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Save the ‘ Naati ’ seeds- Beeja Mela-2007
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“Beeja Mela” was held at Dinnur, Tamilnadu on Monday, the 10th December 2007 organized by the GREEN Foundation, Bangalore in association with farmers of the Bangalore rural and Tamilnadu. Various varieties of seeds were displayed and exchanged by the farmers from Karnataka and Tamilnadu seed bank members. More than 500 farmers from different parts of Karnataka and Tamilnadu, attended this programme and made it attractive with colourful seeds, crops, fruits and vegetables.
This Mela not only brought together several farmers from across the Kanakapura taluka but also different parts of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It has brought to the light the benefits of seed banking, a ‘bank’ used for collecting, distributing and conserving seeds. The programme started with prayer by Sri Mahadeswara Kamsale team, Kolagondanahalli. The programme was inaugurated through Rashi pooja by Mrs. Kate Green and Mr. Awaegechew of USC, Canada.
Mr. Anil Kumar of GREEN Foundation welcomed the entire chief guest and farmers to this Beeja Mela-2007. Keynote address for this mela was given by Kate Green. While addressing the farmers, she felt mela is a great source of information. She requested farmers to exchange the ideas and thoughts with the progressive farmers. She shared her experiences on farmers innovation in different parts of the world. She told, in a far off country, farmers were facing natural calamities and crop destroyal problem. No one was interested to work there since it was remote area. The farmers conducted research on their own in crop improvement and developed high yielding, dwarf, non-lodging maize variety after five years of continuous research. In other countries, farmers are marketing the organic products and seed in seed melas. In one such big mela, 5000 people got together to trade and buy seeds and other organic products and enjoyed indigenous food. She advised the farmers to continue conserving the traditional seeds and maintain seed bank diversity. The importance of sustainable agriculture, use of traditional seeds and its conservation was also dealt to the farmers. She appreciated the progressive work done by GREEN Foundation as well as individual seed savers of the GREEN Foundation project area.
Dr. Vanaja Ramaprasad, Director GREEN Foundation while addressing the gathering told that diversity of seed is more important to our agricultural system. Government has made policies against conservation of our seed for reuse. It has tied our hand. She stressed the importance of in-situ conservation and distribution of indigenous seed and organic agriculture. She addressed the participants to continue their co-operation for conserving traditional diversity, promoting organic farming and disseminating the learned technology among farmers.
Mr. Awagechew, a scientific officer of USC Canada explained particularly about crop improvement techniques, Agro-biodiversity conservation and role of farmers in conservation. He advised the farmers to conserve the traditional seeds or else they would not get healthy food. In addition, he suggested the farmers to adopt organic farming to get profit, and make use of technical resources from GREEN Foundation.
Next session was an experience sharing of farmers with the chief guests and participants. Smt. Nanjamma, an active seed bank member shared her experiences regarding seed bank initiation and its maintenance. Mr. Shivarudraiah, Director of Farmers’ Federation explained the functions and roles of Janadhanya and Nisarga that are working for small and marginal farmers in Ramnagar and Krishnagiri district of Karnataka and Tamilnadu respectively. Smt. Shantamma of Banavasi and Smt. Nagarathnamma of Marupalli shared their experience about seed bank maintenance and income generating activities. The seed savers of the year and seed bank group members were honoured by the small momento for their valuable contribution in organic agriculture.
Finally Mr. Madhu S. K. a team leader of GF thanked all the chief guests, invitees and farmers for their auspicious presence on the occasion. All the invitees and participants were taken to the exhibition center to observe the agro-biodiversity conservation, value added products and posters on organic farming.
Food Sovereignty Seminar Report.
Monthly Highlights
Seed Savers Conference
GF in the
fourth consecutive year organized ‘Seed Savers Conference’ in collaboration with Shree Kshetra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project (SKDRDP), on
the 29th and 30th May 2007, in Dharmasthala. This conference brought in all NGO’s, Seed Bank Leaders, Government
Officials, Media and Farmer Groups together and provided a platform to share
their experiences. The rationale behind organizing this conference was to
bring all the seed savers together and keep the practice of seed saving
alive. The conference was to celebrate the journey of seed conservation
across different agro-climatic zones and to go back in time to revive the
historical evolution of the seeds of diversity.
