh. If development was improving the lives of farmers, then why was suicide the product of that?

In 1994, the second wave of farmers' suicide resulted in the death of over 1000 farmers in Andra Pradesh. When Mr Raman had asked reasons for why this was happening all over again, he was told that most farmers were old, uneducated and did not know anything about farming. He decided to conduct his own research to understand this problem better. He was shocked to find out that majority of farmers that committed suicide were between the ages of 25-35, who were knowledgeable. On investigating further (which involved directly interacting with the family members of these farmers), he found that the root cause for the suicides was indebtedness. He also figured that there was something wrong in the agricultural practices followed, as farmers were never profitable even if they had a good harvest.

During late 1990, he presented a paper to his professors with the main premise of the paper being, technological advancements failed farmers in India. Despite severe backlash he received from the review panel, Mr Raman was certain of one thing, "knowledge is displaced and not built on the existing knowledge we know". Everything Mr Raman learnt was agriculture in context of the West. There was no focus on indigenous agricultural practices in the syllabus.

Mr Raman explained it to us in simple terms. The weather of a country like US is completely different when we compare it to a country like India. As a result, productivity will also vary. If winter in the US is accompanied with heavy snow and goes on for 6 months (say mid October to mid March), then productivity will be higher in non-winter seasons. However, in India that is not the case. Constantly having to compare our productivity with the West is futile as important factors like geography and climate are discounted. This comparison is essentially the 'sanskritization of agriculture' where practices in the West are used to standardise agricultural practices in India. This mentality is extremely dangerous as it discounts our local agricultural practices that do account for the geography and climate we are in.

Mr Raman talked about the first he village he worked with called Punukula in Andra Pradesh. In 2004, Punukula was declared a pesticide free village that completely adopted organic farming. Even today, it is completely pesticide free. So what did Mr Raman do here? A non-pesticide management integrated program. A couple of things that really stood out to me in this case study was:

1) Many farmers don't understand the ecological impact of fertilisers. When Mr Raman sat down with the farmers. He asked them what happens when pesticides are used. Many replied saying it kills all the insect. Then Mr Raman asked, "what if some insects don't die?", for which farmers replied, "these are strong insects, so we need to put more pesticides.". When Mr Raman actually explained the science behind this phenomena, which was the concept of genetically resistant insects, and how their immunity build because of pesticides, many were shocked. Although they understood one side of the story, after being explained the entire the process of what pesticides did to insects, they learned to see the big picture.

2) Mr Raman also told us how language and articulation was extremely important in communication. Mr Raman wanted to explain the concept of good insects and bad insects. Bad insects were insects that ate the crops and good insects were insects that ate these pests. However, when Mr Raman tried to explain this concept, many farmers found it difficult to comprehend this concept. Mr Raman then used the term "veg and non-veg insects". Vegetarian insects were insects that ate the crops, while non-vegetarian insects ate the vegetarian insects. This terminology was a big hit, as many farmers were able to understand more clearly what Mr Raman was trying to communicate.

3) Mr Raman wanted to change the perception of how farmers saw insects. If any farmer saw an insect on the crop, the immediate step taken was to the lather the crop with pesticide due to the fear that the crop would be affected. The non-pesticide manage management program focused on teaching 3 things:

1. The life cycle of different insects and at which stage during this life cycle is the insect a pest. When an insect in the pupa stage, it is not a pest. It will just be, until it metamorphoses into the insect. This knowledge of identifying this is what many farmers lacked.

2. Understand cropping when keeping in mind the life cycle of different insects. This was important as it taught farmers to understand different seasonsal insects better and crops suited to these seasons.

3. What to do if insects are still there? This involved learning a lot from the farmers as well. After interacting with a lot of farmers, Mr Raman and his team found out that and leaves that goats don't consume can be used as a natural pesticides. As these leaves are bitter due to the presence of latex, they are not consumed by herbivores. Neem leaves are a good example of a natural pesticide. After all these resorts, if the insects are still there, then only should pesticides be used. The main idea was to teach farmers to use pesticides as the last and final resort.

