CHANDIGARH: Nekram Sharma, a modest farmer from Nanj village in Karsog valley in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh, got the opportunity of his life when he was rejected from a government job in 1984. With 22 bighas of his family land lying unused, he started growing fruits, vegetables and experimented with organic farming before adopting ancient farming techniques as his sole way of farming.
What started as an alternate vocation grew into a full time occupation that led to saving of almost three dozen indigenous varieties of seeds. Now lovingly referred to as a ‘saviour’ of indigenous seeds by the villagers Nekram has adopted Nau-anaj (Nau is 9 and Anaj is crop) practice, an intercropping method in which nine food grains are grown on the same piece of land.
These crops are a combination of lentils, cereals, vegetables, legumes and creepers. His crops are from the indigenous seeds given to him by his elders. Nekram cultivates foxtail millet, maize, finger millet, buckwheat, Amaranthus rajma, urad dal, moong and beans. “In a year one can grow 18 crops (9 Kharif) and (9 Rabi). This cropping pattern has multiple benefits as it raises fertility level of the ground but consumes less water wi th zero input s costs.
Since 2002, he has worked on preserving not only the traditional style of farming but also managed to produce indigenous seeds of all local varieties for future generations. There are around 20 indigenous seeds, including eight types of millets, three varieties of wheat, besides promoting intercropping system. “When I was 25 years old, a public movement had started to save forests.
My elders lamented that the indigenous seeds are also slowly vanishing from the market which made me think. I did some research and realized that these seeds had more nutrition in them than what was available and was in use by all the farmers here. I then started collecting and sowing these indigenous seeds in my own fields,” Nekram says. “The farmers called me mad and taunted me for saving trees and indigenous seeds. But I did get support from few of my friends,” the 59-yearold adds.
With the support from his friends, Nekram approached experts to connect the revival of the indigenous seeds with its health benefits besides from good yields under adverse conditions. Several panchayat meetings were spent on making the farmers understand the value and benefits of the indigenous seeds. Now, Netram also has an indigenous seed bank through which he preserves and distributes the seeds to the farmers. Nekram says that he request farmers to grow traditional seeds along with hybrid seeds of they do not want to sow traditional seeds alone.
In 2010, when he implemented Nau-Anaj practice, it inspired other farmers in the region as well and thus Parvatiye Tikau Kheti Abhiyan (PTKA) a co-operative of farmers was formed. Since then, thousands of farmers have connected with him with demands coming from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Ghaziabad, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and even Hyderabad. While farmers usually come and visit him to take the seeds but those who can’t, request him for a courier, which he gladly obliges.