Indigenous communities value sharing, caring and consensus building. For years, indigenous farmers have been preserving, managing, sharing and propagating local seed varieties to enhance resilience in the food production system. While conserving and promoting their traditional food systems, they also learn important lessons and address the issues in farming.
With the ongoing project, ‘Empowering Indigenous Communities through Agroecology Learning Circles (ALCs) for resilient, integrated and innovative natural resource management”, supported by MBMA and funded by the World Bank, NESFAS aims to uplift these initiatives, to enhance its network of indigenous seeds.
A year ago, Nongtraw community started sharing arrowroot rhizomes and millet seeds to a few communities in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills region, to help preserve and propagate the seeds which are on the verge of extinction. Seeds exchange or sharing took place at the Community Seed Fair organized by NESFAS at Nongtraw, in collaboration with the Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) groups in 2021 and saw the participation of eight communities. The main aim of sharing seeds with other communities is to identify the types of seeds that are not known to some farmers or not found in their villages, and also to start preserving and safeguarding them so that they would not go extinct.
Nongtraw also has a community seed bank that was set up in 2021 by the members of ALC, facilitated by NESFAS with the support of REC to promote seed exchange among communities and encourage sustainable use of local varieties of seeds. Around 25 households in the community are cultivating these arrowroot and millet crops in the jhum fields. It is also widely consumed in the community. However, if produced in a surplus, they are able to sell them to other neighbouring communities. But one major challenge that the community is facing regarding certain seeds is that if they are not stored properly, they are eaten by rodents.
“Now, our neighbouring communities have started purchasing the arrowroot rhizomes from us which are available in abundance. I feel it’s great that other communities can also start consuming this food plant”, shared Kong Patrisha Riahtam, farmer, Nongtraw.
Kong Bibiana Ranee, custodian farmer, Nongtraw, expressed, “I am happy and proud that we have been able to share seeds to our friends. This way, they can also preserve and safeguard the seeds for a sustainable well being”.
