2 months ago
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In a boost to the grassroots agrobiodiversity movement, the 10th variation of the Wayanad Community Seed Fest (WCSF 2026) volition beryllium held astatine Athikkolli Seed Village successful Vellamunda adjacent Mananthavady connected February 28 and March 1.
The lawsuit volition beryllium inaugurated by Minister for Welfare for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes O.R. Kelu connected Saturday.
Organised jointly by the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) and the Wayanad District Tribal Development Action Council (WDTDAC), this year’s Seed Fest would spot enhanced assemblage participation. Officials said that hosting the lawsuit successful a recognised effect colony underscored the cardinal connection of the festival: conserving diverseness wrong its ain scenery and strengthening farmers’ rights and responsibilities implicit seeds and farming systems.
A cardinal item of the opening league volition beryllium the announcement and organisation of the Community Genome Saviour Awards by WDTDAC, recognising custodian farmers and assemblage leaders who person safeguarded accepted harvest varieties and associated cognition systems crossed generations.
The WCSF 2026 volition diagnostic a bid of thematic method sessions bringing unneurotic scientists, policymakers, tribal husbandman representatives, Biodiversity Management Committee (BMC) members and younker groups. The archetypal method league volition absorption connected ‘Agrobiodiversity Conservation and Community Seed Systems: Practical Challenges and Way Forward’. Discussions volition analyse the presumption of indigenous atom and tuber familial resources, the relation of BMCs, medicinal works conservation and emerging intersections with technologies.
Another league volition deliberate connected ‘Reviving Pepper Farming successful Wayanad: Way Forward’. Pepper, erstwhile the hallmark of Wayanad’s agrarian identity, has witnessed terrible diminution owed to disease, clime variability, and marketplace fluctuations. Experts, progressive farmers, and cultivation officials volition sermon restoration strategies, resilient varieties, and integrated absorption approaches to rejuvenate capsicum cultivation.
Technical sessions are besides planned connected ‘Celebrating Women Farmers arsenic Custodians of Agrobiodiversity’, ‘Seed Exchange and Exhibition of Living Diversity’, and ‘Remembering Wayanad’s Agricultural Legacy’.
The Seed Fest implicit the years has provided a vibrant abstraction for exhibiting, exchanging and selling indigenous seeds, facilitating cognition speech betwixt accepted contented and technological research, and strengthening farmer-to-farmer and farmer-to-market linkages. Each year, the lawsuit has witnessed a dependable summation successful information from custodian farmers and the wide public, reaffirming its relevance and impact.
