ARTICLE : Sowing hope: How some women have given organic farming a fillip by collecting seeds of long-forgotten vegetable varieties

Maneka Gandhi Mar 05, 2018 17:32:18 IST

Organic farming for me is as important as animal welfare. Both save thousands of species and make the world a better place for humans. When I became Minister for Women and Children, the ministry started a new project of holding an annual Mela in Delhi Haat, for 15 days, in which 300 women organic farmers are called from all over India to sell their produce. This year,  products worth Rs 2 crore worth were sold and the ministry sent 50 women to a huge organic mela in Ahmedabad organised by Srishthi and now we are preparing for one in Mumbai in February.

I also make sure that one or more women organic farmers, or groups, get the highest award for women in India, the Nari Shakti award. In 2016, the best exhibition I went to was one of wandering pastoral tribes in India and the NGOs that conserve their cultural forms, camels and their milk. The best exhibition I went to this year was a huge organic one in Noida which had more than 700 companies, institutions, NGOs and individuals taking part. It was organised by OFAI which is headquartered in Goa and headed by Dr Claude Alvares. I bought a beautiful pair of earrings for my sister made of red ratti (used to weigh gold at one point) and white Vaijayanti seeds made by a farmer’s wife.

Representational image. Reuters

The Sikkim pavilion was the most impressive and the chief minister of Sikkim should get a Bharat Ratna for the work he has done to make the whole state organic. There were hundreds of varieties of rice, including one that you don’t have to boil, just simply pour hot water on. I saw vegetables that I have never seen before: huge long, white, aubergines (baingan), every variety of kaddu, cucumber and chilli. I saw red potatoes and at least 50 varieties of rajma ranging from white to purple. When I ate the lunch thali of village vegetables, I thought I’d died and gone to Food Heaven!

I would like you to know these women who have changed thousands of lives by simply collecting old seeds of long-forgotten vegetable varieties.

The Vanastree Malnad Garden and Seed Savers Collective in Sirsi, Karnataka is run by women. They have documented 120 varieties of vegetables, from the tiny sparrow ladies fingers (bhindi) to old varieties of sugarcane. All these are heritage seeds. You can get in touch with them at sunitasirsi@gmail.com.

Annadana is a Karnataka NGO started by Sangita Sharma. For the last few years, it has been practising and teaching sustainable farm practices and conserving over 200 old vegetable seeds. Sharma had realised that seed corporations and agricultural institutes were blasting seeds with toxins, chemicals and pesticides, contaminating all the food so she decided to start collecting, growing and distributing seeds to farmers. So far, she has distributed 3 lakh free seed packets to marginal farmers and is selling them at a low cost to garden enthusiasts. She has a training programme, called Seed to Seed, on soil health management. Sharma's core group now comprises 18 farmers who teach and they can be contacted at info@annadana-india.org

Niranjana Maru is from Wardha and has formed an NGO called Chetana Vikas. They have a demonstration farm of trees, grasses, tubers and fodder and concentrate on wasteland regeneration through teaching a mixed cropping system to local farmers. You can write to her at chetanavikaswda@gmail.com

Sabarmati Tiki is the daughter of Prof Radhamohan who bought degraded land in Nayagarh and, despite people calling his mission impossible, decided to regenerate it. He named the farm “sambhav” or “possible”. Sabarmati and her team grow 314 traditional rice varieties at the farm and distribute the seeds to farmers in Odisha. She can be contacted at sabarmati@gmail.com

Pebble Garden is a land regeneration project started by Deepika Kundaji on seven acres of laterite soil which was severely eroded with no topsoil. She and her partner set out to bring the old forest back, created water bodies, built up the soil by putting organic mulch and neighbourhood kitchen waste. Today, the land grows 80 varieties of vegetables, herbs and medicinal plants, many of which are endangered and never seen in markets. The seeds of these plants are shared with other farmers and seed savers. Contact her at pebblegardenforest@gmail.com

Mohinee Bhiste comes from Raigarh, Nainital and is part of a network of women farmers called Jan Prerna Sangathan. In 2009, she and her friends started exploring traditional seeds. They have made a bank of seeds of local wheat, millet, maize, barley and vegetables, where farmers can take freely provided they return double the quantity after the harvest. You can contact them at 09568254945.

