How Does Your Garden Grow?

When people get accustomed to a particular lifestyle, they develop attitudes that are near impossible to change.

Damayanthi Godamulla of the Kegalle-based NGO called Community Development Centre, wanted to train the people of this tsunami-affected seaside village a new and worthwhile pastime: home gardening. The odds were overwhelming odds: Her assistant, Rasika Hewawitharana, who works with the beneficiaries, says it was an immense challenge to change attitudes among the affected people because they were fisher-folk. They were unfamiliar with the intricacies of home gardening. “Their lives were focussed on the sea,” he says, “They didn’t know anything except fishing.”

The settlement being located close to the sea, the ground soil contained too much salinity and was unsuitable for cultivation. But the NGO, undaunted by the challenge, arranged for suitable soil to be transported from three or four kilometres away. Each lorry load (around 1,000 Kgs) costs upto Rs 20,000 (US$ 196).

The next constraint was that of limited land space; there was just not enough land available in their sparse gardens. But Hewawitharana was determined to overcome this handicap too. So, in conjunction with the local community, he set about increasing the cultivable area. Did they buy or rent more land? No, nothing so mundane; besides, they couldn’t afford that luxury... Inspired by a system of cultivation that is widely prevalent in Nepal, they set about increasing cultivable surface area. Think innovative… The surface area of a mountain is greater than the base on which it stands. So, they created little hillocks in their gardens to increase land available for cultivation. These home gardens are now a profusion of mukunuwena, spinach, radish, kankum, leafy vegetables and ginger.

Not content with resting on its laurels, the NGO has planned a second phase, in which more soil will be bought in. To enhance yield, organic fertiliser will be introduced and a compost unit will be installed in every home garden. As one family told us, “We are confident that what we plant here is pure and clean. We eat chemical-free vegetables. Besides, it increases our livelihood and supplements our income from fishing.”

These families have been accustomed to cooking their meals over wood fires in makeshift sheds. SSGF has funded constructing and equipping 100 indoor kitchens, complete with furniture, racks, pots and pans. Sixty such kitchens are already in progress and, when completed, each would have cost Rs 15,000 to 20,000 (US$ 147 to 196).

The people of this community are happy with the outcome. The smiling faces that one sees are evidence enough.

A Little Innovation Goes a Long Way

An entrepreneurial spirit and a little bit of ingenuity have helped Anusha Kumudini overcome the difficulties she faced after tsunami waters flooded her home. Anusha lives in a humble house down a narrow winding road in Kahawa. In her garden, coconut palms and banana trees sway in the morning breeze; it could have been any garden in a village in the south of Sri Lanka.

In a corner of the garden, a man turns the handle that activates a clattering spinning wheel fabricated with wood and the rim of a bicycle wheel. This wheel helps Anusha, her sister and aunt to convert coir into rope, the family’s traditional profession. An innovative feature about Anusha’s spinning wheel is that it has three spindle hooks, whereas the standard model has two. The machine was modified to allow her aunt to contribute to the family’s efforts at earning a livelihood; by doing so, Anusha has effectively increased productivity by 50%.

Anusha buys raw coir at Rs 20 (US$ 0.20) per kilogram and sells rope at Rs 40 (US$ 0.40) per kilogram to manufacturers of rugs, gunny bags and jute products. She speaks with admiration of the samithi (CBO) to which she belongs. The CBO received SSGF funding and has a little over Rs 400,000 (US$ 3,920) in its revolving fund, which is accessible to its 47 members.

Anusha used most of her loan of Rs 25,000 (US$ 245) from the CBO as initial capital to buy rope made by other people and resell it at a profit to manufacturers. She used Rs 1,500 (US$ 15) to buy the spinning wheel and repays Rs 1,300 (US$ 13) every month.

“I am very impressed with the samithi,” Anusha says, “Especially because they lend at 1% per month (reducing balance), which is the lowest in these parts.” Other CBOs she knows of lend at 2% per month and deduct Rs 375 (US$ 3.70) upfront from the loan amount, she explains. The CBO also conducts very efficient meetings - only once a month, lasting one hour, which is great because it does not cut into her time that is spent converting coir into rope.