Kynsai Shadap, NESFAS community facilitator under Madanrtiang, Ri-Bhoi Disrict, had earlier reached out to his own community the need to defend their Indigenous food systems especially during this pandemic crisis.
Having learnt the concept of Agroecology Learning Circle (ALC), Kynsai was able to help form an ALC group at his community with the help of 21 other custodian farmers. An ALC group is a concept promoted by NESFAS where it is an autonomous space for community member-to-community member reflection, action, analysis and innovation for revitalizing and sustaining local indigenous food systems for improving nutrition sensitive production, consumption and livelihood opportunities based on the principles of agroecology.
During the first meeting this week, the Madanrtiang ALC group have recently pledged to the following:
- To protect and preserve the traditional knowledge that is still existing within Madanrtiang.
- To maintain the Indigenous local seeds.
- To practice traditional techniques on local food productions again by several experimentations and to scale the successful ones.
- To promote intergenerational knowledge sharing.
“We want to take this idea forward not as a project but as a community initiative,” Kynsai said.
“Kynsai happens to be one of the most active Community Facilitator and he is also seen a role model for the Madanrtiang community members. We need more people like him to spread the message on the importance of Indigenous food systems” Khraw Wahlang, Adviser Community Empowerment Initiative and Innovation of NESFAS, said.
