“I was v happy.I said namaskaar.@rashtrapatibhvn greeted me & said:Welcome to Rashtrapati Bhavan,”says Kamala Pujhari,recalling her trip to Delhi to receive the #PadmaShri for her work on seed conservation,an uphill task when many varieties of paddy in her village are vanishing.
In 2002, she collected the Equator Initiative award on behalf of the #Adivasi communities of Jeypore. in Johannesburg. In 2009-10, she received the ‘Plant Genome Savior Community Award’ set up by the Protection of Plant Varieties & Farmers’ Rights Authority (PPVFRA).
But neither the Padma Shri nor the PPVFRA award have helped Kamalaji in getting rights over the #seeds she once cultivated & is now conserving,as she didn't know about the PPVFRA & how it grants rights to breeders & farmers who have preserved,bred, evolved or developed landraces.
“Seed thrives only if it is used in the fields consistently, season after season, and not otherwise [ by methods like rights and certification],” mantains Kamalaji. Read the full story here: ruralindiaonline.org/articles/patra…
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‘Who knew the lack of rain could kill my art?’ (a thread)
Three decades ago, no one wanted to teach a young Sanjay Kamble how to work with bamboo.
Today, when he wants to teach everyone his dying craft, no one wants to learn.
“It’s ironic how times have changed,” the 50-year-old says.
With the bamboo that grows in his one-acre field, Kamble mainly crafts irlas – a kind of raincoat used by paddy farmers in this region in western Maharashtra.
“My lungs feel like stone. I can barely walk,” says Manik Sardar.
In November, 2022, the 55-year-old was diagnosed with silicosis – an incurable pulmonary disease. “I have no interest in the upcoming elections,” he continues,
“I am only worried about my family’s condition.”
Naba Kumar Mandal is also a patient of silicosis. He adds, “elections are about false promises. For us, voting is a routine task. No matter who comes to power, things will not change for us.”
“I reach here by 8:45 a.m. and we start work by nine. By the time I am home, it is 7-7:30 in the evening,” says Madan Pal. ‘Here,’ is the tiny carrom board factory in Suraj Kund Sports Colony in Meerut city, Uttar Pradesh.
Karan, 32, who has been working here for 10 years, inspects each stick of wood and segregates those that are damaged and will be returned.
“It is not difficult to make a board, but it is not easy to make the coins glide on the playing surface.”
Lenindhasan, or Lenin– as he is called – and his friends, are trying to replace modern rice varieties and resist mono-cropping. Their plan is to restore lost diversity. And to germinate a rice revolution.
It's a different kind of revolution, led by another kind of Lenin.
Lenin cultivates 30 varieties of rice. He sells another 15 raised by fellow farmers. And he conserves 80 types of paddy seeds. All this, in his family’s six-acre farm in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvanamalai district.
It seems as if he’s been farming and selling paddy for decades. But it’s only been six years.
Before he became a farmer, Lenin was a corporate employee in Chennai, with two degrees and a good salary.
Life has only become harder in the last 10 years (A thread)
India's poorest homes continue to rely on minor forest produce like mahua and tendu leaves, along with the assured Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MGNREGA) programme.
As they prepare for voting today in the General Elections 2024, Adivasi villagers here in Arattondi village say their lives have only become harder in the last 10 years...