International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples 2024: Building resilient food systems by prioritising indigenous farming is as hard as it is important

The International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, celebrated annually on August 9, honours indigenous cultures and their invaluable traditional knowledge systems. Sunamani Paroja and Jyoti Dang, two tribal farmers from Odisha, exemplify this wisdom. 

They have emerged as leading voices in preserving crop diversity as a crucial strategy to combat climate change and ensure food and nutritional security.

“Our ancestors cultivated a rich tapestry of local crop varieties,” Sunamani Paroja, a Paroja tribal woman from Koraput district in Southern Odisha, told this writer. 

“Our farms and food plates were vibrant with diversity,” she added.

While farmers in her village, Chendijhila, are swayed by the allure of water-intensive cash crops like cotton, potato, onion, and high-yielding paddy under monoculture, Sunamani chose to assume the role of a guardian for the traditional crops.

“These varieties are the culmination of centuries of our ancestors’ subsistence agriculture and cultural practices,” Sunamani emphasised. 

“Food defines our community’s identity. If these traditional crops vanish, we lose not only our heritage but also our culinary traditions forever,” she added.

When asked to talk about the diversities of heirloom varieties of seeds she had seen in her childhood, Paroja said, “I have flashes of memories where my mother used to preserve an array of seed varieties for next cropping season. Seeds were colourful, ranging from red, white, black, brown, green, yellow and grey. Some seeds are simply hung over the roof of the kitchen. Smoke from the chulha (clay oven) keeps pests away from the seed. While some seeds are kept inside an earthen pot covered with dry sal leaves.” 

On her four-acre farm, Sunamani cultivates heirloom seed varieties of little millet, including bada suan, sana suan, and guruji suan. The little millet is locally known as suan. 

She also grows traditional finger millet varieties like bati, janha, dasara, and ladu.  The finger millet is locally known as mandia. 

Additionally, her fields serve as a sanctuary to traditional paddy varieties such as machakanta, kalajira, godikabri, and chepti. Sunamani adheres to traditional organic farming practices and crop diversification methods.

While highlighting special qualities of these traditional crop varieties that are cultivated in the rainfed area, Sunamani told this writer , “They are suitable for the local agro-climatic conditions, drought-resilient and attract less pests in comparison to hybrid seed. They are tasty, nutritious and can be preserved for a longer duration at home.”

On top of this, cultivation of traditional crops under a mixed system of farming also restores soil fertility, reduces soil erosion and boosts crop productivity. 

“Soil becomes more porous that preserves essential nutrients and moisture for crops. In this way, crops need less water,” Paroja explained. 

Return of the Native

Jyoti Dang, a native of Bartoli village in Sundargarh’s Kuarmunda block, is another successful woman farmer who hails from the Munda tribe. 

Her husband passed away at a young age from a protracted illness. Jyoti is committed to ensuring her son a bright future by valuing his education. 

She cultivates veggies, pulses, and millets. The farmer harvested more than 25 quintals of finger millet from three acres of land the previous year. 

In her area, this yield was the largest ever recorded. Having preserved two thirds of the crop, she made Rs 77,000 by selling the surplus at a local mandi (wholesale market) at a minimum support price (MSP). 

“I am able to pay for my son’s health care and school tuition with the money I am making from millet,” Dang told this writer.

After witnessing Dang’s success, many farmers, especially women in Bartoli village, revived cultivation of millets who had once switched to hybrid crops. 

“Conserving landraces will restore local ecosystems and safeguard nature. It will also help to preserve our food heritage,” Dang added. 

Farmers in Bartoli village agree with Jyoti. They shared that after reviving traditional crops, they have observed that honeybees and butterflies have started returning to their village. 

“Soil and seeds are living beings. Our farm and crops have a deep connection with the surrounding forest and all living beings there. If we take good care of soil and preserve our ancient seed, that means we are respecting and safeguarding all living beings in the ecosystem,” Dang said.

Farmers like Sunamani and Jyoti have been supported under the Shree Anna Abhiyan, previously known as Odisha Millets Mission, a flagship scheme launched by the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment, Government of Odisha in the year 2017. 

The scheme has revitalised millets and restored their lost glory. 

Several studies have revealed that these ancient grains have the potential to combat climate change, farm distress and widespread nutritional insecurity. 

Odisha became the first state in the country to develop standard operating procedure for releasing of traditional millet varieties, preserved by the tribal farmers. 

“We have conserved more than 160 traditional varieties of millets. In collaboration with the custodian farmers, seed and crop diversity mapping were conducted in more than 500 remote tribal villages,” Arabinda Kumar Padhee, Principal Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment, told this writer.

Four traditional varieties of millets are released into the seed chain. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is working with the Odisha government to replicate the Shree Anna Abhiyan model in other states and countries, he underlined. 

But all’s not well

Despite having unique advantages, traditional crop varieties are gradually fading away from the agricultural landscape in the country. 

The indigenous knowledge system of maintaining genetic purity and diversity has been eroded. These unique cultivars, carefully preserved through generations of indigenous knowledge, are being rapidly replaced by modern hybrids. The younger generation in tribal communities, in particular, is distancing from these ancestral farming practices.

Sabarmatee, a Padma Shri awardee and co-founder of Sambhav, a Nayagarh-based non-profit promoting organic farming, highlighted the urgent need to safeguard this disappearing treasure trove of nature-based food culture and rich tradition. 

“Rooted in the deep wisdom of tribal communities, these practices offer invaluable insights for sustainable agriculture,” she told this writer.

Talking about the uncertainties about the fate of indigenous agrarian ecosystem, Joy Daniel Pradhan, a Delhi-based development consultant from Odisha’s Kondh tribe, painted a bleak picture. 

“Small-scale and tribal farmers, heavily reliant on rainfed cultivation, are particularly vulnerable. These communities are bearing the brunt of climate change, as hybrid crop varieties fail to withstand even minor climatic shocks. The situation is further aggravated by rising hidden hunger and malnutrition in tribal regions,” Pradhan told this writer. 

He argued that simply providing incentives and minimum support prices is inadequate to address the crisis comprehensively. 

Pradhan emphasised the importance of promoting local food as a cornerstone of healthy living. 

He advocated for nurturing a community of indigenous food entrepreneurs to drive innovation and experiment. This will foster wider societal acceptance. Sabarmatee echoes this sentiment, highlighting that such an approach will not only safeguard the resilient food systems of tribal communities but also provide equitable returns to millions of farmers.

Abhijit Mohanty is a Bhubaneswar-based independent journalist. 

Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth.