Doing so ensures nutritional security of their families and helps them survive changing weather conditions
Lakshmiamma is unsure of her age, but she knows that she had been cultivating pulses and millets for over 45 years in her family’s 1.6-hectare farmland in Humnapur village of Telangana’s Medak district, before she retired.
Nowadays, Lakshmiamma works to preserve more than 90 indigenous grains, pulses, oilseeds and millets, which she transports and stores at a seed bank in Pastapur village of the neighbouring Sangareddy district. Rainfed rice and corn, local black gram and red winter sorghum are some of her prized possessions.
“Humnapur has been historically known for seed-saving,” Lakshmiamma says. This has been made possible by mostly women farmers in the village, who follow a 1:2 ratio system to preserve seeds: one seed is saved for use the next year, while two seeds are given away, either to other families or sold in the market.
The 1:2 ratio system has also helped Lakshmiamma and other households in the village, which predominantly has Dalit families, sustain the traditional system of mixed cropping and, thereby, nutritional security.
“Over the past few decades, men have moved away from mixed cropping to grow cash crops. But for the women, the needs of their families, livestock and the soil remained a priority," explains Lakshmiamma.
Several women in the village are also part of collectives or sanghams, set up by non-profit Deccan Development Society as part of its activities to help local farmers and improve local ecology and food security.
Lakshmiamma joined one of the sanghams in her twenties, and learned how to preserve seeds and to navigate changes in soil and weather conditions.
“Unlike cash crops like paddy and sugarcane that need fertile alluvial soil and ample water, indigenous varieties of millets and other grains can survive in red and black soils without needing extensive irrigation. This allows us to cultivate various crops both during kharif and rabi seasons,” says Mogulamma, a resident of Potpally village in Medak district, and member of a sangham.
Lakshmiamma says over the years the native crops have helped improve the health and fertility of her land.
Even the more than 50 species of “uncultivated greens” that grow during the monsoon season, which are generally considered weeds but are consumed by indigenous communities, grow well enough to meet people’s need in the extreme event where most of their crops fail, says V Ramesh, an agronomy expert with the regional Krishi Vigyan Kendra at Zaheerabad mandal in Sangareddy district.
To ensure that the system of preservation and knowledge of indigenous seeds carry on, the Deccan Development Society has introduced a “mother-in-law and daughter- in-law” sangham, wherein older women conduct agricultural workshops for the younger generations.
Since 2000, the non-profit has also been conducting a Mobile Biodiversity Festival in January and February each year, through which seed caravans travel across parts of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to rediscover, restore and preserve indigenous varieties of crops.
This was first published in the 1-15 June, 2023 edition of Down To Earth
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