Dr K. Balasubramanian, the director of J. R. D. Tata Ecotechnology Centre, speaks about the JRD Centre, its path-breaking exertions on behalf of the rural poor, and the unconventional ways the institution goes about its task

Also see Ecology of hope

One of the many strengths of the J. R. D. Tata Ecotechnology Centre is that its philosophy precludes it from compartmentalising the rural communities it works with, or prescribing a standard set of solutions for all the poor people it seeks to uplift. This is also the philosophy it applies to the professionals within its ranks.

This refusal to place individuals in predetermined slots explains how a person whose academic record qualifies him as a sociologist came to head an institution that, on the face of it, falls outside the ambit of his expertise. K. Balasubramanian has a doctorate in sociology, but, more importantly, he has a feel for rural India, and an acute understanding of the mechanics of sustainable development.

Dr Balasubramanian speaks here about the JRD Centre, its path-breaking exertions on behalf of the rural poor, and the unconventional ways the institution goes about its task.

On the Swaminathan Foundation, biodiversity and sustainable development.
The Foundation's major area of involvement is biodiversity. We have done a considerable amount of work on coastal mangroves systems, which are being degraded all over the world. Over the last 10 years we have evolved methods of rehabilitating mangroves, and we are doing this on a big scale in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal.

Mangrove protection is an awesome subject, but not many people know of it (there are some who confuse it with mangoes). Mangroves have been protecting coastal regions from cyclones and storms from time immemorial; they act as a shelter belt when the wind hits. But in the past 100 years or so these natural protection systems have been hugely degraded. That makes the impact of cyclones much more severe, as is being witnessed across the Bay of Bengal coast. Mangroves are also fish-aggregate systems; they improve fish productivity, because fishes require a cool area to breed in and mangroves provide that.

The third and most important point about mangroves, from the Foundation's point of view, is that they are genetic pools for salt-resistant genes. The world is going to be in trouble soon because of the climate change. Seawater is going to come inland; it's going to seep into farming areas. In India, out of the 50 districts that produce food 25 are in coastal regions. Seawater seepage can affect these districts seriously, so what we'll need then are salt-resistant crops. That's when we'll need knowledge regarding salt resistance, and only mangroves will provide that.

We are working with forest department and villagers in the mangrove-protection programme. This is what we call participatory research. We have developed some technologies that are beneficial in this area. We train the villagers in using these technologies and now they are managing it. And we are among a handful of institutions in the world that has a complete genetic library of mangroves.

We are also involved in research on inland diversities, in major species like rice and in forgotten species such as minor millets. In the South Indian food culture, about 500 to 700 years back, these millets played a big role. Rice was just a part of the fare then. Today the knowledge to grow minor millets is available only with tribal communities, and they too are losing it fast, because they consider it a culturally inferior crop. We have tried to revive the cultivation of these crops, which have a nutrient content that's more than 30 times that of rice.

On biotechnology, the JRD Centre and research with a difference.
India's green revolution came with a high environmental cost attached to it, but we are not a fanatical organisation that takes extreme positions on this issue. More than 1 billion Indians have to be fed, which means we have to produce more and more food using less and less land and water. We are not against transgenic research; what we are against is some institution monopolising it, and turning it into a purely commercial vehicle. That's a dangerous game.

Biotechnology, on the other hand, is anticipatory research that's wedded to protecting natural resources. Dr Swaminathan has been talking about sustainable development for a long time, but till now agricultural research has been of the conventional green revolution kind. Sustainable agriculture is a slightly different proposition; it doesn't work in the same way.

The JRD Centre, and indeed the Foundation, taps a cornucopia of skills. My academic background is sociology, which implies that I don't fit the accepted mould of an agricultural expert. We also have microbiologists, toxicologists, even what we call entrepreneurologists working with us. A toxicologist should know how to form a self-help group. A sociologist like me should understand laboratory analyses. We have to wear many hats here, which means we have to cross many boundaries.

The Centre started out in 1996 with research that focused on solutions. This is when we crafted the 'biovillage' concept. There are a lot of resources in nature. There are various permutations and combinations possible with these. Our challenge lies in finding a combination that benefits people of a particular place in terms of employment, economics, energy efficiency and — this is the key element — preserving natural wealth.

I'll give you a crude example. We have paddy. Paddy gives us straw. From straw you get food, which goes into dairy farming, and you get milk. This is one value chain; it has a certain energy efficiency, a certain economy of scale, a certain employment generation capacity. Now, let's consider it another way. The same straw, instead of being given to a cow, is used to produce mushroom. The waste from the mushroom is converted into fish feed. This has a different value chain, a different energy efficiency. Like this, you can work out so many combinations, each with a separate threshold. The villagers we work with have identified various combinations and developed enterprises and activities based on these.

We take a different route from conventional agencies. They say, "Follow this idea." We say, "Don't follow this." We say, "We will test this idea jointly and you evaluate the outcome. If you feel that things are working fine, then we can take it forward. But don't take our word for it, because we don't have any magic mantras." This interaction, this evaluation is what we call training. Sustainable development is such a complex thing that you cannot have a single, standard package for all of India. In fact, what is good for one region in Kerala may be all wrong for another region in the same state. For instance, I can use neem as a pesticide in Tamil Nadu, but not in Uttar Pradesh.

Time and labour are the only assets the poor have. Our endeavour is to provide them with skills that can be linked to these assets.