Despite challenges like illiteracy, Swati Dhamle pulls out all the stops to ensure the seed bank she heads in her Maharashtra village thrives. The seeds act as repositories of the region’s agricultural heritage.
As dawn breaks over the lush hillocks of the Kumbharwadi village in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district, its residents awaken to the possibilities of a new day.
Women like farmer Swati Dhamle, 38, get started on their domestic chores, to make way for their duties as budding entrepreneurs under NARBARD’s natural farming programme JIVA, supported by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
As a part of this, Swati operates a newly-formed seed bank from one room of her living quarters.
This seed bank ushered in a new phase of life for the women of the village. After all, it means much more than a mere bank for agriculturalists. It is a repository of the cultural richness of the region.
The next generation isn’t aware of the unique crops that grow in the area, let alone trying to preserve them, rues Swati. The senior agriculture assistant and project manager with JIVA, Tushar Gaikwad, agrees with her, “The motive is to bring back the traditional crops.”
In Swati’s small room are kept multiple earthen pots and many boxes. Each of them carries the fruit of the community’s labour, the essence of their culture and the traces of history, the seeds.
The seed bank is a depository of various kinds of organic and traditional seeds that can be bought by farmers. Along with the common seeds used for cash crops, vegetables and fruits, it also gives buyers the option of crops that are rare to find.
This is how one can find crops like aabai (sword bean), kueri (velvet bean), laal math (red amaranth leaves) growing in Swati’s compound. “They’re not merely plants. They’re traditional Maharashtrian gavran bhajis (rural delicacies). They’re an essential part of our culture. People nowadays hardly know about them, let alone how to prepare them. These dishes were part of our childhood,” says Sunil, Swati’s husband.
“My husband and I farm on three acres of land.
Operating a seed bank for more than a year has turned out to be like multiple lessons in farming and agriculture.
It’s managed by our self-help group (SHG) where all the members struggle with various challenges to make this bank grow,” shares Swati.
With no formal education, Swati finds it hard to maintain the accounts but is helped by Sunil, who has now discovered a love for natural farming over chemical farming.
Selecting 40 families a couple of years ago, JIVA carried out its pilot programme for natural farming in the region. They took care of the expenses and asked farmers to deposit 40 percent of their yield in the form of seeds to the seed bank.
Women, who belong to the SHG operating the seed bank, either contribute seeds or participate in seed bank activities, getting their share as a commission. In 2023, the seed bank managed to sell seeds worth Rs 20,000. The earnings doubled the following year.
“It’s not only Kumbharwadi, but also farmers from nearby villages who are developing an interest in traditional seeds as compared to the hybrid variety. They seek us out for a traditional variety of gehu (wheat), which is rare to find and procured from tribal communities,” says Gaikwad.
“Seed banks will soon be provided with dal (pulses) mills to begin with packaging and grading. This will enable all the women belonging to various SHGs to work independently,” adds Gaikwad.
JIVA’s initiative is not limited to providing seeds alone, but to ensure that in the future farmers can sell their output to the seed bank as well. The organic market is out of reach and market rates are unfriendly for the farmers.
The lead image on top depicts farmers Sunil Dhamle and his wife Swati in their seed bank. (Photo by Pranay Tripathi)
Pranay is an Indore-based filmmaker whose lens is always in search of how we ought to live. He is also a journalist, activist and nature-lover.
