Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
duce in Thiruvananthapuram. The bazaar has grown so successful that
consumers line up for over an hour in advance to purchase goods, and it
is now open every day of the week.
Thanal was formed in the late 1980s by Usha and her husband to
promote education about and advocacy on behalf of natural history
in the state. Formerly a K AU-
trained bureaucrat at a local Agricultural
Department office, she left her post to participate in environmental ad-
vocacy through Thanal. She explained to me that the intense focus on
science and chemical agriculture in the Agriculture Department made
her very uncomfortable.15 She had been deeply influenced by Japanese
farmer Masa
nobu Fukuoka's natural farming topic,
One Straw Revolution
,
which was published and translated into Malayalam in the late 1980s.16
Fukuoka's emphasis on chemical-
free agriculture created ripples within
environmental and farming circles in Kerala. Soon after Usha read the
topic, Thanal expanded its educational activities to include Fukuoka's
principles of sustainable agriculture. Illustrating the close links between
Kerala's environmental advocates and the state's Left, many of the staff
and leadership of Thanal are advocates of the LDF, and I would typically
run into them at CPI(M)-organized conferences and events.
In 2007, Vijayan invited Thanal and other organizations to draft the
Kerala State Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, the precursor to the
organic farming policy. This document is in many ways the bedrock
beneath the Biodiversity Board—it defines its direction and its policy
priorities.
During a visit to Thanal's office, R. Sridhar, a former engineer who
joined Thanal's staff to be active in environmental advocacy, explained
to me how he and other members of the nonprofit came to work with the
Biodiversity Board to formulate this action plan and the organic policy.
The process was very simple: “Vijayan sent us a leter . . . asking us to join
on a consultation on the State Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan,” he
said. Vijayan and his organization, intensely commited to the LDF's de -
centralization plan, deliberately sought input from civil society groups in
shaping the plan. Thanal was one among many other NGOs invited to help
draft and revise the Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, which Vijayan
had already begun to write.