And who can forget the contribution of Dr Vandana Shiva, who has been writing and working for non-violent farming and biodiversity since 1984? She has been actively involved in conserving 5,000 crop varieties, among them 3,000 kinds of rice, 150 kinds of wheat, 150 kinds of rajma and the rest vegetables and pulses. They have their own seed bank of 45 acres in Sherpur, Uttarakhand. I buy a lot of my monthly rations from Navdanya. You can contact her at dehradun@navdanya.net

This year for Diwali, I didn’t give useless mithai/statues / Ganeshes / dates or badams as gifts. I filled baskets of organic grains, pulses, jams, pickles, brought from small organic farmers from all over India, and gave these. Needless to say, each recipient was more than happy. After all, each one of us likes to eat well and the taste of organic wild rice, for instance, is incredible! We also like to feel safe, that our food is not giving us cancer. And we can only do that if we go forward to insisting on nonchemical, non-poisonous food. If you know any farmers, try to make them switch. As starter gifts, you can buy seeds from these women and give them to farmers.

Two Hindi proverbs say: kathiya gehu kargi dhan, jo bove vah chatur kisan. Farmers who grow Kathiya wheat and Kargi rice (both organic old varieties) are clever (because both can grow in dry and rainfed conditions. Kodau kare bhale mein chote, chote bade bhartev pet: Kodo, a millet, may be small in size but it feeds everyone from children to the elderly under adverse conditions.

Shamika Mone has written a source book on India’s organic seeds. You should definitely buy it from OFAI, Mapusa, goamyofai@gmail.com

To join the animal welfare movement contact gandhim@nic.in, www.peopleforanimalsindia.org

Published Date: Mar 05, 2018 17:29 PM | Updated Date: Mar 05, 2018 17:32 PM

SOURCE : https://www.firstpost.com/india/sowing-hope-how-some-women-have-given-organic-farming-a-fillip-by-collecting-seeds-of-long-forgotten-vegetable-varieties-4377263.html

This Seed Keeper Preserves Over 500 Rare Varieties. Here’s How You Can Become One Too!

In a world where the hybrid seed has become a norm, it is important for seed keepers to continue to ensure that varieties of indigenous plants and vegetables are available for posterity!

by Prabhakar RaoJanuary 31, 2018, 5:31 pm

In today’s world, if one had to make a shopping list for buying vegetables, you would say –

Beans – half a kilo
Cucumber – half a kilo
Carrots – one kilo
Capsicum – quarter kilo and so on.

This is because there usually is just one variety of any vegetable available in the market. It is indeed an exception to find, say, three colours of capsicum or two kinds of beans.

But if you went to the market 100 years ago, you might have seen hundreds of varieties of cabbage, peas, tomatoes, pumpkins and sweet-corn to choose from!

Brown and Violet Peppers

The July edition of 2011, National Geographic magazine carried this info-graphic that succinctly captures the gravity of the situation.

In 1983 the Rural Advancement Foundation International conducted a study on the kind of biodiversity that existed in 1903. What you can see from the slide is, that in just 80 years, we had lost 93% of all the vegetable varieties that existed.

That was in 1983. If we did the same study today, we would find that we have lost 99% of the biodiversity amongst vegetables.

For thousands of years, dedicated farmers and seed keepers created and preserved tens of thousands of varieties of vegetables. In just 100 years we have lost nearly all of them.

What has changed in the past 100 years? Till just a century ago, passionate farmers selected the best plants in the fields to create seed for the next season. There was never a business model in the multiplication of seeds. If the Seed Keeper shared just a seed with a farmer, that farmer could make any number of seeds from it, and grow the same vegetable season after season. In effect, every farmer was a Seed Keeper who preserved seeds for posterity.

Somewhere after the Green Revolution of the 60s, it was felt seed production could be a profitable business model. But to sustain this business model, it required farmers return to the seed company every season to buy new seed.

Selling indigenous seed that belonged to the Seed Keepers could never be a sustainable business model because farmers could buy it once and then multiply it themselves at the end of the season.

Pink Corn

To ensure that a sustainable business model was established in the seed industry, companies started to make seeds from which the farmer could not make seed for the next season. That started the era of the hybrid and GMO seeds. Today almost all the seeds sold by seed companies to vegetable farmers are hybrid or GMO.

