The Hindu Business Line : Agro-biodiversity centre’s success story in Kerala

A tribal couple planting yam in their farm at Sugandhagiri in Wayanad. The tribal families are motivated and guided in organic farming by Community Agrobiodiversity Centres of the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation.

G.K. Nair

Kochi, April 1 The Community Agrobiodiversity Centre (CAbC) under M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), that has been operating in the Wayanad district for a decade, seems to have been successful in conserving traditional varieties in crop plants of food value, and rare, endemic and threatened species in wild flowering plants.

The MSSRF expanded its activities under a broader programme to provide infrastructure to empower communities in agrobiodiversity conservation and, thereby, enhancing rural livelihoods, by establishing CAbC in Wayanad in 1997.

The 10 years of work in conservation has provided ample baseline information on wild foods, yams and RET plant species seen in the Western Ghats, Dr N. Anil Kumar, Director of the Centre in Wayanad, told Business Line.

Making use of natural resources

What is significant is that “a large number of people have learned to manage their natural resources such as soil and water and improve their food security by managing their home-gardens and semi-wilderness habitats in a better way”, he said.

Over 500 women have been trained in the production and use, and marketing of primary health care products. Besides, a sizeable number of children had been educated on the importance of biodiversity and traditional knowledge. This has resulted in the emergence of core teams of educated youth, women and men farmers in villages and they engaged in spreading the message of sustainable resource management methods across other regions.

The role played by the CAbC in slowing down the pace of conversion of paddy fields into banana fields and revival of homestead farming by promoting marginal foods such as yams and taros, and revitalisation of traditional health care practices is significant in the district and invited wider attention from the whole of Kerala, he said.

Promotion of organic and LEISA farming methods and education in biodiversity aimed at tribal and rural children were the other areas of achievements, he said.

Livelihood issue

However, “there are grey areas in our targeted goals and achievements”, he conceded. For instance, he said, “reaching the men and women living in poverty with the goal of improving their livelihoods in a sustainable manner is still a challenging goal for us”.

Much more needs to be done to address various dimensions of livelihoods and poverty of the district, particularly the tribal communities such as Paniya, Kattunaikka and Adiya. The household food and health security initiatives and income generation process by commercialising biodiversity products and ecosystem services without undermining their other values such as culture, production opportunities, can prove to be a major improvement in the lives of the poorest in CAbC’s intervention sites.

Focus areas

The strategic area of action, he said, is to implement four integrated packages under a strategic framework during 2008-2012. Among the packages, conservation gets high attention at the levels of in situ on farm conservation, ex situ consideration involving seed bank, cryogenic community gene bank, in vitro cultures in the case of vegetatively propagated plants such as yams, and the cultural landscapes like sacred groves etc.

Second comes commerce, creating an economic stake in conservation is a major focus area for serving simultaneously the cause of conservation and livelihood security. Market-driven products have been identified from food and medicinal plants, and production is being organised through Farmers’ groups, Kudumbasree and SHGs.

There is a need to impart legal, genetic, quality and trade literacy through appropriate pedagogic methods which are being recognised and addressed through the ongoing genome clubs, every child a scientist programme, and the Village Knowledge Centre programme. The legal literacy campaign deals with the implications of the biodiversity Act and the Plant Variety Protection and Farmers’ Rights Act.

Educating the tribal women and men about the various regulations relating to land rights for tribal families, IPR, geographic indication and the biodiversity and Plant Variety Protection and Farmers’ Rights Legislation and Scheduled Tribe and Forest Rights Act is the other package included in the strategic action plan, he said.

Dr Anil Kumar said that capacity building in all these areas was being given high attention and its programmes are based on the principle of partnership with local families. Another area of importance is Documentation and publications which are designed for tribal and rural families in Malayalam.

Herbal bio-valley

Developing a Herbal Bio-valley starting from Wayanad to the Silent Valley Rainforest will be an expected outcome of actions of the Centre, he said. CAbC will undertake with other appropriate institutions co-ordinated projects like the ongoing RET and Medicinal Plant projects to strengthen the ongoing programmes.

Wayanad is rich in biodiversity with a high percentage of endemism; for instance, about 300 species out of an estimated 2,000 species of flowering plants endemic to Western Ghats are found in this district.

Some of the exclusively endemic species of flowering plants of the district are Tephrosia Wayanadensis, Hedyotis wayanadensis, Cynomytra bourdillonii and Bulbophyssum rheedei. A recent study by the MSSRF shows that this area has over 100 RET species, 650 medicinal plants, 343 wild food/wild relatives of crop plant species, 150 vegetable varieties and about 14 traditional rice varieties.