As per the latest IPCC report, human-induced global warming of 1.1 degree Celsius has spurred changes to the earth’s climate that are unprecedented in recent human history. Climate change will have ripple effect on agriculture and it is an understatement to say food security is at risk. This combined with decline in soil fertility and organic matter will only exacerbate the situation.
It is in this context, agro-biodiversity can play an important role. FAO studies show that three-fourth of the food humans consume globally comes from just 12 plant and five animal sources, with just three crops - wheat, rice and corn, accounting for 51 per cent of the calories included in the diet. With such massive dependence on these crops, there is always a risk to food security due to climate vagaries and emerging pests.
Neglected crops and forgotten foods
As per FAO estimates, there are more than 30,000 edible plants, and over 6,000 plants consumed by human beings and around 700 are cultivated on large scale. In India, there is a documented history of more than 9,000 plant species including medicinal and wild flowers which have been consumed for over 4,000 years of Indian civilizational history.
More than 40,000 landraces or farmer varieties are developed over thousands of years by the Indian farming communities in rice crop alone. The ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources has collected more than 4.3 lakh accessions of about 1,500 crop species mostly from farmers’ fields and to some extent from wild ecosystems. An estimated 20,000 varieties were made available during the past century to farmers for cultivation through formal institutional sources as against hundreds of thousands of landraces developed by the communities over thousands of years.
Agrobiodiversity heritage & community custodianship
Odisha is home of many agricultural heritage and biodiversity hotspot regions. The Koraput region is recognised as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS), whereas Gandhamardan hills, Mahendragiri hills, and Similipal mountain range have been notified as Biodiveristy heritage sites. Other hill regions such as Sunabeda, Niyamgiri, Malyagiri and delta/riverine regions such as Bhitarkanika, Mahanadi delta, etc. have extraordinary diversity of landraces of rice, millets, tubers, pulses, oilseeds, wild edible flowers, fruits, ethnobotanical plants, and many others. Koraput region of Odisha is considered to be one of the centers of origin of rice in the world.
Odisha is home to 64 tribal communities with rich cultural and linguistic diversity. The identity of tribal communities is deeply rooted in their cultural practices. But this traditional wisdom and shared knowledge on food diversity is in danger for many reasons. Lack of documentation further threatens the loss of this rich food diversity.
Experience of promoting forgotten foods
Odisha has been a pioneer in conservation and promotion of indigenous varieties. More than 700 farmer varieties have been registered under the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Right Authority. Under Shree Anna Abhiyan (formerly, Odisha Millets Mission) and Integrated Farming Systems programmes, landraces from over 500 remote villages have been mapped and documented. Experiences from Shree Anna Abhiyan shows many local traditional varieties give good yield, are better in nutrition and adapted to local situations.
Odisha became first to release SOPs for mainstreaming traditional varieties through seed system for landraces. For the first time in the country, four landraces namely, Kundra Bati, Laxmipur Kalia, Malyabanta Mami and Gupteshwar Bharati were notified as varieties.
Forgotten food documentation taken up under Integrated Farming Systems initiative has helped in recording a variety of tribal foods. Nutrition profiling and scientific analysis is being done to ensure suitable and diverse forgotten foods are taken up for mainstreaming. Collaborations with startups and hotel management institutes are helping in standardisation of recipes and taking this culinary knowledge and heritage to modern audiences.
The way forward
In the case of forgotten foods, access to seeds has been limited due to the poor performance of the seed multiplication and distribution system, lack of consideration by the formal seed sector, and support by national programmes. Valorisation of neglected crops and forgotten foods is the need of the hour and requires collective actions at global, national and regional levels. For each of these actions, farming communities and indigenous people need to be recognised as custodians of knowledge and partners for innovative practices and products for sustainable transformation rather than mere beneficiaries.
There must be a conscious effort to promote women-led collectives and enterprises to grow and sell nutritious neglected crops. This will lead to enhancing the agency of women and empower them in growing, selling and consuming these nutritious crops. As the international community engages in discussions to mitigate climate change impacts at COP29, it is time the forgotten foods and neglected crops are given their due recognition and put on the pedestal in future food and agriculture policies.
(Views are his own. He can be reached at arvind_padhee@yahoo.com)
Arabinda Kumar Padhee
Principal Secretary, Department of Agriculture & Farmers Empowerment, Government of Odisha