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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

‘Farming a part of culture and heritage in many countries’ -MJ Prabu
-The Hindu
 

Native seed festival seesparticipation of 1,000 farmers

Chennai: A State-level native seed festival with the participation of 1,000 farmers was held at Thandalam village near Arakkonam on Saturday. It was organised by the Thandalam Yogashema Trust along with Organic Delta Farmers Association, TEDE Trust and CREATE.

Welcoming the participants from different districts, entrepreneurs and self-help groups, Ms. Radha Parthasarathy, managing trustee of the Trust, said that for the past 10 years they were encouraging farmers to attain better production through organic methods and trying to help them market their produce.

Chief guest, N. Ravi, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu , said: "Our Farmers Note Book column is a good example of The Hindu's support for farmers and farming. The 60 year-old-weekly column is a proof of how transfer of technology from lab to land and success stories of different farmers across the country has been successfully able to bridge the communication and knowledge gap," he said.

In the presidential address Dr. K. Ramasamy, Vice-Chancellor of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, said: "In the last one year, two to three native seed festivals had been organised in the State. This shows the growing awareness among farmers and entrepreneurs in agriculture."

Devinder Sharma, International Food Policy Analyst, in the keynote address, said suicides among farmers was not confined to India. It was a major issue in China too. "Every year, nearly two lakh farmers commit suicide in China. China has bought lands in 35 countries to produce food to be taken back. How many of us know this" he asked.

Mr. Sharma urged farmers to go back to millet farming. "Use them more; don't ignore our native cow breeds and seeds. Our native seeds and cow breeds are the best in the world. Tamil Nadu paddy like ‘Mapillai sambha' variety can grow well in drought and in floods. Our Gir cow breed from Gujarat and Tarparkar breed from Rajasthan are recognised in countries like Brazil. Preserve them and use them," he said.

Seeds had been a part of Indian culture and heritage for long; to a farmer they personified self-respect. In fact, long before hybrid seed companies set up shop and went commercial, the traditional farmer had saved his own seeds, swapped them with neighbours or exchanged them with others.

"Sadly, this intimate knowledge of the farmer and his traditional wisdom has been systematically devalued by several scientists, who are keen to promote technologies and seeds that are not suited to a particular area or community. In this background we consider our role important in holding such seed festivals across the State at regular intervals," said R. Ranganathan, managing trustee, TEDE Trust.

Nel Jayaraman, a leading organic farmer from Thiruthuraipoondi, said: "High-yielding seed varieties and chemical fertilizers and pesticides that came with the green revolution destroyed several indigenous seed varieties. As farmers stopped saving and exchanging seeds and started buying them from the market, their native expertise became irrelevant and crop diversity suffered."

Mr. Jayaram was recently invited by the Philippines government for an international conference on preserving native seeds.

India once had thousands of varieties of crop but most of them had vanished. Preserving native seeds should be an important agenda for every farmer. Like self respect, it was the foremost duty to preserve and protect the native flora and fauna (in the form of seeds), was the refrain of almost all the speakers.

About 10 stalls were put up by various entrepreneurs and seed collectors. About 1,000 (2 kg) bags of native seeds were distributed to the participants with an assurance of returning them back twofold in the ensuing year.

 


Native seed festival sees participation of 1,000 farmers