JUDY WOODRUFF: Now the first of a two-part
series looking at the world's soon-to-be most populous country and the challenges of food
production. With a growing migration to cities, there
is concern India might not be able to produce enough food to feed its people. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports
on one group's effort to restore rural land and communities. It's part of his series Agents for Change. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: On a hot afternoon on
the farm, M. Parthibaraj says nothing quenches your thirst more than fresh coconut water. This 26-year-old was on a path most rural
Indian parents dream for their children, an education and an I.T. job in the city, far more lucrative than most
farming in India. First class. But despite earning a master's degree, Parthibaraj
came back to his family farm in rural Tamil Nadu about six months ago. The office cubicle life in information technology
became unbearable, he says. M. PARTHIBARAJ, Former Software Engineer (through
translator): I worked six days a week, 9:00 a.m. to 11:00. There was a lot of pressure, very little respect. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: "I had a six-pack," he
says, but the sedentary job and poor diet turned it into a: M. PARTHIBARAJ: Family pack. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: By coming back home, he's
an outlier in a country that's seen robust economic growth, but almost all of it in urban
areas. India will soon become the world's most populous
nation, but you wouldn't know that walking in the rural areas, which have been emptying
out over the past few decades in a rapid urbanization. And even though this country's population
overall is young, average age just 29, the average age of an Indian farmer today is 50. JAGANNATHAN SRINIVASAN, Climate Scientist,
Indian Institute of Science: I think ,even without climate change, India faces a great
challenge because of the increasing population and the limited land available for agriculture. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Jagannathan Srinivasan
is a climate scientist at the Indian institute of Science in the booming high-tech capital,
Bangalore. JAGANNATHAN SRINIVASAN: All of us have seen
in the last 50 years in Bangalore large amount of agricultural land becoming apartments. Yes, that is a serious concern. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Indian cities continue
to spread into the countryside, with high-rise apartments for the growing new middle class. But the majority of urban migration is into
urban slums by subsistence farmers unable to make a living on land degraded by years
of neglect and misuse, the overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and deforestation
that causes erosion. JAGDEESH RAO, Foundation for Ecological Security:
About 50 years, no public investment went into restoring these landscapes. That is a serious, serious harm or neglect. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Jagdeesh Rao started a
group called the Foundation for Ecological Security, which has worked to fix that neglect. He brought me to an area about two hours outside
Bangalore that had languished for years, says farmer T.V. Srinivasa. T.V. SRINIVASA, Farmer (through translator): There
was no water in the tanks. There was no water for livestock, no fodder
in the commons lands. We'd work here in the rainy season, but when
it didn't rain or in drought, we had to go to Bangalore. We went to the city for at least six months
of the year. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Rao's group, supported
by corporate, foundation and some government grants, began organizing farm communities. Groups of neighboring villages negotiated
with government authorities to replant public forestlands felled for timber and commons
areas, land not titled to anyone, but technically in government control. Across rural India, Rao says millions of acres
of these commons lands have been classified as wasteland and neglected. Rao's organization arranged to use a government
employment program intended to relieve rural suffering to restore infrastructure, mostly
to clear canals and ponds that had long dried up, as silt from deforested land flowed down. If we would have come here five, 10 years
ago, what would this landscape look like? JAGDEESH RAO: There wouldn't have been any
water here. Those trees that you see there would have
been stunted, small saplings because there's no effective governance. There's fodder still, which five or seven
years ago, there wouldn't have been anything. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: With reforestation, now,
when it rains, water flows from the hills, instead of sand or silt. The result is holding ponds that actually
hold water year-round. That serves livestock and also replenishes
surrounding soil, Rao says, producing brush or vegetation that can feed larger animal
herds in the commons land. Water left over is distributed and shared
by consensus. The foundation also brings communities together
in exercises to plan ahead, How much water is available and can it cover the crops individual
farmers want to plant. If not, they must reach harder decisions,
plant less thirsty crops or just plant less. JAGDEESH RAO: But the crux is in actually
bringing people together, so they manage the land together, so that they develop their
own rules, regulations, responsibilities, punishments, rewards. You just have to rely on the nature's potential
to heal itself. The second thing you need to rely on is the
power of people to collaborate. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: So far, Rao's foundation
has worked in some 13,000 villages across India, affecting about eight million people. He says, in time, government officials, who
may have been wary at first, have come to see the group as an ally, one that helps them
deliver results. There are concerns about equity, whether larger
growers will take more than a fair share, but these farmers say they're not worried. T.V. SRINIVASA (through translator): The village
has hired an irrigator whose job is to make sure that the water is distributed fairly
across all the farms. He is paid by all the farmers. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: And they say having water
year-round has slowed migration to cities and in some cases prompted the reverse for
literally greener pastures here, a chance to go beyond subsistence farming; 28-year-old
Venkat Narayana has a college degree, but says he didn't need it to do the math. VENKAT NARAYANA, Farmer (through translator):
In the city, I could probably make around 20,000 rupees a month, but here I make about
50,000 to 60,000 working with animals. I work two hours in the morning and two hours
in the evening. I'm in my village near my family, and I'm
free. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: With an income of about
$800 a month, many times the rural Indian average, he and his newlywed bride, Bhagalakshmi,
say they can live happily ever after, tending a growing herd of 11 Holsteins, that produce
about 50 liters of milk each day. Meanwhile, Parthibaraj, the software engineer
who decided not to join the urban middle class, nonetheless hopes to cash in on one of its
growing demands, organic food. He's raising fish in this pond and will soon
plant Rice, beans, lentils, and some vegetables. M. PARTHIBARAJ (through translator): We have
eggs, vegetables for our own use, so we don't need to buy those. I have also sold a goat recently and some
fish. It will take some time for the business to
develop and grow. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The income isn't yet what
he was making in the city software engineering field, but it's a shot at a lifestyle he's
wanted since he was a kid, he says, running around on the family farm, pursuing the goats,
and now that abdominal six-pack. For the "PBS NewsHour," this is Fred de Sam
Lazaro in rural Tamil Nadu, India. JUDY WOODRUFF: And Fred's reporting is a partnership
with the Under-Told Stories Project at University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.
