Field Study

Gene Campaign's work for Self Reliance in Food and Livelihood Security in Jharkhand

Gene Campaign's Jharkhand project on food and livelihood security is making good progress. The GC team attempts to work in an inclusive way, its staff is diverse, incorporating ethnic and religious minorities, backward communities and is gender sensitive. Our literature is prepared in the local regional languages and tribal dialects, enabling us to reach a range of people. Collaborations with research institutions are established and field research is often being conducted jointly.

Gene Campaign appears to be emerging as a reference point for agro biodiversity conservation and establishing Gene and Seed Banks.

Conservation of rice in this region, important for being the primary Center of Origin of Rice is becoming successful with both ex situ and in situ conservation being well established now.

Contents

Conservation and Use of Agro biodiversity

Bringing underutilized food sources into the food basket

Establishing Bioorganic Agriculture

Reviving Indigenous Healing Practices

Preparing Information Materials 

Promoting Rights Awareness and Legal Literacy

Organising Women in Self Help Groups

Training & Capacity Building

Conservation and Use of Agro biodiversity

The activities included increasing the collection of traditional varieties and ; their multiplication and in situ conservation in Gene-Seed Banks with a community based system for using and administering the material; characterization of the varieties and germplasm evaluation to identify useful genes. ‘Ultra Desiccation’ is being developed as a technique for improved long-term storage at ambient temperature.

Underutilized and edible wild bio-resources are being revived and promoted in the food chain for improved food and nutrition

The collection: Samples of traditional varieties of diverse crop plants have been collected from 478 villages of 49 districts covering 9 states of the country. A total of 1990 samples of traditional varieties of rice, millets, legumes and vegetables have been collected, characterized and processed for storage in the Gene-Seed Banks. These consist of 1820 varieties of rice, 8 varieties of millets, 90 of legumes and 72 varieties of vegetables. Most of the legume varieties were collected from Bihar, legume cultivation is not popular in Jharkhand. Over 400 people have been trained in the collection, characterization and documentation of agro biodiversity.

Area of sample collection:  

 Number of traditional varieties collected:

Curating the collection: The rice collections were curated by examining the nomenclature, morphology and source of samples. Rice varieties bearing the same or similar names are sometimes collected from different regions. These are usually morphologically distinct. For instance we have six varieties called Kalamdani but they are also physically distinct. During curating the collection, such variants are identified and retained. When samples are collected that are clearly mixtures of different varieties, the single lines are being separated and maintained individually and the mixture is also maintained. The composition of mixtures that farmers use has risk management significance and constitutes a varietal composite.

Identifying useful genes:

The Birsa Agricultural University (BAU) is testing 170 varieties from the GC Banks for tolerance to water stress.

Rice samples from the Gene Bank are being also being evaluated by the Division of Genetics, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, (IARI) Delhi, for resistance to Bacterial Leaf Blight, a rice disease.

Starting with 17 traditional varieties that farmers characterized as disease resistant, five varieties have been identified as resistant to bacterial leaf blight.

MoU for using farmers’ material for Research

Materials have been shared with research stations for germplasm evaluation following the conditions of the Convention on Biological Diversity. An MoU has been signed by Gene Campaign on behalf of the local communities, after taking the consent of the representatives of communities. According to the MoU, no patents can be taken on any material developed from the research and evaluation and the germplasm will continue to be the property of the local communities.  

Ultra-Dltra-dcal yield loss.d tolerantwith students and civil societyrity , Uttranchal esiccation:

A new technology called ultra-desiccation is being tested to prolong the storage at ambient temperature. This will greatly facilitate long term storage. This is a pilot project to test whether the new technology of ultra desiccation works in the field.

Sixty varieties of traditional seeds are being ultra desiccated and will be tested for germination viability over a five year period

Once the technology has been validated over five years or more with small samples, important samples in the collection can be subjected to ultra desiccation and the technology established for wide use.

Community Gene-Seed Banks:

Eight Gene-Seed Banks have been set up in Kacchabari, Kulli, Nayatoli, Ichak, Pannakhunti, Adampur, and Kerua and Birsa Agriculture University,in Ranchi, Hazaribagh and Nalanda districts of Jharkhand and Bihar.

In situ conservation

In 2005 over 1350 farmers have taken 600 traditional rice varieties from the Gene-Seed Banks, in 2006, 1730 farmers have taken 815 traditional rice varieties to cultivate in their fields.

In-situ conservation & Seed Multiplication:

An increasing number of farmers are showing interest in cultivating traditional rice at least in part of their land. In 2005 over 1350 farmers have taken 600 traditional rice varieties from the Gene-Seed Banks, In 2006, 1730 farmers have taken 815 traditional rice varieties to cultivate in their fields. These farmers also host seed multiplication renewal plots for Gene Campaign to refresh and renew the seed in the Banks. This kind of field level conservation is greatly desired by conservation policy makers but is difficult to achieve. Gene Campaign has begun to achieve a breakthrough after three years of intensive fieldwork. This is a good indicator for in-situ conservation.

