It’s about sowing the seeds of change. On May 25, while others in the country celebrated Buddha Poornima, a small cluster of villages in Chennekothapalli area of Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh celebrated Molakala Punnami, a traditional and unique seed festival. I grabbed the opportunity of visiting villages like Brahmanapalli and Narasingarayanipalli on the day to try and experience firsthand what the festival was all about. Molakala Punnami appears to be the only seed festival in India where the name itself is clearly indicative of what it is about: Seedlings Fullmoon Day.
On this day, seedlings of at least nine different varieties of crop seeds, which are sown seven to nine days before the full moon day, are immersed in a water body in the village. The seeds are of cereals such as rice, different kinds of millets, pulses, oilseeds etc., reflecting the importance of agro-diversity. It is interesting to note that women are central to this festival. It is the young girls who bring the auspicious Kalasam from each home to the village temple.
The sprouted seedlings are brought from homes and placed in a temple next to each other during the day. The whole community takes part in a colourful procession with girls and boys carrying the seedlings, sown in broken pots, to the water body.
It is significant to note that this festival is held a fortnight before Mrigashira, the fortnight that is seen to usher in monsoon and the kharif crop. Village elders explained that the farmers opt for that crop whose seedlings grow the healthiest. It is believed doing so would bring a good harvest. It appears this festival is a seed germination testing ritual. Since the seed has been kept in storage for nearly six months before kharif sowing, it makes sense to test it out before the season begins. Maybe that’s how this festival originated.
In the deccan region, such a seed festival coincides with Navaratri-Dussehra. Interestingly, the seedlings are grown in the dark in the puja room. A lamp is kept lit throughout the nine days of the festival. The seeds are usually sown in clay pots having virgin soil (soil from any field kept fallow during the kharif season). The point is if a seed can germinate in such conditions, surely it is fit to be sown in the fields. In this region, this is a seed germination testing ritual before the Rabi season, where crops grow on residual moisture and are called Satyam Pantalu (crops of truth).
What is sad, however, is that crop diversity now just has a ritualistic value. In an arid region like Anantapur, farmers prefer to grow groundnut year after year on the same land. Within each crop, diversity of varieties has eroded dramatically. This is alarming as this diversity is correlated to farmers’ rights and sustainable livelihoods. Crop rotation is important for soil productivity maintenance and for pest and disease management. It is this diversity which will lead to nutrition security and keep the livestock going. This agro-diversity is the basis of agro-ecological approaches to farming.
The writer is a national convenor of ASHA (Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture).