Biswamohan Mohanty
‘Seed mothers’ of Orissa have played a crucial role in the revival of millet based farming systems. Being store houses of knowledge on local seeds and biodiversity, they have been instrumental in identifying, conserving and spreading local and traditional seed varieties.
The livelihoods of adivasi communities – Koya in Malkangiri and Kondh in Kandhamal districts in Orissa State, are primarily dependant on agriculture. Traditionally, they have been cultivating many species of millets which provided food sufficient for the entire year. The local communities with concern for agricultural sustainability have been growing diverse crops to maintain and conserve the local diversity. Adivasis in this region are also dependant on the forest resources for food and non-timber forest products.
Over the years, rapid loss of forest cover has widely affected the adivasi livelihoods. Also, the high cost external input agriculture started to have influence on the adivasi farming systems. The diverse cropping systems were largely replaced by monocropping with paddy and some high value crops. In such a changing situation, its been a challenge for the women in the households to ensure continuous supply of food to their families as rice growing alone cannot meet all their nutrition and household needs.
During the year 2006, a local NGO – Organisation for Rural Reconstruction & Integrated Social Service Activities (ORRISSA) started working with the communities to help them revive their traditional agriculture systems based on their knowledge. The focus was on helping them adopt a system of agriculture which was based on local seeds, low cost and sustainable.
Bihanaa Maa
Adivasi women play a key role in nurturing the local seeds and have enormous knowledge on them. There are quite a few women who still grow various millets in their backyards and on small patches in mixed crop fields. These women are popularly known as Bihana Maa or Seed Mothers.
Recognizing the role and importance of seed mothers in reviving traditional seeds, the four local farmer organizations, also called as Lok Sangathans decided to bring dignity to their role. They identified 28 adivasi women in the year 2006 to spherehead the seed knowledge in the area. The seed mothers were expected to help the villagers identify local seeds and share information about the benefit of mixed crops and facilitate free exchange of seeds across households.
These Bihana Maa in the villages play the link role between farmers to provide vital information on different seed, their character and quality of seed, process of cultivation and storage as they help sourcing of seed from one to the other.
Seed Multiplication
The seed mothers and the farmer organisaitons worked together in strengthening the biodiversity in the area. The seed mothers constantly sourced local seeds with improved traits and exchanged them with the farmers. But the traditional seeds did not have all the desired traits and had to be improved. Moreover, the quantity accessed by the seed mothers was so little that it could not be shared with all those farmers who were interested to grow. They had to be multiplied on farmers’ fields. The farmer organizations helped in identifying farmers who could take up the seed multiplication trials. Subsequently, aromatic paddy, millet and pulses varieties were grown by the seed mothers and few lead farmers in their fields first and then exchanged with other fellow farmers. These seeds are identified based on their traits needed by the farmers like short duration, and traits that protected it from the wild animals, pests and diseases etc. Over the last four years thirty two varieties of paddy, seven varieties of millets and twenty one other varieties of rare local seeds are multiplied and shared among 800 odd farmers.
Mapping bio-diversity
To convince the communities across villages and help them recognize the vast diversity of food and forest products available, the seed mothers participated in the biodiversity mapping of the villages. These women had demonstrated that their knowledge on forest is endless as the women at Tangpalli and Adamunda villages displayed twenty five varieties of edible wild green leaves sourced from the forest. In another exercise, on bamboo, at Jharapalli village, the community identified fifty three types of bamboo utilities in the adivasi households. This had inspired the farmer organizations to collaborate with six other people’s organizations to initiate a ‘save bamboo’ campaign to motivate families stop cutting of bamboo sprouts every second year. All the knowledge generated during this process by the seed mothers as well as other adivasi women, have been developed into community bio-diversity registers. There are now twenty two community bio-diversity registers.
Building the crop diversity
Traditionally, ‘Shifting Cultivation’ was followed wherein families cleared the forest, ploughed land once in a year and grew diverse crops including legumes, beans, pulses and millets, in combinations. One of the most critical farming practices prevalent in these areas is the millet centered mixed cropping practices where in twelve to twenty one types of food crops are grown on the up lands along the forest track.
