Farmers’ varieties and ecosystem services with reference to eastern india

Abstract

Since independence, India puts emphasis on ensuring food security, and consequently, scientific crop breeding programs were initiated initially in the coarse cereals and cereals. Through genetic improvement in these crops, a large number of high-yielding varieties (HYVs) were released for their cultivation by the National Agriculture Research System. However, the adoption and diffusion of HYVs is not uniform, and in different regions and seasons, farmers’ varieties (FVs) are still being cultivated and cover significant area. FVs are locally adapted in particular region/environment. Farmers meticulously selected and maintained the identity since long. Some of the FVs are known to have special nutritional/medicinal/therapeutic value in addition to adaptive traits and have been protected through Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPV&FR) Act (2001). Moreover, highest number of legislatively protected rice FVs are from the eastern region recognizing their importance in ecosystem service as well as agrobiodiversity maintenance. The FVs with special nutritional/aroma/medicinal traits with distinct identity and protected under PPV&FR Act should also get higher economic returns if produced through organic agriculture, and for this, eastern region is ideally suited due to its agroecological conditions in addition to their specific adaptation. Finally, FVs that are locally adapted and that have excellent source of traits for abiotic stress tolerance and resource efficiency are ideal candidates to be utilized for developing new varieties and for future crop improvement, for adaptation and mitigation to adverse effects due to climate change, for enhancing food and nutritional security, and for higher return due to premium market price. FVs with PVP certificates need to be integrated into mainstream agriculture like the GI-protected Basmati rice for trade.