This engineer works hard to sow seeds of change

 

Bangalore: The sovereignty of the seed has widely been argued as the answer to global food security. As multi-national corporations and genetically modified seeds slowly begin to dominate the market, beautifully hyped among the teeming, consumerist middle-class, the farmer suffers.

 

 

Krishna Prasad, an eco-engineer from the drou­ght-prone Madhugiri taluk in Tumkur, has, for the last 15-odd years, strived toward spreading awareness on seed diversity across South India. Born into an agrarian family, Prasad grew up in a farmhouse helping his parents maintain their plot of land. “My father was a traditional farmer, so was my mother,” he explained. 

 

In the 1970s, the Green Revolution changed everything. This began back in 1961, as India stood on the brink of famine; the Green Revolution promised to change all that, emphasising high-yielding seed varieties, irrigation and the increased use of chemical fertilisers. “The Depart­ment of Agricul­ture began talking about a lot of modern methods, which my father adopted, although my mother had her doubts,” said Prasad. His family, like countless agrarian families across the country, abandoned traditional practices like the multiple cropping systems and the preservation of seed varieties. 

 

“I was taking a break during my engineering cou­r­se and tried to grow a ragi crop, but the rains failed and the harvest was poor. My mother remembered a type of ragi which was drought-tolerant that was available in the dry-land zones of Tumkur and Chitradurga.” Prasad set off at once to find a sample of this seed, but couldn’t. “It was lost,” he said. 

 

Seeds, the essence of the food chain, have, through centuries of evolution, ada­p­ted themselves to the terrain in which they belo­ng. This made the preservation of different seed varieties critical to the well-being of the farmer. When, in the 1980s, talk of natural farming resurfa­ced, Prasad, who was a student in Ahmedabad, met Vandana Shiva, a pioneer of farmers’ rights. 

 

Prasad joined Vandana Shiva’s trust, Navdanya, in 1988, that started a long career of reviving seed diversity and promoting organic farming. “Vand­ana and her team were collecting seed varieties from across India and I was in charge of multiplying the seed,” he said. When they attempted to distribute these to farmers, however, they were met with a total lack of interest. “That’s when we met a few women farmers, who were curious,” he said. “These wo­m­en started growing them on a small scale and that’s how the movement started.”

 

Before a decade had passed, the movement had spread its reach to about 400 farmers across Karna­taka. Prasad returned to Bengaluru at this point, where he became a part of the community seed bank network, initiated by the Green Foundation. “We would organise seed save­rs’ meets,” said Prasad. Regional newspapers began to show an interest and the movement began to spread. “We would intr­o­duce a new seed variety every week, along with a contact interest. The concept began to spread on a mass scale,” he explained. 

 

In 2000, Sahaja Samrud­ha was founded by a handful of organic farmers in and around the city. “The department of agriculture was still talking about hybrid seeds and chemical fertilisers, but as our org­anisation began to gain popularity, the department began to join hands with us.” 

 

When Karnataka was hit by another drought a couple of years later, Sahaja Samrudha began talking about rainwater harvesting, too. In 2007, they met a farmer in Orissa who had conserved over 300 varieties of rice, “That was an inspiration for farmers in Karnataka,” said Prasad. 

 

By 2008, farmers were competing with each to save the most seeds. Today, Sahaja Samrudha has saved 400 traditional paddy varieties across a network of 6000 farmers and 500 acres of cultivation land. They have also preserved 68 traditional millet varieties on 200 acres of land. 

 

“The government of Kar­na­taka provides '100 crore each year as seed subsidies, while the Centre provides ten times that. All of this goes to multinational corporations, farmers produce these seeds through contract farming,” said Prasad. No organic seed was being supplied, however, which is how the Desi Seed Producer Company Limited was founded. 

 

“One of the problems is that there is very little value addition to our food crops,” said Prasad. “Look at Thailand – each farmer owns about 2 acres of land, but they are one of the leading producers of rice in the world. They have several different varieties and also use it to make health products and soa­ps.” The Karnataka model is loosely based on this, Sahaja Samrudha has ide­n­tified 11 medicinal varieties of rice in the state. 

 

Prasad talks to me from Bada Bagh, famed all over Karnataka for its mangoes. The land, owned by Ghani Khan, was gifted to his grandfather by Tipu Sultan. “The mangoes gro­wn here were supplied to the palace,” said Prasad. He is there to meet Ghani, who has 720 rice varieties on his 6-acre plot today. “You’d be amazed if you saw this place,” he said. “They grow mangoes that smell like lemons and sugarless mangoes for diabetics.” 

 

After nearly two decades of hard work and opposition from every quarter, people like Krishna Prasad are celebrating their victory today. After years of hardship, they might just be on the brink of a new chapter for India’s most harried, overworked class – the farmer.