Farmers had
organized themselves as seed bank mentors and brought with them the
confluence of seeds and the vast experience of seed saving for exchange
varieties. Speaking on the occasion
GREEN Foundation, Director, Dr. Vanaja Ramprasad, opined “that National Seed Bill in its
present form is a problem for the farmer and has to be amended, the existing
legislations should be modified to protect farmer’s rights to extant
varieties or landraces as well as other aspects of developing, sale, exchange
and use of seeds.”Other participants also emphasized
that our seed keepers and organic farmers protect our country, not by the
armed defence forces.
Seed conservation and farming
practices were exchanged between the farmers and this provided an interactive
discussion and exchange of ideas and seeds. Each group consisted of more than 80 farmers. These discussions were
the footing for a declaration, which collectively included ideas,
suggestions, changes, and modifications in some of agricultural laws and
bill. A regional action plan based on the regions, measures to increase seed
banks in the centers and activities to be covered by these seed banks were
drawn up in the discussion.
Mathrushri. Hemavathi Heggade stressed on facts that traditionally, women are the curators of seeds and
have always played a major role in seed conservation and seed storage. She
expressed that seeds were nature’s bounty and it was our duty to
conserve and multiply them. She appreciated the farmers’ interest and
dedication towards the protection and conservation.
During the closing session the
participants took oath to protect and conserve the seeds. A declaration was passed. Speaking on the occasion Mr. Krishna
Prasad, Convener thanked the participants and opinioned that, the conference
started as a small movement four years ago and it has grown beyond the
pinnacle. The two days drew to an end with the participants exchanging seeds
and their rich experiences.
- Traditionally Owned and
evolved collective knowledge and bio-cultural heritage including all our
plant varieties cannot and should not be brought under the purview of
the global-market induced Intellectual property regime. This paradigm of
property rights on plant varieties and traditional knowledge is not
ours. But both the Biological Diversity Act 2003 and the PVPFR Act 2002
are founded on the intellectual property regime and state control of
diversity. This eventually will
give away control to private companies. Since this paradigm is unacceptable to farmers, indigenous
communities and seed savers, we demand that both these Acts be scrapped
and in lieu of them, effective protective regimes be established at the
national level to ensure the collective community rights over plant
varieties, genetic resources and traditional knowledge.
- Farmers right to their own
seeds have been jeopardized and the monopoly of seed
rights are being handed over to the big seed companies. This is
detrimental to the interest of farmers and we demand the Government of
India to withdraw the Seed Bill 2004.
- The Special Economic Zone
scheme that takes away prime agricultural land from the farmers and
hands them over to the industrialists, which makes the farmer pauper,
and which is harmful to the food security of the country should be
stopped forthwith.
- All experiments and field
trials, including releasing for the public use genetically modified
seeds, fish and animals, that is detrimental to agriculture economy of
the country, harmful to the health of the
people, flora & fauna and the environment should be immediately
banned.
- Since it is clearly
recognized that the agrarian crisis in the country and the consequent
farmers suicides are a result of the agriculture and trade policies, and
no amount of credits and packages have stopped the crisis, we demand
that the Indian Government should ensure adequate income to the farmer,
by declaring a separate Income Commission for the farmers, on the lines
of the Pay Commission for the Government servants.
- School curriculums should
include knowledge of indigenous farming for creating awareness among the
public and retain youth in the farming sector.
- Sole ownership rights of all
indigenous varieties should belong only to the community, and not belong
to any individual, organization or Government.
- Seed samples or seed
varieties collected from communities and conserved at gene banks should
be fully documented and made accessible to the community.
- Research programmes and state funds for research on indigenous farming practices, their
improvement and improvement of varieties should be sanctioned on first
priority to farmer-scientists and groups of farmer-researchers.
- The Government of Karnataka
should formulate a policy to establish community seed banks at village
level through out the state for conservation of indigenous seeds, which
would emphasis sustainable seed security.
- The subsidy scheme for the
purchase of seeds presently includes only hybrid varieties. We demand that the scheme should be
applicable to native varieties of seeds also on equal footing
Provision of fodder for deficit
seasons has always been a major component in the improvement of agricultural
production. When livestock are adequately fed in the lean season, their
output increases, they are fit for draught when most needed and more dung is
available for fertility recycling. GREEN Foundation in collaboration with CEE,
The programme began
with Dr. S B Nadagouda, GREEN Foundation (GF)
welcoming all the guests and participants, while describing the objective of
the workshop. The workshop proceeding and an overview of the programme for the next two days were presented. The
guests were asked to brief the participants.
