adopt a rice seed

We are a seed bank in Niali, Odisha.

 

Each year we sow, grow and harvest 500 varieties of indigenous rice. By doing this every year, we preserve indigenous rice and keep the seed alive. We distribute these rice seeds free of cost to farmers in an effort to regain seed diversity and sovereignty.

 

By adopting a seed, you can keep one variety of indigenous rice alive through its life cycle for one year.

 

Natabar Sarangi

How does my contribution help?

Natbarji’s seed bank ( RDCGK) has a small field that it uses to replant 700 varieties of rice each season. It costs approximately 2,000 rupees to keep a seed alive. Keeping a seed alive involves finding the seed, creating optimal sowing conditions for the seed, planting it, growing and then harvesting the seed, and distributing it to local farmers. Your contribution ensures that one variety of indigenous rice will be able to grow for one harvest cycle.

What will I receive when I ‘adopt a rice seed’?

You will receive an email with your personalised certificate that you can download and print.
If you have sent an adopted seed to a friend as a gift, the recipient will receive an email telling them that you have gifted them a seed.

If you wish, we will send you a reminder at the end of the year to renew your adoption.

Who is eligible to contribute?

We are accepting contributions from Indian citizens only. We would like contributors to be individuals who wish to keep indigenous seeds alive. Institutional or organisational contributions are not accepted. As this is a collective, community effort to preserve rice seeds, the more contributors we have, the better. Therefore the maximum number of seeds one individual can adopt is 5.

What is the Rajendra Desi Chasa Gabasena Kendra Seed Bank (RDCGK) ?

The Rajendra Desi Chasa Gabasena Kendra Seed Bank (Rajendra Native Farm Research Centre) is a rural living seed bank in Niali village, Odisha. The experiment of conserving and growing indigenous rice seeds began in Niali-Narisho in 1996. The Kendra was established in 2008 under the chairperson-ship of organic farmer Natabar Sarangi. The Kendra is an initiative under the Loka Samabaya Pratisthan, which is a registered trust initiated by a group of committed social scientists, academicians and thinking individuals with the objective of developing people-centric development models more specifically in rural areas. The Seed Bank works towards the conservation of traditional varieties of seeds, in particular rice. Indigenous seeds are collected from surrounding areas of the state and from across the country, and are distributed to local farmers. Farmers are also provided with training in traditional and sustainable methods of agriculture.

Why do we need a rice seed bank?

Seed Banks protect and preserve plant genetic diversity. India once had over 2,00,000 varieties of local rice. The Green Revolution of the 1960’s homogenized Indian agriculture. Many of these varieties were lost. A Seed Bank can help find, preserve and share traditional varieties of rice. At the Rajendra Desi Chasa Gabasena Kendra Seed Bank, we believe indigenous seeds are the future, because they are more resistant to climate change, easier to grow and healthier to eat. A rice seed bank is a step towards reintroducing traditional varieties of rice to farmers and diets.

How does the seed bank work?

Farmers once owned the seeds they sowed. The introduction of hybrid high yielding seeds and big agricultural companies changed the relationship between farmers and seeds. They became dependent on companies for their seed. This dependence is costly for the farmer. At the Seed Bank we hope to change this dependence. We believe seed sovereignty is the key to food sovereignty. Farmers should be able to own the seed they sow, and take autonomous decisions about what crop they want to sow, when.

To make this a reality, the rice seed bank collects, preserves and shares local varieties of seeds.

We are a living seed bank. We are not saving seeds for an apocalyptic future. We want local seeds to be sown today. The seeds collected by the seed bank are replanted every year, to keep them viable and alive. By replanting the seeds we collect, we ensure that they retain their ability to germinate. The repeated cycles of germination and harvest, help seeds become stronger over time. They are exposed to changing soil and climate conditions and learn to adapt to them. Every year, each variety collected by the seed bank is sown in the seed bank’s field.
Once harvested, we share these seeds with local farmers, free of cost. The farmer sows those seeds, harvests them, sells most of the grain and saves some seeds for the next season. The farmer gives back to the seed bank some of these saved seeds. The seed bank is then able to give these seeds to a new farmer, thus keeping the cycle of preservation and sharing seed alive.

  • JUNE

    Soil preperation with Organic Manure

  • EARLY JULY

    Rice Seed Sowing

  • EARLY AUGUST

    Rice Saplings

  • LATE AUGUST

    Transplantation

  • SEPTEMBER

    Weeding

  • OCTOBER

    Farmer Training

  • NOVEMBER

    Flowering

  • DECEMBER

    Harvesting

  • JANUARY

    Seed Preservation

  • MAY

    Seed Distribution

JUNE

Soil preperation with Organic Manure

EARLY JULY

Rice Seed Sowing

EARLY AUGUST

Rice Saplings

LATE AUGUST

Transplantation

SEPTEMBER

Weeding

OCTOBER

Farmer Training

NOVEMBER

Flowering

DECEMBER

Harvesting

JANUARY

Seed Preservation

MAY

Seed Distribution

In conversation with Natabar Sarangi

One day, about twenty-five years ago, Natabar Sarangi, a 65 year old retired village school teacher, decided to search for and plant different varieties of traditional indigenous rice in his village Niali, around thirty-five kilometres from Bhubaneswar in Odisha. Upon searching he found a wide variety of indigenous rice, some good for breakfast, some to make kheer and some that tasted good with mutton. Over time, and with the help of others, he collected more varieties of rice. Some rice grew well even through droughts and floods. Some could withstand saline soil, others grew best in red, black or sandy soil. Some preferred being planted in lowlands, some in highlands.

 

Each rice was compatible with a unique soil and climatic condition. A young farmer, Yubraj Swain helped him. They planted rice in small patches, nurtured and looked after the rice, and harvested it every single year. Again and again, year after year, and now they have almost 500 varieties of local, indigenous rice.

 

Listen to the story of how the collection of seeds began and of the making of the Rajendra Desi Chasa Gabasena Kendra here:

Adopt a rice seed

Natbarji’s seed bank (RDCGK) has a small field that it uses to replant 700 varieties of rice each season. It costs approximately 2,000 rupees to keep a seed alive. Keeping a seed alive involves finding the seed, creating optimal sowing conditions for the seed, planting it, growing and then harvesting the seed, and distributing it to local farmers. Your contribution ensures that one variety of indigenous rice will be able to grow for one harvest cycle.


Rs. 2000 per donation

adopt a rice seed