Hello,
Greetings from India.
Kindly bear with this rather long communication.
1.Speaking for the Indian situation to put the matter into perspective, specifically in the field of education: Education here is largely a decentralized provincial responsibility which means the 20 odd states and union territories have their own curriculum. The curriculum itself carries a strong urban bias, fails to effectively address the critical issues faced by rural communities and is mostly top down chalk and talk. There is hardly any content that attunes the young learner to ecological sensibilities. The content in text books on agriculture still talks of factory style chemical farming,use of pesticides, big dams, large scale irrigation, wheat, rice and sugar cane. Given this, the urban learner has lost out on the farming reality and the rural learner from a farming family is learning the wrong things about farming. The result, we have urban migrations, unskilled, unemployable youth who look for short cuts in livelihood/career opportunities hardly any youth who want to farm by choice.
So to answer the first question, we will have to begin young, groom children to being attuned to ecological sensibilities, understanding where and how food is grown etc. In this direction there are many efforts in India, but nowhere enough. For any effective outcome it will require to be mainstreamed into the educational system.
A recent unpublished article gives a pan India overview of some of these initiatives. attached.
Tending a Schoolyard Garden, a book that is addressed to the educator, teacher is a readily available resource for anyone who wishes to explore introducing children to the fine art of growing an edible garden in a school/community/group situation. flyer attached.
The real solution may lie in offering a separate holistic curriculum for children and youth that is specific to farming/rural communities, their life and livelihoods. This too is available, for anyone who wants to see it implemented. flyer attached.
Both the above documents are very relevant to Inida and its neighbouring nations as also to parts of Africa and South American developing nations.
2. Women farmers need ownership or at-least co-ownership rights to their land; seed sovereignty; access and direct contact with the consumer (small cooperatives and farmer markets); knowledge of on-farm input production practices, post- harvest processing, preservation and storage knowledge and facility. Sense of self-worth and dignity. The work of DDS in India is worth studying: www.ddsindia.com
3. Provide infrastructure, sanitation, health cover, education, recreation facility - all that goes into making living comfortable in rural areas. Nobody wishes to leave their home unless forced to by circumstance.
4. There are scores of initiatives in India and the rest of the world. Will share with this group through subsequent posts. A good site to look at is www.ofai.org
with regards,
Nyla Coelho
Nyla Coelho