The rationale of the workshop was to highlight the
relevance of participatory approaches to agricultural research and extension
activities, which could bring in small-scale farmers and their concerns to
the center-stage of development agenda, and sustainability concept. This
workshop would focus on initiating a dialogue between farmers who are
conserving and improving local crop varieties and scientists who recognize
the importance of conservation and also the staff members who are working on
a participatory basis.
Mr. Srikanth, Project
Director, GF ended the inaugural session by thanking all the guest speakers
for delivering important anecdotes to the participants.
Next session was on the
special features of fodder trees–i.e., availability of local fodder
trees, methods of identifying and cultivating forest species and plantation
of forest species on bunds, small plots to increase the fodder stock. Dairy farmers have a lot of problem
regarding feed, as it is expensive because of conventional feed. The
participants were also summarized on alternative feeds for Cattle. Even today
Farmers even today have not
been able to balance the feed. Hence consistency in feed composition has to
be maintained. So basically feed
should be a combination of proteins, carbohydrates, calcium. Suitability is
yet another aspect that has to be taken in account. The alternate feed has to
be suitable for the class of animals to be fed (e.g. a bulky,
low-nutrient-density feed may not be desirable for growing animals but may be
suitable for mature cows). Composition varies from region to region and also
from crop to crop.
Community Field Gene Bank
The traditional varieties are diminishing in the present scenario due to the extensive use to HYVs. Earlier farmers used to reap good yield even during drought conditions, but as HYVs are both water and chemical intensive, reaping good yield is a far away thought. GF has been working in reviving and promoting the genetic resources in the area. To sensitize the community of the surrounding villages on the importance of saving and multiplying indigenous varieties, a field day was organized on the 3rd November 2006 at Maralavadi, Kanakapura taluk. The demo plot was on an acre of land that was cultivated organically. The crops under cultivation included 36 traditional varieties of finger millet, 13 rainfed paddy, 46 irrigated paddy and 46 vegetable varieties.
Nearly 214 farmers of the surrounding villages attended this event. Many indigenous varieties of seeds and earheads were exhibited. The programme began with a welcome to all the participants and the facilitator narrated about GF activities in brief. Later an insight into different sustainable agricultural practices was given, with a lot of interaction from the participants. The facilitators briefed the participants about the characteristics of different varieties and also explained the different field trails, where the traditional varieties have performed better. Enlightenment to participants on each variety, its growing methods, yield and cultural practices adopted to grow, organic farming practices with low investment and maintaining the soil fertility status was furnished. After the discussion, visual demonstrations circulated through video show. Video show on different agricultural practices included seed treatment, mulching, jeevamrutha, organic urea, preparation of poochimarandu, low cost vermicompost, vermiwash and other different methods. The resource person further added the spread of GF's work going and about Farmer Federation 'Janadhanya society' and about organic produce.
Organic Seed Producers Workshop
Seed has been the lifeline and source of sustenance ever since organized agriculture came into existence. Saving, selecting, reproducing, storing and sowing those seeds is often dependent on farmer’s knowledge and expertise. Farmers’ over centuries developed varieties with favorable characteristics to suit the local conditions and conserved the seeds for themselves and their communities. Saving seeds thus became a part of the culture and tradition that made agriculture a way of life. Biodiversity conservation receives a major thrust in organic farming policy of the Government of Karnataka. Sourcing organic seed material is a major problem faced by the farmers. Now it is imperative to strengthen the conservation of local seed diversity and the community seed supply system for the success of the organic farming in the country.
In this context “Organic Seed Producers Workshop” was jointly organized by GREEN Foundation, Bangalore and Organic Farming Association of India, Goa with an objective of producing organic seeds mainly in food grains and vegetables and exchange of organic seeds among the seed production network partners.
