[Agri Alert-121] One Woman's Efforts Can Still Save the World.

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Agri-Alert 121 14.04.07 Let us grow foOd, not money Let us work towards a Green Orissa. Contents: 1. Papamma Sows Seeds of Change. Comments: It was The Mother of Pondicherry, now Puducherry, who remarked that one person's efforts can save the world. She may have spoken from the point of view of spiritual struggle, but The Mother

knew very well the struggle in the material fold. She asked each one of us to concentrate on our work and give our best without any thought of return. This is also the inherent philosophy of this great Country called Bharatvarsha. Papamma has shown us the way we should work. This Mother has shown how the farmers can still retain the control over seed thus ensuring food security and self sufficiency. Our humble respect to this great lady who has tried to change her surroundings with whatever resources she has at her command. The people of Orissa have always had a soft corner for the kitchen garden. But the fast life of cities has today put gardening out of the reach of most of us. As we do not have access to organic food, fruits and vegetables from the market, we can grow them at home. This will improve our finances, our health, our knowledge and also restore our link with Mother Earth. Some of our readers have asked about the Living Farms team. But we

are just that, the Living Farms team. It is our objective to work as selflessly as possible for this State, this Nation and also this World. We realise that the world is one family and that any event that happens in any corner of this world can affect all of us at various levels. We seek to keep our readers informed about what is happening at the grassroots level. The feedback from our readers suggest we have succeeded to a great extent. Thank you readers. Papamma sows seeds of change By Anitha Pailoor Papamma is the driving force behind the seed conservation movement in D Kurubarahalli village, Karnataka. Slowly but surely she has managed to turn the mindset of the villagers towards preserving and maintaining traditional seed varieties and setting up kitchen gardens to ensure food security Conservation and exchange of indigenous seeds form the base of the Save Seed Campaign in Karnataka. Its success depends largely on the conviction of local people and their action. The movement has opened new opportunities for seed conservers like Papamma who, in turn, strengthen the movement by taking it forward. Storing seeds for the next season is not new for Papamma. The pile of traditional mud pots stacked in a corner of the

kitchen betrays her passion for seeds as she enthusiastically opens up her store to display a range of farm produce and native grain, pulses and vegetable seeds. Like other women in the region, Papamma is a born seed-saver and plant breeder. She refused to use improved seeds and chemical fertilisers when these were introduced in her taluka 25 years ago. It didn't take long for her to realise that she had made the right decision. D Kurubarahalli, Papamma's village in Mulbagal taluka of Kolar district, suffers water scarcity like many other villages in this part of the state. With an average rainfall of 760 mm and no perennial rivers, more than half the farms in the village are rain-fed; tanks and ponds are the major sources of water. Increased use of fertiliser has resulted in the digging of borewells, but

these eventually began drying up and farmers were forced to drill to 800 feet without much success. Changalarayappa, a farmer and former president of the Devarayasamudra gram panchayat in the same taluka says: "We have not got to the root of the problem. There is a general feeling that declining rainfall has led to depletion in the water level." In 2002, Grama Vikas, a non-governmental organisation working in the area, started a project on food

security. It set up a community seed bank in D Kurubarahalli, in association with Green Foundation, as part of its Community Seed Bank Network (CSBN) project. Papamma became their biggest asset. Her collection of 15 seed varieties formed a strong base for the community seed bank in the village. Most of the seeds in the bank are from Papamma's kitchen garden. The garden is not a separate dedicated area, as one would imagine. Instead, Papamma uses every inch of space around her house. Climbers like cowpea and various gourds cover Papamma's cowshed, and the little path alongside it is occupied by chilly, brinjal and leafy vegetables. Papamma maintains her garden in such a way that she gets vegetables throughout the year. Changes in cropping patterns had gradually

modified the lifestyle and eating patterns of the villagers. Papamma's neighbour Marakka says: "Ready vegetables bought from the market looked more attractive. Many native recipes had given way to easy cooking. But we were still unwilling to start kitchen gardens." The villagers found it easier to buy vegetables than to grow them. Scarcity of water and space were other reasons. Papamma, along with Prema who worked for the Grama Vikas CSBN project, persisted. Even though the villagers were not keen on the kitchen garden idea, the two women, armed with seeds from Papamma's garden and a spade, began sowing vegetable seeds near every house. Papamma suggested to the women that they use recycled water for the plants. The move had the desired impact: as long as someone else was sowing the seeds in their garden, the women agreed to look after the plants! Slowly, the women began to get more interested in the idea. Ratnamma who now has a kitchen garden says: "We feel the difference. Vegetables we grow differ in taste, freshness and save us money. We grow five kinds of beans, gourds and leafy vegetables along with flowering plants and medicinal ones. We enjoy the variety of vegetables we get in different seasons.

