Seed conservation and out-reach

Recognizing the importance of seeds in general, especially local, land-race seeds, we have cultivated, gathered and conserved several varieties of vegetable, pulses, and oil seeds. Through sessions on ‘home gardens’, ‘local food’, ‘wealth of seeds’ etc, we are attempting to highlight the importance of local seed and food diversity and security to people. A basic seed bank was set up in 2014 with the help of Sunita Rao from Vanastree, the seed savers’ network, and resource persons such as Antonis Breskas, a volunteer from Greece, have helped process the seeds for better conservation and for documenting them. With a holding of about 70+ varieties of seeds, which have been grown, harvested, and conserved on our land, Punarchith conducts regular out-reach programs such as Beeja Baluvali (Seed sharing), and Beeja Mela(Seed fair) at our Nagavalli resource centre. In addition to these activities, in an attempt to promote community home gardens and seed conservation, we have supported several home gardens in two villages, and in 2020, we initiated a ‘Mother’s Garden (Taaindara Topu) at the Nagavalli Primary Health Centre. A community lunch was also organized to enable women to recognize and retrieve local seeds and recipes and their links to food security, nutrition and well-being.

Sunita Rao, our former Trustee, initiated the seed bank at Punarchith. Over 2023, she and Santhosh Naik also developed a detailed catalog and seed manual which will be the base document for the cultivation and conservation of vegetable seeds. The new seed bank will now be housed at Angarike Maala and will stock both grain and vegetable seeds.

Over the years, the collection, conservation, and cultivation of local and organic seeds has been sustained at both our own home garden at Nagavalli and with a number of women who cultivate small patches of their own. Periodic sharp fluctuations in the climate (either droughts as in 2016-17, and 2023-24 or heavy rains as in 2021 and 2022) and lack of seasonal rainfall has meant that production of vegetable seeds has fluctuated significantly. Since 2020, we have not been able to generate adequate stocks of vegetable seeds. However, some tubers such as yams and turmeric have done well and we have added these to the list. With our interest in dry grains, we will also be attempting to collect and conserve local grains of ragi and other millets, oil seeds (esp niger and seasame), and pulses that are grown in the region.