Odisha releases new roadmap to bring landraces under formal seed systems

In a move aimed at conserving India’s dwindling agrobiodiversity and empowering smallholder farmers, the Odisha government has notified a comprehensive Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the identification, conservation and mainstreaming of traditional seed varieties — commonly known as landraces. 

The new SOP, formulated under the state’s ‘Shree Anna Abhiyan’ (SAA), focuses on seed governance by giving priority to farmers’ knowledge and community seed systems. It expands the scope of earlier efforts focused on millet landraces to include a broad range of traditional crops such as pulses, tubers and cereals. 

According to the notification released by the Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment under Odisha government’s Directorate of Agriculture and Food Production on July 31, 2025, the SOP was designed to bridge the long-standing divide between formal seed systems dominated by high-yielding, certified varieties and informal systems, where traditional seeds still thrive under community stewardship.

What are landraces?

Landraces, or traditional and farmers’ varieties, are genetically diverse crop populations that have evolved over generations with traditional farmer practices through a combination of natural adaptation and human selection. 

Unlike uniform, industrially bred seeds, landraces are tuned to local agro-climatic conditions, soil types and offer traits like climate resilience, yield stability under low-input systems, pest tolerance, and nutritional richness, making them vital for sustainable agriculture. Yet, the Green Revolution and the push for high-yielding varieties (HYV) led to massive genetic erosion across India, the document pointed out. Odisha was no exception.

“However, with the rise of industrial and input-intensive agriculture, especially the widespread promotion of HYVs and standardised seed systems, many landraces have been marginalised or lost. The shift towards uniformity in seed and crop production has contributed to the erosion of on-farm genetic diversity,” the document said. 

With over 40-60 per cent of India’s seed needs still met through farm-saved seeds, particularly in rainfed and tribal areas, the initiative offers a model to include them under formal seed systems. 

The SOP provided a detailed roadmap for identifying, conserving, and scaling up promising landraces through a participatory and scientific process. The approach included:
• Surveying of agro-biodiversity-rich areas: This will be done to identify landraces valued for traits such as taste, yield stability, climate resilience, pest and disease resistance, adaptability to specific land and soil types, and nutrition. Farmers’ knowledge will be documented alongside scientific assessment.
• Formation of Crop Diversity Blocks (CDB) and Community Seed Centres (CSC): CDBs at sub-district level will act as operational hubs for conservation, characterisation, purification and multiplication of landraces and traditional varieties. Anchored by community institutions like FPOs, farmer collectives and women’s self-help groups, CSCs will implement CDB activities, select suitable seed producers and facilitate legal registration and protection of community-owned genetic resources under the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act (PPVFRA).
• Digital landrace registry: A state-level registry will catalogue all documented landraces, capturing agro-morphological data, geo-tags, ethnobotanical information and traditional uses. 
• Participatory varietal selection process: Landraces will be evaluated through multi-location trials for getting evidence on consistent performance through a minimum of two years of data across three agro-ecological locations and farmer-led on-farm demonstrations involving at least 10 farmers. Key criteria include yield performance, pest resistance, climate adaptability, nutritional value, suitability for low external input systems, and cultural and culinary quality traits. Farmers’ observations and preferences will play a key role in assessing varietal suitability. 
• Finalising field and seed standards: The Landrace Varietal Release Committee (LVRC), constituted by the state government on February 1, 2025, will be responsible for finalising field and seed standards specific to landraces and traditional varieties. These standards will be developed through consultations with PPVFRA, ICAR institutions, Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, civil society organisations, community institutions and custodian farmers. 

A two-year period after release is required before it can be formally notified, allowing time for field-level validation and multiplication. 

The SOP mandated that all collected landraces and planting materials will be registered in the name of the respective community or custodian farmers, with facilitation and support from the Krushi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) of the district concerned.

Further, it said that landraces shall retain their original names, “possibly with a prefix or suffix, while recording the original name and locality as an alternate identity in official documentation”.

“This ensures formal acknowledgment of community contributions to conservation and safeguards farmers’ rights over genetic resources,” it said. 

The SOP builds on Odisha’s ongoing initiatives. The state has already mapped and conserved 163 traditional varieties under SAA. Of these, 14 well-performing and farmer-preferred landraces were identified, while 103 landraces were characterised and are undergoing nutrition profiling. 

Importantly, the SOP aligns with Odisha’s recognition under the FAO’s Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) for the Koraput region, which showcases how traditional knowledge, biodiversity and community-managed seed systems can support food security and resilience.

Final summary: In a bid to conserve agrobiodiversity and empower smallholder farmers, Odisha has launched a comprehensive SOP to integrate landraces into formal seed systems. The initiative focuses on seed governance, prioritising farmers' knowledge and community seed systems. It includes surveying agro-biodiversity-rich areas, forming Crop Diversity Blocks, and establishing a digital landrace registry, aiming to bridge the divide between high-yielding certified varieties and traditional seeds.