Dr. Vanaja Ramaprasad, Managing Trustee of the Green Foundation inaugurated the workshop by welcoming the participants who were from different regions of the country. She observed “The seed savers are the vital constituents and play a pivotal role in conservation of plant biological diversity and promoting Sustainable Agriculture Practices”. This has become so pertinent in the wake of decreasing returns from the so called modern agricultural practices, resulting in increased suicide tendencies among the farmers. She further added that the recent efforts by the government, amidst spiraling seed prices, to overhaul the existing seed laws to stream line the quality control and supply mechanisms have itself drawn criticisms and are still pending before the parliament. The act, she said is apparently in favor of the private seed sector helping them consolidate their business in a clandestine manner. It is detrimental to the interest of farming community who have been producing, saving and exchanging seeds over the generations, by attempting to discourage sale by farmers in the guise of imposed quality standards. In effect, she felt it an infringement of the community’s right over the seeds. In this context, she stressed that the purpose of this work shop is to dwell upon the “seed challenge” to arrive at the workable mode of action to synergize the efforts by the participating agencies and farmers towards the organic seed production and supply networking in order to boost up productivity under organic practices.
The role of seed savers and need for networking:
Mr. Claude Alvares, Director Organic farming Association of India opening up the maiden session on the role of seed savers in today’s context, deliberated on the issue. With increased awareness about the ill effects of green revolution and the changing shift towards “organic” both by producers and consumers, the demand for genuine organically produced seeds is also being felt. Now, the responsibility to evolve a net work system to make available the quality organic seeds calls for a renewed systemic approach to ensure the desired quality in right time/season and place. He stressed that this specific felt need to produce, exchange and study organic seed varieties within the people working with seeds is crucial beginning in this direction. The seed savers are central to the whole concept and what is needed are proper documentation, cataloging and dissemination of the information among the farming community to facilitate exchange/sale. Outcome of the workshop was the preparation of organic Seed Exchange Catalogue that includes five or six classes of seeds (garden crops, cereals, horticulture etc). The format would be circulated to all the participants of this workshop to take the feedback of at least ten or more crops varieties grown in their respective area to prepare a final Seed Catalogue.
Guidelines for evolution of an organic seed production system
- Organic seed producer follows OFAI guidelines on organic farming (www.ofai.org)
- Inclusion of all varieties of indigenous / traditional, open pollinated seeds.
- Organic seed producers will follow the forthcoming organic seed producer manual available from OFAI.
- Information on seed storage/treatment (various methods and principles to be understood)
- Rice is the first cultivated crop in Asia. It is cultivated in 113 countries.
- Rice fields cover 1.5 million sq. km of land on earth, out of which 1.3 million sq. km is in Asia.
- 2 billion Asians obtain 60-70% of their energy intake from rice.
- Red Rice loses 78% iron, 85% zinc and 70% fibre, when milled.
- India is believed to have had more than two lakh traditional rice varieties before1960's, much of which has disappeared from our paddy fields.Today India's popular varieties have alarmingly narrow genetic base.
The two day workshop was concluded by Dr Vanaja Ramprasad, who proposed vote of thanks to all the participants with request to ensure flow of information as scheduled so that the catalogue, first of its kind is realized qualitatively.
Crusader of SRI Dr. Norman Uphoff
Dr. Norman Uphoff, Director of Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development(CIIFAD) and of the International Program Agriculture and Professor, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; is a well known ecologist who identified the SRI method of Madagascar and spread it across the world. He visited Chinnikatti village of Haveri District, Karnataka State on 16th October, 2006 which is one of the GREEN Foundation's Network areas. His main intention was to acquire the knowledge of local farmers who have designed and developed simple steps to practice Guli Vidhana in Ragi that is similar to SRI method of Madagascar and spread it across the world.
Guli Vidhana-pit system is a unique method of cultivating ragi, where they harvest around 18-20 quintals of ragi per acre. This phenomenal result has made the farmers not to resort to hybrid ones. This method can be adopted in any other place. Norman Uphoff emphasized more on the implements that were used to make this method successful. He compared this method to the SRI system of Madagascar and briefed on the cultivation method, practices adopted, cost of cultivation, mixed cropping with ragi, grain and fodder yield / acre and uses of Guli Vidhana. Thus he made this visit very interesting and informed that this method would be spread all over the world.
Digital Green is an agricultural training and advising system that seeks to benefit rural farmers by disseminating targeted information through digital videos and phones.
A geographically-dispersed, culturally-diverse rural population of farmers remains disconnected from expert information that could improve the sustainability of their livelihoods. Various extension systems have been tried before, however, we aim to build a system that can scale agricultural advising support to even the smallest subsistence farmer. Digital Green bootstraps on the local expert knowledge of existing NGOs and farmers by capturing and distributing the widest selection of content in the most targeted, practically-oriented format - videos.
