Gene bank for some unique paddy seeds

The tribal community in the district is planning to launch a community gene bank for storing indigenous paddy seeds. Twenty traditional varieties of seeds, including scented variants such as urunikayama, poothadikayama, gandhakasala , jeerakasala and mullan kayama; medicinal rice such as chennellu and navara and drought-resistant seeds such as kalladyariyan, chempathy, chomala and chenthadi were conserved by Kurichya and Kuruma ,the agricultural tribal communities in the district. The gene bank is to be launched under the aegis of Community Agro biodiversity Centre of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) here, its director, N. Anilkumar said. As a part of the proposal a workshop will be held at MSSRF on Sunday.The Central government had recently honoured five farmers among them with the Plant Genome Saviour Community Recognition Award instituted by the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmer's Right Authority of India (PPV& FR ) under the Union Ministry of Agriculture for their collective effort in conservation of paddy seed. The application for the award was submitted by the Wayanad District Tribal Development Action Council. For the Kurichiya and Kuruma communities rice is the principal crop. The Community Agro biodiversity Centre have been involved in the conservation of indigenous paddy varieties in the district since 1991. In a survey in 1997 by Dr. Anilkumar, it was found that indigenous seeds conserved and used by the tribes, evolved over the years, have several unique and innovative properties. According to the study, 75 traditional rice varieties are cultivated in Wayanad, out of which 40 were brought to the district by settler communities. Thirty-five varieties are have evolved in this locality and cultivated mainly by the tribal communities. Of these, only 20 varieties are cultivated now, Dr. Anilkumar says. These traditional seeds can resist flood and drought conditions, according to him.But, people now prefer high breed varieties owing to the cost of production and low yield of indigenous ones, Raman Palliyara, an award winner and chieftain of the Kurichiya tribe told The Hindu. "The intervention of governmental agencies is necessary to market our organic rice varieties at a profitable rate," Devaki Alamoola, an award winner from the Kuruma tribe said.

 

 The Hindu, 7th March 2009