Seed Mothers
The Adivasi communities of Odisha, India, have experienced substantial losses of many natural resources from their area, which are key elements ensuring their food and livelihood security. Many farmers from the Adivasi communities have lost diverse varieties of traditional local crops like millet based mix crops while trying out market seeds. The small and marginal farmers have become food insecure, while there Investments in farming have increased so as the debt burden on famers.
ORRISSA NGO, as a change agent, had been promoting agriculture in the villages with improved practices based on modern farming approaches, with the support received from MISEREOR Germany. However, conventional support such as market seeds, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, small irrigation pumps, post-harvest machines, farm tools, etc. did not yield any sustainable result. It was found that the farmers could not sustain the efforts and build value using these inputs. Looking at the challenges of farmers and having a notion that farmers are not adopting modern practices has become an ongoing issue.
Community consultations reasoned that traditional farming still holds ground. The village level farmer groups recognized the inherent knowledge of Adivasi women with respect to traditional farming wisdom. The male-dominated Adivasi People’s Organizations identified resourceful Adivasi women in the villages and termed them as Seed Mothers. These Seed Mothers were the key to help ORRISSA team to challenge the assumptions of the modern farming orientation and stimulate new learning from the community.
The initial challenge was to bring dignity to the local seeds and practices associated with them. Another pressing challenge was to add objective value to the traditional practices in the minds of young farmers. Seed Mothers mobilized the community at the village level. They also gathered knowledge from fellow farmers.