Pilot experiments in the field began in September 2006 through an the collaboration between Green Foundation, and Digital Green. We are actively compiling a repository of videos that includes testimonials of progressive farmers, field demonstrations led by agriscientists, interactions amongst farmers, and market-based opportunities. The library currently contains over 90 locally-produced videos in the Kannada language. These recordings are minimally-edited prior to screenings, which are shown to individuals on a laptop, small groups using a TV and DVD player, and communities through the village cable network. Unlike attempts to use traditional mass media to broadcast agricultural information, Digital Green is local and relevant. Farmers are motivated to adopt a new practice when they see a fellow villager, living in similar circumstances, experience its benefits. Extension staff is available to provide field support and mediates screenings of Digital Green videos to permit feedback. Digital Green improves the productivity of the extension staff by diminishing the logistical challenges of disseminating agricultural innovations at the grassroots.
Digital Green has demonstrated early success in the popularization of sustainable farming practices in the three villages in which the system is currently deployed. Digital Green aims to scale its system to offer relevant agricultural extension services to a much wider population of farmers.
Fodder Preservation
The farmers were educated on the importance of fodder preservation in
flush and lean seasons, yearlong supply of fodder and the methods used
to preserve. To provide fodder during lean periods, they are conserved
in the form of hay or as silage. Conservation process is limited to
only institutes like livestock farms and farmers in the project area
have very inadequate knowledge in fodder conservation practices.
Hay - A forage plant when preserved through reducing the moisture content to the level at which plant tissues are dead or dormant is termed as hay. The hay depends on various ways of processing and Sun drying is one of the process that has been initiated in the project area.
Silage - Feeding of green and succulent fodder is of utmost importance to farm animals. Availability of green fodder is limited to a particular season but is not properly utilized as farmers have given up conserving fodder. In order to feed greens during lean months they are conserved in the form of silage. Silage is a method of preserving fodder.
Cultivation practices of fodder varieties
Multiple cropping is the prevailing cropping system
in the project area since it reduces the risk of total crop failure.
The soil in the project area is identified as red sandy loam. The cultivation
practice includes crop rotations, mixed and inter-cropping systems consisting
of pulses, oilseeds, vegetables and fodder for livestock.
Mixing legumes and non-legumes: Farmers in the project
area mix both legumes and non-legumes and grow as mixed crops as there
would be absolutely no agriculture waste.
Fodder cultivation under tree shade: the waste spaces
around the trees have been utilised by growing crops that are useful
for fodder.
“Communicating Seed Knowledge Project”
GREEN Foundation to expand its dimension of work on issues around the
concept of seed conservation and to extend its experience in bio-diversity
conservation and sustainable agriculture a network of likeminded organizations
was initiated. The network has been established with 10 NGOs situated
in different states of South India.
The thrust is not only to continue the ongiong activities but give emphasis to gender segregated roles in agriculture and mainstream gender by facilitating both women and men as equal partners in the work as well as in the decision making processes at the household and grassroots level.
South India Partners |
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| Andhra
pradesh People’s Rural Integrated Development Society (PRIDS) Hindupur, Anantapur Grama Vikas Samastha, Madanapalli, Chitoor Nava Bharath Rural Development Society, Anantapur People’s Activity & Rural Technology Nurturing Ecological Rejuvenation, Cuddapah ANTHRA, Secunderabad |
Karnataka Jagrutha Mahila Sangha, Pothnal, Raichur Aranya Vikas, Haveri PRES, Bagepalli, Kolar
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Kerala |
Tamil Nadu Earth Trust, Ooty, Nilgiris |
Organic village
This project has been supported by the Govt. of Karnataka. the organic
village concept is being implemented through NGOs in one village in
each district of Karnataka. GF is implementing organic farming in a
village in, Veerayyanadoddi village in Kanakapura taluk Bangalore Rural
district as organic village.
Veerayyanadoddi is situated close to Tamil Nadu Border. There are 48 households, belonging to Lingayath community and rests of them are lambanis. The population of 280 cultivates 350 acres of land. They grow ragi and banana. GF has been working in the village for more than two years. As part of this project, capacitating the farmers, increase bio-mass production including animal husbandry, promotion of biodiversity on farm, mixed farming, increase the soil fertility, installation of renewable energy sources and micro-watershed development and so on are the interventions.
World's main staple crop, with 2.5 billion people depending on it for food, is rice.