In the past 50 years, farmers have lost the tradition of saving seeds almost completely. It is the norm today for farmers to buy seed every season for growing vegetables.

I remember the late 70s when I was completing my doctoral studies in agriculture. I belonged to the lineage of Dr M.S. Swaminathan and Dr Norman Borloug, who created the Green Revolution. It was my generation of agricultural scientists who promoted industrial agriculture. We were the ones who persuaded farmers to adopt chemical farming. We were the ones who told farmers do put urea and D.A.P.

We were the ones who told farmers to use hybrid seeds. We needed to create national food security and to give due credit I do believe that our generation of scientists achieved that.

Dr. Rao explaining seed varieties

But somewhere deep inside there was a small voice within me that kept asking me if we were doing the right thing. That small voice kept asking me if this was a sustainable model for agriculture even after I left the field to pursue a career in landscape architecture.

During the course of my career, I had many opportunities to travel to the remotest parts of the planet. One of the things that I particularly enjoyed doing on these trips, was to spend time with the older generation of farmers. I used to discuss with them about the kind of vegetables they grew during their times, and how times have changed.

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You may also like: 5 Farmers Who Prove Smart Agriculture Can Make You Rich

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Surprisingly, many of these farmers actually retained a few seeds of the ancient indigenous native vegetable varieties with them. Understanding my passion to preserve these ancient varieties, they shared with me a few of their seeds.

And so, for 25 years, I collected indigenous seeds from many parts of India and far-flung corners of the Earth. As a part of the Seed Savers Exchange, a non-profit organization based in the US, I shared these seeds with many other Seed Keepers across the world.

When I returned to India in 2011, I decided to become a full-time Seed Keeper. I collected nearly 540 varieties of indigenous native vegetable seeds that were on the brink of extinction.

Participants harvesting exotic vegetables and fruits

At Hariyalee Seeds farms, just on the outskirts of Bengaluru, I started testing these varieties for genetic stability and environmental suitability.

At Hariyalee Seeds, you will find, 19 varieties of 23 tomatoes, 24 varieties of capsicum and chillies, six varieties of brinjals, five types of Okras, 11 varieties of Basils, 15 varieties of edible lettuces and mustards and many more wonderful vegetables that you and I need to protect for posterity.

Over the past six years, I managed to successfully multiply about 142 varieties of indigenous vegetables that anyone can grow in India.

Over the past two years, all these vegetable varieties have been made available to friends, farmers, and urban gardeners. Hundreds of people have enjoyed the experience of growing these vegetables with their own hands. Many farmers have used these exotic indigenous vegetables to generate a high-income revenue stream.

In fact, there was one farmer who grew a variety of cherry tomato with multiple colour variations that looked like candy. He was able to sell this variety at Rs.300 per kilo.

In a world where a farmer is happy to get Rs.20 per kilo for tomato in the best of times, selling tomatoes at Rs.300 a kilo sounds like a dream too good to be true.

Another advantage of growing indigenous vegetable seeds is that they are incredibly hardy and easy to grow. This is because native vegetable seeds have been selected by nature over thousands of years and had learnt to survive under the harshest of conditions.

While growing these exotic indigenous seeds can be an enjoyable pastime for home gardeners, they are at the same time making an extraordinary contribution to the genetic biodiversity of vegetables on this planet.

It doesn’t matter if the vegetable is growing in a pot on your balcony, in your kitchen garden, or in a farmers’ field in some remote part of India. The fact is that we are giving a chance for that vegetable variety to remain with us for posterity.

We are in effect, becoming modern-day Seed Keepers.

I am sure that in each one of you, at this very moment, there is this desire, to be a part of this movement to preserve these ancient indigenous seeds for posterity. Let’s all join hands to revive the Golden Age of The Seed Keepers!

