Wayanad rice festival promotes climate-resilient crops

Subject: Environment

Context:

A Kerala-based organisation named Thanal has embarked on a unique conservation experiment, planting 300 climate-resilient varieties of traditional rice on 1.5 acres of land at its agroecology centre in Panavally in the Wayanad district.

About the initiative:

Ikki Jathre, or the Festival of Rice, launched by the Kerala-based organisation Thanal.
During the festival, Thanal initiates planting 300 climate-resilient varieties of traditional rice to promote the traditional agriculture system.
Thanal has been organising annual “rice field weeks” since 2012.
- Most of the varieties were collected from Kerala, Karnataka, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal. There are three traditional rice varieties from Vietnam and Thailand.
- Throngs of farmers, researchers, environmentalists and students have been arriving at Panavally to take part in the festival.
Aim of the initiative: To sensitise people to the significance of conserving traditional crops that have the ability to withstand harsh climatic conditions.
- The festival also sets the stage for knowledge sharing and co-creation of knowledge between tribal farmers and experts.

Agro Ecology Centre, Wayanad:

Agro Ecology Centre is an off campus of Thanal at Panavally in the district of Wayanad.
The centre facilitates research and documentation on agro bio diversity, organic farming and other activities related to Agriculture and Food Safety.
The centre hosts around 200 traditional varieties of rice.
The centre provide training for farmers, students and Government officials.
The Centre also facilitate seed production, conservation and exchange.

Importance of traditional rice cultivation:

India had nearly 1.5 lakh varieties of rice, with about 3,000 varieties unique to Kerala.
Many of these have disappeared. Only 6,000 varieties are currently being cultivated by the farmers in the country.
The Thondy variety, a traditional and popular rice among the people in Wayanad a few decades ago, could compete with any hybrid rice in terms of productivity.
Moreover, the input cost of traditional rice cultivation is very low owing to its inherent resistance to pests and diseases.
Also, its nutritional value is high.
Many farmers had stopped cultivating traditional rice seeds after hybrid rice varieties became popular, under the misconception that the former has low productivity.