Disseminating traditional seed storage practices through people’s participation

Seed is the bedrock of a sustainable farming system backed up by the richness of soil and water. The secret of a successful harvest lies in the synergy created by the interaction of soil, water and seed. Farmer’s knowledge in selecting, cultivating and storing has played an important role for generations. With the advent of new seeds and changing cultivation practices, the diversity and indigenous knowledge associated with it, have been lost. If agriculture has to be sustained, it is imperative to revive the diversity and the knowledge associated with it. Green Foundation’s major goal has been to address this need among the small and marginal farmers in the dry land regions of Karnataka. Poor quality seeds owing to lack of proper storage, is one of the major problems faced by the farmers using their own seed stock. Thus, effective seed management practices in storage plays an important role in ensuring availability of quality seeds for small and marginal farming communities.

In the multi cropping system adopted in the dry land regions, pulses are intercropped to provide the required nutrition for the resource poor farmers. Unfortunately, pulses attract pests vigorously during storage as compared to other field crops. This is because the protein content is high, which promotes the multiplication of the storage pests. For instance, pulse beetle (Callosobruchus chinesis) which is reddish in colour, feeds on pulses such as cowpea, gram and field bean, both in the field as well as in the storage.

As part of the ongoing efforts to revive the indigenous knowledge, Green Foundation had standardized and replicated popular storage methods across Karnataka. Results have shown that traditional seed storage practices are eco-friendly, cost-effective and provide room for farmer innovations. The findings of the traditional seed storage experimentation show that farmer’s practices are more effective and economical. Hence, Participatory seed storage research, by involving women farmers, was adopted as a strategy to revive the indigenous storage methods.

The best traditional practices serve as a knowledge pool for the small and marginal farmers to store seeds without high risk. However, the lacunae is lack of effective communication means to disseminate this knowledge to the resource poor farmers. To address this concern, a Participatory Research and Development (PR&D) project was conducted to develop a communication framework for effective dissemination of the appropriate seed storage practices among the resource-poor farmers.

Documentation of traditional seed storage practices

Seventeen knowledgeable farmers were identified to form an advisory group, also called as “barefoot scientists”. The group included individuals and members of the community seed banks. The members selected were experienced farmers who had in-depth knowledge about farming practices and indigenous seed storage practices. The group spearheaded the designing of methodologies for the participatory seed storage experimentation. The advisory group met once a month to monitor the research progress.

As a first step, the advisory group documented the various seed storage practices of the farming communities. Using the information, the group short listed five most appropriate traditional seed storage practices for conducting trials. The selected practices were (i) mixing with sand, (ii) smearing with red soil, (iii) mixing with castor seed powder (iv) mixing with Gonde soppu (Sphaeranthes indicus) and chilly and (v) mixing with gonde soppu, neem leaves and salt.

After selecting the five storage practices, these were tried to test their effectiveness among resource-poor farmers. To identify the resource poor farmers, a wealth ranking exercise was conducted in the villages of Bettahalli, Dinnur and Veerayyanadoddi. The exercise revealed that 75% of the farmers belonged to small, marginal and landless.

Field experimentation

The advisory group drew a detailed action plan and conditions to conduct the experimentation of seed storage practices for field bean, red gram and cowpea. They formulated a set of guidelines to carry out the experiments (see box 1).

Eight seed bank members and nine individual farmers volunteered to carry out the experiments. Initial germination was recorded and compared with the final germination results. Each method was closely monitored and results were documented.

Of the five practices tried, farmers preferred three practices – Mixing with sand, smearing with red soil and mixing with castor seeds powder. The preference was based on high germination percentage, low level of pest infestation and availability of resources within the community.

Table 1: Effects of Storage methods on Pest Infestation and Germination percentage

Treatment	Observation/Effects	Germination(%)
Mixing with sand	– Cool environment disturb the pests- Facilitates free exchange of gases that hinder the pest for feeding activity.	86
Mixing with Castor oil	– Regulates egg laying and multiplication by pests- Odour of oil acts as repellent- Prevents pests from boring the seeds due to cooling and slippery nature of oil	78
Smearing with red soil	– Mud layer acts as a physical barrier and also blocks respiration of storage pests.	70

Dissemination

Village meetings with communities were organised at Veerayyanadoddi, Bettahalli and Dinnur villages to choose the best-suited communication mode for disseminating the seed storage methods. Communication modes such as television, radio, drama, street play, lavani (folk songs), Kamsale (folk songs), Sobane hadu (folk song) and print media were listed. Majority of the farmers chose kamsale as the best communication mode for disseminating the seed storage practices.

A communication workshop was organized with farmers, Kamsale artists, seed bank members and other resource persons. The objective of this workshop was to get the inputs from the stakeholders, resource persons and kamsale group to compose songs on seed storage methods for wider dissemination among the village communities. Farmers shared their ideas on composing songs about the seed storage systems. During the deliberations, participants opined that the contents should include both prose and poetry forms, which were closer to the communities. It was recommended that the communication mode need not just be kamsale alone but could be any folk art pertaining to the specific region. At the end of the workshop a song was composed for dissemination.

Reference

G.Krishna prasad and Vanaja Ramprasad, Listening with farmers: Folk art as participatory communication tools in dissemination of local seed storage practices in: Campilan,D.,A.Bertuso,R.Ariyabandu and L.Sister (eds), 2006, Learninng Participation in Action: Field Research Experiences in South Asia.CIP-UPWARD,Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines.