Nayakrishi women gain command over seeds
“Sisters keep seeds in your own hands” is a powerful slogan of Nayakrishi farmers asserting the feminine role of seed keeping and regeneration of life. Nayakrishi Andolon, a movement of small-scale farmers practising biodiversity-based agriculture, is led mainly by women. Introducing the so-called ‘modern’ agriculture was a shift from the principle of biology and centrality of life to the deadly practice of chemicals, pesticides, and herbicides. Environmental destruction and ecocide are the results, along with shifts from quality to quantity of food production. The practice of the quantitative paradigm in agricultur (Read More)
Nayakrishi as an Eco-feminist Practice
Introduction
Nayakrishi, meaning ‘new agriculture, ' is a movement of small farming households in Bangladesh led by female farmers. The movement is critical for reducing food production into industrial fossil-fuel-based production systems driven by greed and denial of agriculture and rural lifestyle as a way of life. In the industrial paradigm of technology and production earth appears only as a source of raw materials and means of production and hardly the space where human beings share life with all life forms based on biodiverse relations and reciprocal dependence and/or caring. The characteristic feature of industrial civi (Read More)
Seed Sector of Bangladesh: Historical background and its effect in the present days
The historical background of the seed sector traced back to the British colonial period. Though at the initial stage, the British government was not interested in agriculture, however, this scenario started to change when the industrial revolution occurred in the 18th century and the global capital started to expand itself exponentially. To ensure the supply of the raw materials at a cheap rate for the industries established in their country, the British started to pay attention to the agriculture in colonial India. The British established an agricultural research institution named ‘Imperial Council of Agricultural Research’ an (Read More)
Nayakrishi farmers’ seed preservation, land rights, and women’s empowerment
Introduction
This action research report is based on UBINIG’s ongoing work with the Nayakrishi, a biodiversity-based farming practice led by small-scale farmers in two districts of Bangladesh.
In Tangail and Pabna UBINIG has been working with over 80,000 small-scale farming families. They are among approximately 300, 000 farming families UBINIG works with all over Bangladesh. Among 80,000 in Tangail and Pabna around 47,000 are women. Women are particularly involved in seed preservation and other related farming practices. These small farmers own less than a hectare of land each; families with no (Read More)
Nayakrishi Andolon: a pathway for just, equitable, and sustainable transitions and future in the global South
Introduction
The people of Bangladesh are ‘victims’ of the very predatory foundation of colonial-industrial civilization, based on fossil fuel. The country is a site of industrial extractive expansionism of exploitative global order. It is exceptionally vulnerable to climate change; and has been facing extreme weather with more and more frequent natural disasters like storms, cyclones, oceanic surges, drought, erosion, landslides, flooding, and salinization. These disasters are already displacing large numbers of people. Estimates show that by 2050, one in every seven people in Bangladesh will be displaced by climate cha (Read More)
Nayakrishi Andolon Geo-localisation: Bangladesh Brief description
Bangladesh’s farmers have struggled for decades to market their produce and earn a decent living. In the 1960’s, farmers were persuaded to adopt the Green Revolution model of agriculture. As a result, their livelihoods and other subsistence needs have been increasingly threatened (Mazhar et. al., 2001). In fact, the trade policies within the neoliberal globalised economic system continue to favour the industrial sector over the agricultural sector (Akhter, 2020).
Started in the early 1990’s, the Nayakrishi Andolon (New Agriculture Movement) has been building innovative farming prac (Read More)
Bangladesh: Community Seed Wealth Centers and stress-tolerant crop varieties
Brief history and functions of community seedbanks
In the late 1980’s, small-scale farmers practicing monoculture and chemical-based agriculture experienced loss of biodiversity and environmental degradation. The costs of production were rising beyond their capacity. In search for alternatives to chemical fertilizers and pesticides, farmers in the Tangail area of the country started Nayakrishi Andolon, a movement to support biodiversity-based ecological farming. The Tangail area was severely affected by the flood of 1988 causing severe loss of standing Aman crops (monsoon r (Read More)