The government is keen to promote traditional crop varieties for resilient agriculture and horticulture in the country to tackle the vulnerabilities of climate change, Union Agriculture Secretary Devesh Chaturvedi said on Friday.
Addressing the workshop on “Reviving Agro-Biodiversity in Rainfed Areas through Traditional Varieties for Climate-Resilient Agriculture,” he said that the Ministry is keen to promote traditional varieties through various schemes related to agriculture and horticulture, such as NMNF, Farmers’ Producer Organisations (FPOs), Seed Development programmes and the NFSM.
He pointed out that traditional varieties have unique traits such as better taste, aroma, colour, cooking quality, and nutritional richness. These varieties should be grown in clusters and marketed for high-price realisation as there are buyers who prefer such traits, he added.
With 61 per cent of India’s farmers relying on rainfed agriculture across 50 per cent of the country’s land, the workshop highlighted the crucial role of traditional varieties in sustaining these systems.
Champion farmers’, seed saviours, and state representatives, from 10 states including Tamil Nadu and Odisha, displayed the indigenous seeds and shared their success and failure stories in conserving traditional varieties. The panel discussions emphasised the importance of the formalisation of community-managed seed systems, the need for government support in infrastructure and MSP, and the involvement of grassroots organisations in seed conservation efforts.
The workshop aimed to stimulate discussions and policy discourse on rainfed areas, as traditional varieties are disappearing while agriculture becomes more vulnerable in the context of climate change. All stakeholders agreed on the importance of conserving traditional varieties through use. There are examples from Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Odisha on how states are supporting reviving and mainstreaming diversity.
The experts agreed that an action plan and recommendations should be developed to submit to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. Linking traditional varieties to the market and promoting them in natural farming schemes are also possible. The need to build on the strategies adopted for the promotion of millets by the government was also mentioned.
Rainfed areas, characterized by challenging conditions like low soil fertility and climate variability, depend heavily on informal seed systems—farmer-to-farmer exchanges and community-managed seed banks. Nearly half of India’s seed requirements are met through such systems, underscoring the need for their conservation and promotion.
