The Storm: A True Story

A storm is a disruptive event which brings significant devastation, damage property and the environment, and disrupts normal life. It is used as a metaphor in this case due to similarities of the situation and impact.

A disruptive event occurred in 2023 in SAI-Sustainable Agro field area in Odisha which destroyed the self-sustaining ecosystem of SAI completely. The prediction was made a decade ago, but no such protective measure was taken.

The Impact: While the direct beneficiaries – the affected farmers had to migrate to different cities as labourers, SAI co-founders had to migrate out of the country to earn and repay the loan.

What happened? Why were the protections not taken even when the prediction was made? Whose fault? Who paid the price? The most important question – how to safeguard against such storms?

The Prediction: The prediction of this disaster was made almost a decade back. Various journals and reports (PaperMart 2012, IPMA, 2014) mentioned the growing challenge with raw materials for the forest/wood-based industries. The growth in consumption of paper translated into consumption of about 23.50 million tons per annum by 2025, which required an additional 1.2 million hectares of pulp wood plantation. Despite such warnings, almost no effort was made by the industries, and they continued to rely on the market for procurement.

The Storm: In 2023, the demand for pulpwood increased tremendously, and the industries relying on open markets for pulpwood procurement as raw materials (paper, plywood) started poaching other’s areas. SAI-Sustainable Agro which had built its own self-sustaining model in agroforestry over a decade with pulpwood plantation in 3500 acres in Odisha, fell victim to this poaching.

The agents/vendors from other states came during the nights with trucks, labourers and harvesting machines, and stole the wood from SAI area to the tune of INR10 million. In some cases, they lured the farmers with the promise of paying high prices, gave some advances and harvested the woods. The farmers who cheated SAI, got themselves cheated by these agents, as they never paid them. SAI team tried hard to protect its people and plantation, but without success. The self-sustaining system was broken.

The After-Effect: SAI Co-founders, who had taken bank loans to finance the agroforestry interventions, were in severe loss. Everything, which had been going on so well for almost a decade, went in complete disarray.? The co-founders had pledged their home as collateral, and default in the repayment of the loan could have cost them their home.

While the co-founders were forced to end their retirement, moved out of the country to re-enter into employment to earn and repay the debt, many of SAI farmers migrated to cities as far as Hyderabad, Surat, Kolkata and Delhi to work as daily wage labourers.

Life after the Storm: SAI Co-founders are earning from their salaries and repaying the debt. They are also sustaining a small core team of SAI in the field, which is rebuilding the ecosystem slowly. ?The farmers who got lured by external agents are regretting, many of them have offered compensation to SAI. Life is slowly coming back to normal.

The question remains: Whose fault? Who paid? And more importantly, what to do to prevent such disaster?

Any feedback/Suggestions??

Jitendra Sinha