Q.Collect information about seed mother Rahibai's story. How does she save over 80 varieties of native seeds?

Rahibai Soma Popere, the 'Seed Mother' (Beej Mata) of Maharashtra, is a tribal farmer who conserves native crop seeds that modern hybrids were pushing out. …

Who she is. Rahibai Soma Popere is a farmer from the Mahadeo Koli tribal community of Kombhalne village, Akole taluka, Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra. She never went to school, yet her work in conserving indigenous seeds earned her the name 'Seed Mother' (Beej Mata), a place among the BBC's 100 Women in 2018, the Nari Shakti Puraskar in 2019 and the Padma Shri in 2020.

Why she started. Around 2014-15 she noticed that her grandchildren kept falling ill on a diet of hybrid vegetables grown with chemicals, and that the old local (native) varieties of hyacinth bean, rice, millets, pulses and vegetables that her elders grew were vanishing from the village. She decided to bring them back.

How she saves the seeds.

• She collects landrace seeds from old farmers across the region and grows each variety out on her own small farm every season, so that the seed stays alive and adapted; a seed that is not sown regularly loses viability.
• After harvest the seed is dried, cleaned and stored traditionally in clay pots, dried gourds and cloth bags, protected from moisture and pests without chemicals.
• With her self-help group and support from the BAIF Development Research Foundation she set up a community seed bank: farmers borrow a quantity of seed, grow it, and return a larger quantity after harvest, which multiplies the stock and spreads the varieties across villages.
• She trains farmers and school children in seed selection, organic cultivation and kitchen gardens, so conservation becomes a habit, not a museum. …