Crop Genetic Diversity Conservation
CIS has established the first non-governmental folk rice seed bank, Vrihi, which currently conserves 1120 indigenous rice varieties in situ, and distributes seeds of folk rice varieties among indigenous farmers across 10 States. It seeks to restore the evanescent resource management practices, local food cultures and reinstate the ancient custom of free exchange of seeds among farmers. CIS has collected and is conserving over 1300 folk rice varieties from different districts of West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, Kashmir, Chattisgarh, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Uttaranchal; Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand, the Philippines, Korea and Italy. All these varieties are being grown on its research farm Basudha.
Read Article by Dr. Samantak Das.
