Seed Bank
Thanal has a collection of paddy seeds which we keep after harvest and every year we replenish it. We launched seed festival at Panavally in 2015 for exhibiting the seeds and facilitating seed exchange. Food festivals and sessions on various topics related to seed conservation, agro ecology, etc were also organised along with this. While organising seed festivals we do exhibit them so that not only farmers, other people also can see the diversity of our seeds and appreciate the same. Many farmers have collected samples of certain varieties from us to see their performance in their own fields. Now seed festival has become a regular feature in our neighboring panchayaths in Wayanad.
Thanal coordinated a national campaign on traditional rice seed conservation called Save Our Rice campaign in 2004 and as a part of this campaign conducted seed exchanges between farmers in different states and in our centre we are trying some varieties from other states as well. This campaign has become a mass movement in India and even after the project got over, the partners involved continue the work on their own and is continuing efforts to revive the paddy culture of our country.
