Experts at Sastra Deemed University in Thanjavu, Tamil Nadu, India, in collaboration with local non-governmental organizations, have established 10 community seed banks across the state to conserve disappearing heritage rice varieties.
The seed banks have helped the state’s farmers to track and revive at least 20 heritage rice varieties traditionally cultivated by their community ancestors but have been unavailable over the past few decades due to monocropping.
Read the story @The Indian Express
More on the conservation of heirloom rice varieties:
Conserving and increasing productivity and value of the heirloom rice in the Philippine Cordillera
As we conclude the two phases of the Heirloom Rice Project (HRP): Raising Productivity and Enriching the Legacy of Heirloom Rice through Empowering Communities in Unfavorable Rice-Based Ecosystems (2014 to 2016) and Conserving and Increasing Productivity and Value of Heirloom Rice in the Cordillera (2017 to 2020), we review some of the accomplishments delivered by the team.
Adding color to future rice breeding
Traditional varieties of pigmented grain serve as an important genetic reservoir for rice improvement. However, these are rapidly being lost as more farmers shift to planting modern rice varieties that are more productive. This genetic erosion has other consequences as well. Most heirloom rice varieties play an important role in many cultures and are tied to traditional cultivation methods that have been practiced for thousands of years. Thus, the disappearance of heirloom grains also spells the end of the cultures and indigenous farming systems that revolve around them.
Heirloom in the mountains
In the Philippines, the second phase of the Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resource Management Project (CHARMP2) works to reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of rural communities in the highlands of the Cordillera Administrative Region. The CHARMP2 project, an International Fund for Agricultural Development investment within the Department of Agriculture, provides interventions such as community mobilization, watershed conservation, agriculture and agribusiness development, the promotion of income-generating activities, and the development of rural infrastructure.
Recently, CHARMP2 forged a partnership with the Consortium for Unfavorable Rice Environments (CURE), which is coordinated by IRRI. Through this, CHARMP2’s development interventions will hopefully be strengthened with the support of CURE. In turn, the partnership will enable CURE to introduce and extend technological options over a wider area.
