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Farming for Biodiversity

Thanal

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An Overview Of Our Solution

Rice diversity blocks are a climate positive strategy to revive indigenous rice varieties in local conditions, through regenerative agricultural practices. Indigenous Rice Diversity Blocks are fields that maintain the various varieties of paddy across years, either as a collective effort by entities or by individual farmers. The Save our Rice campaign has facilitated the maintenance of many RDBs across six states – Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand. Together, these RDBs conserve more than 1,000 indigenous varieties, which over 30,000 farmers have adopted. Thanal Agro-ecology Centre (TAEC) in Panavally in Wayanad district of Kerala has grabbed wider public attention this year. This RDB has 219 indigenous rice varieties, of which 164 are native to Kerala. This is the largest live collection of paddy varieties in the state.
Who is this solution impacting?
Community Type
Rural
Rural
Additional Information
  • Population Impacted:
  • Continent: Asia
General Information

Organization type

非盈利
Ecosystem (select all that apply)
Forests
Forests

Population impacted

12000
Challenge

Size of agricultural area

1 ha

Production quantity

750 kilos

People employed

25
Solution

Describe your solution

Agroecology centers, such as the one maintained at Panavally, Kerala becomes a learning center to contribute towards building a sustainable agriculture and food system in the rice growing regions of the State. Through conservation and mainstreaming of indigenous rice seed and paddy revival in such areas, there is an increased awareness on climate change vulnerabilities and the need for safe food in communities. Such activities also promote gender equitable livelihoods and increased social security for women through methodologies that integrates scientific understanding with local learning and translates into actionable outcomes. Enhancing agrobiodiversity by ethical practices of Agroecology is still being documented and visible indicators like presence of migratory birds has been observed in project sites.
Implementation

Describe your implementation

Implementation comprises of the following steps: - Identifying existing farmers/collective that practices organic farming or is interested in the switch - Baseline studies to understand potential of the chosen sites - Training and capacity building in ecological farming done to ensure setting up a rice diversity block and a seed bank in the community - Assisting in documentation and strengthening the collective to organize campaigns/festivals for popularizing the efforts - Providing campaign materials, multi-actor orientations and cross community visits for learning and sharing - Establishing market linkage and supply chain to get premier price through sales in niche areas like Organic stores Ensuring continuous monitoring through local field partners has been a challenge in the previous years, with exceeding dependency on core agency to supplement these gaps. Constant followup and engaging with the field partners for problem solving has been effective to a large extent, but an overarching communication framework to document quantitative data consistently is still in need. - Specific activities and/or specifically what your solution does to address the identified problems above in the Context Analysis section - How you ensured your solution was adopted and promoted change in human activities - Enabling conditions - Key success factors - Any obstacles and how you overcame them

External connections

International agencies like Bread for the World, farmer collective organizations (Sahaja Samrudha, CREATE, Mrithyunjoyi Nagar Mukti Theertha) at local and sub-national levels and independent research consultants have been active in our previous areas of work. We have also actively engaged as members in Coalition fo a GM free India, Kissan Swaraj Sammelan, Kisan Ekta and Economic Security for Farmers initiative.
Results

What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?

Homogenization of agricultural crops and industrial mode of farm production is adversely impacting the climate, livelihoods and food security of communities, especially in the emerging economies. Increased dependence on fertilizers and pesticides is also observed in small and medium scale farms to keep up with the market pressure and increase productivity despite ecological hazards and threat to soil fertility. Drought conditions are becoming prolonged in the State and a holistic agroecological approach is much needed to also address the needs of water conservation and recharge, minimal pollution and increasing yield. Green revolution saw India intensively push for replacing its more than 1.5 lakh heritage varieties with the new HYVs, simply to ensure better productivity.

Describe the context in which you are operating

Through the Save our Rice Campaign (SoRC), more than 1,000 varieties are preserved and propagated every year in fields, and maintained in Rice Diversity Blocks (RDBs) and live seed banks across India. In 2011-12 SoRC conducted seed exploration trips in Kerala. Compared to 2010, there is a passion among farmers today for traditional seeds, and many have adopted them in their cultivation. Interestingly, the Agriculture Department is now interested in promoting these varieties. This development is seen in the other rice campaign states of West Bengal, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu as well. It is now also seen that many of these varieties also compete well with the HYVs, show a better resistance to pests and diseases, and most importantly adapt well to local climatic conditions. Some of them have excellent stress tolerance properties, and are highly suitable for changing climate conditions. The collection includes varieties that are scented, medicinal, palatable for different culinary purposes, recipes and so on.

How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?

Reduced dependence on chemical fertilizers and pesticides are a major highlight through the activities promoted. Through the revival of flood, drought and saline tolerant indigenous varieties, climate resilience has been embarked upon in the local microclimates. A scientific methodology to assess these with indicators, keeping in mind the local influences is currently being built upon and needs assistance through scientific agencies.

Language(s)

Malayalam, Tamil, English

Social/Community

Increased gender equitable livelihoods, sustaining traditional and ecological agricultural practices

Water

Conservation through drip irrigation

Food Security/Nutrition

Chemical free and organic rice consumption for safe food

Economic/Sustainable Development

Sale of indigenous organic rice through 10 selected organic rice has increased by 30% in 2016

Climate

Paddy varieties survived despite delayed onset of monsoon showers and prolonged dry spells

Sustainability

Infrastructural aid is needed for setting up the rice diversity block and seed bank initially. Farmer incomes are ensured through guaranteed purchase (often procured by government agencies themselves), whereas the initial capacity building through trainings needs grant funding to accommodate resource persons and knowledge tools for the farmers.

Return on investment

The budget provision to run the program for 6 States in India was estimated to be Rs. 3 Crores for 3 years, out of which 90% had external grant support. Results generated show the sale of 303.78 tonnes in the first six months in 2 of the States. In 2015, 21 seed banks have been established in 4 states, 13 organic outlets selling around 46 indigenous varieties through 21 trade networks, 15 rice diversity blocks have been established that conserves around 700 indigenous seeds and reaches out to more than 5000 farmers.

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Entrant Banner Image

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Replication and Scale

How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?

This solution can be replicated in farming communities especially vulnerable to climate variability. It has been scaled and replicated with stable production in across the country since 2012, as a result 6 years of intense conservation research, campaigns and networking. Funding required for upto 5 Agroecology centers in a State is Rs. 1 Crore. Institutional support needed for research and documentation of ecological parameters.
Overview
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