Clean Oil By A Women’s Producer Company: a new lease for mahua trees

Mahua trees and culture:

For rural people in western Odisha mahua is second only to agriculture as a livelihood option. An average tree yields 4-5 quintals of flowers and 50-80 kgs of seeds (tola) each year; people collect both flower and seed for 3-5 months and earn between Rs 5000-8000 annually. Apart from the cash income the  the rural economy, social customs, culture and food habits are also associated with mahua. The customs and beliefs of the Kandha, the Ganda, the Binjhal and the Soura peoples of western Odisha are closely linked with mahua tree. One such belief follows from the fact that a daughter will not live with her parents always but will move to her in-laws after marriage. To prepare her for this shift, which needs much adjustment, she is symbolically married to a mahua tree, which represents her future husband. This belief is called “Kunabara”.  In addition, mahua trees are indicators of property and wealth. Another curious fact is that the tribal peoples fear the mahua tree as much as they love it. They believe that they will be afflicted by leprosy if they plant or fell a mahua tree.  Only naturally growing mahua trees are welcomed as god’s gift.

Mahua flowers and tola are used as food;  the mahua branch plays a part in rituals of marriage, offering to deities are made in mahua leaf cups,  mahua flower-buds (kunchi)  are offered to deities before  harvesting the flowers. About 15-20 different preparations of dishes from the mahua flowers and seeds are used by the people. These include boiled mahua, fried mahua, rasaputula, lathaa and chakel; in addition oil from tola has been a part of their cultures for hundreds of years. People believe that by using tola oil to anoint their hair prevents premature graying,  panikanda (ketara) disease, diabetics and acidity.  As most tribal people in this region have no land they are unable to cultivate oil seeds; they are too poor to purchase oil from the market. However, the adivasi women of every family have access to tola oil, which is devoid of any chemical addition. It involves tola collection, tola dal preparation, the refining of tola dal, oil preparation and the refining of the oil.

Involvement of women in the process from tola collection to oil preparation:

Tradition of mahua and tola trading in villages:

Assessment of mahua & tola production:

Contribution of mahua tree to the rural economy and agro-culture:

According to the information given by the villagers it is noticed that 24300 mahua trees yield annually 60750 kgs of flower and 19440 kgs of seeds. The market value of this is respectively Rs. 1,21,500/- and Rs.3,88,800/-. After collecting the tola (seeds) the outer raw cover is used in the preparation of a curry; tola dal is prepared from the inner parts of the seeds which is only used for oil preparation and consumption. Only the poor families tend to sells the seeds at Rs. 30-40 per kg to retail traders.

The mahua tree seems to contribute to the agro-culture and social life of the people as well as to their economics.  People believe that where there are more mahua trees there is no fear of drought. Also, the mahua tree is drought resistant and is not affected easily by pest and diseases. Under its shade colocasia and potato are cultivated. According to an experienced farmer, Madhusingh Nina, the mahua tree contributes to soil conservation  and pest control in crops and in  areas where mahua trees are abundant  there are more birds; insect pests and rodents are therefore  naturally controlled. Vegetables like kankada, bitter gourd, pumpkin and brinjal grow well if mahua trees are around or near the farm. Mahua trees attract honey bees which help in pollination.

Mahua trees threatened

Despite so many benefits from the mahua tree it is now threatened. The kings and zamindars  had been planting and protecting mahua trees alongside the   roads from historical times but their numbers got reduced due to road development, eucalyptus and teak plantations. After the Odisha Government granted a lease from 1989 to 1997 to Utkal Forest Product Ltd., the collectors of the company did not follow the tradition and custom based sustainable collection process and the natural regeneration of mahua tree were affected.  The local adivasi people neither cut branch of the tree during tola collection nor did they pluck all the tola from a tree: usually they left  about 4-5 kg of tola in each tree. There is a belief that if parakeets eat the tola there will be good rain in the area. In fact, climatic assessments are made by the amount of tola eaten by parakeets. In addition, regeneration occurs from the naturally dropped tola.

Other threats to the mahua are kendu bush cutting and bush firing and forest fires.  Very often, at the time of kendu bush cutting mahua tree is also destroyed. The local munshi sets fire to the kendu bush wants to save wages and does not take care to protect small mahua saplings. The forest department values only timber and other revenue-earning activities. So leasing out mahua trees, planting only timber species of trees and not giving importance to protect livelihoods and culture-based trees like the mahua during thinning operations have also led to the decline in their numbers.

Oil trading politics by money lenders and traders

Till 1990 there was wooden oil extracting machine. After the Odisha Government gave lease to Utkal Forest Products Ltd. from 1989 to 1997 people from the urban areas, mostly the middle men in liquor producing business entered the villages. They set up liquor shops and installed oil extracting machines in the areas where there were abundant mahua trees. In  the beginning they  extracted oil for free, supplied  free oil containers,  provided free  food  to collectors who brought more than 50 kgs of tola seed for extraction; in some cases the businessmen even collected the tola from the villages  where a truckload was available  and delivered the  oil at the home. Only later was it known that the traders leave more oil in their machine with the oil cake than what they delivered; they extracted the oil from the cake at leisure.

The oil cake is never given back to the farmers but sold to the fertilizer factories, soap making factories and fodder-making factories located at Kantabanji, Raipur at Rs 8-10/- kg. . Mostly the women go to an engine run oil extracting machine with a little quantity of tola as head-loads, for which they have to wait for hours, even 3-4 days on occasions. If farmers do not prefer to market their oil the traders fool them with false information, like refined oils contain vitamins, that they has no water content, that it does not lose its vitamins even at high temperatures, that it is more tasty, etc.  Many adulterated oils are available at Rs.60/kg and they traders try and sell this to the villager people, says Shanti Behera, President of Mahila Sangathan. Listening to the sales talk of the businessmen most of the women exchange their pure oil and take the adulterated oil packets in return.

Birth of a company

After learning about all these facts concerning oil the women of Deogaon and Saintala Blocks of Balangir district, having faith in a people-led development process, came together in a campaign to protect mahua trees and to produce pure and chemical-free oil. This year the women of 30 villages of Deogaon Block completed the statutory process for the formation of an Oil Production Company and selected 10 members as the Board of Directors. Keystone Foundation has extended support for the oil processing machine and company formation. 150 kgs of oil seeds can be pressed per hour by this machine and, as the villages have no electricity, initially the machine will be run with kerosene or diesel. In the first phase villages within a 5-6 kms radius will benefit from it and in later phases there is plan to install such machines in other Gram Panchayats. The women become members of the company only after taking an oath to protect mahua trees. The women have also taken an oath to campaign for the protection of mahua trees, their conservation and the traditional sowing of mahua seeds.