UN heritage status for Odisha's Koraput farming system

Indigenous knowledge and farming practices of the region's tribal people recognised for promoting food security and conserving biodiversity

Traditional farming systems in India have received a major boost at a time when Indian agriculture is struggling to come to terms with modern technologies. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has accorded the status of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) to the traditional agricultural system being practiced in Koraput region of Odisha.

What is Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS)

In 2002, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations launched an initiative called GIAHS. It aims to recognize, conserve and manage best agricultural biodiversity knowledge systems, food and livelihood security and cultures throughout the world. The project aims to identify around 100 to 150 agricultural heritage systems in the world that would be protected and managed for their traditional knowledge. The initiative promotes following:

Allows farmers to nurture and adapt the systems and biodiversity they have developed while ensuring food security and human well-being
It supports protective government policies and incentives while working for in situ conservation of biodiversity and traditional knowledge
Recognises the right to food and the cultural diversity and achievements of local communities and indigenous people
Crystallizes the needs for approaches that integrate the in situ conservation of genetic resources with related traditional knowledge and local institutions for natural resource management, as a way to ensure continuous co-adaptation to a changing physical and socio-economic environment, by strengthening the social-environmental resilience and co-evolutionary balance of agricultural systems

Pilot systems and sites selected for GIAHS implementation

Andean Agriculture (Peru)
Chiloe Agriculture (Chile)
Ifugao Rice Terraces (Philippines)
Oases of the Maghreb (Algeria, Tunisia)
Rice-Fish Agriculture (China)
Hani Rice Terrace System (China)
Wannian traditional rice culture system (China)
Maasai Pastoral System (Kenya, Tanzania)
Noto, Satoyama and Satoumi (Japan)
Sado, Satoyama (Japan)
Koraput Region in Odisha (India – added recently)

Other Indian contenders

Soppina Bettas Systems (Western Ghats, India)
Traditional Ladakh Agriculture (Northern India)
Raika Pastoralists of the Thar Desert (Rajasthan, India)
Catamaran Fishing (Tamil Nadu, India)
Korangadu Silvo-Pastoral Management System (Tamil Nadu, India)
Sikkim Himalayan-Agriculture: Improving and Scaling up of the Traditionally Managed Agricultural Systems of Global Significance (Sikkim, India)