Towards a journey for sustainability – A case study

As long as I breathe,
I will go on clearing the debris
with all my strength
From the face of this earth.
I will make this world habitable for this child;
This is my firm pledge to the newborn.
Sukanta Bhattacharya, Poet
(15 August 1926 – 13 May 1947)
Abstract:
The biggest challenge before this generation is to create sustainable work, as envisaged in the
Human Development Report (HDR), 2015, conforming Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
and the declarations of Global Climate Change Summit.
There is ample scope of creating new work to recover this planet from its Anthropocenic
disasters and the major area of reform is earth. In agriculture, by combining farmers’ traditional
knowledge with the new approaches in agricultural sciences, it is possible to develop
ecologically-sound agricultural systems which combine high and sustained production with
maintenance of the environment.
In fact, lots of studies have taken place in this field and for the last two decades considerable
practical initiatives are seen in so called organic farming in India. But the technologies of organic
production are practiced in isolation in most cases. No organic activities in production are
practiced through synchronization of rural productive activities and thus the culture of organic
products becomes luxury because of high price and creates no social impact.
This paper is an attempt to explore the experience of a project running in a village of West
Bengal by nearly 80 to 85 young workers of age between 18 to 40 years by integrating farming
with agro-food and meat processing to get the benefits of feeding back to the soil gaining zero
waste sustainable livelihoods. All waste materials out of food and meat processing and excreta
are being further processed to make animal feed and organic manure which is the most valuable
part of the project to make it sustainable economically and environmentally.
The word ‘sustainable’ throws the challenge of creating that standard of living ‘that meets the
needs of the present without compromising the future generation to meet their own needs’, or as
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formulated by Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen by broadening ‘the criterion to include what we
value (and feel committed to), rather that only what we enjoy as a part of our living standards.’
This project may be a unique example of facing the challenges of creating and adding value by
the present generation by doing not merely job but sustainable work.
Key words: Sustainable Work, Climate Change, Anthropocenic Disasters, Organic Farming,
Zero Waste
Introduction:
The word Anthropocene and some sensational graphs known as the Great Acceleration Graphs
(Appendix1) - iconic symbol of Anthropocene, are now haunting the global policy makers,
because over the past 50 years and particularly for the last 10-15 years “Human activities have
become so pervasive and profound that they rival the great forces of Nature and are pushing the
Earth into planetary terra incognita. The Earth is rapidly moving into a less biologically diverse,
less forested, much warmer, and probably wetter and stormier state.”1
The Great Acceleration Graphs last updated in Jan, 2016; have confirmed that “over the past 50
years, humans have changed the world’s ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any
other comparable period in human history.”2
These findings found support from the report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC), formed by UN body and World Meteorological Organization (WMO), “Human
influence on the climate system is clear, and recent anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse
gases are the highest in history. Recent climate changes have had widespread impacts on human
and natural systems.”3
In this perspective of unprecedented threat, the global heads declare Sustainable Development
Goals (2030) including goal of limiting global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius (°C)
compared to pre-industrial levels.
But Critics show doubt because, first, the implementation of agreements is still now influenced,
guided and run by the institutions responsible for the continuously rising the Great Acceleration

1
The Anthropocene: Are Humans Now Overwhelming the Great Forces of Nature? Will Steffen, Paul J. Crutzen
and John R. McNeill, Ambio Vol. 36, No. 8, December 2007, p 614
2
Ibid, p 617
3
Climate Change 2014, http://www.ipcc.ch p 40

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Graphs and, secondly, the Earth system “Operates at a time scale that is mismatched with human
decision-making or with the workings of the economic system.4
And by the time “The ultimate drivers of the Anthropocene, if they continue unabated through
this century, may well threaten the viability of contemporary civilization and perhaps even the
future existence of Homo sapiens.”5
Thus not only is the biggest but most urgent challenge before the youths of our time to be aware
of immediate environmental crises and take timely collective social initiatives to combat
imminent global disaster and create environment for sustainable work, not to leave all for
governments and corporate.
To save land – Major Component:
It is now fact before science that “the Earth behaves as a single, interlinked, self-regulating
system.”6 Therefore in response to devastating global change our approach to sustainable
development and environment protection should be holistic. Here we are concentrating on land
to learn to treat soils more holistically to recover its organic matter, increasingly being degraded
from the beginning of the 19th century ‘guano dependent” ‘British High Farming’ to present
chemical fertilizer and pesticide dependent world industrialized agriculture, creating ‘metabolic
rift’ in nutrient cycles of soil and emitting Green House Gas (GHG) in atmosphere.7 Our case
study will reveal that regeneration of soil quality can be done through synchronization of all rural
productive activities at village and simultaneous gain through value addition as well as to reach a
zero waste target.
Tona: Toward Sustainability:
Tona is a small village in Bhangar Block of South 24 Parganas in West Bengal, just 20 km far
from the heart of city Kolkata, comprises 1802 households (2011 Census), mostly belong to
Muslim community and small or marginal farmers. During 1999 some social activists and
technical persons started to interact with the farmers of Tona village regularly, regarding

