Over 45 varieties of indigenous seed sourced from East Godavari, Srikakulam and other districts were put up on display at the organic vegetable seeds exhibition organised by Paryavarna Margadarsi Vaisakhi on Friday.
With an aim to promote organically grown native seeds and make healthy choices a way of life, the NGO took a new route to health. Defining the indigenous seed as densely-packed with nutrients, founder-president of the NGO S. Vijaya Kumar said the objective was to make them the seed available to people and encourage them to use them liberally instead of the hybrid ones. He said most hybrid varieties were grown using pesticides and chemical fertilizers and this should be replaced by organic produce. Writer and environmentalist Rani Sarma said: “With mounting pollution levels and increased use of pesticides, we have no clue whether the food we consume is any longer healthy. The best option is to grow kitchen garden and advocate organic farming concepts for healthy living.” Indicating that space is never a constraint to grow kitchen garden, K. Vani Raoji, a homemaker, said she has been following similar concept for the last 40 years. “It is quite satisfying to cook food using home-grown vegetables. Apart from brinjals, arum and turmeric, our terrace also houses fruit varieties such as guava and narinja (citrus-variety fruit),” she says. On Sunday, the NGO is organising a free training programme ‘Mana Kuragayala Thota’ from 9:30 a.m. at conference hall, Andhra University College of Engineering. The training will throw insights into organic farming and terrace gardening involving experts from diverse fields.