Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
Notice (8): Undefined variable: urlPrefix [APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8]latest-news-updates/punjab-losing-out-on-traditional-seeds-by-ramaninder-k-bhatia-6025.html"/> LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Punjab losing out on traditional seeds by Ramaninder K Bhatia | Im4change.org
Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Punjab losing out on traditional seeds by Ramaninder K Bhatia
Why women in Punjab villages shy away from offering their super-nutritious panjiri to guests from abroad, and instead offer them chips and coke?

And, is there any connection between panjiri and failure of the Punjab farmers to save their own traditional (sustainable) seeds in favour of hybrids or new varieties dished out by PAU or private companies?

'There is a deep connection between the two,' says Arshinder Kaur, India coordinator for international NGO Women's Earth Alliance (WEA) who feels that Punjabi rural women's refusal to serve so-called lowly Panjiri obviously meant a loss of pride in their own culture and tradition, which, in turn, was manifested in the way the state lost sustainable agriculture practices and got dependent on heavy pesticides and fertilizer doses, instead.

To Arshinder's shock, she could not find a single women group in Punjab which had made any effort to save their traditional, indigenous seeds to sustain traditional agriculture practices. 'And, I am still looking for one such group for the last 5 years,' says the activist, who met TOI at a seminar organized by Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, here on Wednesday.

The fact that Punjabi women were not able to save their traditional seeds, was discovered when Chandigarh-based Arshinder brought a group of WEA activists on a visit to India in 2009 to study the kind of efforts women had invested in the field of sustainable agriculture.

In contrast, in Gorakhpur, the NGO found a strong self-help women group which was not only preserving traditional seeds, but also exchanging them within the village, raising diverse crops and becoming self-sufficient, with earning profits up to Rs 5,000 per month. 'They visit the market only to buy their clothes, a broom and one odd matchstick, otherwise they are pretty much self-sufficient, thanks to their farm produce,' she reveals.

Women in a Gorakhpur village, who are now working collectively under the aegis of Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group (GEAG) had even built their own seed banks, made purely of indigenous products, where seed was preserved with natural organic things like neem and haldi, and these storage tanks were capable of withstanding floods and heavy rains too.

'Women in MP and UP villages have not only been saving traditional seeds for centuries, now, but have also been resisting efforts by private companies to go in for hybrid crops or GM seeds. In one acre plot, a woman farmer cultivates up to 32 varieties of crops using intercropping and crop rotation practices to increase productivity naturally and in purely organic manner,' reveals Arshinder, who has also worked with Vandana Shiva's Navdanya.

At a time, when the country is witnessing a raging debate on who should have control on agriculture's primary resources like land, water, forest and seed - government, private companies or farmers; perhaps, there are lessons to be learnt from panjiri and women from Gorakhpur.