4
The Anthropocene: Are Humans Now Overwhelming the Great Forces of Nature? Will Steffen, Paul J. Crutzen
and John R. McNeill, Ambio Vol. 36, No. 8, December 2007, p 619
5
The Anthropocene: conceptual and historical perspective, Will Steffen, Jacques Grinevald, Paul Crutzen
and John McNeill, Philosophical Transactions: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol.
369, No . 1938, The Anthropocene: a new epoch of geological time? (13 March 2011), pp. 842-867.
6
An Executive summary of the book Global Change and the Earth System: A Planet under Pressure, published by
IGBP p 6
7
The Ecological Rift, John Bellamy Foster, Brett Clark, and Richard York, Monthly Review p7

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agriculture practices, use of fertilizers and pesticides, water use, domestic waste use, etc. The
village was typically underdeveloped with no electricity; no formal educational standard and
with prevailing chronic unemployment. Agriculture was chemical fertilizer and pesticides based
and the tendency of backyard farming was microscopic due to the high cost of live stock feed.
Five years of intensive interactions especially with local youths to convince them that how the
productivity of soil is being gone away for using chemical fertilizer and for not using manure
with bird-animal excreta, the activists and experts with some interested stake holders formed a
private limited company, purchased a 3 acre plot with a big pond inside and started to implement
their ideas of integrated farming with allied industries.
Now the project is running with:
• Food processing units giving priorities of their agro commodity availabilities like Fruit
processing unit, Vegetable Oil Unit, Sun Drying and Mechanical Drying Rice Plant,
Chaakki Atta Mill, Spices Mill and Animal Feed Mill.
• Conservation of variety of birds, fish and domestic animals like goat, lamb, oxen, duck,
quail, rabbit, turkey, chicken.8
• Processing and packaging of bird, fish and animal meat for marketing.
• Cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants for the preparation of herbicides.
• Production of white phenyl9 through the extraction of lemon grass, citronella, accorus
calamus, neem, basak, etc.
• Processing of all waste materials out of food and meat processing and excreta to produce
livestock feed and land feed, organic manure.
• Distribution of organic manure and necessary herbicides to interested farmers helping
them to cultivate through organic practices. Procurement of the agro products out of
organic practices of the farmers for processing and thus the synchronisation is complete.
(Appendix 2)
Project Uniqueness:
Core of the project is its amalgamation of food processing and simultaneous pisciculture and
animal husbandry at village level under one shed and thus full use of waste to produce
organic manure and livestock feed which make the project both economically and

8
Community culture is the factor for not rearing pig.
9
Certified repellent power of this phenyl is 6.6 RWC, tested in statutory institution.

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 environmentally sustainable. The cost of production decreases day by day with the
improvement of integration system.
Without the practice of animal farming and meat processing, organic farming is a far cry – it
is their argument. They claim that this 360 degree rural agro synchronization with no
chemicals, zero waste and no harmful gases, is 1st time in India (Appendix 3). We are
enquiring at our best for a similar kind of project in India or elsewhere but yet to find. There
are some cases of horticulture with animal rearing10 and the farm related to the concept of
‘permaculture’11 but no case of total synchronization of all rural activities.
Project employment:
In 2004 the project was started with 10-15 workers. During 2011-12 the number of workers
rose to 63. Now the strength is 85. All are paid on monthly salary basis. The range of age of
the workers is between 18 to 40 years. 100% workers are recruited from Tona village. The
important feature of the project is that all works are being done by all the workers
rotationally and thus they are free from many negative hazards of division of labour. It has
enriched the capacity of the young workers to take management responsibilities when the situation
demands. Table 1
Yearly Expenses for the Employees of Tona
Salaries, 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
wages, (Rs.) (Rs.) (Rs.) (Rs.) (Rs.)
bonus, etc.
744,900.00 859,300.00 1,514,350.00 1,758,000.00 1,957,000.00
Source: Audited Profit and Loss Statement of the company, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015.
Indirect benefits:
Farmers of Tona village who are using organic manure and herbicides of the project can cultivate
with certainty that their products will be purchased by the project at satisfied price. Some of
them are also inspired of farming medicinal and aromatic plant as an intercropping cultivation.
Women of the village are being encouraged to rear domestic birds and animals and sell to the
project just before maturity for being adapted at the project’s standard environment for 3 to 4

10
Studies on sustainable livelihood of farmers in horticulture-based farming systems, K. Ponnusamy*, A.K. Shukla
and Kundan Kishore, Indian J. Hort. 72(2), June 2015: 285-288
11
Sepp Holzer's Permaculture, Chelsea Green, 2011.

