Reviving seed sharing among Indian farmers

New Delhi News.Net
Wednesday 9th January, 2008 (IANS)

Farmers once shared seeds with relatives and neighbours either to meet social obligations or as part of local seed exchange mechanisms that ensured livelihood security. But today such practices are fading out.

'Farmer-to-farmer seed exchange is a key element in the local seed supply system. However, in most of the areas (in India) these systems no longer continue,' according to new published material in LEISA India, a magazine on low external input sustainable agriculture.

Some innovative experiments to counter this trend are happening, including in parts of India, the article says.

Published from Bangalore, the journal's latest issue focuses on the theme of 'securing seed supply' and notes that 'traditional seed systems and innovations facilitate diversity that is both functional to farmers and the ecologically sound'.

Focussing on experiments from the field, LEISA India points to experiences in conserving indigenous seeds for livelihood security in Tamil Nadu.

There the NGO Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems (CIKS) has made efforts to conserve native varieties through an alternative system of seed production and distribution.

Starting from a handful of five indigenous rice varieties, the CIKS has more than 130 rice varieties and over 50 varieties of vegetables being conserved organically to provide nutrition security to households, says LEISA India.

CIKS is based in the Kotturpuram area of Chennai. 'Currently, it has nearly 3,000 farmers spread in nearly 125 villages who conserve these varieties organically,' says LEISA India.

In the eastern Tamil Nadu village of Odugampatti, farmers have worked on a multiplication and exchange system for groundnut seed since 2001 and they are no longer dependent on moneylenders for their seeds.

Other stories come in from groundnut farmers in Sudan, bean and maize farmers from Nicaragua, sweet-potato growers in the Philippines, bean farmers in Africa and elsewhere.

In Sri Lanka too, attempts are underway to promote traditional seeds. MPIS, the Movement for the Protection of Indigenous Seeds, is a group of farmers that has conserved around 170 varieties of rice. It is based at Eppawala in Sri Lanka.

In the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam, farmer seed clubs have been organised.

Some 57 seed clubs have selected 1,000 varieties and were able to mass-produce seven new rice varieties from breeding or segregating lines. Mekong is the biggest commercial rice production area in Vietnam.

LEISA India, which is available at www.india.leisa.info, is published as a print-based quarterly magazine and promotes 'technical and social options open to farmers who seek to improve productivity and income in an ecologically sound way'.

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