Seed samples were multiplied to provide viable and healthy seeds to a large number of farmers. The multiplication work was carried out by farmers as well as by Gene Campaign. GC multiplied 415 varieties in the demonstration plot of Birsa Agricultural University with three purposes, first to increase the seed quantity, second  to conduct morpho-agronomic characterization of the varieties and third to organize field training programs for master trainers and other, as well as awareness programs with students and civil society. 

Multiplication and in situ conservation of rice varieties:

Legal recognition for Farmer Varieties:

Important samples from the collection have been characterized according to the detailed format approved by FAO and IRRI. This is an extremely time consuming and complex process which is used by plant breeders to register a new variety. Gene Campaign has given training to the village youths to characterize the varieties by this method. This method was used to characterize those  special varieties, which have a chance of being registered as Farmer Varieties by the National Plant Variety Authority.

About 300 varieties are considered to have the potential to be characterized according to the new format. So far 200 varieties have been characterized according to the detailed protocol, at two stages. One, as a standing crop when morphology, flowering, crop duration was characterized and two, post harvest, when seed color, awning, 1000 seed weight, grain color, length, breadth, aroma and quality were characterized.

Important relevant information regarding the rice varieties was documented from farmers’ long term experiences. This work was done during the collection of seed samples. The information provided by the farmers related to land type and soil, requirement of water, crop duration, drought or flood tolerance, pests or disease resistant, yield, aroma and medicinal properties.   

Successful in situ conservation:

Traditional varieties cultivated by farmers from community Gene-Seed Banks:

Over 1730 farmers are cultivating 815 traditional rice varieties taken from the Gene-Seed Bank. 

Bringing underutilized food sources into the food basket

A total of 86 edible plants that are eaten as saag (leafy greens), have been identified by village communities in the region These have been collected and documented by GC. We are trying to create seed sources for such leafy greens. The problem is that since many have very small seeds the scatter easily, making collection of seeds as planting material is proving to be difficult.

Thirty-one tubers have been collected which the community uses as famine foods. Many of these have medicinal properties. With more and more people opting for cereals even in time of food shortage, many of the tuber sources are getting lost. GC has begun distributing these tubers in villages for multiplication and to revive their use instead of going to the moneylender for loans to buy rice for periods of food shortage.

Gene Campaign in collaboration with Food and Nutrition Board, Govt. of India, has conducted training programs on value addition, processing and preservation of leafy greens, vegetables, fruits as well as pulses to prepare foods for women and adolescent girls.

The difficulties we face in in situ conservation  are from the government, which pays no attention to conservation of rice agro biodiversity even as it promotes hybrid and high yielding rice. This lapse is particularly grave since Jharkhand is one of the regions of maximum rice diversity and is considered a Centre of Origin for rice. In this backdrop there is an even greater need to continue and intensify the work on Gene and Seed Banks in areas like Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Orissa.

Establishing Bioorganic Agriculture

Ten villages have been developed as models for organic cultivation, six from Ranchi district and four from Hazaribagh district. There are a total 1733 households in these villages. These will serve as models for replication and dissemination of bioorganic practices.

Bio-fertilizers were produced using  vermicompost, Blue Green Algae Rhizobium cultures ,green manure and compost.

Vermicompost is the most easily adaptable and popular. It was used successfully in trials of paddy, ginger and vegetables. 602 farmers have adopted vermicomposting and 369 units have been set up.  26 farmers are trying out Blue Green Algae cultures. Farmers report enhancement in their crop yield and quality with the use of bioorganic nutrients.

Plant based pesticides made from extracts of Azadirachta indica ,Pongamia pinnata , Nicotiana tabacum, Vitex negundo , Calotropis procera  and Allium sativum were found to be effective against common pests in field trials of vegetables and paddy.

277 farmers have adopted plant-based pesticides. A cost –benefit exercise done with a wide variety of farmers revealed that they were able to make considerable savings after moving away from chemical pesticides and fertilizers.

The total cost of paddy cultivating using agrochemicals works out to  Rs. 3300/acre,

The  cost of cultivation by bioorganic methods the works out to Rs. 1700/acre, a  saving of Rs. 1600 per acre.

Adoption of bio organic farming practices:

Effective Plant based Biopesticides:

Plant based pesticides face very stiff competition from chemical pesticides. The Agriculture Department of the state aggressively promotes chemical pesticides, as does Birsa University. This makes the adoption of organic pesticides difficult. Bioorganic pesticides acts in a preventive manner and need attention.  They must be applied before the pest attack.

Reviving Indigenous Healing Practices

Over two hundred types