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PLANT GENOME SAVIOR COMMUNITY AWARD
The Plant Genome Savior Community Award instituted by Protection of Plant Varieties
and Farmer’s Rights Act (PPV & FRA), Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, was
awarded to a Seed Saver Farmers’ Group of Jawhar tribal block in Thane district of
Maharashtra, on May 22, 2013 at the hands of Mr. Tariq Anwar, Minister for State,
Agriculture, Government of India in New Delhi. The award included a cash prize of Rs. 10
lakhs, a citation and a memento. Mr. Sudhir Wagle, Additional Chief Programme
Coordinator and Mr. Sanjay Patil, Thematic Executive and Facilitator, BAIF-MITTRA, were
present on this occasion along with 8 farmers including 2 women farmers.
The Award recognises the efforts of small and marginal farmers and communities in
conservation, improvement and preservation of genetic resources of economic plants and
their wild relatives in areas identified as agro biodiversity hotspots in the country.
The community-led Crop Germplasm Conservation Programme for conservation, revival and
sustainable use of crop genetic resources through people’s participation was initiated by
BAIF Development Research Foundation through its Associate Organisation, Maharashtra
Institute for Technology Transfer in Rural Areas (MITTRA), in Jawhar, tribal block of Thane
district and Dhadgaon tribal block in Nandurbar district of Maharashtra in 2007.
The main crops cultivated in Jawhar block are Paddy, Finger millet, Common millet, Pigeon
pea and Black gram. The tribal families in this cluster have traditionally cultivated over 300
diverse varieties of rice with specific attributes such as hunger satiation, instant energy
provision during peak workloads and for medicinal use. This wonderful diversity of rice has
formed the basis of a nutritious and secure diet for the tribal population.
Dhadgaon block of Nandurbar district has an amazing diversity of Maize, Sorghum, Finger
millet and other food and plants.
Programme Achievements:
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Reached 4200 farmers through seed exhibition, seed fair, field visits.
724 farmers from 11 villages of Thane and Nandurbar districts are participating in this
programme.
170 landraces of paddy, 27 landraces of finger millet and 10 landraces of Proso millet
have been agronomic ally and morphologically characterized.
Comparative study of Potential yield of 14 paddy landraces has been undertaken in
Jawhar (Thane) and Trimbak (Nasik) blocks.
Improved cultivation methods and Participatory seed selection adopted in Paddy (SRI
Method) and Finger Millet /Proso millet (Ridges & Furrows method).
Central Seed Bank at Jawhar has a collection of 400 landraces of paddy, millets,
maize, pulses, oil seeds, vegetables and tubers.
Three Community Seed Banks have been established, two at Jawhar block and one at
Dhadgaon block
50 quintals of seed from 15 landraces of Paddy, 2.5 quintals seed from 4 landraces of
Finger millet and 2 quintals seed from 5 landraces of Proso millet have been
produced.
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72 wild food resources in Jawhar block of Thane district have been documented and 5
species have been raised in nursery.
Nutritional characterization of 14 indigenous paddy landraces has been undertaken in
Thane district of Maharashtra.
A Video Documentation “From Seed Sovereignty to Food Security" has been
produced in English and Marathi.
Earlier, two innovative farmers, Mavanji Pawar from Chowk village and Sunil Kamadi from
Kamadipada in Jawhar block, were selected for Plant Genome Savior Farmer Recognition
2011-12 for their valuable contribution in conservation of crop genetic resources.