Ramachandran K G
A traditional seed and food festival was organized in Pillur, Tamil Nadu on 20th, February 2021 with the purpose of disseminating and transferring the knowledge of traditional food and seed diversity of the people of the Irula community to their own children and youth. Another purpose of the gathering was to spread awareness about the need of including diversity of food in their diets and the different nutritional benefits of traditional food items. The event was a celebration of their food culture as well.
The program was attended by more than 200 community members from 17 villages. The Tahsildar, Mettupalayam, was the special invitee to the program and the officials from police and forest department were also present. 20 people from outside the settlements were present.
In the food festival, the following food items like, Ragi kali, Samai sappad, Thenai payasam, Boiled kollu, Nannari tea, Mappila chamba rice, Indigenous fish curry and fish fry, Boiled noorai and riya kilangu, Sakkarai valli kilangu, Avarai curry etc. were served. These traditional delicacies were very new to many of the indigenous community children who attended the program.
As part of the festival, many traditionally used seeds, fruits, greens and wild edible items were displayed. Twenty different traditional varieties of seeds used for food and agriculture were on display. Several other cultivated fruits, wild fruit, greens and tubers were also exhibited at the venue. The displayed items (local names) are given in the table below;
| Varieties | Name of the items |
| Seeds | Ragi, thenai, samai, kuthiravali,2 varieties of makka cholam keerai, avarai, Achu peerkankai and milagu peerkankai, kathiri, milagai, 3 varieties of poosani (yellow), sorakkai, ver kadalai, ulunth, kadugu and amanakk |
| Fruits | Papali, seethe, elumichai, koyya, puli, kadali |
| Greens | Munnai, seengai, pasalai, pirandai, |
| Wild | Noorai and riya kilangu, Nannari, malai nellikka, |
A game on nutritional requirements was played with school children who attended the program. Community wellness team of Keystone foundation led this game for the community children. Several posters were also displayed depicting multiple nutritional benefits of different food items in the program venue.
Mr. Kannan, a police officer, spoke of the importance of indigenous food and traditional diversity and he stressed that it might be the regular consumption of these foods that could be helping strengthen the immunity system of the community which is all the more important in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic which is spreading across the state. Mr. Robert Leo spoke of the nutrition benefits of traditional food.