Drawing inspiration from the methods of age old shifting cultivation practice, the elder farmers of the area realized the need of mixed cropping on the uplands. The seed mothers enabled about 678 families to revive their mixed cropping to ensure steady flow of food all round the year. Farmers cultivated pulses like black gram, Arhar, Kidney bean and Runner bean with cereals like corn, paddy and jana. Some farmers mixed the millets like foxtail millet and finger millet with vegetable and greens like with bhendi, kidney beans etc.
In Malkangiri, for instance, a village level seed mapping was done to know the availability of different varieties. Based on the availability of the seeds, the farmer groups in the villages were encouraged to exchange seeds and initiate mixed cropping on their lands. In about 3 years time, this process has brought in 9 types of millet seeds which has reached more than five hundred farmers from a mere 47 households. The farmers had also brought and exchanged traditional aromatic paddy varieties like Kalazeera and Machhakanta seeds. As per Mr. Bijay, convener of Community Seed Fair, their members have reclaimed more than 100 acres of uplands and raising mixed crops.
Revival of millet based farming systems had enabled 739 small adivasi families (in 2008 at Malkangiri block) to harvest at least two crops out of the 6 to 14 crops grown when most of the regular farms failed to produce any.
Women play a vital role in ensuring food and nutritional security to the families. To optimally utilise their production across years, they store the harvest of one season for about five to ten years in their households. They also grow all types of vegetables in their backyards which includes plants that produce drinks. Twenty two village level women managed vegetable nurseries are raised to share nutrition rich vegetable plants among the households. The seed mothers facilitated exchange of plants and seeds grown in kitchen gardens.
| Celebrating ‘Chasi Swaraj’ by footmarch
The foot march on promotion of traditional seeds was initiated on 12 February 2009 from Jharapalli village. It moved through 55 interior adivasi villages covering a distance of 60 kilometers. The volunteers with the foot march encouraged the ordinary adivasi farmers for their efforts of protecting the seed diversity of the area through a series of street meetings. Along the way the local farmer organizations had also organized gram panchayat level Seed Exchange fairs as women from villages joined with their seed pots and exchanged seeds among them. The foot march ended on the 9th day at Malkangiri celebrating the Community Seed Fair, wherein 5000 people participated. A book on ‘Adivasi Women Seed Keepers’ was released. |
Community Seed Fair
Community Seed Fairs were organized from 2007 onwards by the farmer organizations to create a platform for the Seed Mothers and common farmers to cherish their seed diversity. These fairs organized immediately after the Kharif harvest, are enabling exchange of seeds as well as experiences. The seed mothers display the rich diversity of the seeds and abundance of natural resources available in the locality. Hundreds of farm women led by the Seed Mothers, demonstrate the richness of the biodiversity by displaying samples of various seeds. Scores of farmers from different places participate in these fairs and exchange seeds of all types.
The Community Seed Fair 2009 at Malkangiri, for instance had inspired farmers from six different districts of the state to join them with their seeds. During the fair, a total of 231 farmers exchanged local aromatic varieties of paddy seeds. Fourty seven adivasi farmers have sold 60 quintals of aromatic paddy varieties @ Rs. 1400 to 1700 per quintal (Kalazeera, Samudrabali, Atmasitala, etc.) replacing the certified seeds.
The Seed Fair is also used as a platform to sensitise people on the need to protect forests. About thirty adivasi women of Ranginiguda displayed 105 varieties of medicinal plant materials (crops, plants, leaves, roots, fruits, seeds, skin, wood & latex) along with 15 varieties of roots, 8 varieties of leaves, mushrooms, cashew, tamarind, mahula, etc. sourced from the local forests during the Malkangiri Seed Fair 2009.
Spreading tradition far and wide
The number of ‘Bihana Maa’ or the seed mothers is growing. In three years time 73 Seed mothers have reached about 2800 small farm households helping them to switch over to traditional seeds and traditional methods of cropping. These women are also making efforts to sensitize the mainstream society about the richness of adivasi foods by organizing food mela during the official exhibitions at the district and the state level. They have been bringing in legitimacy to millet based crops and local foods by organizing community level seed fairs, food festivals and exhibitions. These are evolving as platforms for discussing wider issues related to food diversity.
Biswamohan Mohanty
Secretary, Organisation for Rural Reconstruction & Integrated Social Service Activities (ORRISSA)
No 40/570, Laxmi Vihar, Po. Sainik School, Bhubaneswar-751 005, Orissa, India
E-mail: biswamohanm@gmail.com; www.orrissa.co.in
