ORRISSA


Grassroots community organization committed to the cause of natural farming



Once a daily wage earner Now a food producer





Sujata say’s her family have managed to increase farm yield to nearly threefold of food over last 3 years.



Sujata as a lead farmer is the seed mother for her village and steered the process of seed exchange and bio-input preparation at her village women self-help group named ‘Tulasi Mahila Mandal’, Munisigaon village of Beheragaon grampanchayat in Chakapada block of Kandhamal district in Odisha. She was the first women in her village to understand the value of crop diversity & mix cropping on small pieces of land. She uses her fence and roof top of her backyard to grow food all-round the year. Her dream to make her children educated as she is very particular to ensure it. The pressures of arranging food for the family have made her to understand the importance of seasonal food availability as well as income from various local sources [


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Community Biodiversity Mapping - a Community-Led initiative protecting local biodiversity





“Adivasi practice helps to conserve the agroecosystem as well as forest ecosystem, but due to intervention of Government and other agencies they fear their forest will no longer sustain and their livelihood is in stake so also their food security because of massive non-native plantation program. When the whole World is focusing on Food security measures, at this juncture the tribal forest ecosystem on which the tribal people depend for the NTFP for their sustenance is being destroyed in the name of “Development” which is the dark side of Sustainability campaign.”1


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DIVERSE LOCAL FOOD NEED URGENT CONSERVATION





181 Local food recipes prepared by women farmers at their homes were on display. The poor communities living at the cost of Bay-of-Bengal have demonstrated this abundance.



The fisherman and farming communities on the Bay-of-Bengal coast have been living in harmony with the nature since generations. The high tides, cyclones, high intensity rain/wind and floods have been a way of life for them as families have endured their hard experience to become resilient to the risks of repeated disasters brought in to their villages. Frequency of Cyclone in the villages have been a regular feature over the last 10 years. First ever worst cyclone struck the area in 1999 Super Cyclone which almost destroyed the villages and its ecology followed by heavy flood in the year 2001. Three other major cyclones namely Hudhud, Philin, Titli have occurred in the last 5 years. In- addition to this, the year 2018 have witnessed excess 800 % rain compared to the average rainfall in this area.


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Grassroots women leading the climate resilience initiatives





Women intensifying their resilience



The fisherman and farming communities on the Bay-of-Bengal coast have been living in harmony with the nature since generations. The high tides, cyclones, high intensity rain/wind and floods have been a way of life for them as families have endured their hard experience to become resilient to the risks of repeated disasters brought in to their villages. Frequency of Cyclone in the villages have been a regular feature over the last 10 years. First ever worst cyclone struck the area in 1999 Super Cyclone which almost destroyed the villages and its ecology followed by heavy flood in the year 2001. Three other major cyclones namely Hudhud, Philin, Titli have occurred in the last 5 years. In- addition to this, the year 2018 have witnessed excess 800 % rain compared to the average rainfall in this area.


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Prabhasini – barefoot community women Seed Breeder





“Prabhasini Mallick”, grassroots women farmer leader of Gadapadar village one of the few women taking up the task of producing good quality seeds and multiplying it for other farmers. Considering the promises of the market offering long grain high yield seeds, her fellow women farmers from Tarini women Self-Help Group of the village, sourced a local long grain/thin seed namely ‘Haladi Chudi’ which in local terms in English means Turmeric Bangles. In other words the meaning of the seed name carries its character of low pest attack (compared with Turmeric characters) and bangles for its sharp, long grains. As small quantity of the seed procured in exchange of other local seeds the women farmers wanted someone from their group take the lead to multiply this seeds for the entire village.


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Community Owned Sovereign Seed Systems





Laxmi Khila leading her community at Malkangiri



Laxmi Khila saves her seeds and share seeds with fellow farmers of her village. She has more than 65 varieties of diverse seeds from paddy, millets, pulses, oilseeds, tubers and vegetables. Retaining legacy of her late father Arjun Dura, she has been a resilient grassroots women farmer leader to steer the power of the local seeds and cropping system that endures the local natural resource base.


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WADI patches enabling sustained income of the Small holder Adivasi farmers





Orchards –a power to Women



The 500 small holder adivasi farm families in the Grampanchayats of Markapalli, Gangala and Pedawada have taken up raising fruit orchards on their dry-lands which were hard to take up regular crops. With support from NABARD, Bhubaneswar Regional Office the families formed their own Udyan Vikas Samities (UVS) at the village level and the plantations are taken up in group patches. The size of each orchard patch varies between 0.5 to 1 acre of upland.


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Learning the sustainable way





Story of marginal women farmers of Khajaguda



Khanjaguda village like any other village in Chakapada block in Kandhamal district is a dry land location with scattered land ownership of the farmers. The villagers are mostly small and marginal farmers. With the limited resources and means to address their food production needs the villagers were part of the seed sovereignty campaign initiated by ORRISSA.


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I really feel proud of being an Adivasi Women and as a Seed Mother.





Now I have more than 61 varieties of Paddy seeds and 123 varieties of pulses, tubers, oil seeds, domesticated wild food, vegetables and greens.



I am Jamuna Kirsani the Seed Mother of my village Mauliguda in Malkangiri. Like me there are more than 70 adivasi Seed Mothers working in our locality to collect, conserve and propagate the local traditional seeds. We take care of our local seeds as we take care of our children and family. Women are best skilled to nurture the seeds. Seeds are our life and our identity. The knowledge around our local seeds and farming systems are travelling from one generation to the other and we experience it through our day-to-day life. We never buy seeds but exchange with other farmers. Our seeds were evolved through our intense resilience efforts across generations. Now I have more than 61 varieties of Paddy seeds and 123 varieties of pulses, tubers, oil seeds, domesticated wild food, vegetables and greens.


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