In a bid to celebrate and create awareness of the agro-diversity of India, a virtual seed diversity festival will be conducted by a city-based organisation on October 24 and 25.
This festival is being conducted by Sahaja Samruddha in association with ASHA-Kisan Swaraj, Bharat Beej Swaraj Manch and Save Our Rice Campaign.
Krishnaprasad of Sahaja Samruddha said almost 10 months of the year has been lost due to the pandemic and the lockdown and no seminar or conference could be held all these days. But as more and more people are shifting to the virtual mode and are working online, it was thought fit to harness this medium and bring together all the stakeholders.
He said the seed diversity festival will have a slew of resource persons from across the country.
“Dasara is a festival which has various practices that are connected to seeds and seed testing rituals in different parts of the country. In these COVID times, we decided to do an online version of a seed festival since it also coincides with the beginning of Rabi season planning”, said Mr. Krishna Prasad.
Though the 2-day festival will seek to share knowledge, it could even share seed resources subsequently. The organisers said seed savers from different States will participate and the focus will be on traditional seed diversity of rice, millets, vegetables etc.
The keynote address will be delivered by Kuldeep Singh, Director of National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources. There will also be a live demonstration of cooking traditional culinary delights using the seeds.
Resource persons include scientists and seed conservationists from across the country who will share information and speak on topics such as rescuing India’s rice diversity from extinction, black rice of Manipur, cultivating rice diversity, and popularising millets besides covering topics such as diet, diversity and immunity.
For registration and online participation contact Deepak on 9986623073.