A couple of things Mr Raman also asked us to focus on was:

-Academia is very important. Do not discount academia when you are trying to solve a problem. You need to do sufficient research to understand the root cause of the problem before you arrive at a solution. Don't work your way backwards. Mr Raman was a PHD scholar and spent a majority of his life seeking answers to his why's and how's.

- We all have access to but data, but do we really know what the data is saying? Mr Raman emphasised on the importance of learning how to draw inferences from data. The example Mr Raman gave to explain the importance of data was through the types of crops grown in India. Crops like rice and cotton require a lot of water. Enough data have cited that we do have a serious water problem in India. Therefore, irrigation of water intensive crops like rice and cotton adds on to this problem. Yet, the government provides subsidies for farmers producing rice and cotton further incentivising farmers to cultivate these crops. The sad truth is that rice is exported at a subsidised rate to the global markets, which means we're making a loss against a loss. Why can't the government incentivise farmers to produce crops that are not water intensive like different types of vegetables?

-Always question dichotomy. If the reality is different compared to what is supposed to be the norm, question why. Don't be a conformist. Solving difficult problems in the world only began with someone questioning their reality or the reality of someone else. When you question and keep questioning, through time, you understand what the actual problem is and it is that understanding that is required to drive solutions. Don't be solution oriented, always be problem oriented. This is what differentiates best solutions from good solutions.

When you propose solutions, there will be resistance to this change. As there will be a set of people benefiting from the current system. So, try to embrace the resistance to change as well.

Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA)

This would be a broad overview of CSA and what they do. I figured these 3 slides Mr Raman shared with us has concisely summarised what CSA as an organisation is working towards and the impact they have created. If you're interested about CSA please check them out here and do support their initiatives :)

Mr Raman shared in great detail about what CSA

There were a couple of interesting things Mr Raman shared with us with his journey in CSA.

1) Sikkim is currently the only state in India that has been declared as an 'organic state'. Mr Raman worked with the government of Sikkim and several NGOs in Sikkim helping farmers. There were a couple of external factors that helped Sikkim achieve this status much easier.

-Total area of cultivatable land is only 75,000 hectares given its terrain.

-There is only one main road that through which everything reaches Sikkim, so it easier to regulate the ban on pesticides.

-The main problem farmers faced was the logistics cost of bringing their produce from their farm to the market due to the barrier of different terrains in Sikkim. One farmer could be up the hill, while another farmer was down the hill or another hill away. It was this problem that needed the most assistance. The Sikkim government subsidised the logistics cost so that farmers didn't have to worry about the cost incurred to sell their produce in the market.

2) Rice is a water intensive crop. The paddy method of growing rice where water is stagnated in a field is primary done to manage weed. The crop doesn't actually require that much water, and the paddy method of growing rice damages the structure of the soil as water it not allowed to seep in through the soil. The science behind this is that water required by a plant can be determined by the height of the plant and the number of leaves present.

The paddy method of growing rice has the following effect on the environment. This was calculated by Mr Raman. Here is the link to the published article by Times of India.

Paddy farming creates higher emissions than all other crops emissions than all other crops due to water retention in the in the field, which produces methane (20,223 kg per hectare) and field energy usage (6,240 kg).

3) One tonne straw on burning releases 3 Kg particulate matter, 60 kg CO, 1460Kg CO2 (Carbon Dioxide), 199 kg of Ash and 2 kg of SO2 (Sulphur dioxide). When Mr Raman studied straw burning in Punjab & Haryana, he found out something interesting. Farmers were taught with the idea that having a 'clean field' was necessary for cultivating crops. Hence, burning the straw helped one achieved this, although it was not even required.

Here is a brilliant article by Down To Earth that narrates the story of Punjab's paddy dilemma that resulted in straw burning.

This session with Mr Raman was such an eye-opener and I learnt so much from his experience. Agriculture in India needs a paradigm shift and it definitely needs passionate people like Mr Raman working in the frontline creating a large-scale impact!