Agro-biodivesity
Farmers practicing rainfed farming suffer from availability of good quality seed at right time. On one hand, ill practices of on-farm seed selection and introduction of hybrids and improved varieties has deteriorated the local seed stock. On the other hand, the introduction of a flux of outside seeds has not helped increase the sustainability of rainfed farming. Satvik is working on in-situ conservation and improvement of traditional rainfed seed and working on achieving seed security at village level by using identified traditional seeds. Satvik is perusing the following strategy.
- Identification and collection of traditional seeds of rainfed crops in Gujarat state.
- Evaluation trial to understand its characters and performance.
- Training of seed saver farmers for improving and maintaining purity of their traditional seed stock.
- Participatory variety selection from selected traditional seeds for performance and preference evaluation.
- Organizing seed production and developed farmer centric quality assurance system. Traditional Seed Appraisal and Validation Committee have been working for quality assurance.
- Cleaning, Packing and Storage operations outsourced to professional unit.
- Farmer Producer Organizations are involved in its distribution system.
- More than 20 MT traditional seeds are produced and distributed to farmers on year basis.
- Organizing farmer for mainstreaming traditional seeds and seed security. For that purpose farmer association named “Anmol Desi Beej Sanvardhan Khedut Sangathan” has been formed.
- 11 traditional seed types have been applied for “Farmer Variety Registration” under Protection of Plant Variety and Farmer Rights, 2001.