2016May22-23 Beejutsav at Paradsingha, Nagpur

1-3 APRIL 2016 Biodiversity Festival @ Hyderabad

EVENT : nagpurwasi... ayika..ho..ayika

EVENT : Rice characterisation Workshop_8 and 10th July 2015_Phase 1

 

Phase 1 of the workshop for this year is scheduled on 8th and 10th of July 2015.
This year it’s NOT a sponsored workshop. We were searching for some funds to conduct this year’s workshop but many enthusiasts came forward and are ready to pay for their own accommodation and food to get this training from Dr. Deb.
So this unique opportunity is again out for all of you who want to learn new aspects of Rice characterisation and purity maintenance from the Rice expert himself –
Dr. Debal Deb. Also for those who could not make it in last two years. The workshop every year commences in three phases of the year. Please see the detailed structure of the training pasted below for your easy reference.

RICE LANDRACES CHARACTERIZATION TRAINING FOR FARMER-CONSERVATORS
BACKGROUND:  Most biopiracy patents are logically and legally untenable, as they systematically violate the patentability clauses of “novelty” and “prior public knowledge”. This scientific training effort is first of its kind and is a part of the national movement for local sovereignty over biodiversity. It upholds people’s fundamental rights to their resources and knowledge through Community Biodiversity Registers (CBRs). The necessity and value of CBRs are also pitted in the Biodiversity Act 2004, which requires that all components of biodiversity existing in a locality be documented and registered as a legitimate evidence of people’s knowledge and right to use local biodiversity. A special form of CBR which registers a significant part of indigenous agro biodiversity with its scientific characterization is essentially needed in different parts of the country.  Normal CBR without scientific documentation often creates a huge deal of confusion which creates ways for MNC’s towards biopiracy. A workshop is therefore proposed to train conservators/ farmers to create database in form of a special Community Biodiversity Registers (CBRs) for rice varieties in order to prevent biopiracy of the heirloom varieties.
 AIM:   To create a farmer database of their rice varieties, in order to prevent biopiracy of the heirloom varieties.
 OBJECTIVES:
1) To enable farmer-conservators to assess and document 52 characteristic descriptors of rice varieties.
2) To train farmer-conservators to rogue out the off-types based on selected descriptors in order to maintain genetic purity.
MODULE:
Training to be given in three phases – at three life history stages of the rice plant, namely:
3 DAYS during the Sowing stage (June): 6 – 10 days after sowing.
This phase of the training will include a day for methodological Introduction and orientation.
3 DAYS around the Flowering stage (August-September): Panicle initiation to milk stage: approx.
3 DAYS around the Harvesting stage (December): Maturity to post-harvest assessments.
Total: 8 days.
RESOURCE PERSON: Dr. Debal Deb, Basudha, Odisha
 SUBJECT OF TRAINING:
Assessment of 52 rice morphological characteristics/ descriptors, according to INGER and Bioversity International guidelines
 INSTRUMENTS:  4 Hand lenses, 4 measuring tapes, Graph papers, pencils.
EXPECTED OUTCOME:
All trainees will be repeatedly examined and assisted until they attain full capability of rice characterization at the international standard, and qualify as trainers for farmer-conservators.
 OPTIMAL NUMBER OF TRAINEES:                      25 (off-campus accommodation)
 LOGISTICS:

1. Participants or their NGOs have to bare their own train travel expenses to Odisha thrice in a year
2. Simple food and accommodation at the field station will be provided.

REGISTRATION FEE: Rs. 800/ day/ person
A certificate will be issued by OFAI and Basudha for each participant on completion of the training.
For more information please contact:
Ms. Shamika Mone, OFAI
Email: myofai@gmail.com
Phone: 0888886229308888862293
Feedback Report_Debal Workshop

ARTICLE : Cultivating Biodiversity: Peasant Women in India

By P. V. Satheesh on May 12, 2014 in Environment and Ecology                                    

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In the Deccan region of India, over 60,000 women peasants are feeding their families, their culture and their pride with biodiverse farming practices. Their knowledge and successes have reached across national and institutional borders, and they have received recognition from around the world.

