From Commando to an Undisputed Farmer
Bewang Lowsang, hailing from Tirap District in Arunachal Pradesh, was a tough man. As part of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), he had been involved in many battles on the rugged Himalayan terrain and amply demonstrated his fighting spirit. During one of his annual holidays in his native village Bera Khonsa, it dawned on him that there were challenges to be overcome on his home turf too. There was a need to tackle the elements of nature in a more productive and environment friendly way.
The inhabitants of the area practiced shifting cultivation or "Jhum", the process of selecting fresh forest patches for cultivation and then leaving it for regeneration. This practice of cultivation did not provide food security round the year. It was also detrimental to ecology of the area. With burgeoning population pressure and requirement to conserve soil, Jhum was a regressive practice that needed to be discouraged. Bewang rose to the challenge of weaning away his fellow villagers from this harmful practice.
He visited the nearby Agricultural Technology Management Agency(ATMA), where after a few interactions, he realised that organic farming and hybrid vegetable growing was best suited to the relatively small and stony land holdings ubiquitious in the area. Bewang moved swiftly. He resigned from CRPF, came home and enrolled for training at ATMA in Khonsa. After the training, he went to Tinuskia in Assam and purchased hybrid seeds of cauliflower, cabbage, brinjal, and tomato.
What followed then was two months of rigorous labour to treat his field that was full of gravel. He also toiled hard to set up a manual drip irrigation system. However, Bewang was no stranger to hard work and soon his efforts paid off and his crop flourished. Finally, Bewang managed to sell his vegetable crop for Rs 30,000. This gave him confidence to continue farming by using appropriate technologies. Today, he is a trend-setter in this village and people of the Nocte' Tribe (of which is a part) have started following his footsteps to take his pioneering effort further. What a transformation for Bewang from a paramilitary commando to an undisputed commander!