Ramachandran K G
In the month of September 2020, a meeting was organised in Poi Malwan village to discuss the setting up of a community seed bank. 15-20 community women leaders from 5 villages in the area gathered there to participate in the discussion. No one from the villages has ever heard about the concept of a seed bank before. The concept of the community managed seed bank was explained to the village leaders. They liked the idea of having a village level community seed bank at the village. They found a space at Pooi Malwan village and established the seed bank there. The women leaders from the community undertook the responsibility of managing the seed bank. They decided to collect different varieties of seeds from the fields they work in.
At present, they keep 10 different varieties of paddy seeds (Chaaval), two different varieties of millets (nagli) suitable to cultivate both in summer and winter seasons. They also have different varieties of peas and beans kept in their seed bank. Apart from agriculture seeds, they started collecting and storing seeds collected from the forests. They have 14 different varieties of wild seeds in the bank at present.
150 households living within 5 different Katkari settlements have access to this community managed seed bank. 30 farmers have already benefited from this institution. They have already received different varieties of seeds, mostly paddy seeds from the bank and many people have also taken seeds of millets and cow pea for farming.