It is the year 2003 in Andhra Pradesh, India. A group of more than 50 peasant women were gathered in a thatch roofed hall in Didgi village, engaged in a video interface with a group of senior agricultural scientists.
Sammamma, who owns three acres of rainfed farmland and grows more than 18 varieties of crops, stood up and started explaining why she values biodiversity in her farming practices. Quickly a scientist on the other side of the video camera stopped her and said “No, no, please do not worry about biodiversity. It is we, the scientists, who should think of biodiversity, and we will recommend a seed for you to use.”
Still too often scientists believe that agricultural science and knowledge are exclusively their domain while peasant farmers, especially the women, are not to be included at all when discussing farming approaches. However, the women in the Deccan region have proved them wrong in so many ways.
Biodiverse farming systems
The women of the Deccan region are the seed-keepers, treasuring seeds more than money. Photo: DDS

The peasant women in Didgi village have developed highly biodiverse farming systems with common characteristics: they all farm on non-irrigated, not very fertile, fields of less than two acres; they are all non-chemical farmers; they all grow 12-23 varieties of crops on their small plots; and none of them need to purchase any of their food from markets. The women of the Deccan region are the seed-keepers. They not only conserve seeds, but also decide on the mix and quantity of seeds to be planted at planting time. This is a win-win system: the women’s way of farming supports biodiversity, and biodiversity supports their way of farming.
Why is biodiversity so important for these women? Why are they not content with growing just one or two commercial crops as advised by the Department of Agriculture? They have a clear preference for food crops such as Yellow Sorghum, which are totally discarded and discouraged by agricultural scientists as it only attracts a low price on the market. For dalit women Yellow Sorghum provides nutritious food and good fodder. It grows in dry soil, can be used in fencing and thatching and has many other qualities. All these factors, in addition, can be completely controlled by the women in spite of their low income levels. The reverence that peasant women show for such “orphaned crops” illustrates their special vision on food and farming.

More than food

Reshaping food policy
In India, a select few species are promoted and supported as food crops by governmental institutions. A wide range of millet varieties, which traditionally have nourished many rural communities, are not among them. In 2013, for the first time in our history, the government recognised millet varieties as national food security grains by including them in the brand new National Food Security Act. After a decade long struggle by dalit peasant women, the Deccan Development Society and the Millet Network of India, millets are now firmly entrenched in India’s public food system. For us and for the women this was a great moment for rejoicing. They used radio and made short films to share their toils and successes. With grit and determination they have overcome their social, economic and gender marginalisation and reshaped national policy. Also, in 2013 as proponents of millet we were able to take the message of millets back to their African birthplace by initiating the Africa-India Millet Network and creating a new solidarity between the two continents.

For women from vulnerable communities, sticking to peasant values and biodiversity in farming can mean the difference between life and death. Whereas farmer suicides have been widespread among Indian farmers who were crippled by debt as a result of their expensive and risky commodity and chemical based farming systems, there has not been a single suicide among peasant women farmers who continue to use low cost biodiverse farming principles.
Agrobiodiversity is a strong part of these communities’ traditions, but it is also the only logical way for them to farm. They clearly understand that a biodiverse system is the best security they have against climate vagaries. Moreover, the crops they grow are indicative of their food culture, and the relationships between foods in the kitchen reflect relationships in the field.
For instance, food made from sorghum is accompanied by food made from pigeon peas, and in the field sorghum and pigeon peas grow as companion crops. This unique “farm-to-kitchen” model is what has kept agrobiodiversity alive on their farms for centuries. Since women are the most important torchbearers of this food tradition, they are also the carriers of the agrobiodiversity tradition.
Biodiverse farms not only nurture physical life, but also moral, ecological and spiritual life. People in this region celebrate biodiversity through several religious festivals where heroes symbolise and bless biodiversity. Englagatte Punnam, for instance, is celebrated when the winter crops mature, by tying diverse crops on the door of every home – as if the farmers are declaring, “look at the diversity in my field!” Women treasure these crops more than monetary wealth. Consequently, seeds are neither bought nor sold, but always exchanged.
Proud to share

During the Englagatte Punnam celebration, farmers exhibit the diversity from their fields on their homes. Photo: DDS

