Educating or Imposing

This week we have been gathering information on the agriculture sector. Jesse and Saru have been awesome in going through our 7 hours footage of the education sector and putting together the documentary with iMovies. We have been splitting our team to better use our resources and maximize the time we have in Hubli.

Site visits are always an eye opening experience. It is amazing how many people are willing to speak to us because we are students hosted by the Deshpande Foundation. Yesterday, we visited BAIF and Digital Green. BAIF's projects are mainly in agroforestery which is the technique of growing trees along with crops. Digital Green focuses on the dissemination of agriculture techniques to farmers through cost effective video tutorials and interactive viewing session with a local resource person. One particular issue I find interesting is the cultural implications of using human waste as fertilizer. Although farmers are comfortable with using animal feces such as cow's urine and dung, there is a cultural mind block against the handling of human feces. There is a huge public defecation problem in this region. Not a single day go by where I do not see a man urinating in the fields, on the sidewalks, and by buildings. There are unmarked area of defecation grounds that are simply understood by the locals.

It seemed natural to link the two issues together -- health and agriculture. The usage of human waste as fertilizer has been used and proven to be nutritious. However, even an agriculture expert was hesitated to promote this method. Yes, there is always a necessary level of education in spreading best practicing but when does it become outsider imposing outside techniques to the local farmers. It is a difficult line to tread. We have been trying to focus on need-based by speaking to the people we want to impact -- the marginal farmers (who have less than 1 hectare of land).

However, it is difficult. Do they know what they need? When I asked one marginal farmer for his vision for his farm, he looked blank and did not know how to respond. Can we be effective in helping him when he has no future in mind? I think it is a challenge that development work constantly faces. We want to be able to help the ones who need help the most and make the largest impact. However, from our site visits, the ones who need the help are often paralyzed by daily problems to think of sustaining solution to their challenges.