Maghuapara
Explaining the community project
In 2010 when Udoy and Rupali visited Parijat, Uttam Teron alerted them to a worthwhile additional project in a previously unidentified village in a very remote area. This village called Maghuapara has very low literacy rates - less than 5% of the villagers can read. This is an important issue which needs addressing and we hope to open a school in the village in the near future but first we need to address an even more important problem. Traditionally, the villagers have practiced shifting cultivation. That is, they clear an area in the forest plant seeds and grow their crops for one season without fertilizer and without irrigation because, in the past, there has been sufficient rain to farm in this way. At the end of the year they would shift to another area and clear the forest again. This allows the land to recover between cultivation periods. Climate change has ended this practice since the plants have withered with insufficient rain. SASCWA hopes to provide support for changed cultivation practices and some animal agriculture so as to provide meat and/or eggs. In this venture we are very grateful for the assistance of Santana Sarma, Meera Saikia and Uttam Teron.
More recently we have trained the local women in mushroom growing. The mushrooms are grown in locally collected materials (bamboo, hay and straw) - they can get Rs 100 or $2/kg for the mushrooms.
More recently we have trained the local women in mushroom growing. The mushrooms are grown in locally collected materials (bamboo, hay and straw) - they can get Rs 100 or $2/kg for the mushrooms.
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