The Deccan Development Society (DDS), a grassroots NGO working with peasant women from socially and economically marginalised dalit communities, has facilitated the sharing of farmer knowledge for 25 years.
Women from this region, especially those from lower socioeconomic classes, have travelled abroad at least 100 times – from Peru to Cambodia – to share their experience and perspectives on farming with farmers, scientists and policy makers. They have met receptive audiences, both among male and female peasants and in international conference rooms.
In 2003 they addressed the World Organic Congress in Victoria, Canada, where various people in the audience said they felt humbled by the women’s experiences.
Brimming with confidence, these women have started celebrating the Mobile Biodiversity Festival. Every year since 1998, they have travelled to over 50 villages during one month, discussing and celebrating ecological agriculture, control over seeds and organic markets in a way that expresses the deep relationships between farmers and soil, agriculture and environment. They have reached over 150,000 farmers in the region, showing them the richness of the traditional seeds and crops from the area.
The Indian government has recognised these Biodiversity Festivals as the most important community cultural campaign on the issue.
Worldwide recognition
The Deccan peasant women, who were so easily dismissed by the scientists in 2003, are now receiving national and international recognition for their work on biodiversity. Anjamma for instance, a 55-year-old peasant woman who has never gone to school and cannot read and write, is now a member of the expert panel on agrobiodiversity in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Government officers, scientists, civil society activists and media regularly come to the region to look at the women’s farms and seeds. Their stories regularly appear in newspapers and on television channels.
Today, the region comprising of about 50,000 hectares of land is about to be recognised as an Agricultural Biodiversity Heritage Site by the Indian National Biodiversity Board – the first in the country. The international Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) developed the concept to honour sites where biodiversity is practiced. The Heritage label gives the area and its biodiversity the same level of protection as national parks and offers special status, privileges and incentives to the farmers and their communities. The label conveys a strong message that the Indian government supports marginalised family farmers and recognises their contribution to protecting biodiversity. When asked what the Heritage label means to them, the peasant woman Mahbatpur Swaroopa answers, “We are totally disinterested in any monetary benefits. It is the recognition that we cherish.”
The power of women

The selection of seeds requires complex knowledge that is held by women like Basantppur Narsamma. Photo: DDS

The attention for their farms and perspectives has added tremendously to the women’s self esteem. Paramma, a farmer-seed keeper in Khasimput village, once demonstrated this confidence as she confronted government officials who had come to visit her: “Every month you get your salaries and fill your pockets with currency notes. But come to my home. I have filled it with seeds. Can you match me?”
Given their marginalisation in other spheres of life, the women feel that their practice and conservation of agrobiodiversity has bestowed them with a new stature in the country, in their communities and in their homes. Most of the peasant women in this area say that more often than not, they are consulted and play a key role in making choices for their family farm.
Cheelamamidi Laxmamma cultivates her three-acre farm with dozens of food crops along with her husband. When her husband was counselled that he should become progressive and plant some hybrid crops on the land, he – completely against the grain of his social culture – first wanted to consult his wife. When he did, she burst out: “Have you gone mad? Why do we need hybrid seeds and a monoculture? Are we not happy with what we are growing?” And he gave in. Sharp and alert women such as Laxmamma enjoy far more respect from their husbands for the recognition they have gained in the community and beyond.
First Published in Farming Matters, March 2014
P.V. Satheesh is one of the founders of DDS and its General Secretary.
For more information visit www.ddsindia.com or e-mail: satheeshperiyapatna@gmail.com
Contact: Jayasri Cherukuri

SOURCE: http://vikalpsangam.org/article/cultivating-biodiversity-peasant-women-in-india/#.VYFIj--Jh2t

Community managed system sows the seeds of success

M. J. Prabu

THE HINDU | Sci-Tech » Science November 6, 2013

Updated: August 4, 2015 12:56 IST

This model helped many growers get access to good quality seeds

Like many other farmers across the country, preserving and using seeds is a major issue for Andhra Pradesh groundnut cultivators. In Anantapur district, farmers mostly grow groundnut.

The crop diversity in this region earlier included many dryland crops like sorghum, finger millet, pearl millet, foxtail millet and groundnut. Farmers used to grow various crops and groundnut was alternated between red gram, coriander, sesame, sorghum and finger millet. But over time, groundnut became a major crop in the region due to its commercial value.

 

Perennial debt

“The high input costs on one side and decreasing yields due to prolonged usage of chemical fertilizers forced many growers to borrow money from private money lenders and the moment the crop is harvested, it is sold immediately to pay off the debts. Often the area is prone to droughts and seed availability has been a serious issue for more than 15 years,” says Dr. G. V. Ramanjaneyulu, Executive Director, Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Secunderabad.

