Fifty-five traditional rice varieties have vanished from Wayanad, one of the biodiversity-rich districts of the State, raising fears that they might have been lost for ever.
Anachoodan, Achatti, Chenachundan, Chena Puncha, Chara, Cheera Nellu, and Channa are some of the traditional varieties that have disappeared from the farming calendar of the district. This came to light during an evaluation of the People’s Biodiversity Registry (PBR) of 20 panchayats of the district by the Kerala State Biodiversity Board. It was also revealed that 168 rice varieties, including 78 traditional ones, were originally cultivated in the district.
Realising the threat faced by the rice varieties, the Board is planning to approach the cultivators to farm them for conservation. The Board is also exploring the possibility of setting up a paddy seed bank of traditional varieties in Kerala, said Oommen V. Oommen, chairman of the Board.
The farmers may have to be given incentives for taking up the cultivation. The paddy diversity would be lost for ever if such initiatives were not undertaken, Dr. Oommen said.
Conservation
K.P. Laladhas, member secretary of the Board, felt that focus of the Agriculture Department was on high-yielding varieties and those of agro-biodiversity significance didn’t figure in their scheme of things. The local species needed to be recovered and conserved. The data generated through the PBRs would be scrutinised and search for the vanished varieties would be conducted in the neighbouring areas too, he said.
Dr. Laladhas suggested that the demand for conserving and propagating the priced local varieties should come from the local panchayats themselves. The local bodies should assert that these varieties were their assets, he said.
V.V. Sivan, a scientist of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Wayanad, said that information on 105 traditional varieties was recorded from Pozhuthana panchayat alone in a survey held in 2007.
The traditional varieties that were still farmed, mostly by tribal people, include Gandhakasala, Veliyan, Thondi, Jeerakasala, Adukkan, and Kalladiyaran. The number of traditional varieties, which were cultivated in very small pockets, would be below 25, he said.
Digitisation of data
Dr. Oommen said that though the data mining from the PBRs would be a herculean task for any agency, attempts would be made to dig out valuable information from them.
The PBRs should be digitised as they should be periodically reviewed and updated. The Board would insist on digitised PBRs in areas where they had not been prepared, he said.
Incidentally, the Board received around 500 PBRs from the local panchayats. Biodiversity Management Committees were formed in all the 978 panchayats and 60 municipalities in the State. Information on the formation of the committees, as mandated by the Biological Diversity Act 200, was yet to be received from the Corporations of Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Thrissur, and Kozhikode, Mr. Laladhas said.
Source: The Hindu, 27th July 2012