This has enhanced the nutritional value of the food we prepare." The medicinal plants help sustain the health of the family, while flowers add to the income. Today, Papamma is the motivational force behind most of the kitchen gardens in her village. And the villagers have returned to their old ways of growing vegetables and sharing them with the neighbours. Says Papamma: "Now our discussions revolve around seeds -– those we have and those we are searching for. We plan our farming patterns during sangha meetings. Programmes like seed fairs, arranged through the network, provide a platform for us to meet likeminded people and exchange seeds and cultivation methods. Some of us who have a good collection of seeds even earn a little by selling them at such outlets." Papamma has attended a number of programmes and visited seed banks all over Karnataka. At one such programme in Bangalore, she was felicitated for her

dedication to native seeds and organic farming. Food security Papamma buys things like cloth, salt and soap from the market. Otherwise, her family is self-sufficient. Grain and pulses stored in her mud pots, and assorted non-perishable vegetables like ash gourd and pumpkin ensure the food security of her family. Papamma grows everything she needs for the kitchen on her farm. Vegetables grown in her yard are either used in the home or distributed in the village. Extra produce from her farm, where she practises mixed cropping, is sold. Papamma has a one-and-a-half-acre mango orchard, a one-and-a-half-acre rainfed farm, and two acres of irrigated land. Ten different crops like ragi, peanut, green gram, horse gram, avare, cowpea and pigeon pea are rainfed; the paddy is irrigated from an open well on the farm. Papamma grows leafy vegetables, onion, chilly, maize, mustard, coriander, etc, during summer on the irrigated land. She says that unlike others in the village, who spray chemical pesticides three to four times a season, her mango orchard is purely organic. Chrysanthemum plants act as natural pest repellents. This year, Papamma is growing brinjal on one plot, for the market. She and her husband Papulappa have carried out sand mulching

on the land. Papamma learnt about sand mulching from organic farmer L Narayana Reddy at one of the seed fairs. Since then she has been practising it and the results have been good. Two kakada plants (a variety of jasmine) growing near the well bring her Rs 20 every 15 days. This matches her savings with the self-help group. Papamma has to leave half the irrigated field empty during the summer months, because of water scarcity. Towards self-sufficiency Papulappa is very supportive of his wife. A hard worker, he spends most of his time on the farm. Papamma's son and daughter-in-law live in Bangalore, where they work in a factory. Papamma supplies them too with vegetables and grain. Papamma also manages the community seed bank in the village. The bank

reflects her commitment as a seed-saver. Labelled seed containers are stacked neatly, and there's a display of sample seeds on the wall along with posters related to the movement. The lengthy list of beneficiaries in the seed register shows the impact of the seed bank in the village. Seeds are given out only on condition that the person returns double the quantity of seeds taken. Community seed banks The concept of storing and multiplying once-forgotten local seed varieties is slowly gaining ground in Karnataka. And it's traditional seed conservers who are leading the way, assisted by several voluntary organisations. Green Foundation, a non-government organisation based in Bangalore, has been working towards facilitating sustainable livelihoods for farmers for over a decade. The Foundation initiated the conservation of agricultural diversity through a network

of community seed banks in 2002, under the Community Seed Bank Network (CSBN) project that worked in 14 districts for three years, in collaboration with 11 non-government organisations. The community seed bank concept has proved successful in most districts, although there still are many farmers who cannot think beyond high-yielding seed varieties. A community seed bank works like this: Farmers identify native seed varieties -– both popular and rare -- that used to be sown prior to the entry of commercial hybrids. They then try to collect them through various channels. The collected seeds are stored using traditional methods. Multiplication is done on the farms. Varieties suitable for the agro-climatic conditions of a particular area are identified. Farmers who avail of seeds register their names and addresses with the bank. The following year they are asked

to return double the quantity of seeds they took out. Today, various seed banks in Karnataka store around 500 varieties of 30 kinds of crops. Women farmers do most of the obtaining, conserving, developing seed varieties and managing crop diversity. In many villages, woman conservers have taken on the responsibility of the seed bank. This facilitates their participation in village affairs and in the seed conservation movement. Seed conservers like Putteeravva and Lakhsmavva challenge the Indian Patent Act saying: "Conserving native seeds is not only our responsibility, it is also our right." (Anitha Pailoor is a development journalist based in Dharwad. This feature was written as part of an NFI Media Fellowship) InfoChange News & Features, April 2007-- Living Farms ( a project of DRCSC, Kolkata )Plot No- 1181 / 2146 Ratnakar Bag - 2 Tankapani Road Bhubaneswar -751018Orissa Phone- 9938582616 www.drcsc.org

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