Farmers could raise only one good crop every three years. Being already in debt they sold off the harvested nuts for repaying loans and other expenses rather than preserving the seeds for next season.

Also, absence of proper storage facilities posed a serious problem; many felt that the seed from the same land will not grow well if sown for the next season. Subsidised government seeds are available at half the price in the market so farmers preferred to buy those seeds rather than save some for themselves.

But buying the seeds is an arduous task, according to Dr. Ramanjaneyulu. Every year soon after the monsoon season farmers start to queue up for buying subsidised seeds from Government cooperatives.

Each farmer has a passbook which he needs to show in order to get the seeds. Very often, a farmer ends up making at least three to four trips to the town to buy the seeds.

 

Different varieties

“Sometimes they do not get the seeds (due to no stock) or get them very late in the season. If he does get it on time, there is no guarantee of its quality. Earlier Ananthapur farmers used to grow different groundnut varieties depending on demand, but the subsidy seeds given by the government covers only a few or sometimes only a single variety,” explains Dr. Ramanjaneyulu.

In 2006-07, Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA), Hyderabad and Rural Environment Development Society (REDS), Kadiri, initiated groundnut seed production through women self help groups as part of the ‘Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture’ programme in different villages.

Different farmers’ groups took responsibility for managing the entire programme.

 

Subsidy

However, seed subsidy could not be extended as the Department of Agriculture was not ready to support farmers own seeds. In 2011 another initiative, a community managed seed system (CMSS) was started in partnership with WASSAN (Watershed Support Services Network) a Hyderabad based NGO with the objective of meeting the requirements of both seed producers and consumers.

The programme was started in 2011 during rabi season to supply seeds for 2012 kharif. The foundation seed was supplied with 50 per cent subsidy from the department of agriculture

The Government agreed to facilitate the process of exchanging the seeds at farmer level and extended subsidy for them.

 

“A total of 2,888 acres of seed production was taken up in 183 villages involving more than 2,000 farmers under the programme. The group was able to procure 3,763 quintals of seed and distributed it to nearly 4,000 farmers. Similarly in 2013 they have distributed 11,518 quintals of seeds in 260 villages covering nearly to 10,000 acres,” adds Dr. Ramanjaneyulu.

 

Control

The seed production, supply and distribution, administration are localized within a cluster of villages where the overall control is by the farmers.

This model helped many growers get access to good quality seeds at affordable prices and also saved enormous expense for the Government.

 

To know more contact Dr. G. V. Ramanjaneyulu, Executive Director, Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, 12-13-445, Street no-1, Tarnaka, Secunderabad-500 017, website: www.krishi.tv, email: ramoo.csa@gmail.com, facebook: ramoo.agripage, mobile: 09000699702.

 

SOURCE : http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/community-managed-system-sows-the-seeds-of-success/article5322435.ece

ARTICLE : Women in the forefront of fighting climate change through the ‘gola’

The Weekend Leader

   By  Ajitha Menon
   Sunderbans

                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Posted 25-Oct-2013
Vol 4 Issue 43

The ‘gola’ or grain basket, built on elevated ground in Goyadham village in Sunderban’s South 24 Parganas district, West Bengal, is central to the food security of several households here.
As Sofia Bibi, 45, says, “The grain is protected from the recurrent flooding and storms and we are ensured of a regular supply when there is no agricultural work during the months of September to November and March to May.”

Women and volunteers placing seed pots on high shelves to avoid flooding at a seed bank (Photos: DRCSC)

