Organic farming important for agro-biodiversity: Farmers

Preservation of indigenous crop strains, a strong political will and a people's movement towards organic farming are the need of the hour for agro biodiversity that were discussed at a session at the Vasundhara International Film Festival, on Wednesday.

A team of seven farmers from various parts of the country are exhibiting organically produced grains, vegetables and millets at the event, have set examples of sustainable organic farming as a collective effort towards agro biodiversity.

Seedbank promotion has taken off successfully in Karnataka, said Bangalore-based Krishna Prasad, who has set up the state's first organic producers' company.

"Karnataka is the first Indian state that brought out an organic farming policy and also

allocated Rs 250 crore for organic farming. We have an organic village programme, now in its third phase, where it is implemented in every 'taluka' through a network of NGOs," said Prasad, who works with a network of 30 farmer groups across the state.

"Entire communities are into seedbank promotion. The Karnataka government also gives Rs 10,000 to groups that set up such seedbanks. We have a network of more than 60 seedsavers, each one conserving more than 20-30 varieties of crops and grains," he added.

Satish Awate from Pune-based Centre for Environment Education, said, "We are gradually going the organic way and people are realising the nutritional value of what they eat. Indigenous species of crops that comprise a rich dietary heritage need to be preserved."

Babulal Dahiya, a farmer from Satna in Madhya Pradesh, said local, indigenous species of crops are gradually dying due to modern trading. "We have 100 different species of crops. There's a huge demand for these indigenous species, but more efforts need to be put in to promote them," he said.

Deepika Kundaji, who focuses on conserving rare and endangered vegetable varieties in Auroville, Pondicherry, said, "We have 90 different varieties of vegetables that are being shared with gardeners and farmers all over India. National seedbanks make no sense because these are ex situ conservation attempts. We want to conserve and share. We are very concerned that the new seed laws will restrict the free sharing of these traditional varieties because we are now coming under the intellectual property regime. There's paranoia surrounding these valuable genetic resources and we are against this regime."

Sabarmati, who works with a network of farmers in Orissa's Nayagadh district, faces the challenge of promoting the indigenous crop varieties in her area. "People have to gain back faith that indigenous varieties also do perform well. Sadly, the government provides incentives mostly for hybrid and high-yielding rice varieties. Hardly anyone works on conserving indigenous varieties. Despite this, people are trying hard to conserve these varieties.

We directly working with farmers in surrounding areas, and 5,000 farmers from other states and districts follow our methodand visit us every year," Sabarmati said.

The rising production cost of farming led a group of farmers in 15 villages of Sangamner 'taluka' to resort to the organic way. "Six years ago we began to acquire private plots for growing produce organically. We've realised this project can be branded and packaged properly for mass consumption," said a farmer from Sangamner.