Indigenous vegetable seed production brings nutrition security and enhanced livelihood

Story of BAIF supported “Kalsubai Parisar Biyane Sanvardhan Vikas Sanstha”, a Tribal community organisation from Akole tribal block of Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra.

AUTHORS: Sanjay Patil, Yogesh Nawale, Jitin Sathe (BAIF Development Research Foundation)

Women Enterprise - Kitchen garden seeds marketing

Introduction:
World Health Organization suggested that one of the main strategies to improve nutrition is increased dietary diversity at the household level. Nutrition awareness programmes emphasize the need for including locally available fruits and vegetables in the daily diet. Every woman in tribal communities has a vital role in converting her surrounding vacant land into a kitchen garden, in which location-specific seasonal vegetables and fruits are grown. The main purpose of a nutrition garden is to provide fresh vegetables rich in nutrients and energy to the family every day. To ensure a healthy diet, fruits and vegetables are to be grown systematically on land available in and around one’s home. Such a garden is known as a nutrition garden. Nutrition gardens are essential in tribal areas where people have limited income and poor access to markets. Location-specific programmes like the promotion of nutrition garden kits play a major role in solving the malnutrition problem.
Undernutrition is not only a challenge in rural areas problem but also impacts the urban areas in the country. To deal with the prevailing undernutrition in the urban areas, nutri-gardens, an economical and healthy option, can also be promoted in urban spaces. So there is a need of supplying seeds of diverse vegetable varieties at the urban level. This is a potential source of income for farming communities and can be taken up as an entrepreneurial activity through the production and sale of quality seeds for nutrition gardens in urban areas.

(left) Exposure visits to nutrition gardens; (right) Meetings for planning of work

Brief description of the nature of Intervention:
BAIF Development Research Foundation (www.baif.org.in) works with tribal
communities for developing livelihood opportunities and nutritional security in Maharashtra. This is done through seed savers groups and community-level seed saver organizations. Initiated by BAIF, this work is supported by Rajiv Gandhi Science and Technology Commission (RGSTC), Govt of Maharashtra and the upscaling work is supported by Shabri Adivasi Vitta v Vikas Sanastha Maryadit, Nashik, Tribal Development Department, Govt of Maharashtra.

Kalsubai Parisar Biyane Sanvardhan Vikas Sanstha from Akole block of Ahmednagar District in Maharashtra has been working on community-led conservation and management of indigenous crop landraces with organic cultivation methods for nutritional security and on livelihood generation through the sale of indigenous vegetable seeds of various vegetable crops.

Conserving and reviving indigenous seeds

Indigenous vegetable diversity is documented and seeds of these vegetable varieties are collected. The group had established a seed bank at Komblne village in Akole block in the year 2016 and initiated conservation, purification and seed production by organic methods. Initially, Nutri gardens were established for nutritional security of Tribal communities and then vegetable seeds were promoted through urban gardens/terrace gardens by the supply of seed packets. This became an indirect support for nutritional security along with income generation for tribal women farmers, under the technical support of BAIF.

(left) Documentation of vegetable crops diversity and traditional food recipes; (right) Indigenous vegetables seed bank

Description of the initiative:
In this programme initially, location-specific indigenous vegetables and tubers were documented, which was followed by the collection of germplasm and its deposition in the village/cluster level seed bank. The crop selection is based on their year-round availability and nutrition content. The selected worthy crop species seed production is carried out at the community level.

Field level training was also imparted on organic input production along with the use of mulching, seed selection and proper storage. The germination testing and physical purity is carried out at the seed bank level. The packaging and marketing of the seeds is performed through the Kalsubai Parisar Biyane Sanvardhan Sanstha.

Preparation of Jeevamrut for crop cultivation

Impact of the initiative:

1. 8538 Nutri garden kits were prepared and distributed by Women groups (Each Nutri garden kit having 12–15 crops).

2. Families started saving seeds for next season along with income generation from seed sale.

3. Availability of 10 months of produce for consumption.

4. Increase in Nutri garden crop diversity by 40 %

5. During Covid 19 lockdown period, the groups supplied 4730 Nutri garden seeds to needy families.

6. Women-led enterprises were prepared and the sale of seeds for nutrition gardens was done, which led to income generation of Rs 5.5 lakhs (10000
packets prepared of 12 vegetable crops each).

7. About 520 students from 5 schools planted about 5 vegetable species in their backyards.

(left) School level awareness through exhibitions; (right) Traditional food recipes exhibition

Scale-up plan and convergence:

1. Capacity building of women resource persons Cadre (POSHAN SAKHI) for village level training and implementation.

2. Quality seed production of nutri vegetables through women seed saver groups.

3. Increasing the region-specific crop diversity of nutri gardens.

4. Solar Drying of surplus produce for consumption during scarcity period.

5. The initiative will also explore convergence with the Tribal development department, Krishi Vigyan Kendra and Department of Agriculture, Maharashtra for promotion of Nutri garden kits in tribal and rural areas for nutritional security and livelihood generation for tribal women groups under Kalsubai Parisar Biyane Sanvardhan Sanstha.