Seed Banks at Bundelkhand, India
Bundelkhand has been a traditionally natural resources rich region. In the past, this region had dense forests and witnessed good agricultural practices. However, in the greed for more produce and with an increased emphasis on cash crops, slowly and gradually, people in the region have forgotten about their traditional seeds. Now, with the region experiencing a decade long drought, the farmers are able to get only minimal produce from land and traditional seeds that required less water have become almost nonexistent.
In this backdrop, Healing Lives initiated the process of establishing Seed Banks in their field area, a community-based system for collecting and preserving traditional, local seeds. The objectives with which the Seed Banks were set up are as follows
- Collection of drought resilience traditional seed
- To provide seed among poor & marginalized small & marginalized farmers of the project areas
- To promote practices of usages of less water intensive seed in the project areas
- Through these Seed Banks, inform and aware the communities in order to protect them from the private seed companies.