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weeks. Workers also rear birds at their house at medium scale under the guidance of the project.
It should be mentioned that pisciculture and bird-animal rearing are free from antibiotic and
hormonal treatment and there is no incidence of bird-flu or major diseases since the inception of
the project.
Marketing:
The brand name of the products of this project is Tona, the name of the village. The company
spends almost nothing for advertisement except some leaflets or banners for the outlets. Products
are sold other than farm outdoor and their city office cum outlet in Kolkata, from all outlets of
Spencer, Mother Dairy, Live Stock Corporation Ltd, consumer cooperative stores across Kolkata
and some parts of West Bengal. Oberoi Grand, Kolkata and Taj Hotel of Tata Group, leaving all
corporate brands, are using the meat, oil and other food products of Tona. Other than Kolkata
and surroundings, Tona products are sold in Malda district at the initiative of a Farmer Producer
Organisation (FPO). That FPO is also going to install an integrated farming with allied industries
following Tona model at a tribal village in Malda.
Training Centre:
Tona Farm is open for all to visit, maintaining its hygienic environment. Inside the campus, there
are dormitories and guest rooms. Throughout the year different forms of training programmes are
being held there. Farmers cum Workers, students or research scholars from government and
private institutions, universities and NGOs use to stay here for a week or fortnight for
comprehensive training. Recently the organisation has been involved in executing a market chain
programme of Agricultural marketing of Govt of West Bengal.
Follow up initiative:
In Malda district of West Bengal, an FPO (Farmer Producer Organisation), lead by some young
adibasi farmers, most of them have marginal or no land, getting comprehensive training at
Tona project, embarks on a venture in a tribal village in installing an integrated farming system
with allied industries following Tona model.
Sohil model has unique potentiality because here the process of sustainability will be executed from the
grassroots through organising Farmer Interested Groups (FIGs) who will be a stable supply source of raw
materials and consumer of fodder and manure and including all interested farmers as stakeholders. Thus,
the possibilities of social ownership and control can be nurtured.

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PKVY and integrated rural activities:
Under PKVY, Govt of India is promoting organic farming through adoption of village by cluster
approach and Participatory Guarantee System (PGS), motivating the farmers for natural resource
mobilization for input production. This programme is also for practising organic farming in
isolation, not attached with fish cultivation, animal husbandry and allied units of processing. The
experience of Tona project shows us that the natural resource mobilisation for input will be
automatic through processing food, meat and excreta. PKVY can play a unique complementary
role if it integrates organic farming with allied processing activities at village level.
Conclusion:
The HDR-2015 has referred the attitude of a section of this generation who is linked to the new
world of work and has had access to modern technologies since childhood. They are called
Millennials. A 2013 survey of 7,800 Millennials from 26 countries revealed that many
Millennials are looking for work beyond creating profits, hoping to help solve environmental and
social problems as part of their livelihood. Another survey of 763 commercial entrepreneurs in
India was reported in the HDR-2015 ‘who experienced a transition from commercial to social
entrepreneurship between 2003 and 2013…. … emerging as a new workforce. They are cause-
driven people committed to addressing social problems and they establish non-loss, non-
dividend companies (where all profits are reinvested back into the company) that aim to be
financially self-sustainable and to maximize social benefits.’ The young workers of Tona and
Sohil villages have had no scope to be ‘Millennials’ but we have seen the way they organize
their productive activities for a sustainable project and a kind of social entrepreneurship is being
developed where these youths also ‘particularly keen to take a communal view of work’ like
their millennial friends.

Towards the creation of new work, their sustainable farming and allied rural activities have huge
potential to enhance carbon sequestration in soil, to absorb local work force, to supply locally
produced essential food items, to reduce the use of transport and thus carbon emission and most
importantly to act as catalyst in building healthy participatory society from grass-root.

• This paper is written with the materials collected for a Minor Research Project on Integration of
Sustainable Farming with allied Industries funded by UGC.

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Reference:
1. IPCC, 2014: Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the
Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland.
2. Human Development Report 2015, UNDP.
3. Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Resolution adopted by the
General Assembly on 25 September 2015.
4. “Global Change and the Earth System: A Planet Under Pressure” (2004), W. Steffen, A. Sanderson, P.D.
Tyson, J. Jäger, P.A. Matson, B. Moore III, F. Oldfield, K. Richardson, H.J. Schellnhuber, B.L. Turner,
R.J. Wasson, published by Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York. ISBN 3-540-40800-2.
5. Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future, 1987.
6. Organic Agriculture and Poverty Reduction in Asia: China and India Focus, Document of the International
Fund for Agricultural Development, 2006
7. Ecological Imperialism and the Global Metabolic Rift, Brett Clark, North Carolina State University, USA,
John Bellamy Foster, University of Oregon, USA, International Journal of Comparative Sociology 50(3–4),
2009.
8. India Development and Participation, Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen, Oxford, University Press, 2005.
9. Economic Development & Environmental Sustainability, Ramon Lopez & Michael A, Toman, Oxford
University Press, 2006.
10. Development with Dignity, Amit Bhaduri, National Book Trust, India, 2006.

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Annexure 1: Trends from 1750 to 2010 in globally aggregated indicators for the structure and
functioning of the Earth System.

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Trends from 1750 to 2010 in globally aggregated indicators for socio-economic development.

Source: The trajectory of the Anthropocene: The Great Acceleration, Will Steffen, Wendy Broadgate, Lisa Deutsch,
Owen Gaffney and Cornelia Ludwig, The Anthropocene Review, April, 2015.

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Annexure 2:

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Annexure 3: Tona leaflet
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