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Approach to protecting indigenous varieties: Experience of Maharashtra
Raghunandan Velankar, (farmer) RANWA, Pune
 Maharashtra Gene Bank project was initiated about one and half years back, supported by Science & Technology commission of Maharashtra government. Crop Genetic Resources Group has been monitoring and implementing the project. The project covers 25 districts and includes Crops like Rice, Sorghum, Wheat, Bajra, Ragi, Maize, Linseed, Foxtail millet, Lakholi (a type of pulse) and Mung (Green gram) in its Gene Bank. There are 8 organizations (GYPM, IIRD, SSM, KVK-Nandurbar, LP, RANWA, SPK, BAIF) which are part of this initiative.
Chronology of the events which led to the project can be listed as follows:
- Oct 07, Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), Pune – First meeting - to share the concept
- Dec 07, ARI, Pune – second meeting – to decide on the theme
- Jan – Jun 08, district level consultations
- Sep 08, BAIF, Pune – first meeting of all partners
- Nov 08, IIRD, Aurangabad – first meeting of the PGR group under MGB - refining PGR proposals
- Jan 09, IITM, Pune – first meeting of the steering committee
- Mar 09, MSSRF, Chennai – PGR group representatives meet steering committee members, Dr. Bala Ravi and Prof. Arunachalam as a follow up of the earlier meeting
- Mar 09, Pune – Consultation with Dr. Sanjeev Saxena of ICAR and Dr. Debal Deb
- April 09, Pune – Meeting of all partner organisations to finalize the program
The main Objectives of the PGR group are:
- Conservation
- Maintenance
- Value addition &
- Developing market linkage.
Conservation is the major task of the group. It includes Identification of landraces for further work, Documentation and Planning for maintenance. Documentation is done on the geographical spread of the landrace, its peculiarities including scientific description, described based on the guidelines developed by IPGRI and/or ICAR and the people who are still cultivating. This helps in attributing ownership.
Maintenance is done through Field trials. During the initial period, collection of landraces and documentation of knowledge associated is done and simultaneously plan maintenance trials that are used for characterization. These trials are done in experimental farm of the Institute or farmer’s fields. It also follows organic farming as the basis and ensures purity of seeds (physical and genetic), proper design of the plot, right cultivation practices, right use of manure and fertilizers, observations and the duration of the field trials. The continuous supply of seeds has to be ensured by seed bank or gene bank as the case be.
Currently the Group has limited experience in Value addition and market linkage, though they are important. We have realized that Registration of the landraces as farmer’s varieties under the PPVFR is essential. Efforts are on to identify and register all such initiatives and varieties in Maharashtra. It has also been planned that the Central facility would function as the monitoring unit and all partner organizations would carry out activities strictly related to the umbrella theme of the project to develop coherency. Other concerns are comprehensive inclusion of landrace/s for conservation- for field observations for characterization, growing optimal crops - taking into account weather observations training and capacity building of the field staff etc.
Discussion
- Registration of farmer varieties is very essential.
- We can collect information on the varieties form the NGOs.
- All distinct varieties have to be documented in PPVFR. After checking with the existing varieties it can be sent for approval.
- A concern was raised on whether the existing formats (of registration) are wide enough to take all parameters of the variety. It might require revision. But, Dr.Nagarajan opined that instead of trying to revised the database, we have to include those varieties which are already developed and still to be registered. Their qualities have to be defined and send for registration.
- The role of farmers’ organizations in advocating for their rights is crucial. They can also contribute in the registration process.
- There are a number of bottlenecks in the registration of varieties.
- Dr.Nagarajan added: No one should wait to collect ‘all’ information about the seed to apply for registration. If the authority is convinced of the specialty of the seed, it will get back for more details. Each seed will have a name with a prefix or suffix of the village where it is grown. It has to be added in the application. The application should also include an affidavit (in Rs.10- stamp paper) declaring the features of the seed. Usually about 1kilogram of seed is required. It will be grown in 2 tows in 2 different places and the validity as claimed by the applicant will be checked, which usually takes about a year. If the results are contrary to the claim, the authority can always sue. Any one can send application- a farmer or a firm. Irrespective of the simple procedure in sending applications, only 18 varieties of pulses are registered so far. Application are invited for rice, wheat, sorghum, blackgram, etc (not ragi). We are not opened too many species to avoid flooding of applications and loss of quality.
- The Maharashtra model of networking can be followed by others too.
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