Sofia and 17 other women of the Maa Amina Self Help Group know that this grain bank is their safeguard against the adverse impacts of climate change.
For the 4.5 million people living on the islands in this delta region, it’s a daily fight for livelihood and food security. Within the larger framework of climate change adaptation strategies, grain and seed banking are rapidly emerging as an acceptable and sustainable counter measure against the threat of starvation caused due to natural disasters like floods and cyclones or poor agricultural production due to land erosion and high soil salinity.
In Hingalgunj block of North 24 Parganas district, eight grain banks are being run by eight SHGs in six villages, benefitting about 96 households.
The Development Research Communication and Services Centre (DRCSC), which is implementing a European Union funded project, ‘Collective Action to Reduce Climate Disaster Risks and Enhancing Resilience of the Vulnerable Coastal Communities around Sunderbans in Bangladesh and India’ has catalysed and supported 225 grain banks with 2,400 households as members in different districts of West Bengal. Eighty per cent of these are run by women’s groups.
Even though women form an integral part of climate change adaptation strategies, often entailing longer working hours for them in different ways, it is ironic that neither the National Action Plan on Climate Change nor any of the State Action Plans take this into account.
“The climate action plans should consider gender issues, which are critical to sustainability of any climate change adaptation model,” says Aditi Kapoor, Director, Alternative Futures, a New-Delhi based group that is analysing government policies that can help communities adapt to climate change.
She adds, “The work overload on women can be discouraging and even though they are part of these strategies in large numbers now, to sustain these models, it is essential that their daughters and daughters-in-law too find motivation to become part of the movement.”
Young Hasina Bibi, 25, of the MaaAmina SHG in Goyadham, is determined to end the recurrent food crisis, “We set up a grain bank as a measure to do this and were aided in this effort by the Area Resource Training Centre (ARTC).” The bank is set up within the compound of a member’s house, on elevated ground since this is a flood-prone area.
“Usually, a concrete platform is used as a base to avoid rodent and pest attack. Large baskets are constructed over it with tightly woven bamboo, straw, mud and ropes.

"A mason is hired to construct the platform and ARTC pays for the mason and materials for the base, while the material for the basket is donated by group members,” explains Hasina, adding, “Once the basket is ready, we all contribute a portion of the harvest to the bank. A matching contribution is made by ARTC to get the bank going.”
Members contribute about 50 kilos of grains each but this varies depending on their economic status, land owned and annual yield. Grain loans are taken during the lean season and returned with a small amount of interest, paid in grain, when the next harvest comes in.
“The interest increases the grain stock and SHGs pay back the ARTC’s initial grain contribution within three years. That grain is then used by ARTC in a revolving manner to set up more grain banks in other villages,” shares Mamata Khanra, 25, a village development volunteer in Ramganga gram panchayat in South 24 Parganas district.

Seed banks usually have about 800 kilos of paddy and vegetable seeds

The SHGs make their own rules regarding lending, mode of repayment, interest rates. They also maintain the records. “Our ‘gola’ has grain reserves for about 60 days,” says Soma Jhulki, 35, of Surya Kiran SHG. Ten grain banks involving 10 groups in seven villages are currently operational in Patharpratima block in South 24 Parganas district.
Seed banking has emerged as another effective adaption strategy wherein group members are encouraged to collect and preserve seeds, particularly of saline resistant and saline tolerant paddy and varieties of vegetables, both at the individual level and also within centralised banking systems.
While grain banking has ensured relief from moneylenders, seed banking, too, has provided economic sustenance. Says Bhavani Giri, 27, of Dakshinshivpur village, “We have planted several varieties of saline resistant paddy including Dudherswar, Taal Mugur, Nonasree, Kumrogar, Hogla and Bhuria.

"We have been trained to collect and preserve the seeds organically, using wood charcoal and neem oil, and we bank them in earthen pots and glass jars at the ARTC centre.”

There are two centralised seed banks in Patharpratima block following a community based approach involving about 30 groups. Similar seed banks are operating in Hingalgunj and Basanti blocks as well. Several individual seed banks are also functional.
The seed banks usually have about 800 kilos of paddy and vegetable seeds. About 52-55 varieties of saline resistant paddy are available. The move is aimed to wean farmers away from hybrid paddy and bring about a return to cultivation of indigenous varieties.
The DRCSC lists the following benefits from grain and seed banking – reduction in indebtedness to moneylenders, creation of new self-employment opportunities, and acceptability of these as effective disaster mitigation strategies as well as improvement of the status of women within the family.

There is no doubt that grain and seed banking have been accepted as being vital to climate change adaptation strategy and there is funding from government and non-government sources as well.
However, it is the implementation on the ground which will make the difference between starvation and food security for millions living in one of the worst climate hotspots of the world.
- Women's Feature Service

SOURCE : http://www.theweekendleader.com/Resilience/1741/daily-bread.html#sthash.Z5kXnJ7q.dpuf