Deep Roots

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Some of the community institution-based agrobiodiver-

sity management practices nurtured by MSSRF in India are

described below.

Climate-smart nutri-millets in Kolli Hills

The general trend in agriculture, particularly in grain and

cash crops, is an increasing shift to monoculture, focus-

ing on a few high-yielding varieties and hybrids. Reasons

including a lesser preference for the cultivation and

consumption of millets and the drudgery of the traditional

processing involved compared to grains which are easier to

process and consume, have contributed to a reduction of

the area under millet cultivation. It is estimated that three

crops – maize, wheat and rice – contribute about 87 per

cent of all food grain production. This has led to the neglect

of a large number of diverse crops including small millets,

which have been contributing to local food security with

an important role in the livelihood of local communities in

many developing countries. Finger millet

(Eleusine cora-

cana L.)

, little millet

(Panicum sumatrense Roth ex Roemer

and Schultes)

, Italian or Foxtail millet

(Setaria italica

L.)

, Barnyard millet

(Echinochloa colona L.)

, Proso millet

(Panicum miliaceum L.)

and Kodo millet

(Paspalum scro-

biculatum L.)

are often defined as climate-smart nutritious

millets and grown over approximately 2 million hectares

across India. Millets are hardy and resilient crops in diverse

agroclimatic adverse conditions.

In Kolli Hills, located in the Eastern part of Namakkal

district in Tamil Nadu State of Southern India, the local

community had developed different cropping systems

around millets by choosing crops such as maize, pigeon pea

and mustard. These intercropping systems involve smart

risk protection combinations, while addressing diversi-

fied food and cash needs. In different regions, depending

on rainfall and distribution, they deploy millet varieties

of different maturity periods and abilities to withstand

adverse climatic conditions. However, the introduction

of commercial crops like cassava, which feeds the starch

manufacturing industry, and horticultural crops like pine-

apple, have shifted farmers from subsistence to commercial

farming, with enhanced income earning opportunity.

Further, the decline of millets is due to the immediate avail-

ability of food grains like rice and wheat supplied at highly

subsidized rates by the Government under its anti-poverty

programme, and lesser preference for the cultivation and

consumption of millets when other available grains are

easier to process and consume.

Since 1995, MSSRF in partnership with several agri-

culture research institutes and universities, state and

international agencies (the International Fund for

Agricultural Development, the International Development

Research Centre (IDRC) and Bioversity International) has

been conducting extensive participatory research work on

millets, aimed at reviving, conserving, creating economic

stakes and enhancing the scope for sustainable use of

millets. In this context, the following strategies proved

successful.

Increasing yield through improving millet cultivation practices

Together with self-help groups (SHGs), MSSRF undertook

different agronomic measures such as row planting, reduced

seed rates, application of farmyard manure, and intercropping

millet with tapioca to increase millet yield by 20 per cent and

net income by 25 per cent from its cultivation.

Introducing drudgery-free grain processing technology

All millets except finger millet have a very hard seed coat

requiring high abrasive force to remove the rice from the

seed coat. No machinery suited to these millets was avail-

able to reduce this drudgery. A collaborative project with

the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad and

McGill University, Canada, supported by the Canadian

International Food Security Research Fund – IDRC, has

yielded the development of new prototype machinery for

processing little millet with processing recovery efficiency

of 90-95 per cent.

MSSRF’s role in shaping biodiversity

policies in India

In the area of biodiversity conservation, MSSRF played a key role

in giving shape to two important national legislations: the PPVFR

Act 2001 and the Biodiversity Act 2002. The draft of the PPVFR

Act 2001 emphasized the need to mutually reinforce the rights of

breeders and farmers and was presented and discussed at two

dialogues organized by MSSRF in 1994 (Farmers’ Rights and Plant

Genetic Resources: Recognition and Reward) and 1996 (Biodiversity

and Farmers’ Rights). India is the only country where farmers’ rights

have been secured by law along with breeders’ rights.

Further, MSSRF’s suggestion of recognition and reward for the

primary conservers led to the Government of India instituting two

reward systems – the Genome Saviour Award for recognition of

communities that have conserved rich genetic diversity and the

Breed Saviour Award for recognizing those who have conserved

indigenous animal breeds. It proposed the formation of biodiversity

management committees at the local/panchayat level, a biodiversity

board at the state level and a national biodiversity authority at the

central level; the National Biodiversity Act came to be in 2002.

Value-added products are being marketed in 15 districts in Tamil Nadu

province under the brand name Kolli Hills Natural Foods

Image: MSSRF

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