Bhubaneswar, Aug 11 : Odisha becomes the first state in the country to release landraces/farmer varieties of finger millet crop.
Four landraces of finger millet (ragi) under seed system were released by the Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment department of Odisha government on Friday.
The landraces/farmer varieties namely Kundra Bati, Laxmipur Kalia, Malyabanta Mami and Gupteswar Bharati shall be notified varieties for the districts of Koraput and Malkangiri for seed production and shall be sold for the purpose of agriculture, official sources here said.
Their production will be undertaken as per the process outlined in the SOP for Seed System for landraces.
Odisha Agriculture Minister R P Swain said initially it will be released for Koraput and Malkangiri and later it will be extended to other districts based on performance and acceptability of the community.
He said the Odisha Millet Mission (OMM) and IIMR shall jointly prepare a roadmap for national release of landraces. Roadmap will be submitted to Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment Welfare of government of India.
These four landraces will also be tested in the 10 agro climatic regions of Odisha. These traditional varieties have adapted to the local situations. They have better tolerance to pests and climate changes.
These traditional landraces often perform better in organic farming conditions.
The Government of Odisha launched OMM in 2017 to revive millets in farms and plates. One of the objectives of OMM is conservation and promotion of indigenous landraces through a seed system for landraces.
Odisha is also home to 62 tribes. Tribal communities have a rich tradition of conserving local varieties of millets. A working group on seeds under OMM was constituted with eminent experts, agriculture scientists and grassroot seed conservators to develop such a process.
Through this process, 163 millet landraces were identified, out of which 14 landraces have shown very good performance.
Out of 14 traditional varieties which have performed well in participatory varietal trials of ragi in different districts further short listing was done and four varieties namely Bati, Mami, Kalia and Bharati performed well.
These four varieties have undergone further purification and multi-location trials.
After undertaking necessary trials, for the first time in the country, the Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment of Government of Odisha developed a standard operating procedure (SOP) for reproduction, evaluation and release of those traditional landraces through seed system for landraces under Odisha Millet Mission.
This was done in consultation with ICAR, OUAT, technical experts, field NGOs and most importantly custodian tribal farmers.
In addition to standard scientific parameters such as yield, taste, climate resilience, pest resistance, cultural preference and other work has been considered during the developments of guidelines.
For the first time in the country, custodian women farmers were included as the members of the varietal release committee, the sources added.