Photo: NESFAS/Chakseng Sangma
A visit to Chandigre Village, falling under the Rongram Community and Rural Development Block of West Garo Hills, on 7th August 2015 by the NESFAS team ended with a scrumptious meal prepared by the Cooks’ Alliance there. The team accompanied by four cluster level facilitators of NESFAS from the Garo Hills – Mithera Sangma, Chaseng Sangma, Wallis Sangma and Sengrang Sangma and Fr. Anthony Marak, Asst Headmaster of Don Bosco Secondary School- Tura, were visiting Chandigre to conduct a Four Cell Analysis Exercise on millet.
Photo: NESFAS/Sengrang Sangma
All the vegetables that were used in the various dishes that day; including local pork with pumpkin, bitter brinjal chutney and local rice along with cucumber and yam served on the side were sourced from the jhum fields of the community.
The exercise brought out the existence of 9 varieties within the community and the fact of the loss of three varieties out of these.
With hopes to replenish the lost varieties, 19 farmers of the village jointly decided to organize a seed fair on September, 2015.
“I was impressed when I saw the cook’s alliance from Chandigre village came down together and prepared the local food for all the participants including the NESFAS team,” says Pius Ranee, Associate, NESFAS.
FCA is a technique used to assess the abundance and distribution of local crop diversity within farming communities.
