Bidyalaxmi Ningthoujam; a young Permaculture revolutionist of Manipur
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By Editor HY News
Reverberating what Albert Einstein said, “The only source of knowledge is experience.” Likewise, we came across a story radiating hope, aspiration, and a way forwards to food sovereignty that forged out of profound pain and struggles from the journey that molded a young permaculture revolutionist.
27-year-old Bidyalaxmi Ningthoujam embraced “Permaculture”, considering it as the most traditional way of respecting nature and the best alternative to alleviate the ecological crisis. She also aspires to develop cohesive relations with the community, a space of co-sharing, and reconstruct the deteriorating glory of nature.
According to Bidyalaxmi; Permaculture is not a new culture in Manipur, it has a long association with the way of life our ancestors lives. She said, "Permaculture is the way to permanent culture". It maintains the ecological balance of nature and provides human beings with the real warmth of nature and makes the man feel her aura. She names her farm located at Senjam Khunou "LEEKLAM" which means creating ways.
She explains that Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design that adopts configurations observed in flourishing natural ecosystems. She is practicing a set of design principles derived using whole-system thinking. Her methods apply the basic principles of permaculture such as regenerative agriculture, rewilding, and community resilience.
Permaculture originally came from "permanent agriculture" but was later adjusted to mean "permanent culture", incorporating social aspects. The term was coined in 1978 by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, who formulated the concept in opposition to Western industrialized methods and in congruence with Indigenous or traditional knowledge.
While explaining to us her models reflect integrated water resources management, sustainable architecture, and regenerative and self-maintained habitat and agricultural systems modeled from natural ecosystems. It shares many practices with agroecology, emphasizing their social, cultural, and economic contexts. Traditional and indigenous practices are highly valued in permaculture because they have been developed in perpetual dialogue with specific climate and soil conditions.
Permaculture uses creative design processes based on whole-systems thinking, considering all materials and energies inflow that affect or are affected by proposed changes.
At a tender age, Bidyalaxmi lost both her parents and she has been all through the adversity of living without a parent and taking care of her two younger sisters.
She said, "I do not want to sell our land to buy a government job, instead I thought of cultivating the land to protect it".
On its first foundation day on 22nd February 2022, she serve black rice kheer yielded from her farm, and others food brought by a group of her community.
She added that through Permaculture the enrichment essence to the soil, purifying the environment, and sanctifying the soil water and permaculture practices are fulfilling the needs of the locals intrinsically and maintains an ecological balance. So she wanted to set an example where food sovereignty can be achieved through permaculture- and creates a way for it for all the aspiring generation to opt for such practice.
Bidyalaxmi Ningthoujam has done Permaculture Design course in the year 2020 and Permaculture teachers training in 2021. She is living with her two younger sisters Pushpa Ningthoujam and Athoibi Ningthoujam and her Home address is- Thangmeiband Lairenhanjaba Leikai, Imphal West Manipur.
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